August 1: International Congress (Ilana Golzman)

August 1, 2013

Blog Author: Ilana Golzman

Starting the first official full day of International Congress 2013 was like opening the first page to a chapter of a book after getting past the prologue. You get a brief introduction to the characters and the story that is about to unfold but now you finally dive into the intriguing plot. After a great breakfast we began our day with a continuation to the activity called ‘Journey of a People - Part B’. After exploring the history of the Jewish people from centuries ago (yesterday), Part B of this unit focused on more recent history of the Jewish people. This really helped our tribe notice repetitive patterns in the experiences of our people, understand why Jews are dispersed the way they are today, and made what seemed to be ancient and unfamiliar history much more relatable. Next we were fortunate enough to listen to an incredible guest speaker, Avraham Infeld, about Jewish peoplehood, the 5 legs that hold the table of Judaism up, and their importance (presented to us in a very interesting and humorous manner). We got time to process the strong points and rich material that Avraham Infeld gave us during our lunch break and relaxing pool time. 

The day continued with an activity called ‘Looking Kadima’ (literally, 'looking forward') lead by two junior counsellors which helped us reflect on the lecture and learn how to further apply this information and use it for deeper analysis of our life and what being Jewish means to each one of us. Later on, all of the Jewish Diller Teen Fellow teens from eight different North American cities had the pleasure to be the audience of an artistic, musical, and meaningful cultural evening with Robbie Gingrass. This talented individual was able to communicate to us the concept of Israel’s flaws and why people decide to live ‘b'eretz Israel’ through live music, story telling, and impersonations. After this amusing event we split into our tribes to discuss one of the songs called ‘Rak Po’ (also known as ‘Only here’) that was sung to us by Robbie Gingrass (originally by Hadag Nachash). This lead us into an interesting discussion about the meaning of the cultural evening and what we find special about the place we live in. To end the day off, each city cohort met for their ma'agal lilah (night circle) and we then got to go meet with one another and experience different North American Jewish life face to face under the famous Diller White Tent.