Newsletter #2

Welcome to the much-anticipated second Diller newsletter explaining our last meeting and plans for the future. We started off by doing a video chat with the Israeli group of teens involved with the program. Although, because of technical difficulties, we could not hear them, we still managed to bond and are extremely excited for the trip. After the video chat, we went to the nationality rooms in the Cathedral of Learning on the Pitt campus. We did a scavenger hunt there that involved us looking for very specific things on pictures, statues, walls, windows, and other surprising places. We were separated into teams and that helped us bond as teammates and learn about different cultures. After the activity, we have some free time to bond with each other before the meeting. We hung out in uptown Squirrel Hill; yet another chance to get to know each other. From there we walked to the Friendship Circle where our meeting was held. Our awesome host, Rivkee Rudolph, explained how the Friendship Circle works to create bonds between Jewish teens and mentally handicapped children. It was nice to learn that many of our fellows involved with their program. Later, Eli Gelernter, a Diller fellow, informed our group on the Dvar Torah of the week. Then we moved on to a lesson from Rabbi Scott on vocab regarding Jewish morals which Shoshana later elaborated on. Next, we picked our community service projects that we will be working on in groups throughout the year. We learned how to set deadlines in order to complete our projects in efficient manner. Finally, our senior counselors, Ben and Yael, put together a Jewish Identity buffet which matched us with a Jewish movement (Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist) and some of us were surprised with the answers we received. As always we closed with ma'agal, our constructive criticism session, which allows us to better our future meetings. This month, we'll begin work on our projects.  These are the centerpiece of the Diller experience, since with the projects the Fellows will engage the Jewish community in furthering its values.