2nd Day of the North American Seminar!

To the Diller Family, April 6, 2011 (the second day of the North American Seminar with the Israelis):

What a crazy two days this has been! Minute by minute, we are getting closer with our Israelis. As fellows, we are gaining great memories and building friendships that will last a lifetime, but we hope that you are also getting something from this experience as well. We would also like to thank you for all the traveling that you have done already (especially Beaver, North Hills, Fox Chapel, and Mt. Lebanon.) Today, most of the Pittsburgh teens arrived at JCC at 4:30 to participate in the evening’s activities. Surprisingly, Emma Kaufmann Camp’s CITs (Counselors In Training) also met with the Diller teens because most of the Israelis housed the CIT’s during their stay in Israel this past summer. It was very exciting to see the relationships that the CITs and the Israelis both had, and it made us look forward to further experiences that we will soon be part of. After playing many games that we all enjoyed, we went to the dining room to enjoy another dinner that the JCC generously provided us. We all thought it was interesting to see the Israelis enjoy spaghetti so much, when it such a regular meal to us, Americans. After dinner, we all headed to J-Site, a school located in the JCC for Jewish teens in Pittsburgh to extend and continue their Jewish learning after their B’nai Mitzvah. Most of the Israelis sat in on a Hebrew class, which was extremely interesting to them because they were able to see how the Americans learned Hebrew. By the end of the night, we played a game of musical chairs, which led to a discussion about conflicts in not only Israel, but in America also. We compared and contrasted different wars that are going on and how they connect to one another. It was an interesting conversation that led to Gilad Shalit, a captured solid, and our new friends provided a new perspective on the army. The Israelis expressed the importance of continuing the tradition of participating in the army and the high concern and urgency to recover and bring back Gilad back to Israel. Today was a great day for both us and the Israelis and we both look forward to the experiences that we will gain from the NAS. We wish you a great two weeks with your guests and want to hear great things and funny stories!

Have a good week and keep checking the blog!