Summer 2014 By Rachel Israelivich

Israel. The big "thing" we had all been talking about and awaiting since day 1 of the Diller program. All of our meetings, workshops, overnights, and acts of Tikkun Olam somehow connected to Israel. We were basically living and breathing Israel during the few weeks leading up to our trip scheduled on July 16th. We had talked about Israel so much and had been keeping in touch with our Tel Aviv friends, which only made us more and more excited as the trip approached. I was especially looking forward to spend an extra week in Tel Aviv before the Israel Summer Seminar started (I along with two other fellows from Los Angeles planned to arrive a week early in order to spend more time in Israel), and was constantly receiving countless amounts of whatsapp messages from the Israeli fellows, planning my week and complaining that time couldn't possibly go by any slower. After more than 2 months, Los Angeles and Tel Aviv were finally going to be reunited again. That is, until the whole situation in Israel started...

On June 12th, news broke of the three Israeli boys that had been kidnapped while hitch-hiking near the West Bank. In the new era of social media, almost everyone was aware of what had happened, and "#bringbackourboys" was all over my Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. With our cohort scheduled to leave to Israel in only one month, everyone’s parents became very worried about our trip and saddened by these terrible news. We hoped the boys would be found soon, safe and sound, and everything in Israel would settle down. The security would just be a little stricter, we would be more cautious when we arrived in Israel, and everything would be fine. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

As you probably know, the IDF found the bodies of the three boys on June 30th. By this point, regular fire was being exchanged between Gaza and Israel on a small scale. We heard about the rockets being fired into Israel, but they were only able to reach Israeli cities bordering Gaza. For cities like Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Sderot, rocket fire is something they are sadly accustomed to and is commonly known to occur every now and then. My trip was a mere 12 days away, but no matter how much I wished for things to quiet down, they only got worse and worse.  On July 8th, my suitcase was packed as it was only 2 days before I would finally visit the holy land. But July 8th was also the day Operation Protective Edge was fully launched, 40,000 reservists were mobilized, rockets were reaching as far as Tel Aviv and Haifa (which had never happened before), and the International Diller Office advised Sami to let my family know that they would not be allowing early flights to Israel. At this point, I didn't know how to feel. I was upset and angry that the trip I had been planning for almost a year was completely out of question in the matter of a few days. I was worried for the safety of my friends in Tel Aviv and everyone else who lives in Israel. I was confused as to why this was even happening in Israel, and of all times, why now?? I thought about the situation for a while, did some research, and realized that although it was unfair to me, there was nothing anyone could have done about it and my trip was postponed for my own safety.

The days couldn't have gone by any slower. July 11th- "this was supposed to be my first day in Israel, but instead here I am in my home in Los Angeles, moping at my computer screen, clicking refresh every 5 seconds on google to see the latest news about Israel. July 12th- rockets continued to fire continuously into Israel and its cities; "Bomb shelter selfies" flowed into my snapchat every few hours as sirens sounded throughout Tel Aviv. The situation was more serious than I was admitting to myself, and talks amongst the LA teens began to spur about whether or not we would get to go to Israel this summer at all. We remained optimistic, but for the second time, my trip was postponed another week toJuly 23rd. This time, it wasn't just for early flights- it was for all of the North American fellows. Everyone was furious. How could they do this to us!? How could they shorten our trip by a whole week? Why is Diller being so strict? Why, why, why? There were thousands of questions to be asked, but unfortunately no definite answers could be given. Nobody knew what would happen next, as the situation was changing every minute. Sami organized an impromptu overnight at one of our fellow's homes, and (almost) all of the LA cohort gathered on a Thursday night at Adam's house to be together and talk about what was going on. It was a rough evening for all of us- we had all prepared so much work into community week and within a matter of days, it went down the drain, not to mention the amount of planning and time we invested into the program in order to be prepared for Israel. We had the chance to skype with some of the Tel Aviv fellows that night, but it was hard to talk to them with so many people on talking at the same time on both sides of the conversation, not to mention the anxiousness of all the fellows to know what would happen next. We made the best out of the situation at hand and took advantage of the precious time we had together and enjoyed each other’s company. In the morning, we had a guest educator, Elran Tsabag, come and talk to us about the history of Israel and explain what was happening there, and it cleared up a lot of factors of the situation that almost all of us didn't really understand. I found it to be very  interesting to finally be able to put the pieces together of the complicated puzzle that exists within Israel's relationships with Gaza, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon. Even though we weren't in Israel, being able to learn about what was going on and discussing the situation made us feel connected in to Israel in some ways, and we started planning projects we could put into action to help Israelis in need.

The next time we saw each other was July 21st. We met bright and early in the morning at Alana's house to listen to a presentation from the One Wish Project before embarking on a hike in the beautiful Santa Monica Mountains. The presentation included a video which asked about 50 people in Jerusalem (Jewish, Muslim, Arab, Christian, Israeli, children, elders, adults, men, women, all sorts of diversity) that if they had one wish not just for Israel, but for themselves, what would their one wish be? It was surprising to see the similarities between groups that think they are so different from each other, but when asked for their wishes, "peace" was mentioned many times by people of each religion, culture, age, and gender. Our hike followed the presentation, and we were given the opportunity to make a wish for ourselves and have it recorded on video. It was amazing to hear how thoughtful everyone’s wishes were, and I noticed that a lot of people were using their wish to hope that they could do something for the betterment of someone else’s life.

Afterwards, we had a delicious Israeli lunch, fully equipped with endless shawarma, pita, hummus, Israeli salad, and anything else we could possibly want. Since we are all teenagers in the modern 21st century, a lot of people were checking the notifications on their phones, and in the middle of our lunch, one of the fellows loudly stated “OH MY GOD GUYS. The State Department issued a travel warning for all trips to Israel and it says that they strongly do not recommend any unnecessary trips there at this time.” Everyone was basically saying all day that they wouldn’t even start packing their bags until the morning of the day we were supposed to leave because we were already doubting the trip would even happen due to the escalating violence, and at this point, we all had a feeling that this summer would not turn out as planned. After lunch, we wanted to put into action the project ideas we came up with at Adam’s house a few days before, but it was hard for anyone to focus due to everything that was going on outside of our Diller meeting. Once Sami’s phone started ringing non-stop during our work time, and she actually answered it (she usually never answers her phone!!), we knew it was about our trip and we were 99.9999% sure it was going to be cancelled. The day ended sooner than we thought, and as we expected, we received an email from Sami that night informing us that we would not be going to Israel this summer.

For me personally, I wasn’t extremely sad that the trip was cancelled. I understood why this decision was made- there were security risks, the ground operation affected almost every family in Israel so it would be almost rude to impose on these families at such times, and no one would be able to put their full attention into the programs being conducted during ISS because there would just be too many things going on in the outside world that change in unknown directions every second. I was also one of the few fellows who had already known I would not be flying to Israel this summer, even if ISS was still happening, because my family had made the decision that they would not allow me to visit Israel during this dangerous time. In a sense, the trip being cancelled was almost a relief for me because this way I knew I would not be missing out on what I had been looking forward to all summer. I would now have an opportunity to participate in ISS with everyone else during a possible winter program. From what I know, the other fellows who were in the same shoes as I was also felt relieved that they would still have the opportunity to participate in ISS, and the fellows who were planning on going as long as Diller was going were all expecting the trip to be cancelled anyways. Overall, everyone was somewhat upset, but it was nobody’s fault and there was nothing anyone could have done to predict these unfortunate circumstances. At this point, the only thing that mattered the most was ensuring the safety of Israel’s civilians and doing what we could (from afar) to help Israel somehow.

We met at Mateen’s house the next week for a barbeque and were pleasantly notified that our Junior Counselors would be there too! They had left for Israel 1 week prior to our schedule departure in order to prep for our arrival and fulfill their JC duties. It was a nice time to just sit and talk about the current situation, and finally see Chava and Michelle again. We talked about the shabbaton we would have for 2 nights at Camp Max Straus, and just hung out and listened to the JC’s experiences and funny stories from Israel. They also brought us the best Israeli chocolate I've ever tasted and I can't wait until the day I can go to Israel myself and by a life time supply of "click."

The next week, we went on our shabbaton. We had guest speaker Naomi Ackerman come in to talk to us about social action and explain her Advot Project to us. It was very inspiring and interesting to hear about her work, and this led us into the conversation of what we wanted to do to help Israel. We spent a long time trying to decide who the recipients of our project would be, what we were supporting, why we wanted to help out a certain group, etc. After a long 2 hours, we finally decided on working with NUCampaign.com to create t-shirts as a fundraiser for Magen David Adom (the Israeli Red Cross). The t-shirt design will have a symbol representing all 20 Diller cities, and on the inside of the shirt there will be a small dedication to a fallen soldier from Rishon Letzion who died in combat in Gaza, and was a Diller alumni. In order to connect the 400 fellows from North America and Israel who never got the chance to meet in person, we will promote this t-shirt in our Diller international Facebook group and encourage every one of the fellows to buy this. It's for a great cause, and it will give us something that we all have and share in common. And of course, all the proceeds will be donated to Magen David Adom. More to come on that later!

 

There were also Israeli Shlichim (counselors) at Camp Max Straus who we were able to eat lunch with one day. We had the opportunity to ask them questions about anything we wanted to know- How long have you been at camp for? Do you like it here? Have you done any touristy things in LA yet? What did you do in the army? What is it like being here in Los Angeles for the entire duration of the Operation? What city are you from? The questions we had were all answered. The way they responded to our questions regarding the operation resonated with me the most, and it made me feel even sadder about the whole situation than I had already felt. They told us how much they wanted to go back to Israel and be there to support their country. Every time their cellphone buzzed, they were too scared to look at it. Would there be bad news or good news? More casualties? Would it be their brother, cousin, father, friend, neighbor this time? Did a rocket land in their city? One of the shlichim even said, “I don’t have to go back to the army- I need to.” I really admired her (and the other Israeli Shlichim) for her patriotism. They were all so emotional and so eager to discuss everything with us and tried and show us how hard it was for them to be here. “We might have smiles on our faces and be happy on the outside, but in the inside, everything is broken.” It takes extreme courage to fight the war, but it also takes extreme courage to be able to be away from the country they love more than anything in such tumulus times. They came to Los Angeles as volunteers to work with kids for 10 weeks, and most of the kids at camp came from underprivileged homes. So while their hearts were with Israel, they still managed to make room for the campers and create a memorable camp experience for all of them.

 

The rest of the shabaton was very relaxed. We had a lot of free time, visited the petting zoo, relaxed by the pool, participated in the high ropes course, and had a delicious meal at the Hummus Bar to conclude our days. Through everything that happened, our LA Diller family became closer than ever and even though we weren't able to go to Israel this summer, we still felt connected to Israel in some way or another. 

 

For me, the connection existed through simply learning about the situation, helping come up with a project that would help Israelis, and staying in touch with the Tel Aviv fellows. As our Diller experience comes to an end, I look back on everything that I have gotten out of the program and realize that I enjoyed every minute of my time being a Diller Teen Fellow, even if my experience wasn't what I thought it would be. And with that, we now have something else to possibly look forward to- an Israel Winter Seminar! But until then, I'll keep on dreaming about that life time supply of "click"...