As I have been progressing in my post-college
period and attempting to figure out my goals for a successful future, there
have been two main ideas to grapple with: what it means to be a leader, and
what it means to be in a community. I have had many opportunities to delve into
these topics during my time on Yahel, but the most meaningful of these have
occurred over the past week. During this time, I have realized that leadership
and community are tied closely together, and one of these factors is essential
to have for the other to occur. I have also learned that both factors,
especially leadership, have different meanings for different people, and one
can create their ideal community and leadership to fit their future plans and
way of life.
I got much of my inspiration from a week-long
Masa Leadership Summit that took place in Jerusalem. As you can probably assume
from the title, this week was largely about building leadership skills and
learning about different types of leadership and how to implement effective
leadership in various environments. I definitely learned a lot in this regard,
but a significant part of my learning derived from aspects I did not expect,
including aspects of community. At this seminar, it was exhilarating for me to
meet 230 young Jews like myself who came from multiple countries around the
world and are all doing great work to enhance Israeli society. This was an
amazing chance for me to make many new friends of interesting backgrounds and
learn about the traditions of Jewish communities around the world. This was one
of the first times I built relationships with multiple Jews my age who come
from places other than English-speaking countries, like Russia, India, France,
Argentina, and Ukraine. Our contrasting opinions and traditions really brought
us together and helped us develop strong relationships that I hope can endure
throughout the duration of my stay in Israel.
Leadership was also a strong focus of this
seminar, but not always in the ways I expected it to be. I entered the summit
thinking there would be many presentations about what effective leadership is,
and I would just be expected to learn from these lessons and implement them
while participating in my program. To my surprise, while there were presenters
who guided us throughout the week, most of the programming was determined by
the actions of the participants. This was especially prevalent during our small
group workshops and discussions. Though there were facilitators present during
each of our sessions, they really sat back and allowed the participants to control
the direction of what we were doing. This became very difficult, especially
during one politically-charged discussion one of my groups had about working
together with Arabs to complete a task. However, whenever we got off topic or
there was an awkward silence, the independence granted to us by the
facilitators forced the group to step up and continue the discussion in a
healthy manner. This experience taught me that part of leadership is trusting
your instincts and taking initiative to perform actions that you feel would
benefit the community.
The summit's staff members also tested our
leadership skills through other surprising methods. The most unexpected of these methods came
during our large-group lectures and presentations, which included many figures
with controversial views. At first, I and many other participants felt that
these presenters were expressing what we considered to be Masa's "agenda,"
which was to get us to love Israel and eager to make aliyah. However, we later
discovered that Masa purposely invited controversial speakers to challenge us
to respond to them and defend our own beliefs. One example of such an example
was the Director General of Prime Minister Netanyahu's office, who lectured us
about the importance of Israel in the future of the Jewish people and
essentially the irrelevance of Diaspora Jewry. Another example came when I took
a trip to the Knesset (Israel's Parliament) and met with young female Knesset
members from both the Likud (right-wing) and Mahane Hatzioni (left-wing)
parties. In our meetings, both politicians were using generalizations and
statistical data to describe the "correct" way the Jewish state
should be run, and utilized personal rhetoric to delegitimize the views of the
opposing party.
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| The Knesset building in Jerusalem |
In the aftermath of these meetings, the Masa
staff asked us why no one expressed fervent dissent to what these people had to
say, especially when our identity as Diaspora Jews was challenged. One of our
staff members from the Jewish Agency for Israel approached me and some others
after the first lecture and explained that the speaker was meant to provoke a
response from us and make us ask tough questions that would clearly show different
ways of thinking toward the speaker's points, which she described as a tactic
of strong leadership. Though I saw where this woman was coming from regarding
the purpose of these exercises, I had to disagree that a strong, oppositional
response to a controversial speaker in a room full of people is the only way to
showcase effective leadership. I definitely have strong opinions on a variety
of issues and I make it known when I disagree with someone, but I don't think
the right time and place to do that is in a crowded room with an authority
figure where your voice is less likely to be understood and received well. As I
told this woman in response to her claim, I think silence can also be a powerful
form of leadership because it shows that you are attempting to prevent tensions
in your environment, and if you stay calm perhaps others will follow suit. I
definitely think leadership involves
stepping up and fighting necessary battles to defend your beliefs. However, it also
involves picking which battles to fight and choosing the ones that implement
your purpose in the most peaceful and productive manner.
Another aspect of this summit I really
benefited from was the work that the participants prepared for various
programs. Like I mentioned earlier, the Masa staff was very helpful in not
interfering in sessions and permitting the participants to really create the
essence of each session. In addition to this, there were many parts of the week
that were specifically designed by the work of each individual participant. One
of these sessions was called an open source activity, during which each
participant needed to present a talent or topic of interest to the entire group
within a 7-minute time frame. I chose to utilize my love of music and write a
song to perform for the group. The song I wrote was to the tune of
"Hello" by Adele and it focused on my frustration about the current
wave of violence in Israel and my hope for peace in the imminent future. This
was a very cathartic activity for me because I was able to get a lot of my
emotions out through songwriting and I got much joy out of performing a song
that I created.
In preparation for the summit, I also needed
to come up with a leadership challenge I have come across during my program
that other Masa participants could help me solve. During one of my small group
sessions, I needed to present my challenge to my group and answer all of their
questions so they could come up with a productive solution. The challenge I
chose was how to effectively discipline my kids at the Arab elementary school I
work at in order to stop bullying and violence among the students there. This
is a very tough issue, and my group was not able to decide on a clear solution.
However, they did offer many helpful suggestions, and it was comforting to be
able to speak freely about an issue that I have been struggling with
emotionally. Through both this exercise and the open source activity, I learned
that strong leadership depends largely on stepping outside your comfort zone
and opening yourself up to new experiences that could benefit your community.
I was also able to experience community on a
significant level last week through my group's Thanksgiving celebration. When I
decided to spend a year in Israel, I assumed I was not going to be able to
celebrate Thanksgiving, and I was initially ok with that. However, as the
holiday grew nearer and I heard details from my parents about their holiday
plans, I began to feel very left out and I realized how important this holiday
was to me growing up and is still to my identity. Therefore, when almost all of
the Yahel community came together for a festive Thanksgiving dinner last week,
I was overwhelmed. I was in overwhelming awe of the efforts everyone put in to
make this meal happen, preparing a multitude of dishes such as turkey, stuffing,
Israeli and couscous salads, mashed potatoes, green beans, apple cake, pumpkin
pie, and fried dough. (I was especially in awe of my Canadian flatmate
Adrienne, who isn't even American and prepared a large turkey by herself so we
could have a traditional Thanksgiving.) I was overwhelmingly surprised by how
many people showed up to celebrate our mutual work and our relationships with
one another, including most of Yahel's Rishon L'Zion participants who endured
the costly taxi commute to and from our apartment.
Ultimately, I was overwhelmingly happy to be
surrounded by this group of people that has truly become my family. As I sat
among this large group enjoying delicious food and saying what I was thankful
for, the first thing that came to mind was being in that moment; having this
traditional Thanksgiving experience I thought would be impossible alongside
these exceptional individuals who all committed to bringing this dream to life.
Over the past two months, I have gone through so much with my fellow
Yahelnikim, and we have bonded in ways I cannot compare with other friends.
Though we are all different and I may disagree with them on many topics, in the
end I know our bonds are rock solid and we will always have each other's backs.
This realization at the Thanksgiving dinner table taught me another important
lesson about community: no matter your differences in culture and background, a
true community will always be there to give you support when you really need
it.
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| Thanksgiving dinner at my apartment in Lod |
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