The MASA leadership conference was a packed week full of seminars and lectures on leadership skills, Israel advocacy, and opportunities for future Jewish involvement. There were 500 people there, half of which were gap year (post high school) and half that were post college. It was a great opportunity to meet other people from around the world doing other long-term Israel programs. Throughout the week I actually came to a realization of how happy I am that I decided to go on OTZMA instead of one of the other programs. OTZMA has given me such a great exposure to so many aspects of Israeli life; I really have gained so much from the accumulation of all the education days and seminars. From politics to the environment, and especially our seminar in the west bank, I really have learned so much and has made my time here in Israel so worthwhile. I also love how our program is split into 3 distinct parts, each with their own experiences. I think it was really beneficial for our whole group to live together in an absorption center at the beginning. There we got the opportunity to really bond and get to know each other as a group before we started the main part of our volunteering. For the 2nd part I am obviously really happy with my placement in Beit Shean, but I think its great that we are spread out across the country in smaller communities. By being in a smaller community in the periphery, we get a completely different experience then just living in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. Here we have really become an integral part of the community where everybody knows us and we are like local celebrities. The 3rd part will be similar to many of the other programs, and although we won’t have as much time in the center as the other programs, I think we have more experience and knowledge about Israel that has been extremely rewarding and worthwhile.
Anyway, the conference started with an entertaining speech by Avraham Infeld (president of Hillel). He emphasized that in order to be a leader you need to have passion for cause and a vision. He also talked about the moving people and how that is a major requirement for leading people. He said that if people are in exactly the same place before and after you lead them, then you really have not lead at all. It was an interesting start to the week ahead. We met our small groups for discussions and then had a gala event at night to kick off the week. One of the highlights was hearing from the Nu campaign and getting a shirt they made especially for BFL. The organization is really cool- they make shirts for different charities and put a story about the charity on the inside of the shirt. They sell the shirts and donate a portion of the money to the respective charity and the shirts are actually really cool, Next time I am in Jerusalem I will check out their store and buy a couple shirts.
The next day we went to Yad Vashem, where we had an original look at the holocaust through a leadership perspective. We had a short tour and a lecture focusing on who where the leaders in the holocaust and what does the concept of leadership even mean under those circumstances. Later we had some group discussions and workshops to develop specific skills. At night we had an activity called open space, which I thought it was a really great activity to take home with me for any kind of youth gathering. The activity basically was a way for a group to engage in a bunch of different conversations, where the topics were picked by the participants. The next day was separated by tracks that we had picked before. I was on the Jewish people hood track, which was basically another day of Otzma- since it was run by partnership 2000. We went to Beit Shemesh and met with DC’s partnership city and spoke with the director of partnership 2000 among other things.
The next day we continued with out group discussions and skill workshops, and had lectures on North American Jews and Israel Advocacy. They were both very interesting, especially the Israel advocacy one, where we discussed scenarios and ways to deal with ant-Israel situations. The next day we went to Neot Kedumim to work on outdoor leadership and teamwork training, despite the rain and the cold. We spent most of the day in tent doing activities because of the weather, but it was a still a good experience, and very camp-like which of course I enjoyed. We did it within our groups, which was nice, because we really got a chance to bond with our groups. Our concluding activity for the day was another one I want to take back home with me for camp or other youth programming. We all made candles, by molding clay, pouring in some oil, and using cotton as wick. After that each person lit another person’s candle and said something nice about them. At the end everyone had a lit candle, to show that everyone was special and unique- it was a really great wrap-up activity. That night, Matt Barr performed Bible Raps, which is exactly what it sounds like. I thought it was pretty stupid, but I could maybe see how it could be cute with kids if they got the opportunity to actually participate with him and not just watch (which apparently some camps do).
On our last day we had goodbye ceremony, where we received graduation certificates and then said goodbye to our new friends. Overall the week was a good one. There were some interesting lectures, some boring ones, and I took bits and pieces from all of the workshops and discussions. It was nice to meet lots of other people from other programs, and a nice way to focus on what to do after Otzma.
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