This summer as part of BBYO’s Global Israel Fellowship alongside a group of amazing teens, I got the opportunity to not only learn about and explore Israel, but to also find my personal connection with this wonderful country. As a part of the sessions, we learned about the creation of Israel, as well as different issues within the country. We had conversations about the security of Israel and other moral issues. We also had sessions with Resetting the Table, where we learned how to effectively listen and ask questions, as well as how to have conversations about hard topics with people we disagree with. This was very helpful because, within our group, we had people with a very wide range of views and connections to Israel. This range helped our discussions and made them more interesting. After our summer sessions, we now have a session once a month. These sessions are different because we are able to listen to a speaker, each time about a different topic. This fellowship really made me interact and think about Israel, a country I personally have a very strong connection with, in a very different way.

The second part of the fellowship was the requirement to run three Israel programs. I ran a program as part of my region's Fall Convention. The purpose of the program was to connect the teens in my region with Israel through a personal connection with teens from BBYO’s sister organization Maccabi Tzair. Through music, breakout rooms with Israeli teens, and a padlet, we explored similarities, differences, and different levels of connections between teens and Israel. Overall, this fellowship helped me learn about Israel and bring the knowledge I learned into my region.