“Am Echad, Lev Echad. One People, One Heart.” This was the theme of Greater Jersey Region’s 2026 Spirit Con, our region’s spring convention focused on chapter spirit. Each chapter was assigned a country—from China to France to Canada—and was tasked with learning about its culture, as well as preparing a skit, banner, and other presentations to represent their country. Throughout the weekend, chapters competed against one another in short challenges, accumulating spirit points, and the chapter with the most points at the end of the weekend was named the winner. My chapter, Wyckoff BBYO #5370, represented Poland. 

In the weeks leading up to the convention, our chapter met both in person and virtually to plan how we would represent Poland; we created t-shirts with the Polish flag, remixed a song to be about Poland, painted a banner with our names on it, and connected with a BBYO member from Poland to learn about their culture. I think I can speak for all the members of our chapter who went to the convention when I say that we had a great time. We bonded with each other, met people from around the region, picked up on BBYO traditions, and formed new traditions of our own. 

Reflecting back on Spirit Con, though, I’m constantly drawn back to the theme, the idea of “Am Echad, Lev Echad.” “One People, One Heart” emphasizes that, though we may have different backgrounds and histories, we’re inevitably united by our shared hopes and desires for the world. It’s a rallying cry for unity, highlighting how we’re stronger together. This was definitely a reality at the convention. Though we came from different chapters and represented different countries, we were united. But this can’t exactly be said about the world right now, or even about our country. The truth is that we live in a time of intense division— we see it in our national politics, and we see it internationally. People are pitted against each other, and hate movements seem to continue to grow.

“Am Echad, Lev Echad” is not a reality; it’s a wish for the future. It’s the hope that, one day, the world can be united, and the unity that we experienced at Spirit Con can be experienced worldwide. Harkening back to this year’s IC theme, “We The Future”, it’s up to us, the future leaders of this world, to make this happen. To make the world a better place, and to make “Am Echad, Lev Echad” a reality.