Blog  Cohort 4 Berlin Seminar Reflections

Cohort 4 Berlin Seminar Reflections

Sunday March 11th

After three months apart, we met back up in Berlin for our European seminar. Fleur, Gali, and I carried out activities to break the ice, get to know each other more deeply and reunite as a group. We continued with the fascinating activities that the European fellows of the group had prepared. They talked about the progressive movement is currently different and/or similar in Poland, Germany and Ukraine, how did they grow up, what do they do today and, of course, what do they recommend to eat that affiliated with their countries.

In the evening we went to a Russian restaurant, sat on the floor, enjoyed a tea-drinking ceremony, whips of vodka and, of course, a rich Ashkenazi meal. We ended the evening with a spontaneous tour of Yevgen and Fleur in fascinating parts of Berlin.

We went to bed with many expectations for the next day – in the meantime we can only recommend to read also the next blog 🙂

-Elena and Omri

 

Tuesday, March 13th

A Rainy Tuesday In Berlin…..

After a wonderful morning of Tifilah and reflection led by two of our Israeli Fellows, Yiftach & Gabi, and an inspiring poem about perseverance and following your dreams from Josh, we explored the following questions with Miriam T. Chilton: How do you define success? How do you realize the impact you’ve made? Using recent data from an Alumni URJ Survey as a case study, we explored these questions and more and thought about how to apply the learning to our own projects.

Next up was Part 1 of our Consultancy Protocol where Josh Satok got critical feedback from the entire group on a current dilemma he is facing with his Fellowship Project currently. We’ll also get a chance to engage in this meaningful workshop with our own projects tomorrow!

What a day it was to explore Berlin through a Food Hopping Tour! From fresh juices to vegan mushroom burgers, everyone got a taste of some local eateries.

We concluded our day at the Oranienburgerstr Synagogue where we learned a little bit more about the life and work of Jonas Fegert with ELES, followed but some icebreakers and breaking bread with some current ELES Fellows.

-That’s all for now from Leah + Yevgen

 

Wednesday, March 14th

We started the day with a short T’filah and a beautiful poem by Yehuda Amichai, lead by Gali.

Afterwards, we started to work on our projects using a new technique, which was introduced on the day before. We split into smaller groups, presented our dilemmas and got feedback and advice from our consultancy group. We were happy to learn how to use this method, as it really helped us to put our dilemmas into words and through the feedback, get new ideas and input and to really use the resources, that are among us in the room.

For lunch we went to a Bavarian restaurant, just around the corner, where we enjoyed typical southern German food. After that we went to the Jewish cemetery Weissensee. Omri began by reading a prayer. Then Sedona presented a few important people, who were buried on this cemetery. One of them was Lewandowsky, of whom Hernan sang a beautiful composition, while we were standing around his grave. We had some time to explore the cemetery ourselves, where we found the graves of some famous people, such as Leo Beck and recognized a few grave stones from the movie, we had watched 2 days before. We ended the visit with an activity lead by Leah, where we had to reflect on ourselves, how we want to be remembered and have lived our lives. It was interesting to listen to each others ideas. All in all, going to the cemetery was a very touching experience, but not sad, as we were able to see the places’ beauty and enjoy the calmness and nature.

After some free time and dinner on our own, we meet again at the YAAM, a center for arts and creativity in the heart of Berlin. After sketching on paper, we got dressed with protective clothes, took the spray cans and created two funky pieces of art. It was a lot of fun and gave us a space to be creative and work together as a team in a cool, chilled environment. Thanks to everyone who contributed to making this an amazing day!

-Blake & Fleur

 

Thursday March 15th

It’s Thursday and we reached about the peak of our Europe seminar in Berlin.

We started our day with some juicy limmud as part of our Shaharit run by Hernan, who provided some insights on direction during prayer as well as why and how we move during davening.

In line with the theme of the day “Digging Deep Into the Past and Looking Towards the Future” we gathered at the Jewish Museum for a session with Aubrey Pomerance to take a look at some magnificent pieces by German Jewish families who suffered from the Shoah. Those relicts of the past gave us a glimpse of the culturally, intellectually as well as spiritually rich Jewish life that existed before the war in Europe and in Germany. We also learned more about the importance of archives and about astonishing stories Aubrey encountered as he gathered documents and other goods from survivors and or their close ones.

Following the archive workshop we had some time to walk around in the Jewish Museum. Unfortunately, the biggest section of the museum, the permanent exhibition, wasn’t open as they are renovating. However, the current major exhibition “Welcome to Jerusalem” made up for it as it was nonetheless thought-provoking: It reflected the importance to all three monotheistic religions, the tensions between its residents as well as the beauty of the city itself.

Back at the hotel we were engaged again in learning about tension: This time by a limmud session lead by Rabbi Ariel Pollak, who introduced us to the radical ideas of various Chassiduiot and Martin Buber’s “I and Thou” and connected them to the struggle to create community while keeping in mind the importance of independence.

After a short break, we gathered again for a reflection session which we began with the poem of the day, written by Californian Rabbi Edward “Ed” Zerin.

Later we had the opportunity to let all the experiences sink in and to muse about the past days in this vibrant city as we had our free night out.

-Naomi and Josh

 

Friday, March 16th and Saturday March 17th

On the plane back to Tel Aviv, time to reflect on Shabbat in Berlin: We started Friday morning with a beautiful T’filah led by Hérnan, who also shared with us some of his own original and touching tunes of the lyrics in the Siddur. After that we had a great talk with lay leader Sonja Guentner and Rabbi Edward Van Voolen from the UPJ, who helped us to get some better understanding of the challenges and successes of the Reform Movement in Europe, and in Germany specifically. We than headed off to a unique lunch at a Vietnamese vegan restaurant, which was Reuven Greenvald’s favorite!

Slowly slowly we started to dive into the special Shabbat atmosphere. We began by a study session of some Mishnaic sources about the Pesach Haggadah and discussed them from an educational point of view. And than, after a short break, we met back for our own warm and fuzzy Kabbalat Shabbat, led by Steve Burnstein’s beautiful guitar tunes and followed by heart warming Shabbatograms 🙂

We than headed off to experience some young, fresh and funky Judaism in Berlin, with the mind-blowing and spiritually lifting service of LSD (shortcut for Let’s Start Davening, not what you think..!). We also joined them for a lovely dinner, which gave us the chance to chat and get to know some of the members a little bit better, while the wine kept on pouring…
Saturday morning started with yet another exposure to Berlin’s contemporary Jewish face, as we joined Kehilat Berlin in their Shacharit at the historical and impressive building of the synagogue on Orainburgerstrasse. After lunch and a short Limud with the members of the congregation, everyone went their own way, to enjoy a relaxing (yet quite cold) Shabbat afternoon in Berlin.

We than regrouped for our final dinner at Cafe Hilda, joined by 4 members of the German-Israeli Friendship Association. A lovely meal and some touching toasts were the best way to finish our great seminar in beautiful Berlin!

That’s all for now. See you in NY, Hernan and Yiftach.