Source: Chicago Diller Teen Fellows
Beginning in the fall of 2013, twenty exceptional Chicago teens embarked on an exciting fifteen-month journey along with their peers from JUF's Partnership 2Gether region in Israel—Kiryat Gat, Lachish, and Shafir. Diller empowers participants to be active, effective leaders with a strong Jewish identity and a respect for pluralism.
Read what the fellows are saying as they go through the program: Chicago Diller Teen Fellows blog.
Diller Teens showcase a commitment to repairing the world and responsibility to their communities, Israel, and the Jewish people. Programming focuses on Diller's four pillars: leadership, tikkun olam, Judaism and Jewish identity, and Israel. The Diller Program is dedicated to excellence in informal Jewish education through its core values of Excellence, Pluralism, Responsibility, Partnership, and Peoplehood. Throughout the program, Diller Teens in each of the twenty partner communities in North America and Israel participate in educational workshops, attend weekend retreats, and create and implement social service projects that meet a community need. The program also includes a three-week seminar in Israel, the Diller Teen Leadership Congress with Diller Fellows from across North America and Israel, and a ten-day peer exchange in North America, during which the Chicago fellows host their Israeli peers.
The Diller Teen Fellows Program includes twelve Sunday workshops, three weekend retreats, and two overnights with the local cohort. During these workshops and retreats, participants explore the four program pillars through team-building exercises, hands-on volunteering, dynamic conversations, and Jewish text study. Over the course of the fellowship, teens create and implement small-group social justice projects that address an issue they are passionate about and help their communities. In the spring, the ten Israeli cohorts travel to North America to visit their partner communities. For ten days, the twenty Diller Fellows from Kiryat Gat, Lachish, and Shafir will come to Chicago to meet the local cohort, experience Jewish life in America, engage in local service projects, and tour Chicago. All Diller Teen Fellows attend a seminar in Israel during the course of their program. On the three-week trip, the teens will travel throughout Israel with their Israeli counterparts, participate in the Diller International Teen Leadership Congress with fellows from all twenty Diller communities, and spend a week engaging in community service and experiencing home hospitality with the families in Kiryat Gat, Lachish, and Shafir.
Check out what is happening in Diller programs across North America and Israel here.