This morning a couple of us went to Shira Hadasha, a local “Conservadox” congregation. The sanctuary had a mechitzah, a separation between the men and the women in the congregation. Unlike most Orthodox services, this mechitzah was translucent and allowed each side to see the other. It was a very interesting experience for those who went, and we were lucky enough to celebrate a Bar Mitzvah with the Shira Hadasha community.
After breakfast, we had an AWESOME discussion led by me (Rachel Reibach) and Jonathan Schermer. We had prepared a bunch of interesting topics about Jerusalem and Israel with Rabbi Scott Aaron such as women’s rights in Israel, mandatory military service, tradition vs. modernity in Jerusalem, refugees, and a lot more. We made the Dillers stand on one side of the room or the other based on their opinions on the issues and then made people defend where they stood. It got a little controversial and heated, but it was really interesting and pretty fun.
We had a little downtime after lunch, so a bunch of us went out on the porch and played some high stake Texas Holdem poker (with Josh Leib’s sunflower seeds as our chips), with a beautiful view of Jerusalem as our background. It was really fun and a perfect activity for a Shabbat afternoon.
Later, we went on a walking tour of Jerusalem. We saw places like the International YMCA and the King David Hotel where Obama stayed on his visit to Israel. We saw a very historically important windmill and then walked over to Mount Zion where the old city of Jerusalem is.
Next we went to the Kotel for Havdalah services with the Cohort. A few of us went closer to the Wall to do Ma’ariv and then returned to the group. After finishing Havdalah, we all took some paper and pens and wrote notes to put in the Wall. We all went and put our notes in the Wall and when we all came back together we met the Diller cohort from Metro West. We waited for them to finish Havdalah so we could all ride the bus together to Ben Yehuda Street.
I was, personally, extremely excited for the Ben Yehuda Street part of the night. I got to see my brother who has been in Israel for the past year in the Israeli Defense Forces, who I haven’t seen in 6 months. I dramatically and embarrassingly jumped on him as soon as I saw him and we went off together. We ran into the rest of the cohort every so often. It was really fun for everyone whether they were hanging out with family, each other, or other Diller cohorts they ran into along the way. It was a fun time to be on the street and everyone had an amazing time! Overall, it was an AMAZING day!
Rachel Reibach