Spending a weekend with teens who are excited to learn about engaging with Israel is an exhilarating, and for me at least, almost a spiritual experience. I’ve just returned from The iCenter’s MZ Teen iConnect with Israel conference. Eighty teens from all over North America explored how they could make Israel more a part of their lives, brainstorming strategies to involve their peers, families and communities more deeply in the Israel idea.
I’ve written before about the MZ Teen Internship program and how its focus was on Israel education. The idea of following up with teens after they return from their Israel experience, keeping the spark alive, is both commonsensical and innovative. The strategy for strengthening the intensity of their relationship is through helping them tell their own “Israel stories” – relating to their peers (and actually anyone who will listen) how their own personal experiences in Israel touched their souls. This was the starting point for the just-concluded conference.
The Israel connection was deepened by the presence of teen emissaries from Israel. This group of Toronto based Israeli teens brought, in the words of one of the American teen participants, “Israel to us”, providing a unique and unromantically honest insight into what it means to be Israeli. This mifgash, this meeting of teen minds was transformative for both groups. They explored what they had in common, played the game of Jewish geography (at least those who went to Jewish summer camps that had delegations of Israeli counselors took part) and reminisced about favorite spots to chill in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. They spoke the same international language: Teenager. This personal connection will probably be the longest lasting and most impactful.
As the young people reflected on the weekend, the trope I kept hearing was that the programs offered were far from the regular fare. They weren’t spoken at. They dialogued; they experienced; they were listened to. What seemed really important was that these programs could be brought home to be adapted by the teens in their own backyards and communities. They learned how to translate the idea of Israel into a reality in their everyday lives.
Another aspect of the weekend spoke to the hearts and minds of the conference participants: Learning how to advocate for Israel. At my last experience with the MZ Teen program, in the fall, the focus was on education. This time the participants were also immersed in what can be best called, “Israel Advocacy 101”. They explored what the term “advocacy” means, what leadership is all about, and role – played scenarios that replicated what happens on college campuses. If nothing else, the representatives of The David Project, the Israel On Campus Coalition and Stand With Us worked with the teens to prepare them for the university environment with tools to promote Israel’s interests. The stress this weekend seemed not necessarily on debating and confronting Israel detractors, but rather on developing skills to foster relationships and positively engage with the unsure, the unengaged, and even when possible, with those “on the other side”. Evocative storytelling – sharing their own heartfelt and sincere passion for Israel was contextualized as an effective tool to be used by these teens, when they find themselves on campus, to represent and defend the idea of the Jewish state. Personally, I would have preferred to see a broader representation of different types of Israel advocacy groups, reflecting the true gamut of Zionist and Israeli democracy. Those that were represented, in my mind, skewed to the right, but their basic message of non-confrontational advocacy (as presented at this conference, at least), was valid, refreshing and important. Maybe at the next gathering we can hope for a wider spectrum of views.
And finally, the teens danced. All of them. They did old fashioned rikudei ahm – the Israeli folk dances that those of us of a certain age grew up doing in youth group and camp. It was cute. It was refreshing. It was fun. It evoked that old pioneering spirit, of the chalutziut that defined the type of Zionism that lived in our hearts before the days of UN resolutions condemning Zionism as racism, and intifadas, and controversies over land ownership and separation barriers and Qassam rockets and illegal settlements. While I know we’ll never return to those days of innocence and heroism, I hope I’m not being naïve in expressing an optimism that maybe the future of our relationship with Israel can be less complicated, as these young adults become the leaders of tomorrow who will strengthen the ties between North American Jews and Israel.
One can only hope.
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