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N, Powerful Junior Year

By Grace Klein/T2T

W

hen the words "junior year of
high school" are heard, people
tend to think of standardized
testing, college guides and mountains of
homework. But my junior year has been
more rewarding thanks to the Diller Teen
Fellowship, a yearlong leadership program
for local high school juniors.
We're Reform, Conservative and
Orthodox, we're Ashkenazi and Sephardi,
we live in different areas and have different
backgrounds. We all were accepted after a
thorough application process that ensured
we all were ready and eager for what the
program had in store.
The focus of the Diller Teen Fellowship
is building Jewish teen leaders by strength-
ening participants' ties to Israel, giving us a
better understanding of tikkun olam and
deepening our sense of Jewish ethics and
identity. Ultimately, the program hopes to
ensure strong leadership and participation
from our generation in Detroit's Jewish
community.
Locally, the program is coordinated by
the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit, with primary national funding
from the Helen Diller Family Foundation
and co-sponsorship and additional fund-
ing from the local Stephen H. Schulman
Millennium Fund.
Throughout the year, events have
included Sunday seminars at Federation
that gave us a chance to explore topics per-
taining to things like Israel, living Jewishly
and different aspects of leadership. In one
seminar, we talked with a Reform and an
Orthodox rabbi about differences and sim-

ilarities between the streams of Judaism.
At others, we've discussed everything
form modern Israeli culture to local com-
munity service programs. Social action
and community service involvement
throughout the year allow us to take part
in tikkun olam (repair of the world). We
all were encouraged to participate in J-
Serve this past April, and we are planning
to be involved in other local organizations,
such as the Friendship Circle.
Finally, one of the key parts of the Diller
program is the highly anticipated, three-
week trip to Israel this upcoming summer.
There, the Detroit Teen Fellows will join up
with Diller teens from Baltimore, Cleveland
and San Francisco, the other three partici-
pating cities. We'll be experiencing a broad
variety of activities all over Israel dur-
ing our stay, from visiting Yad Vashem to
camping out in the Negev.
We'll also be taking part in community
service. Each Diller group also will spend
part of the trip with Israeli teens from their
city's sister region; we'll be with teens from
Detroit's Partnership 2000 Central Galilee
Region.
In March, these Israeli teens came to
Detroit for a 10-day mifgash (meeting)
with us Detroit teens. While here, the
Israelis traveled around Metro Detroit
learning about and experiencing our
Jewish community. Then, for the week-
end, we all went on a retreat at Tamarack
Camps.
The retreat gave us the chance to expe-
rience two Shabbat services, Havdalah
and many meals together, so were able to
experience one another's practices. We also
did various group challenges to explore

Teen Captures
Essence Of
Diversity

By Hadas Corey/T2T

T

hink of a room where everything
is gray, nothing but one dull color.
If you live your life in the color
gray you will feel alone and barely alive ...
a world of nothing unique or special."
This is how Kenneth Weiss, a seventh-
grade honor student at Walnut Creek -
Middle School in Walled Lake, pictures the
world with no diversity.
This year, B'nai B'rith Michigan Region
ran a contest designed for middle school

32

July 12 2007

Kenneth Weiss, center, with his parents,

Jeffrey and Sari; grandparents Eugene and

Ellen Weiss; and brother Joshua

students from the Metro Detroit area.
Sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders were
asked to write about George Washington's
famous quote: "Give to bigotry no sanc-

tp;

Detroit's Diller Teen Fellows joined Israeli to ens for a 10-day meeting that included

a retreat at Tamarack Camps in March. The local teens leave for Israel July 15 for

three weeks.

the different aspects of leadership and of
participation. Throughout the rest of the
mifgash, we all got together for evening
programs, including a night at Joe Dumars'
Fieldhouse and an exciting Pistons game.
Throughout the mifgash, we each were
able to express our opinions, beliefs and
traditions, and we got to know each other.
Aside from our differences, we discovered
we're still very much the same. We may
have been doing it in different languages,
but when Rasheed Wallace scored with 1.5
seconds left to tie that Pistons game, we all
cheered like crazy.
When the Israelis' last night in Detroit
came around, we had a lot to talk about.
We all agreed we were very sad to be leav-

ing one another, but could not wait to
reunite this summer.
Now that trip is around the corner,
and we can't wait for July 15. Each teen
applied to the program already full of love
for Judaism and Israel, and it's only been
strengthened by our experience in the
Diller Fellowship. We know that our time
in Israel will be one filled with learning,
friendship and growth:
as people, as Jews and
with love for Eretz
Yisrael.

tion, to persecution no assistance."
This quote, found in Washington's
letter to the Touro Synagogue in
Newport, R.I., was written to signify
the importance of diversity in the
newly established government of
the United States.
Out of 48 other middle school
students, Kenneth blew away the
judges with his award-winning
essay. "I tried to use quotes and
important people that I've studied,"
he said. "I wanted to use examples
that everyone is familiar with so
that I could get my point across."
For first prize, Kenneth received
a $1,000 U.S. Savings Bond from B'nai
B'rith; second-place winner, John Holmes,
received a $500 savings bond. Both essays
will be displayed on local Comerica Bank

property. The contest was part of B'nai
B'rith's Enlighten America program. To
read Kenneth's essay, go to JNonline.us
and look under Web Extras.
In addition to this award, Kenneth also
recently won a youth volunteer award at
Blumberg Plaza/Fleischman Residence in
West Bloomfield. He's a regular volunteer
on Thursday nights dur-
ing bingo games, where
his mother, Sari, says
he's the "eyes and ears"
for the seniors.

- Grace Klein, 17, attends

Birmingham Seahoim High

School

- Hadas Corey,

Teen2Teen intern

Watch for teen teen
in next week's Jewish News

