MASA Seminar: Mind the Gap

The Workshoppers attended the MASA sponsored "Mind the Gap" Seminar, held at the Neve Ilan Hotel outside of Jerusalem. The seminar is designed to help with the transition back to college life, answer questions they might have and give them tools to engage in Jewish life on campus. The Workshoppers were mixed in with other MASA program participants and divided into groups based on where they will be attending college. The groups were facilitated by Hillel professionals from their college campuses. It was definitely an interesting and challenging experience to be mixed in with participants from very different programs, but it was a good opportunity to bring their experiences and thoughts into the wider Jewish community. The seminar opened with guest speaker Avraham Infeld, the president of Hillel, discussing what Judaism and Jewish peoplehood (I recommend checking some of his videos on youtube). The seminar continued with a mix of workshops, panels, guest speakers and activities in college-track groups. There was a speaker discussing Open Hillel, a discussion of Israel engagement in the digital age, panels about Jewish campus life, Israel activism, academic issues, a zumba activity, a theater performance, and plenty of other interesting activities. On Wednesday evening, after the seminar had concluded, we received a message from the educational director of MASA, sharing with us what a valuable contribution the Workshoppers made to the seminar and complimenting them on their leadership skills!

Rachel and Jacob H, clearly enthralled with their activity.

Liat and Bekah.

Berman, representing Habonim to the British group.

Getting to know other participants.

The Habonim group started each morning together, here playing a game with Nora.

Hannah and Micah, playing "four corners" with different statements: each corner represents a different level of agreement/disagreement with a given statement. Here, Micah is giving his opinion on "Being in Israel has changed my perspective on the conflict." Other statements: It would be better to have a peaceful Jewish state somewhere else. Am Yisrael is more important than Eretz Yisrael. It is my obligation to respond to anti-Israel statements by professors.