July 29, 2005

(San Francisco, CA) – Twenty Bay Area teens travel to Israel this summer to experience what it is like to live in a contrasting culture where one’s religious identity is severely restricted. The Diller Teens Fellows program of the San Francisco-based Bureau of Jewish Education (BJE) believes that by experiencing Israel’s diverse and challenging environment, these teens will be inspired to become leaders in the American Jewish community. “It is up to us as Jewish educators to make sure our teens care enough as leaders and Jews to be actively involved in writing the next chapter in the story of the Jewish people,” says Ilan Vitemberg, Diller Teen Coordinator.

Shelley Murveit, 17, says of the upcoming summer seminar, “I’m really excited to learn more about the Israeli culture and discover their way of life. I think that actually going to Israel will surpass everything that I've already learned.”

Taking place from July 22 to August 7, the summer seminar is a culmination of an innovative eight-month curriculum for selected 11th graders. The Diller Teen Fellows focus on Jewish learning and community issues during seven Sunday workshops and two intensive weekend retreats. They meet with local activists, participating in community service projects and volunteering at Jewish community events. Vitemberg has recently been granted one of the prestigious 2005 Diller Family Awards for Excellence in Jewish Education for his exceptional abilities at educating, motivating and inspiring Jewish teens. Due to the success of the Bay Area program, there are plans to create similar Diller Teen Fellow programs nationwide.

On his dedication to working with teens, Vitemberg explains, “As a teacher it is so thrilling to affect and change young lives, and it is equally satisfying to have your own life changed by them. The Diller Teens are such excited, inquisitive youth; we explore together and I learn as much from them as they learn from me.”

The itinerary provides the teens with activities that will allow them to connect the topics and issues they have studied during the preceding year to actual situations; they will be able to see that their efforts do indeed make a difference in the community.

Events include:

• Participating in a rabbi-led discussion on poverty and human rights, followed by volunteering in a low-income Jerusalem neighborhood on a beautification project.
  Meeting Ethiopian teens whose families walked across the Sudan Desert to get to Israel, preceding their own three-day desert hike focused on leadership issues.
• Attending a seminar relating to co-existence and applying their ideals by building a climbing wall — a symbol of trust and team work — for the children at an Arab-Israeli elementary school.
  Volunteering at Beit Issie Shapiro, an organization in Northern Israel that runs a day center for mentally and physically disabled Arab and Jewish children. The group will be bringing the children stuffed animals and musical instruments that they have decorated, made possible through the Diller Teen Fellows fundraising efforts.
• Spending five days in the Upper Galilee cleaning a river with their sister group Manhugut Esreh, the Israeli parallel to the Diller Teen Fellows. (The teens in Manhugut Esreh visited San Francisco this past spring; this program enables participants to have joint experiences in the hope that these encounters will transform into long-lasting relationships.)

Hallie Froman, 16 years old, says of her upcoming reunion with the teens from Manigut Esreh, “The thing I am most excited about this summer is visiting with the Manigut Esreh teens. I have kept in touch with some of the kids, and it was such a great experience meeting them, bonding with them, learning about Israel through their eyes and sharing experiences.” 

The Bureau of Jewish Education of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin, and Sonoma Counties is a non-profit organization that builds capacity among professional educators and lay leaders, enabling them to create and maintain a system of excellent Jewish education in synagogues, day schools, early childhood programs and informal educational settings. The Diller Teen Fellows' summer seminar in Israel is endowed by the Helen Diller Family Foundation, a supporting foundation of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties.

In fiscal year 2003-2004, the Federation’s Endowment Fund, with assets exceeding $770 million, provided more than $207 million for a variety of grants, seed projects and emergency needs in the Jewish and general communities. For more information, call 415.777.0411 or visit www.sfjcef.org.