Northern Israeli Teen Leadership Group Coming to San Francisco

July 31, 2006

(Israel⁄San Francisco, CA)—Eighteen teenagers participating in a leadership program in northern Israel—called the Manhigut Esreh—are able to leave the rocket assaults on their communities and come to San Francisco for a week-long visit starting Wednesday, August 2, 2006. This trip was arranged by their Bay Area counterparts—the Diller Teen Fellows—when the Fellows had to postpone their annual summer seminar in Israel as a result of the Israel-Lebanon conflict. The trip to the United States provides an opportunity for the northern Israeli teens to visit with the Diller Teens and for them to share their unique experience of living in the conflict area.

Diller Teen Fellow Chayva Lehrman had this to say on the change in circumstances: “Postponed. One word and everything fell apart. This verdict represented more than my little trip. It meant that the situation was real; Israel was in danger. I could immediately see every friend I had made over the past year huddled in a bomb shelter, terrified. But now the Manhigut Esreh are on their way here. Both of us have something to learn from our respective cultures; they will observe a community that will never truly understand their pain, and we will hopefully be able to shoulder some of their burden. Our long-awaited meeting will carry more weight than we anticipated. Our shoulders are ready.”

And fellow Diller Teen Andy Garon explains of his experience, “The Diller Teen Fellows program has provided a way to actually take part as a leader in the community, giving me the opportunity to do so many amazing things, including helping organize a benefit dinner and raising over 1300 dollars in little over two hours selling water. I was always frustrated about my lack of voice. This program has given me an ability to truly make a difference in the community.”

The Diller Teens Fellows, a project of the Jewish Community Federation, and operated by the San Francisco-based Bureau of Jewish Education (BJE), is an innovative, year-long curriculum for selected 11^th graders that focuses on Jewish learning and community issues. It is funded by the Helen Diller Family Foundation, a supporting foundation of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund. The Manhigut Esreh is the Israeli parallel to the Fellows and is funded through the Living Bridge program of the Jewish Community Federation. Each year the teens in both programs visit each other’s community, enabling the participants to have joint experiences in the hope that these encounters will transform into long-lasting relationships.

The Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties is the central organization for fundraising, planning, outreach and leadership development for Jewish communities in San Francisco, the Peninsula, and Marin and Sonoma counties. In fiscal year 2004-05, the Federation’s annual campaign allocated $16.9 million to some 60 agencies providing social services, educational and cultural programs in the Bay Area, in the U. S., Israel and elsewhere in the world. In fiscal year 2005, the Federation’s Endowment Fund, with assets exceeding $1.05 billion, provided more than $215 million for a variety of grants, seed projects and emergency needs. For more information, call 415.777.0411 or read about our mission.

The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) is the central public affairs arm of the organized Jewish community. It represents more than 80 synagogues and Jewish organizations in the Bay Area on issues that impact the rights and protection of Jews as individuals and as a community here and abroad. JCRC is a beneficiary agency of the Jewish Community Federation.

The Bureau of Jewish Education of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties is a non-profit organization whose mission is to create vibrant, effective, and engaging Jewish learning and to make it affordable and accessible. BJE 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. Due to the success of the Bay Area Diller Teen Fellows program, similar programs are being developed in other cities across the country.