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"If there is ever a program that seriously reflects the concept of Jewish Peoplehood, it is the Diller Teen Fellows."
-Avraham Infeld, President Emeritus of Hillel International
Program Overview
The Diller Teen Fellows Program is a fifteen-month international leadership program for Jewish teens. Diller empowers participants to be active, effective leaders with a strong Jewish identity and a respect for pluralism. Diller Teens showcase a commitment to repairing the world and a sense of belonging and responsibility to their communities, Israel, and the Jewish people.
The Diller Program is dedicated to excellence in informal Jewish education through its core values of Excellence, Pluralism, Responsibility, Partnership and Peoplehood. Throughout the year, Diller Teens in each of 16 partner communities in North America and Israel participate in educational workshops, weekend retreats, and create and implement social service projects. Highlights of the program also include a three-week Seminar in Israel, the Diller Teen Leadership Congress, and a 10-day peer exchange in North America during which North American communities host their Israeli peers.
All Diller activities are based on the program’s “Four Pillars”: Leadership, Tikkun Olam, Judaism & Jewish Identity, and Israel.
The Los Angeles Diller Teen Fellows Cohort's "Values Flag"
(Click for full size image)
Workshops and Weekend Retreats (Shabbatonim)
The Diller Teen Fellows Program includes regular Sunday workshops and three intensive weekend retreats with the local cohort. Students explore the four program pillars and create and implement individual or small-group community service projects.
North American Seminar
In the spring, the 8 Israeli cohorts travel to North America to visit their partner communities. The 10-day North American Seminar includes: a joint weekend retreat, opportunities to experience and learn about North American Jewish life, local service projects and home hospitality by the Diller Teen Fellow families.
The 2011 North American Seminar received press in Cleveland, New Jersey, Pittsburgh and San Francisco. Watch a news report from about the Pittsburgh/Karmiel-Misgav Partnership's 2011 North American Seminar (or view pictures from each community's North American Seminar here):
Israel Seminar
All Diller Teen Fellows attend a Seminar in Israel during the course of their program. (Currently, twelve of our communities participate in their Seminar during the summer, and four during the winter.) The Seminar includes: travel in Israel, a 5-day Diller International Teen Leadership Congress (a meeting of Diller participants from all communities), and a week of community service and home hospitality by the families of Israeli Diller Teen Fellows.
Watch a video of the 2010 Israel Summer Seminar below. Alternatively, view pictures from past Summer Seminars here, read articles in the Jerusalem Post or New Jersey Jewish News about the Israel Summer Seminar, or read highlights from the Diller Teen Fellows' Israel Summer Seminar blogs here:
For more information about the North American and Israeli Diller Teen Fellows program, please contact Tal Gale (North America) at 415-512-6237 or talg@sfjcf.org, or Liat Cohen-Raviv (Israel) at 972 0504 232 344 or liatc.diller@gmail.com.
"By bringing together teens throughout the Jewish world, the Diller Teen Fellows Program becomes an embodiment of Jewish Peoplehood by design. By teaching the teens what is expected of them as leaders, the program offers Jewish Peoplehood a future."
-Dr. Shlomi Ravid, Director, the Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education
February 2012
