Commentaries
Reflections of participants from our various activities:
- Leadership Seminar for Community Leaders & Teachers in the Diaspora, June 2011
Eliza Siegel: "A representative of the Federation of Southwest Michigan and a former participant of this trip, Beth Grode came to tell me that the Federation would like to send me on a leadership seminar in Israel. The timing was right, so was the price right... free, the trip seemed too good to be true. “Yes please, sign me up,” I said. For seventeen years I traveled to 25 cities managing business seminars on such things as: customer service, time management, dealing with difficult people, and leadership skills. So my expectation for this seminar was partly based upon my years of experience with that job. Of course I also expected to see Israel for the first time." More...
Eva Steiner: "The best of the educational portion: (1) Meeting with the young leaders at the Kibbutz in Jaffe, the young men and women at the mechinah and the mayor of Yeruham. The other young leaders were the cantor and rabbi at the HUC during Shabbat in Jerusalem; (2) Learning about the art of tombstones was exciting. There is an old Jewish cemetery in the Chicago area that has art on the tombstones also; and (3) Talking with Yael Katz was very informative about the Israel Movement for progressive Judaism. Since I belong to a reform Temple I am very interested in the Reform and Conservative movement in Israel." More...
Sophie Amichai: "It is the Palmach Museum which always hits me hard; the same place, the same story, the same young woman… out of a Nazi concentration camp, in a ship approaching the Promised Land. And I cry, and cry, and cry, and cry. And I cried at Atlit, and I cried hearing Ben Gurion reading the Declaration of Independence." More...
Rina Liebeskind: "The seminar began in Jerusalem where we spent a few days exploring the City of David, the Davidson Center with its archeological dig and the Kotel with its tunnels and all that it holds. (This part of the trip was physically challenging but very emotional for all of the participants). While in Jerusalem, we also had a tour of the Knesset, Israel’s House of Representatives where we had a chance to check out places we only see on TV and in the news. We traveled to the Negev where we had an interesting workshop at Midrashat S’de Boker about David Ben Gurion’s leadership dilemmas during Israel’s tumultuous beginning. We visited the town of Yerucham, a development town that has grown so much over the years a living testament to Ben-Gurion’s dream to populate the Negev." More...
Mentions:
- Orloff CAJE Monthly Publication, November 2011
"This past summer Orloff CAJE inaugurated a new and exciting Israel experience - a ten day seminar on “Jewish Leadership - Past and Present”. The seminar, a joint venture of Orloff CAJE and The Mofet Institute of Israel, was conducted under the very capable leadership and guidance of Dr. Tova Perlmutter, - its central premise to bring together community lay leaders and professional educators to observe first hand and explore the lives and work of Israel’s many exceptional, fascinating and influential leaders from the Biblical to present-day times. Our goal was to create a synergy between these two groups of community leaders, so that they might enhance their own personal knowledge at the same time learning from each other, so that they could then “pay it forward” in their communal interactions." More...