Discovering Deutschland

The Hanukah fun didn't stop with Saturday. This past Sunday I hopped on a train to Bielefeld, a smaller city on the way to Duisburg from Berlin to continue the celebrations. Night 5: In Bielefeld JDC participated in the community's Hanukah event by working with local madrichim ( teen mentors) to put on a Hanukah program for kids. The theme for this event was dreidels; we learned the rules of the game passed out gelt and even made paper spinning dreidels. Night 6:  After making it safely to Duisburg, my boss Tanya planned a really great Hanukah celebration and I got to know a few more of the local community members. Alex (her son) and I had a great time listening to hipster Hanukah music (yes this is a real spottify channel), and baking cookies that were a little prettier to look at than to eat. Night 7:  It was due time for some cross cultural exploration and so I decided to spend some time at the Christmas Markets in Dusseldorf. These markets are a...

It's been a packed Hanukah season in Germany it's hard to even know where to start! I don't think I have ever celebrated Hanukah so thoroughly with something going on almost every night. Unfortunately my (not so) dear camera met its end last week so I had to make do with my phone for pictures. I'll happily take advice/ suggestions for a new camera (aka please save me from camera overload). Anyway to the important part, heres a recap of all the celebrations in Berlin: Night 1: The first night started off in style with, rumor has it, the largest menorah in Europe being lit at Brandenburger Tor. I have no idea how to even go about fact checking that but it was the tallest menorah I've ever seen. It was definitely an impressive sight with the Mayor of Berlin lighting the menorah using a torch and a crane (but actually) right in front of the city's most famous tourist spot. Night 2: Thursday night a local organization called "Stu...

Today I'm heading back to Duisburg for short weekend filled with activities in the Jewish community. Going back made me realized I never shared my fun-filled week there in October. So heres a little retrospective of the theater camp I facilitated. Apparently Germany has something called "fall break" (clearly I'm jealous) for school children and some of them chose to spend it doing a theater camp in the Jewish community. We made a play together called "Grossmutters Challah". I'm sure you can guess that this translates to grandmother's challah. The whole week's theme was challah. We baked challah, made challah covers and then on Friday we preformed the play for the nearby Jewish kindergarten. Needless to say the kids were adorable and their performance was heartwarming. They did this little Israeli dance at the end that just about made me tear-up. After a week full of long hours and campers filled with boundless energy shabbat was a ...

What a weekend! I was lucky enough to join JDC Regions  for their wonderful Generation Next conference. Young Jewish leaders from around Europe gathered in Brussels, Belgium. It was incredible hearing about different Jewish communities from so many cultural backgrounds. We met Jews from Serbia, Israel, Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, Switzerland, Holland, the Baltic countries, Italy and more!   Some of the problems these communities face, such as attracting new members were quite familiar, especially in Germany and others were totally novel. The most fruitful part of the weekend was delving into these topics. I got to hear how these leaders tackle things like declining involvement, insulated communities and emigration. I also noticed the striking difference that still exists between the east and west. It's clear that countries in Eastern Europe are still dealing with repercussions of the fall of communism but at the same time meeting vivacious young leaders from the...

This week marks my two month-iversary in Germany. As things start to fall into place a little more I thought it would be a good time to start documenting my work adventures. I’ve always found blogging a little intimidating and intimate but I wanted to challenge myself this year so why not let that include blogging? First things first, what am I doing here exactly? Well I’m an Entwine Jewish Service Corps ( JSC ) Fellow for the Joint Distribution Committee ( JDC ). Briefly JDC is (stolen from the JDC website): The world’s leading Jewish humanitarian assistance organization. JDC works in more than 70 countries and in Israel to alleviate hunger and hardship, rescue Jews in danger, create lasting connections to Jewish life, and provide immediate relief and long-term development support for victims of natural and man-made disasters.  In other words I’m spending a year in Germany working for the Jewish community helping to revitalize Jewish life here. I spend part of...