Hey Readers- I'm back with somethin' new!
So I am writing from the 2011 Building Future Leadership Conference organized by MASA in Jerusalem. So, you may ask what is this conference with a crazy name and what is this strange name MASA. I'll start with MASA, which is an organization heavily funded by the Israeli government who organizes, sponsors, and markets lots of long term study programs in Israel. So, my program, Shnat Netzer, along with hundreds of other post high school, semester abroad, and post undergraduate programs is a MASA Recognized program. In addition to working with the programs directly, and giving substantial scholarships to long term students in Israel, they host a number of events throughout the year to bring together what is called the "MASA Community." These events are things such as concerts, lectures, etc, and their flagship event, the Building Future Leadership Conference (BFL).
BFL is a one week conference for gap-year and post undergraduate participants on MASA programs. There are almost 500 hand selected participants who have come together for a week of learning through experience, lectures, and lots of other stuff. I am only at the end of the 2nd day, but we have already had a packed schedule.We started the first day with opening ceremonies including a speech from the CEO of MASA, which became the first of many times we have heard about being the "leaders of tomorrow" and the "keys to the future of Jewish programs in Israel." We also had a session titled ""The 5 Legged Table- Jewish Identity in the 21st Century" which was a great lecture by the dynamic speaker Avraham Infeld. We heard about Jewish leadership throughout history and were challenged on the ideas of who were actual leaders: the Jewish heroes we all know about, or those who worked behind the scenes. The rest of the afternoon consisted of getting to know our main activity and discussion groups and then some time to prepare for our evening gala.
We had a very nice gala dinner at which we heard from one of Prime Minister Netanyahu's top advisors who has been crucial in the transformation and development of Masa from the side of the Israeli Government. We also learned about an incredible organization, Nu (if you never look at another link of mine, look at this one), who creates T-shirts for a cause like you've never seen before. Their t-shirts, from the front, look like any other well designed graphic tee, but on the inside, close to the heart, is printed the story behind the artwork. Even more, each shirt supports a cause directly related to the story on the inside of the shirt. After a presentation from the company, we were presented with the shirts for the BFL event. On the shirt is a butterfly made of words connected to Israel, leadership, and the youth, and on the inside is a story about leadership that goes something like this:
In a small village, there was a little girl, and a wise man. The girl decided one day to try to fool the wise man, so she caught a butterfly, and headed to the man's house. She planned to ask the man if the butterfly in her hands was dead or alive, and depending on the man's answer, she would either let the beautiful butterfly go free, or crush it in her hands. She arrived to the old man, and proposed her puzzle. As if without thinking, the wise man answered, "Little girl, there is no answer, for the power is in your own hands. You have to decide whether to do good or to do bad"
This story relates to leadership because each one of us has the power to decide. To decide how to lead, what to lead, and where to go with our leadership. At the end of the night, we were all touched by the story and happy to have such a cool new (or should I say NU) shirt.
This morning, we started at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial site and museum. As always, the museum was touching and heavy, but this time, we toured it from a leaders perspective. As we walked, we discussed how leaders, whether bad or good, had an impact on the Holocaust and what different styles of leadership did to the end results. In the afternoon, I attended a workshop on Campus Entrepreneurship, my first of 3 sessions on the topic, which covers how to create new and build already existing organizations for Jews, in support of Israel, or anything else, as we move to universities all around the world next year. Using some "cutting edge tools" and techniques, we began our preparation to be future leaders in college.
In the evening, we had a program in the style of "open space" programming put on by ROI which is " a global community of young Jewish leaders... [whose] objective is to cultivate a prestigious international network of young Jewish leaders in their 20s and 30s who are at the forefront of local, global and virtual initiatives that offer innovative and diverse paths for connecting to Jewish life. Very simply stated, it is a form of free anarchy in a program. We began the program by writing any topic we desired on paper on the wall and assigning it to a different letter or number. We then had two different rotations where we were allowed to freely attend any of the topic discussions at different points around the hall. Although I, as were many others, were skeptical at first about how this would work with 500 people, it turned out to be very cool. According to the "Rule of 2 Feet", at any point that we did not feel comfortable or useful in a discussion, or anytime we felt like moving, we were allowed to move to a new topic. This allowed us each to cover many topics, and although people were constantly moving, discussions continued as each new person"Who is a Jew, and who decides", "Social Workers' Strike in Israel", "Racism", and even "Judaism and Black Magic," where we made comparisons of the two beliefs and traditions, and made a huge list of some serious and some funny compare/contrast points between the two. If I can get my hands on the list, I will post it sometime soon.
I ended the night with a forum on opportunities with Masa Israel in North America in the future. There are lots of opportunities to get involved in different Jewish and non Jewish communities I have been part of in the past and will be part of in the future, so I am already excited, but keeping my options open for the future.
We have another 4 days of packed leadership programs, so its off to bed for now, but I will definitely post about the rest of the conference sometime soon. Take care, and think about that butterfly next time you make a leadership decision.
I'm out. Ethan.
p.s. sorry about no pictures this time. I'll try to get some from the conference for next time.
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