The day began with a leadership workshop that addressed dealing with changes, fostering excellence, creativity, innovativeness, vision, determination, and identifying the potential in every human being. Conference participants took part in a number of creative games: putting together a puzzle that didn’t fit into its framework, building a vehicle as a team and moving it, building a tall tower, and many other thought-provoking and creative games. The key to success: thinking out of the box and cooperation.
Another workshop included a quiz based on an escape room experience with the theme being Israel’s seventieth anniversary. Members of the teams deciphered the code, opened the locks on the boxes, and eventually arrived at a happy end.
The concluding panel of the conference addressed the main subject in the lives of all educators who come in contact with Jewish youth –
education for relevant Zionism, strengthening the bond between Israel and the Diaspora and the educational challenges of the twenty-first century.
Panel participants included:
Ilan Ezrahi, a writer and educator;
Hizki Arieli, CEO of the Association for Excellence in Education;
Tehila Freidman, a social activist; and a number of conference participants:
Alexandra Haccoun (Switzerland),
Sylvia Berezounsky (Mexico),
Akoush Noji (Hungary),
Ann Greenspan (USA), and
Esti Levy (Israel).
Ezrahi, who moderated the panel, said to the teachers: “Just like you came here to salute the state of Israel, so do we salute you for making time to come and get a firsthand impression of the challenges and opportunities Israel faces.”
“This is not an international conference, because we all belong to the same nation,” said Freidman. “We live in a country that is a living miracle, and it is our responsibility to protect it. It’s okay that we don’t all agree on exactly what it means to be a Jew as long as we can find a way to live together.”
According to Arieli, “the Jewish people did not come here only in order to create a national homeland, but also in order to make the country the best place in the world.”
Greenspan argued that many Jews feel alienated from the Jewish state due to the government’s policies:
“We must learn how to live together, and Israel needs to decide whether it wants to be the national homeland of the entire Jewish people or just a home for Israelis.’
Berezounsky compared Israel to a teenager and defined it as a country that is growing up and still learning how to solve the conflicts it faces. Haccoun spoke emotionally and said that “Israel is always in our hearts and at the center of our educational network.”
Noji expressed his expectation that Israel’s leaders should listen to Jewish communities throughout the world, adding that “we are interested in building a strong bridge between Israel and the Diaspora, and this is no simple task.”
Levi said that during the conference, she met teachers from different places and spoke with them about how it might be possible to connect between students from different countries. “We must do everything we can in order to strengthen the bond between us and develop plans for reaching this goal.”
At the conclusion of the panel, Rabbi
Jacky Sabag from Morocco said that “even if we have disagreements between us, we are an amazing people, and may we be privileged to share many more moments like these.”
At the end of the conference, each participant was presented with a KKL-JNF certificate of appreciation, and then, it was time for farewells. The educators went home with suitcases full of new educational content that they acquired at the conference, new ideas, practical tools and unforgettable experiences of the special places and amazing people that they had met during their educational journey in Israel.