mmmfried

For the past few days, the Bambinim Team was in the south of Germany meeting with our country director. Flying into Basel, and lunching in France, we actually spent the past few days in 3 countries…beautiful crisp mountain air and warm sunny days…

waiting for our tram at Freiburg Hauptbahnhof

Goulasch Suppe for dinner

JSC volunteers or country milkmaids?

village secrets

village night sky

Sorry I left this off with a post about Limmud. If I waited any longer it would be time for another Limmud post. December was a great month. We celebrated Chanukka at Bambinim for 8 days, I celebrated my 24th birthday at Kimchi Princess, where they let you barbecue your own Korean style entrees. I visited the Jewish Film Festival in Düsseldorf for my second year in a row, and was surprised by Sarah with a piece of cheesecake and princess balloons in our Düsseldorf hotel room. I also traveled to Florida where I met my family and best friend. I got stuck again, not because of an errupting volcano this time, but a NY blizzard. But like last time, getting stuck was awesome and bought me more sunny days at the beach.

Truthfully, there were a lot of missed blogging opportunities. However slighted this blog has become in view of all other online communication tools taking up my time today, it is still dear to me and I hope I give it the TLC it deserves in 2011.

It’s just, 90% of my work is now online social networking. A large part of my role with JDC, mostly self-initiated, is maintaining and developing a website and three facebook sites – one page, one group and one “product/service,” categorically different but functionally identical profiles used to reach ideal demographic groups. I have three email accounts, one personal and two work-related, all which I created. And of course, there’s facebook messaging, which some people view as a real email account for work purposes. And then, I’m gathering content for a JDC International website and a JDC Germany website. And finally, outside of work, I attempt to keep up with other online groups and my own personal online profiles at sites such as LinkedIn. I’m not sharing my personal pages on my blog. Google me.

Therefore, to have a presence online is not just part of my job, it’s become something of the dharma of our generation, universally- and often self-perpetuated as if to be online is to exist. When I first arrived in Berlin I noticed a lack of smart phones, particularly Crackberries, attached to people’s heads walking down the street and at social functions. There was almost silence during public transportation, due to a German emphasis on personal space and privacy. However, from 2009, when I moved to Berlin, to 2011, I’ve noticed a change. Many more Berliners are sporting iPhones, tweeting, joining facebook and upping their online presence in general.

Yet, blogging is special, separate online venture, which I hope I continue to view less as a duty and more of an opportunity to showcase what’s going on in my life in Berlin and with the JDC.

Here are some visuals to make up for all that text:

Sufganiyot Decorating Activity, Chanukkah 2010

Sarah managing 3 latke pans, Chanukkah 2010

Alma walking to ima, Chanukkah 2010

Israeli intern Sabina working her first winter wardrobe

Kimchi Princess, my 24th birthday, 12.12.10

Brunch on a Boat with Vanessa, JDC staffer in Düsseldorf

Unexpected New Year’s with my sisters, Dec. 31, 2010

The latest installment of Limmud in Germany took place about a week ago in Berlin. Coordinating on behalf of Bambinim (JDC), I organized the Kids’ Program, a Jewish learning conference for miniature people. Having participated and programmed for Limmud events in Cologne, Vilnius and Werbellinsee, I was looking forward to this one in Berlin, right down the street from Bambinim at the Berlin Jewish Community Building. Together with the Bambinim Team, I created a full day of Chanukka activities for the kids:

While the kids played downstairs with us at the Jüdische Gemeindehaus, hundreds of adults visited workshops, seminars and readings such as “Baalei Teshuva – When immigrants become religious” and “The Future of Jewish Remembrance. A panel discussion with Daniel Libeskind and Werner Hanak-Lettner.” The written program was in three languages, and so were the event offerings. Many programs were highlighted as part of the “Global Day”, an event that celebrated Jewish Learning on Nov. 7th in Israel and among the Diaspora.

Limmud is a great opportunity for Bambinim, because we always meet new families with small children, looking, if not desperately searching, for quality Jewish cultural programs for children. Limmud brings together Jews from all denominations. The Kids’ Program therefore is also quite diverse in the same way, and our programming is suitable for many denominations. If Jews from different backgrounds, Secular and Orthodox, Russian and German, were not mingling upstairs, they certainly were downstairs, parents and children alike.

The Jüdische Allgemeine featured Limmud on their website, highlighting the Kids’ Program in one of the article’s main photos. Here are some more photos of the Kids’ Program taken by Alex:

Reading together "War das nicht eine gute Idee?" a Chanukka children's book

Sabina reading with the kids during free play

Marina and kids coloring Jewish symbols, while the little ones nap downstairs

Dvora helping a young girl mold playdough

The next Limmud-Day Berlin is less than two weeks away, on Nov. 7th, coinciding with The Global Day of Jewish Learning! I’m participating in both a ‘Webinar’ about the Global Day and also helping out as a volunteer for Limmud. So come back later to find out how Berlin took part in this international event!

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything substantial. But that doesn’t mean that there weren’t many blog post-worthy moments! In the past months, there have been many changes in my life, work and personal. I wish I had been writing about them WHILE they took place, but I guess better late than never.

From the title of this post, you can probably gather that there are some fresh new faces on the horizon. Recently,  Bambinim received not one, but TWO new interns for the entire year.

(From left): Sabina & Sarah gathering leaves for the Bambinim Sukkah in Berlin's Tiergarten

For quite some time, Flora, the Director of Bambinim, has been working with the German youth exchange program to place an intern with Bambinim. The wait and effort was well worth it, because now we have Sabina! Sabina is a multi-talented Israeli, originally from Azerbaijan. Having just completed her mandatory army service in Israel, Sabina is looking forward to a new adventure in Berlin. She speaks Russian, Hebrew and English fluently, which is a great help for us. She will split her time between working for Bambinim and the Jewish Community of Berlin.

Sarah, hailing from the beautiful state of North Carolina, is now the second and second-ever Jewish Service Corps Fellow in Germany. She has already spent significant time living abroad in Brazil and Israel, learning the languages and getting to know the Jewish communities in those countries. This year, she is bringing her enthusiasm and experience to the JDC Germany team. So far, she has already helped Bambinim plan several events and develop two courses.

Sarah and I are part of the 2010-2011 group of Jewish Service Corp Fellows, an incredible program that gives young Jewish adults the opportunity to serve a foreign community for one year. As most of my colleagues from the 2009-2010 year return home, a whole new batch are being placed around the world. Many new fellows are replacing fellows from last year, such as Erin who recently arrived in Jerusalem, Israel. This year, there were also many new country placements such as Esther in Tallinn, Estonia, Elizabeth in Moscow, Russia, and Zara in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

I also moved recently, not cities, but Stadtteile. I now live in the trendy and multi-ethnic Berlin neighborhood Kreuzberg, although I am also bordering on Neukölln, another area of town. They call this in-between part Kreuzkölln, which is not only very cool, but a very cheap place to live. My entire street is filled with Turkish stores and restaurants, including many Döner and fruit stands. On the side streets, one can find artists hanging out at hipster bars and funky cafes. It’s heaven, basically, for young people, foreign and local. My two new flatmates are German students, who not only have great patience with my German skills, since we only speak German at home, but also with my lack of recycling and conservation skills (where my American roots show their true colors). Nearby, live my friends Sabina (with other exchange interns in the heart of Neukölln) Sabrina, my American comrade and professional blogger (foodandfootage and NPR Berlin), and Brett, a Kiwi web developer. Basically, a very fun, young and creative place to call home.

Switching to the other side of the Atlantic, I’m writing this post from New York City where I am part-vacationing and part-working. It’s my first time back in the States in over a year. In the past week, I have been in Columbus, Detroit and Cleveland already, experiencing relatively little culture shock, but a little disorientation that always accompanies my returns to the Midwest. I thought driving from city to city would feel very weird since I haven’t driven in over a year. But the cornfield-lined roads were the same. And the same friendly faces greeted me.

I met with the Cleveland Federation last Thursday, at their new high-tech, eco-friendly office building in the suburb Beachwood. My father was raised in Beachwood, Ohio, where my grandparents had settled after surviving the Holocaust and escaping the poor conditions of Europe. Because of my family’s connection to the Cleveland Jewish community and the opportunity it presented, I was honored and privileged to receive the 2009-2010 Roslyn Z. Wolf Cleveland-JDC International Fellowship. At the Federation building, I presented on the current condition of the Jewish community in Berlin, including a movie and a small book I made about Bambinim. I also met the daughter of Rosyln Z. Wolf, who joined our meeting.

On Saturday, I flew out to NYC, to see some of my closest friends and also pop into JDC events. On Sunday, I attended a couple board meetings. I spoke at the board meeting regarding the Next Gen Initiative, the JDC department that overseas my program, as well as many other long- and short-term service projects for young Jewish adults. It was a little intimidating to speak in front of 50 people, but I was glad to share my experience and also hear from other current and previous service volunteers.

Last night, I went to a fundraiser at a bar held by Cornell Alumni, who went on a short-term service trip to Argentina where they volunteered at JDC’s Baby Help Day Care Program, which was actually the model for Bambinim. However, the children that attend Baby Help are often from families in poverty, and their living conditions are much lower than our families in Berlin. Their presentation was very impressive and I was moved to see so many people show up to support the cause.

Today, I’m going in to the JDC Office once more to meet with the Next Gen staff and also to discuss planning for the upcoming service trip to Belarus and Germany. Tomorrow, I head up to Boston for a couple nights to visit my brother and old friends. Afterward, I’ll spend one last weekend in NYC, before heading back to Berlin.

Coming up is another Limmud Day in Berlin, which will coincide with the Global Day of Jewish Learning. Come back soon to read more about what Jews in Berlin are doing for this special international event!

Favorite moments of the last year…at least those captured on camera

Full house at opening night of the Jewish Film Festival in Düsseldorf, December 2009

Having a cocktail with Michelle overlooking Vilnius, Lithuania, February 2010

Mom & brother with me at Mauerpark, February 2010

A surprise boa at a Purim party in Düsseldorf, March 2010

Mom, sister and I in my parent’s wacky hotel room in Rome, March 2010

Soaking up the sun on the Tel Aviv beach, April 2010

Signing the Berlin Wall with Sadie on her birthday, June 2010

Riding my bike around Amsterdam with Sofie, June 2010

Surviving the heat wave at Schlachtensee, July 2010

Last day of Bambinim Summer Camp, August 2010

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about motivation. When we’re young, we think everyone wants the same thing and what motivates one person should motivate everyone. Then you enter the non-profit world and move to Berlin and you see that people are motivated by a whole set of factors, some you share, some you don’t and some you just don’t understand.

I’ve spent almost a year now living in a foreign culture, working with community leaders, volunteers, families, etc. all connected by the shared desire to be involved in what Jewish life exists here. I came to Berlin with a few goals of my own, but mainly to keep my mind open. I came searching for answers to questions: which values are shared by this community? What are their hopes? What motivates them?

I’m discovering all the time through this experience what motivates me – challenges, laughter, recognition – and I’ve really enjoyed learning this about myself. But what motivates my peers and this community that I’m serving? What inspires, for instance, parents to bring their children to Bambinim? What motivates our volunteers? Which of our goals intertwine and compliment each other?

With almost a year behind me, after many questions, observations, and seminars, I’m still figuring this out. But it’s okay. The quest motivates me and I’m not the only one.