Special Interview Getting It Together

In an effort to bring American Jewish youth and young Israelis closer together, the Dor Hemshech (young leadership) division of the World Zionist Organization in the United States and Canada has been engaged in the development of new forms of contacts between the two groups that have proved to be highly successful and popular.

Foremost in these efforts is “The Dialogue Session” –a new endeavor that started as an experiment in the beginning of 1975 and has become “the calling card” of Dor Hemshech. In an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Judi Widetzky, the Israeli General Director of Dor Hemshech in the U.S. and Canada, spoke enthusiastically about the responses and reverberations the dialogue session created wherever it was presented.

She described the session as an “exercise in group dynamics insofar as a small number of Americans sit down with several Israelis for an open and friendly discussion on a topic which has been selected in advance. As a rule, the program starts with a short introduction designed to stimulate the entire group and then the large group divides into small workshops composed of two to three Israelis and about 10 Americans–and then the real dialogue begins.”

The personal “confrontation” between young Israelis and young American Jews on “provocative” issues–such as the meaning of Israeli-diaspora relationship. “Do I, as a Jew, have to go on aliya and does the American Jewish youngster have obligation to the future of the Jewish State?”–is a stimulating factor and often makes the discussion lively or even heated, Widetzky said. She said that the session also contributes to breaking the stereotypes Israelis and Americans have on each other.

GROWING AWARENESS ON BOTH SIDES

“During the session a vital and substantive relationship between the Americans and Israelis develops which often continues after the meeting.” Widetzky said. “This experience enables the American to conceptualize his previously abstract relationship to Israel, thereby enabling him to identify with a living actual Israel. The Israelis, in turn, learn about complex and broad educational activities in the American Jewish community and that young Jewish adults destined to be future community leaders are making serious efforts to deepen their knowledge of many subjects–Judaism, Israel, Jewish education and the like.”

The growing demands by Jewish communities throughout the U.S. to have dialogue sessions made it necessary to establish an active network of Israelis here–students, officials and others–to take part in the operation. The Dor Hemshech, which was established five years ago, has been publicizing and demonstrating the dialogue session project to national Jewish organizations which deal with leadership development in order to ensure joint programming and thereby maximizing the number of dialogue activities.

Among these organizations are the B’nai B’rith Young Leadership, United Jewish Appeal Young Leadership, leadership development groups of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds and the young leadership in the Zionist organizations, Widetzky said.

“Our long-term goal” she stated, “is to establish a deep and meaningful relationship between the future leadership of Israel and the future leadership of the American Jewish community. This relationship becomes a vital factor for Zionist education in the community. The ongoing exchange between members of the same generation in the two countries leads to the ‘Zionization’ of both and to strengthening the links of the survival chain of the Jewish people.”