Israel Day 3: Pitched!

I admit, I'm having a really hard time remembering all the cool things that happened today.

After a hurried breakfast (I love my new makeup routine, but it takes FOREVER), we were ushered into the main hall where we heard a talk about what ROI is really about and how it came about.  It was originally meant as a follow-up to birthright, a way to start to see the results of the investment birthright makes in young Jews.  I'd say it majorly pays off.

Next was you-pitch-it.  They'd called me last week and asked if I'd be willing to pitch my writing.  I'm in a 'say yes' kind of mode these days, so I agreed.  That said, I'd been pretty anxious about it. But it went really well, I think!  Eventually there might be a video somewhere, I'm not sure.  But many people came up to me after who really enjoyed it, and that felt really nice

So then we broke into groups for community case studies.  Basically some members stated the aims of some business or social endeavors and described their goals and challenges and then the people in the group gave feedback and advice and asked lots of questions. It was great to be in such a collaborative environment with so many people eager to help and make connections and all the rest.

Then we all went back into the room and did "collaborative space" which is basically open ended panels.  They dropped a pile of paper into the middle of the big hall and said "write down topics you want to discuss!" then the topics were assigned different areas of the room and then you go talk to whomever you want.  I have to say, I was nervous that no one would write down a topic.... but the floor was FLOODED with people and we had more than enough! I went to a group about Jewish heritage discrimination and another group about whether or not Israelis "get" diaspora realities and whether or not it matters.  I felt kind of like the odd one out in both of these groups, but not really in a bad way.

People writing topics!

People posting topics!

Somewhere in there was interviewed by a bunch of people... for an Israeli radio station, and a newspaper, and a TV show.  I have to dig out their cards and try to track it down.  I'm not really sure if anything will come of it, but it was fun!  And I got to practice my author pitch over and over and over.

My jet lag started to bother me at this point and I was running low on steam. I was feeling a little down, but then I chugged an ice coffee and had a great chat with the same guy whose case study I'd attended earlier.  His project is basically to bring Israeli and Palestinian teens to England to teach them debate skills and foster flexible thinking and respect.  I think this is a brilliant idea. We talked more in depth about the debate side of things since I couldn't bring up a lot of my points in the original session since it felt too in-speak-y when surrounded by people who did not debate.

Reinvigorated, we all went to dinner by the pool.  The food didn't really agree with me this time so I had a lot of hummus and cake, haha.  You can't go wrong with hummus and cake.  And I made fast friends with some Israelis!  I talked about things in an hour some of my friends still don't really know about :).

New friends by the pool! Liat, Bar, and Reuel!

Then there was a huge talent show!  They turned the main hall into like... a poetry lounge?  There are so many talented people here.  Some highlights were the Bagels and Box beat boxer (He was REALLY talented! Wow!), the comedienne, and the fake-rapping, which I found so amusing and pretty brave.

This guy was seriously awesome.

ALSO, Tikvah did a little profile on me :)  You can read it here: http://forum.tikvahfund.org/new-faces-part-1/#Mandell .

I honestly cannot fathom what tomorrow will be like.  I better try to get some sleep.