MASA Leadership Seminar in Arad provides participants with tools to enhance their leadership abilities.
On Thursday afternoon, March 23, 2006, 43 young adults gathered at a hotel in Arad for the weekend for a Leadership Training Seminar.  The participants, representing seven MASA-affiliated  programs and ranging in age from  22-24, came from such countries as Brazil, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Russia, United States and Uzbekistan.  In addition, several Israeli students recruited from WUJS also participated in the Seminar. 

The seminar, co-sponsored by MASA and the Education Department of the Jewish Agency as a pilot program for leadership development, included site visits to projects that serve as leadership development laboratories, workshops, discussions as well as a desert jeep ride at night which contributed to create a program of learning and fun.  The gathering provided a unique content-specific mifgash (encounter) for young adults from around the world, together with young Israelis, and acquainted participants with tools to enhance their leadership abilities and potential, while forging a network of future leaders for Jewish communities in Israel and around the world.

Seminar organizers and participants alike cited the "personal story" as the highlight of the Shabbaton.  Ira Merzlish, a 24 year old woman from Russia, and a participant in the BINA Tikkun Olam program put it simply, "when people tell their personal stories, it's just special; you really get to know them."  She repeatedly described the connections made as "amazing."

In fact, Ira saw the twofold value of the connections.  The personal stories that each participant told generated interest among participants to approach one another and inquire further.  As a result, she, for example, is spending Israel Election Day at Rabin Square together with a guy she met from Canada, and has made plans for travel and hiking around the country with two Israelis.  "For me," she says, "this is what MASA is about."

But for Ira, it sounds like it doesn't stop there either.  She is writing a leadership project proposal for Russian Jews.  Subsequent to meeting Dr. Rachel Korazim who addressed the seminar participants on what the future leaders of the Jewish people need to know and do, Ira will be meeting with her for a consultation on how to include distance e-learning in the proposal.

In the short run, the personal story piece created the personal connections that made the Shabbaton special.  In the long run, when Jewish leaders around the world seek out their counterparts in different communities, seeking advice and cooperation, the personal relationships set in place in this seminar will serve to enhance a sense of personal connection and commitment that will promote their leadership missions as they strive to ensure the ties of Jewish peoplehood.