Sarah Alcabes

June 18, 2010

Graduation Talk

I have been coming to Beth Am since before I was born. I took my first steps here and participated the education program through confirmation. But at the beginning of High School, I decided I wanted to try a new experience, and joined the B’nai Brith Youth Organization (or BBYO).

Through my involvement in BBYO over the past four years, I have gained priceless leadership opportunities and training, friends from not only around the bay area, but also around the country, and most importantly, a Jewish community. But BBYO has not just offered me one community to grow in, it opened up doors and led me to programs and experiences that have changed me. I’m going to mention just two of the communities that I was a part of, and that had an impact on me, but I was welcomed in to so many more than just these two.

The first, and perhaps the most important community that I was introduced to was my local BBYO chapter, El Al BBG. When I first joined the chapter my freshman year, El Al was a struggling restarted chapter with about 15 members. I liked the time I spent in BBG, so I took on leadership roles. I quickly moved up the board, and junior year served as vice president and president of the chapter. What I learned through my experience in El Al was to work hard at something if you love it. I loved the other girls, and the concept of teen leadership, the fact that the direction the chapter took was up to us. As I say goodbye to BBYO, El Al is now a thriving unique chapter, with almost 50 members. 50 Jewish girls who choose to come together every weekend and spend time together, doing activities ranging from planning a Shabbat dinner to making cards for hospital patients to a sisterhood program that leaves everyone with tears in their eyes and a bond that will last far beyond their time in BBYO.

Another notable community that I was a part of via BBYO, was a much larger, and shorter experience. BBYO offers a diverse amount of Summer Programs, which teens from around the International Order participate in. The one I attended last summer was called Kallah. It was a three week program about finding your Jewish Identity. I, along with about 200 Jewish teens from everywhere to Michigan to Virginia to Bulgaria, was exposed to many different ideas of Judaism. The teachers included a female Reform rabbinical student, and a married Orthodox couple who live in a town in the Gaza strip. I learned an overwhelming amount of different aspects of Judaism, and was given time to close my eyes, take a deep breath, and think about which, if any of them, resonated with me. The 200 teens at this program became a community, not because we were all best friends or got to know every other person super well, but because we were going through the same learning and discovery experience all together. I left the Kallah community with a close bond to a few friends who I still talk to every day, but also an important insight into myself about my own Jewish beliefs.

What BBYO did for me was give me a place to learn to be a leader and to make choices; it expanded my knowledge of Judaism as a whole, and provided a safe haven throughout high school to connect with other Jewish teens. It didn’t start my Jewish experience, nor did it end it, rather it gave me the space and opportunity to grow passionate about something, and nurture my curiosity and skills. Beth Am marked the beginning of my Jewish journey; BBYO occupies the present; and I can’t wait to discover what the next phase will be.

Thank you.