Keeping Pace: Exploring Communities Across Europe

December 12, 2024
Joelle Abaew

Berlin, Germany

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November. What a travel month this has been. Lucky me—I got to go to 10 (CRAAAZY) countries!

After a quick trip home for a refresh and a family hug, I flew to Bulgaria! In Bulgaria, I was greeted by amazing BBGs for a super fun board dinner, where I got to learn more about what BBYO Bulgaria looks like and why the board is excited about their term. On my second day, I was taken through the beautiful city of Sofia, enjoying some great food and beautiful sights. In the evening, I had so much fun participating in their program. We got to hop around different stations and tried to crack a code at the end. I had such a great time with the teens in Bulgaria and loved their creative way of programming.

After Bulgaria, I headed up north and found myself in Copenhagen! As I arrived, I came in right on time for their candle-decorating program! Following the program, together with a few board members, we walked around Copenhagen and enjoyed hot chocolate. The next day, together with the presidents Joel and Shai, we cooked our dinner and talked through future plans for JUK and the Nordics, as well as what future events and an elevated new member experience could look like. From Copenhagen, I didn’t take too far of a flight and made my way to Stockholm, Sweden to meet their Jewish community there. I was able to meet Sweden's first-ever board and dream about what BBYO in Sweden could look like. They also recently hosted the Nordics Shabbat, so we talked about that and how it will contribute to Stockholm as they build BBYO.

After a quick repack, I headed to an extra exciting event—ELTI! This year's European Leadership Training Institute was held near Basel, in France. Over the weekend, we ran through a cycle of programs focused on becoming better leaders and building and leveraging local programming. I loved celebrating Shabbat with so many old and even more new friends. As we headed to Basel for our last ELTI day, we dived deeper into the history of Zionism, built our mock Zionist Congress, and explored Basel together. To see how much BBYO across Europe has grown and how many leaders were able to show their passion at this year's ELTI was so special and heartwarming.

And from one fun convention to another, I headed to Ukraine in a minivan with the very best staff! Active Jewish Teens' 10-year anniversary convention was a blast! I not only got to practice my Russian and delve into a new culture but also experienced a variety of incredible programming and core leadership sessions based around music, history, and leadership. I also made so many new friends. The AJT family is such a wonderful community, and it was so special to celebrate this milestone for them—and for us—by their side.

After enjoying a quick repacking at home, I also had the great opportunity to attend BBYO Berlin's Chapter Kick-Off! It was super fun to reunite with my home chapter and see how they are thriving as an official chapter.

Last, but definitely not least, on my Europe trek, I had the best weekend in Amsterdam. Together with the Dutch teens, I had the absolute best time cycling through Amsterdam, seeing so many old friends, and ice skating at their event. We were so productive at the regional board meeting, and I can’t wait to see how Amsterdam will grow over the next few months.

Joelle Abaew is a BBG from Germany and is serving as the 80th Anita M. Perlman International N'siah.

All views expressed on content written for The Shofar represent the opinions and thoughts of the individual authors. The author biography represents the author at the time in which they were in BBYO.

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