40
| THE CHRONICLE
MEET HUC-J IR’S STUDENTS
dress the foreclosure crisis that has afflicted
this region. I entered a packed high school
auditorium, and I was overwhelmed that
one plus one had become thousands – the
venue was overflowing and people were
standing in the aisles.
Congressional representatives on the
state and national levels along with city lead-
ers listened to the moving stories of
individuals from the various faith-based
communities. One-LA members then made
targeted requests of the public officials. As
the politicians responded, it was evident that
they were as impressed as I had been by the
informed, large crowd that stood before
them – and they made public promises. I
watched as one plus one had spread to all
those in attendance and demonstrated the
power that we all have to enact change.
I gained a new understanding of the
importance of Buber’s “I-Thou” encounter
whose ultimate outcome we may never
know. Our interactions move us – we do
not know exactly how in the moment – but
the experience of the one-to-one encounter
helps us to identify what is important
enough to motivate us, along with thou-
sands of others, to brave Los Angeles traffic,
to stand side-by-side with those in our com-
munity, and to try to make the world a
better place. Putting moments of relation-
ship at such a high priority makes us
congregant-centered, rather than program-
centered, and this is truly the centerpiece of
building community.
One-plus-one conversations motivate
us towards action, sometimes immediately
and sometimes down the road. But ulti-
mately they plant ideas that are nourished
by life experiences and blossom into action
when each individual is ready. When we live
this philosophy throughout our community,
we as leaders begin to feel less alone planting
such seeds, and instead find partners for
sowing the future of our community. This
method may take some time to garner its re-
sults, but as Jewish professionals this is our
task at hand – to create the space to dream
of the community that can be and to orient
our communities to what one plus one
might become.
E
ducation is what happens when experi-
ence meets reflection. This principle, a
gem from my studies at the Rhea
Hirsch School of Education, was a guiding
principle for my work with UCLA students
during their Alterative Spring Break (ASB)
program. The ASB program empowers stu-
dents to organize and lead their peers on a
Jewish service learning experience. They
chose to travel to eastern Tennessee to learn
about and serve a small Cherokee Indian
community still living in the Smoky Moun-
tains. Hillel of UCLA asked me to
accompany twenty-five students as their
rabbi/educator.
When we arrived at the hand-built cab-
ins in the mountains of East Tennessee, we
were greeted by our hosts and project leaders
Ed and Arleen Decker, who explained that
we would spend our time doing a variety of
things: playing with Cherokee children in
their day care; visiting the local elders in their
activity center; immersing ourselves in
Cherokee culture; learning homesteading
skills like canning apples; building bridges
out of lumber; and clearing hiking trails in
the remotest parts of Appalachia. After vol-
unteering with different parts of the
community, each evening we reflected on
our day and what it had meant to us.
During one reflection session, we stud-
ied a text:
Ben Zoma says: Who is wise? The
one who learns from every person... Who is
honored? The one who gives honor to others...
(
Talmud - Avot 4:1.)
This text came alive for
the students during this experience.
One student brought up a major issue
for participants of intensive service experi-
ences: Did they really make a difference?
Would the effects of their work be lasting?
Lydia Bloom Medwin’s UCLA student community service program with a Cherokee Indian
community in Tennessee.
ONE PLUS ONE
EQUALS MORE
(
continued)
THE MAGIC
IS IN THE REFLECTION
Lydia Bloom Medwin, RHSOE ’09, L ’10
