07/02/2025
Ended Month in the best way possible - by joining BBYO’s Chapter Leadership Training Conference (CLTC) to lead workshops for about 100 incredible Jewish teen leaders around Pride and leadership.
My new workshops were inspired by the symbolism of “the first brick” at Stonewall - a tool that can be used to break something, build something, or both - which I see as a strong metaphor, personally. I worked with the teens to explore an exercise (Baygeleh the Faygeleh was there to assist, of course) around this theme, where we thought about the things in the world, in our communities, and in ourselves that we want to break, and the things we want to build instead. Anyone can complain about what they don’t like, but real leaders propose solutions. They envision not only what they don’t want to see, but what they ✨ do ✨ want to see. This is what Pride is all about, imagining the type of world we want to live in, and aligning our actions and values as best as possible so we can get there.
We shared many powerful moments together thinking about all of this, and we had a lot of fun while doing it! In true Pride fashion, we even ended the workshops with a strutting competition (Baygeleh the Faygeleh plushies were in high demand) to practice looking silly, trying something new, and owning what we’ve got 💃
Thanks so much to BBYO and the incredible for inviting me to join you all at camp. I left feeling invigorated and inspired by how firm these teen leaders are in their values, identities, and passions, and how incredible it is to see an organization as large and as prominent as BBYO truly striving to be a safe space for everyone in our community. Oh, not to mention how cool and inspiring it was to be in such great company with Rabbi Alex Malanych (Rabbi and Drag queen? Slay) and Sam Jarvis of .the.torch 🔥🏳️🌈
🥂 to these incredible BBYO teen leaders, and to building s**t, breaking s**t, and creating a world we’re proud to live in.