Last Friday, BBYO celebrated Global Shabbat. Here in Argentina, it was a little different, as it took place during our first-ever regional convention! I was one of the Global Shabbat steerers, so here’s a bit about how we celebrated!

For this Shabbat and convention, we were so happy to welcome Rabbi Meir to Argentina to help us with the celebrations. For Shabbat, we had two main moments. First, we had a plenary moment with all the convention attendees, during which we did the main prayers and participated in an activity planned by Rabbi Meir. It was a blast! It was so interesting to learn from the Rabbi and share a moment together in community.

Then we moved on to the second part of Shabbat, where we divided the group into two: an art Shabbat and a camp style Shabbat. I was in charge of the camp style one. It was so cool to share all the typical BBYO Perlman songs with teens from my region. We even decorated one of the hotel’s trees to look like the Perlman tree. Apart from the fun part, being able to share that moment in community and for me to pass on some of the things I learned at camp helped bring meaning to the theme “From Strength to Strength.” We were able to teach many old and new BBYO songs and prayers and come together as a strong community.

The fact that Shabbat was held during the first-ever convention in Argentina and in ALL of Latin America also helped us see how strong our community is becoming and how much there is still to come. The theme “From Strength to Strength” fit perfectly with our convention, as it portrayed how strong our region is becoming after 13 years of existence.

I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to plan this Shabbat with such an amazing steering team. Global Shabbat is my favorite BBYO initiative, and being able to plan one of the biggest ones in my region yet was an incredible experience!