Hannah Stephenson
23 June 2016
 
As the new Movement Worker for LJY-Netzer, I am very excited to be attending the Biennial Conference 2016. I have never been on a Biennial before, so I am eager to see how it runs and help create a meaningful time for the people joining our sessions, which we hope to be stimulating and thought provoking! Throughout the 3 days there will be multiple youth led activities that will allow participants to play games, meet new people, and learn about topics that spread from ‘Judaism & Feminism’ to Liberal Jewish prayer, with a touch of music and artsy fun mixed in too.
 
During Biennial one of the things I am most excited for is that the youth section of Liberal Judaism has the opportunity to engage young minds in conversations and activities which may not necessarily be available at other points during the year. We are able to facilitate a wide variety of discussions and informal education that can impact people’s lives and we hope to make them become more involved in their own communities and help them start to discover their own Jewish identity. I see this as a key strength of LJY-Netzer and something I am very keen on incorporating into our time at Biennial.
 
Another reason why this year I am delighted to be going on Biennial is that it is the place where not only is there a schedule packed full of motivating and inspiring sessions, but that it is a place where those session can be run by youth to, and for youth. We have a variety of different and highly talented leaders who are joining us in leading sessions which allows for a richer exploration of themes we cover in the time we have.
 
As a youth movement LJY-Netzer educates on social action, Israel, prayer plus a whole lot more during the course of the year with fantastic results. Biennial is a perfect platform to share and combine ideas and learning to assist in enriching our own education within our movement, but also to share our views on the assortment of topics presented this year. By trying to be like a ‘learning sponge’ I want to leave Biennial having absorbed new ideas and passions that I can bring back to the movement and educate on later on in the year. All in all I feel very lucky to be going to Biennial as part of LJY-Netzer movement team to run activities and facilitate youth lead sessions and am excited at the opportunities it will bring.