Now I know a little how my parents felt after they packed me up after college graduation. Though I’ve only been here a little over two months, I’ve been lucky enough to spend quite a bit of time with JDC’s Knafaim participants. (I’ve mentioned it before, but for those of you checking in for the first time, Knafaim is JDC’s Moscow young leadership program for young adults in their 20s.)
Despite the fact that many of them repeatedly tell me that Russians aren’t warm and probably think I’m a little nuts for moving here , they’ve welcomed me into the group, let me join them for a seminar, invited me to a party, and made me smile endlessly during my first few months here in Moscow. So they feel like my younger brothers and sisters, and I’m not quite ready to let them go. Because I don’t feel like I’ve graduated quite yet.
But like any big sister (or mom or dad), there comes a time when you need to let the little birds leave the nest, and for us here at JDC, that time was Sunday night.
The graduates asked for a prom for graduation, so a prom we gave them.
We gathered at a gallery space in Moscow’s new art district (which is a renovated chocolate factory). The first part of the ceremony was a traditional graduation, with the ceremonial moving of tassel from one side to another and brief remarks from the instructors. The graduates also received certificates from Moscow’s prestigious Higher School of Economics.
There, was, of course, a champagne toast, followed by individual slide shows and “nominations” for each of our 20 graduates. To see a sample, click on the picture below for Anna’s slideshow. Anna is my JDC colleague, Knafaim’s fabulous “Ms. Julia Roberts,” and, as Mark just pointed out at lunch, my official adopted younger sister in Moscow.
Then, despite some technical failures stemming from the Mac v. PC wars, we showed a surprise video that Yulya and I made. And in keeping with our Knafaim (wings in Hebrew) theme, the video theme was flight.
There was, of course, a horah, because what Jewish celebration is complete without horah, dancing, tequila (no, no vodka, just tequila, wine and whiskey). But, unlike any prom I’ve been to in the U.S., we interrupted the dancing and drinking for a game of charades in Russian. Despite the language barrier, both Dovrat and I managed to successfully act out a clue (on opposite) teams. There was more dancing, and then an attempt at a game of Mafia (our grads are obsessed with Mafia and even suggested a 30s Chicago gangster theme for the prom). Gloria Gaynor brought everyone back on the dance floor, where we spent the rest of the night.
Now we only have the pictures, the slideshows, and the memories.
But we here at JDC Moscow know that we’re not really saying goodbye. Now that our hard work is done, we get to sit back and watch them fly. Because we know that we get to see the amazing things that they can do without us.
And, we know that though the nest is empty now, in just a few short weeks, we get to start again . . . .
