Hear from Past Fellow Tilly!
The UJSix Fellowship and Israel Trip 2025/26:
The UJSix Fellowship was a program that began in November 2025, with sessions in North London and then finally a trip to Israel. All throughout, we were provided with a range of speakers with engaging and thought provoking sessions to further our knowledge and understanding as Jewish leaders. I am Tilly Bendon, who discovered this programme online and was enticed by the enriching learning opportunities and building connections with current leaders, politicians, journalists, and many more speakers as well as making new friends for life. The goal of the trip and programme itself was to provide Jewish students with an opportunity to enhance our knowledge, pride and understanding of how to grow as leaders within communities and our imprint that we can make onto the world. The programme was an incredible experience and the trip was a fantastic way of achieving these goals.
During the February half term, our incredible group of Jewish fellows went on a packed 4-day trip to Israel. We heard from many diverse and interesting speakers that enriched our minds and introduced new perspectives. We also deepened our connection with each other and got to know one another on a deeper level. Meeting with Adi Nassar, a Palestinian who has been working on peace building, was described to be a “fascinating” and “incredible opportunity”, quoted from others within the fellowship. For me, visiting the Nova site was life-changing and humbling, to truly be in the place where so many young, kind souls were murdered was heart-breaking and I was at a loss for words. After learning and developing our knowledge and understanding of the horrors that took place, I saw the need for me to be proud of my Judaism and the impact and change I can make on society as a young Jewish leader.
We spoke to Adir Schwartz, a deputy mayor of Jerusalem, who gave an insight into the unique challenges that Jerusalem faces, including its large population of around a million residents, the young population with half the city being 24 years old or younger, and how people enter the workforce very late, contributing to economic and social challenges. However, he told us about the politics and accomplishments of the past year for the city. Through hearing many other speakers, we were toured through the holy city of Jerusalem by our friendly tour guide, ensuring that throughout the trip she was there for us and introduced many of the speakers. Furthermore, very special additions to our trip included visiting the Kotel and the Knesset. At the Kotel, it was a spiritual and beautiful experience in which many fellows reflected in their feedback as being their favourite part of the trip. For me, my favourite part of the trip was visiting the Knesset. We received an exciting tour and were given an incredible opportunity to meet a Member of Knesset (MK).
The fellowship allowed us to thrive as a group in conversation with the speakers asking challenging and through provoking questions, while forming our own small community, coming from different Jewish backgrounds but coming together as one. We explored our Jewish identity and sessions opened up a space for questions and discussions that challenged many of our beliefs and political standpoints, allowing us to reflect in the mirror of productive discomfort. Productive discomfort is the idea of feeling uncomfortable or challenged but in a manageable and useful sense. This idea was threaded throughout the program as an underlying, core theme - with the hope that we could broaden our perspectives, minds and ideas to further grow and contribute as Jewish people and young leaders. I feel this was integral to the fellowship and introduced a fantastic concept to many of us that we can now use in our lives, whether to overcome challenges we may face or to understand and hear differing opinions to ours. Therefore, it was a large aspect of the experience and opened my mind to new ideas.
We are all so grateful to UJS for facilitating a space where we could explore our Jewish identities and grow as a group through our shared experiences throughout the program. One of the fellows described a key takeaway from the fellowship being that “having your views challenged is a really important part of advocacy”. Furthermore, the friendships we made were very special and that we will all cherish this experience. I can’t wait for us to progress as Jewish leaders, with UJS having had a huge impact on our growth as young Jewish people.
- Tilly was a UJSix Fellow on the UJS Sixth Form Fellowship Programme 2025 - 2026