Color War 2015: Breakout

When times are tough, what motivates you to stand up?

Stand Tall!

הָיָה כְּעֵץ שָׁתוּל עַל פַּלְגֵי מָיִם אֲשֶׁר פִּרְיוֹ יִתֵּן בְּעִתּוֹ וְעָלֵהוּ לֹא יִבּוֹל וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר יַעֲשֶׂה יַצְלִיחַ 

History is filled with instances where one, in response to challenges, must stand up for what is right or to simply survive. Hope, passion and will are of course the key driving forces that fuel one’s efforts for survival and fortitude, but what motivates one to stand up in the first place? What actualizes their hopes and passions? What paves the way for their will to achieve?

To answer these, one must look introspectively, at their own experiences and the history of the Jewish people. Mark Twain famously declared the miraculous enigma, “What is the secret of his [Jewish] immortality?” How can a nation that faced such oppression, inquisition, expulsion, holocaust, and identity crisis continue to stand and thrive with such prominent existence in the world today? The secret lies within their motivation to stand tall. Through the use of their knowledge דעת, confidence בטחון עצמי, persistence גבורה , and heritage אמונה בדרך the Jewish people continue to prove that they have what it truly takes to constitute immortality.

As we continue to live and function in an already rocky world, we need to look to our history in order to maintain and strengthen our Jewish Identity. We look to our ancestors such as אברהם אבינו- who had the courage to stand up for what be believed in even when the entire world told him that we was wrong. We look to נח, who relentlessly built his ark despite ridicule and derision. We tell the story of יצחק , who went along with the עקדה, having faith in Hashem and the word of his father even though it meant sacrificing his own life. We look to the mothers, לאה ,רחל ,רבקה ,שרה who despite their hardships, constantly turned to their knowledge, persistence, Jewish heritage and confidence in Hashem to help them survive and continue to GROW the Jewish nation despite all odds.

So as we continue to coexist, and respond to the world plagued by terror. When in university and in the streets of New York our identity and faith is challenged at every angle, we ask you:

What motivates you to continue to stand tall? What helps you fight for what you believe in? How can we maintain and strengthen our Jewish Identity and our values and morals when it all seems so difficult. We hope you will explore and discover the answers and strategies are ones throughout this year’s color war.

So SGO 2015 would like to ask you- When times are tough, what motivates you to stand up?

This year's color war focuses on the theme of Standing UP. Each team represents a different way of representing this:

Orange: Confidence - בטחון עצמי
Red: Heritage - אמונה בדרך
Green: Knowledge - דעת
Purple: Persistence - גבורה
We broke out Color War 2015 with this amazing video: