Machon Update - May

hi again, below is an update we received from the Machon staff. there is some overlap between this and our last general update. best wishes!

Shalom again from Jerusalem where the Machon is entering its final month and it's time for our third update letter. Everyone returned from the Pesach holiday refreshed and hopefully raring to go and they spent much of the first day excitedly sharing their different holiday experiences with us and each other, whether that was for example a very different kind of Seder night than they were used to, a lovely few days spent with their Israeli family, an energetic camping trip or a laid back dance and music festival called Boombamella which many of them went to.

They were soon back into the atmosphere and routine of their regular classes but equally the first two weeks after Pesach were special because of the Israeli chagim of Yom HaShoah (Holocaust memorial day), Yom HaZikaron (Memorial Day for Fallen Israeli Soldiers) and Yom HaAtzma'ut (Independence Day).

On the Monday evening night and Tuesday of the first week back it was Yom HaShoah and more or less the whole week was given over to a special Shoah Seminar. On the Sunday there was an outing to Yad Vashem to start the week off and then we explored various aspects of the Holocaust including the history itself, religious responses to the Shoah, the impact on Israeli society and how to educate about the issue as madrichim.

On the Monday evening they all went to an excellent and moving Hebrew play (with English subtitles) called 'Court Jesters' which is about four concentration camp inmates who are chosen to serve as the court jesters of the camp commander, and survive thanks to their theatrical prowess. After the play there was a short question and answer sessions with the director and some of the actors as well as with an inspiring Shoah survivor who had worked with the theatre group on the play and had actually accompanied them to Poland and to visit the camps as part of their preparation.

The next morning there was an excellent tekes (commemorative ceremony) prepared and run by a group of the Machonikim which included some really moving testimonial from one or two Machonikim about their own family who had been murdered in or had survived the Shoah. As the tekes finished we all walked down the road to one of the local busy junctions to listen to the siren and to see the response of Israeli society where everything comes to a halt and most people stop their cars and get out to observe the one minute silence.

We then finished the seminar with a processing session to help them reflect on all of the learning and the emotions that the week had provided.

The middle of the following week was as noted above Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzma'ut and here too there were various special programmes. On the evening of Yom HaZikaron we attended a special tekes and then on the next morning took them up to Mount Herzl to see how Israeli families who have lost loved ones deal with this difficult day and we gave them time to be able to wander around the graves and reflect on what the day meant to them as well as to Israelis. Though it was for many a very moving morning it also gave many of them a sense of being somewhat more of an outsider to Israeli society than they are usually used to feeling as this is perhaps the most "Israeli" chag of all.

We gave the evening and day of Yom HaAtzma'ut as free time and encouraged them to go off and explore how Israelis and different parts of Israel celebrate Independence day here. For most that consisted of many of them were able to reflect on the very different ways that Israelis celebrate Yom HaAtzma'ut here as compared to how this is done and what they are used to in the Diaspora.

These special days have of course taken up much of the focus of the time since the holiday but, apart from their regular courses and classes, there have also been a number of other special events and highlights. There were siyurim (outings) to the Neve Shalom peace village where Jews and Arabs have lived together for many years in an attempt to demonstrate that this kind of coexistence is possible and a trip to the City of David in the Old City which included the really interesting walk through Hezekia's tunnel.

There have been three special Sunday evening programmes, one a fantastic "Bible Rap" optional activity where they were introduced to Matt Bar who writes and performs educational raps to biblical themes and stories and then they wrote and produced their own rap based on a short study of the Lech Lacha piece of Torah text where Abraham is told by God to leave his home and they wrote a rap comparing Abraham's journey to their own journey involved in coming on Shnat. It was generally agreed by the group to gave been one of the best Sunday selection events we have held.

Then the next week was the long awaited programme with the South America Machon. Through a fun treasure hunt activity in mixed groups, which also involved them in performing various tasks and missions throughout the city centre, they got to know some of the South American madrichim, at least those of the 200 of them that speak pretty good English. It was a fun evening with a very good atmosphere and those that took the opportunity now feel that they have made some new friends who as youth movement madrichim, despite being from a different culture, share many of the same values and beliefs that they do. Finally, this week was a somewhat quieter option of a newly released (in Israel at least) and very moving film with a Holocaust related theme that many of them really wanted to see; 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas'. Also tonight is Lag B'Omer, a time traditionally marked in Israel with bonfires. On Machon the moetza (the committee of Machon representatives) has also organised their own such bonfire and barbeque, including having to compete with thousands of other Israelis to find spare wood for the fire from around the neighbourhood, and the event is looking like it will be a great success.

This Thursday we are all off on our 5 day Northern tiyul including a pluralistic style Machon Shabbat which will be spent together right up in the North near Kiryat Shmoneh. I will fill you in on some of the highlights from that tiyul and my next letter, which will also be my final one.

best wishes,

Iris Gazit and the Machon staff