Machon Update - April

hi everyone, as below is an update from the Machon. the next Boneh update will be posted shortly, as well as some updates on dates for the rest of the year.

Dear Parents, Shalom,

I hope this letter finds you well. It is now very nearly the half way point of the Machon programme and, I wanted just before the Pesach break to write to you again to let you know how things are going since I sent the last letter. Overall our feeling is that Machon continues to go really well and that in the main the Machonikim are having a great time and learning a lot but that, given the intensity of the programme, they are also looking forward to their holiday.

The regular courses are all continuing and are mostly going very well and one measure of that for us is the relatively small number of Machonikim who have asked to change their classes, something which we allow them to do in the first week or so of each course.

The weekly siyurim (trips out) have included a couple of afternoons where they got to explore some of the more difficult social issues in modern Israeli society; a visit to 'Retorno' which is a very special drugs rehabilitation programme where they got to meet some of the residents and a second visit to Tel Aviv, this time with a social justice focus to see to look at the issue of foreign workers and refugees. We also offered an optional tour of Hezekia's tunnels a unique feature of the Old City in Jerusalem that some Machonikim had already been to on previous Israel tours but not everyone. Even though this was on their one free midweek evening, some 35 of the 50 of them signed up for this which took place a couple of days ago.

The optional Sunday selection evenings have continued to draw people even after a long day including the weekly siyur. The three sessions since I last wrote have been an improvisation workshop by the Jerusalem Theatre company, a meeting with the 'Three Faiths Forum, where we explored the issue of Christian/Muslim/Jewish dialogue in Israel and a meeting with 'Maagalei Tzedek' an organisation that coordinates various volunteering and social; justice projects in Israel.

We also had a special guest speaker coming in to our regular Israel Update class which focuses on political and other current affairs in Israel. Uri Bank is one of the few an Anglo-Israelis to stand for the Knesset in the last election. Of American origin, he stood for the right-wing National Union party and just missed out being elected by one seat. He came and spoke very eloquently about his idea of a peace plan that did not involve a two state solution and I think the Machonikim found it most challenging. After Pesach we will be inviting in for that same course a left wing speaker from Peace Now to put an opposite perspective. This is just one of many examples of our commitment as the Machon to presenting a plurality of views from across the Jewish-Zionist spectrum, whether that be religious or political, and encouraging the Machonikim to question, debate, to challenge and be challenged by the material.

A week or so ago we had a week-long desert based Tiyul down the South of the country. Just some of the highlights from this really successful and enjoyable tiyul included a 7 hour hike through the Ramon Crater (one of the world's unique geographical features), a meeting with the Black Hebrews community in Dimona, a night camping out under the stars, a desert bike ride and a snorkelling activity and a disco boat evening in Eilat – very tiring but very worthwhile.

In addition to these elements of the formal programme are of course the things the Machonikim organise for themselves. Again, in the last couple of weeks, there have been a number of events within Israeli society that many of them have attended in their own time. Two weeks ago over 150 of them, including South American Machon, organised to go to the Israel v Greece World Cup Qualifying soccer match in Ramat Gan. Though the game was not the most exciting ever, and though Israel could only draw, the atmosphere, especially during the singing of the Hatikva at the start of the game, we something very special for them. This last weekend quite a number of them spent the weekend in Tel Aviv, many attending a special mock Seder Night for refugees which looked at the meaning of freedom in a modern Israeli context and others attending concerts and other events that took place as the start of the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of Tel Aviv as the first Hebrew city. In similar vein, many of them are planning to attend the popular camping and music festival Boombamella which takes place during Pesach.

Overall we the staff find them to be bonding well and generally operating as a very close community with very few cliques. You can see this in all kinds of ways.
In the last week we have also had a couple of Machonikim who have needed to spend a few nights in hospital and it has been great to see their Machon friends, especially from their movement, rallying round to visit them and speak to them on the phone regularly and we really hope that they are both out and fully recovered in time to enjoy their Pesach break.

Finally, the last couple of weeks have seen the clocks go forward to summer time and finally some sustained nice sunny weather in Jerusalem and some of them have now taken to going for a regular morning jog to stay fit. Given that classes start at 8.00am this is certainly impressive!

If any of you are visiting Jerusalem in the coming weeks please do be in contact and feel free to come up to Kiryat Moriah and say hello to us here in the Machon offices.

Best Regards and Chag Pesach Sameach,

Iris Gazit

Director, English speaking Machon