Boneh Update - May #2

Shalom parents!

I wanted to write and specifically update you about the incredible seminar that we had last week: the Israeli Society Seminar. This five day seminar – four days in Jerusalem, and one back on Ein Gev wrapping up – took the Shnatties to meet a wide variety of people and places in Israel’s fantastically diverse capital city, as a microcosm of the challenges Israeli society faces today.



The first day and a half dealt with government and politics. After an introductory discussion at the Haas Promenade (the Tayelet) overlooking the city, we toured the Knesset, and then spent several hours learning about the Israeli political system and current issues with well known educator Mark Lazar. The following morning we then toured the Supreme Court and then did a workshop on human rights and democracy with law student and former Habonim shlicha in Canada Naomi Kassel.




shnatties in the Supreme Court

The second day dealt with the waves of immigration to Israel and the challenges of integrating the diverse Jewish population into one unified society. After watching Israeli film classic Sallah Shabati the previous evening to get a humourous look at immigrant experience, the shnatties had a free lunch in the Machaneh Yehuda market, one of the most delicious places to experience Israel’s ethnically diverse composition. We then toured the Musrara neighborhood, formerly a poor Sephardi neighborhood, with Reuven Abergil, a Morrocan Jew who helped found the Israeli Black Panthers protest organization.


The shnatties with Reuven

The third day dealt with the question of Arab-Jewish relations. We spent the morning at different viewpoints overlooking East Jerusalem with Eitan Katz of the Ir Amim organization, learning about the different issues between Jerusalem City Hall, the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority about how to manage the lives of the 200,000 Arabs that live in the city of Jerusalem. In the afternoon we visited the Museum on the Seam, a modern art museum that deals with themes of conflict, coexistence and peace through art in different media. Then we met up with the Machon Habo shnatties on Ben-Yehuda street for some quality time.



The fourth day dealt with religion in society. In the morning we traveled to Israeli Reform Movement headquarters and heard a presentation by Rabbi Gilad Kariv about the way the Israeli government relates to non-Orthodox religious groups. Then we went to the Kotel in the Old City’s Jewish quarter and talked about the way the site is managed and its significance in Israeli society. After lunch, we visited the Rabbi Kook Museum to learn about the founder of religious Zionism. We finished the seminar off with a stop at Bnei Akiva World Headquarters and where we heard from Anton, the BA rakaz chinuch (education worker) who managed to provoke and interest every single Shnattie with his perspective on secular Zionism.




Back on Ein Gev the next morning, we read an excerpt from the Israeli declaration of independence and then used our experiences from the seminar to talk about what parts of the Zionist dream for this state have been fulfilled and what still needs work. To wrap up, the Boneh-nikim planned peulot they will run in the movement at home in Australia and New Zealand about issues in Israel that they care about and think are important to educate on.

Ruth Stevens & The Boneh Team

Boneh Update - May

Shalom parents!

The Boneh program is entering into its last month and we wanted to give you another update on what has been happening.
Since the Pesach chofesh we have had all the national holidays, as described below, but also have been continuing on with general Boneh programming.

The week of Yom Ha’atzmaut was also the week dealing with the British Mandate period, dealing with the rise of the Zionist settlement in Palestine, the development of the different political movements and defense groups in Jewish society, and the relations between the Jews and Arabs here. The siyur (excursion) that week began in Akko at the Underground Prisoners’ Museum, a former Ottoman and British jail where a famous break-out occurred in 1947. Here is a group picture just outside the museum:



The rest of the siyur took place in different Jewish and Arab neighborhoods in the historically mixed city of Haifa, looking both at the way that conflict developed between the population in the Mandate period, and some important examples of cooperation and coexistence.

The next week the Shnatties went on tiyul(hike)! They spent four days hiking and camping in the Golan Heights, one of the most beautiful areas in Israel, going up and down mountains and through waterfalls and streams. Each night they also practiced their field cooking skills, preparing dinner at the campsite, and then slept under the stars. The tiyul was by far a highlight of Boneh and Shnat so far.

Last week was the week dealing with the Arab-Israeli conflict. The seminar classes looked at the major wars between the State of Israel and Arab countries, the evolution of Arab-Israeli relations, the peace process, and also at our responsibility for the future. The Thursday siyur (excursion) went back to Golan, this time doing a tour of the battlefields of this much-contested region in order to understand the wars Israel has fought here in a real way. The tour actually began at the lookout point of Kibbutz Kfar Haruv, in former Syrian territory which sits on the edge of the Golan Heights directly overlooking Ein Gev and the Kinneret



This week we are headed to Jerusalem for four days for a seminar on modern Israeli society and politics. We will be exploring the different places and cultures of the city and meeting with people from all the different sectors of Israel – Jewish and Arab, religious and secular, Ashkenazi and Sephardi – to try and understand how far the country has come, and what challenges it faces today.

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