The range of volunteer placements expanded on Wednesdays to include food packaging, old-age homes, and special needs schools. This is addition to the Sunday and Tuesdays spent in a range of educational frameworks in over 15 locations across the north of Israel. The shnatties also had a number of seminars. The first was Socioeconomics in Israel, which featured a walking day tour in Tel Aviv across a number of different neighbourhoods -from the unrecognized Argazim in the south, to the overflowing refugees in Neve Sha'anan, to the bourgeoisie north of Kikar Hamedina - the shnatties got a first hand feel of the extreme differences in just one city in Israel, where the gap between rich and poor is one of the highest in the Western world; together with a number of sessions in order to understand the wider picture and Socioeconomics as a whole.
The next seminar was Rabin Seminar which involved all the shnatties from around the world - over 200 in total! The seminar started with a special tour of the "remembrance tent" set up in Carmiel where the shnatties learnt about Rabin's life and some of the dilemma's he faced. The actual seminar included more learning about Rabin's legacy and also looking at issues in Zionism and Democracy today. It was a fitting seminar to take place towards the end of the year, as it both challenged previously held opinions, and yet also allowed for reflection of the past year in a dynamic and interesting way. A highlight was the meeting between shnatties from all around the world, especially for those who took part in the Hebrew speaking discussion group. Unfortunately the rain persisted and the annual commemoration Rally was postponed for a week. This took place last night, with almost all the shnatties electing to attend on their last free weekend.
There was also an AZYC sikkum (concluding) seminar with participants from the youth movements and other Israel programs in attendance. This provided the shnatties with a good opportunity to see their friends and catch up before leaving Israel.
Last week the shnatties had a day excursion up to Tel Hai and Kiryat Shmona, where the story of Trumpeldor was intertwined with the topics of Zionism, Defence and the Second Lebanon War; proving to bring up some challenging and fascinating questions. Tomorrow the shnatties have another day excursion to Ein Harod, near Afula to hear about the chalutzim (pioneers) and the historical ideological divide in the Kibbutz movement. They finish up their volunteering this week and have cleaning and packing before spending next Sunday - Tuesday on the sikkum seminar (final concluding seminar) which will take place at Kibbutz Shfayim.
