Seminars!

The two week hectic seminar period started last Sunday as everyone returned from Chofesh! The shnatties started on Gibush - loosely translated as bonding/group building - and spent 4 days at the Lavi Forest JNF campground. There was a lot of emphasis on tsofiyut "scouting" with the shnatties building chairs out of gum trees, ropes and hessian/jute material, together with plenty of fun and games and an opportunity to be Habonim Dror shnat altogether. The shnatties also heard a bit more about Kibbutz Hatzerim and what awaits for them there..






hard to imagine, but these make very comfy forest chairs!


After gibush, the shnatties participated in what is undoubtedly a highlight of every shnat year - the History of Habonim Dror Seminar. This seminar gives the shnatties an opportunity to meet past bogrim from the movement who have made aliya, and to hear their stories of what the movement was like, and in what ways it has shaped their decisions and life choices. The seminar goes in a somewhat chronological order, starting with older chaverim and very established kibbutzim, to younger and more dynamic directions. Many movement members are not aware of the invaluable contribution Habonim Dror had in building Kibbutzim in Israel. This seminar allows each shnattie to evaluate and challenge the direction they think Habonim Dror should be moving in. Some of the places/people visited: the Kinneret Courtyard and Cemetary, Kibbutz Degania, the Habonim Dror archives at Kibbutz Kfar Blum, Kibbutz Mevo Hama, Kibbutz Eshbal, Kibbutz Kadarim, Kibbutz Ravid, Kibbutz Yizrael and Garinim Rovetz and Ogen in Hadera.

The shnatties are now spending this week in Arad on a few more seminars, acclimatising to the desert heat in Israeli summer!

machon final update

Dear Parents,

Shalom for one last time from Jerusalem where the 120th English speaking Machon has just ended. It has been a pretty packed final month since I last wrote to you all with lots of highlights. As I mentioned at the end of the last letter, we went off on a really enjoyable 5 day tiyul (trip) to the North of the country including being in Acco, Tzfat, the Golan Heights and at the Kinneret graveyard which has a strong connection to the origins of Zionism. Some high points included a session on the origins of Kabbala in Tzfat, kayaking down the Jordan river and a hard 4-5 hike up Mount Merom.

On our return there were just two more, more or less normal, weeks of 'ordinary classes' to finish off the learning process that had been going on in all of the different subject areas. Towards the end of the week we got back from tiyul was Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) and we got them all tickets to an all night/morning student event in town with over 10,000 students, a really laid back atmosphere and some great bands and singers (such as Yehudit Ravitz, Idan Raichel and Macie Gary among others). As a result of the all-nighter we gave them a sleep-in and late start for the next day which included an optional Jerusalem Day programme involving them joining a city-wide walk around Jerusalem run by the council and coordinated by the Machon moetza (representative committee).

The next week there was a very thought provoking trip out to Hebron to meet people from both sides of the political divide, a visit which really stirred up debate amongst the group. Hebron can be a very polarising place and issue in terms of people's very different visions of what Israeli society is about but that exploration of, and exposure to, ideas different from one's own is what we think the Machon is all about. Towards the end of that week it was Shavuot. Traditionally, as well as being a time to eat lots of cheesecake, this festival is one where many people attend all night study events known as a 'Tikun Leil Shavuot' to commemorate the fact that Shavuot is traditionally about the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people. We wanted to run such a Tikun Leil for Machon but we also wanted to give them the opportunity to go away to families for the chag and also to go to some of the many public Tikun Leils being organised around Israel. Therefore we organised our own Tikun Leil event the night before Shavuot rather on the chag itself. We started at midnight straight after the final of Champions League football match that many of them wanted to watch and we went through until 5.00 am with sessions on a whole range of interesting topics including women in Judaism, the world of Haredi Jews and Kabbala. We finished with breakfast and then they were free for Shavuot itself.

The penultimate week on Machon is 'peer led week' and the Machonikim themselves plan and run most of the classes. Unlike the peer led activities on the rest of Machon, where they basically run informal style peulot of the sort that they are used to from their youth movements, in this week they are expected to plan and deliver a content based session from one of their regular classes. For example, for each class, two of them ran their Jewish History or Zionism class by giving some kind of a lecture or content input. Also in this week, each course held its own 'sikum' (conclusion) session to bring the course to a close and to review everything that has been covered.

Two other special events in that week were a huge simulation game called 'The Duma' which simulates the Russian Jewish parliament in 1905 and which explored in a very creative and fun format the different, competing options open to Jews at that point from Ultra Orthodoxy, to Zionism to Communism to moving to America and looked at how the same questions that underpin those choices over a century ago are still relevant for us as Jews today. There was also a mifgash (meeting) with the same group of young Israeli trainee pilots who they met on their AZYC seminar just after they arrived in Israel and who are now also just finishing their course.
Over 75% of them have dropped out since the Machonikim first met them, having failed to make the grade, but those who are still there, often viewed as the cream of Israeli society, came to Machon to participate in a programme exploring some of the differences between Israeli and Diaspora Jews, including how they differently view such topics as compulsory army service, Aliya and criticising Israel.

Also in this penultimate week we finished the community involvement/volunteering aspect of Machon by holding a presentations evening where each of the small groups, using photos and video clips taken during the projects, showed the others what they had been doing. It was really great to see how much the Machonikim had got out of being involved in Israeli society and helping others, even for this relatively short period of time, whether that was in Teaching English to disadvantaged kids, helping out in a centre for disabled adults, helping the community to build a community garden in a difficult neighbourhood, running a campaign to highlight the problems of sex slavery in Israel or involvement in a variety of tzedaka projects including picking fruit and helping an organisation that collects second had clothes and furniture for the poor. On the Friday morning at the very end of that week one other of these groups completed their own campaign by going out into the centre of town to run a successful awareness-raising and petition-signing morning related to the issue of the status of refugees in Israel.

There were also two final optional Sunday selections in this last few weeks; an amazing interactive presentation of 'the whole of Jewish History in just one hour' by David Solomon to which over half of the group came and a final session with a well known Israeli photographer Adi Nes talking about his work and how it is influenced by different aspects of Israeli society and his being Jewish.

In the very final week we started with a 2 day tiyul, again going up North. We visited a number of modern 'pioneering' projects to look at the meaning of contemporary Zionism, we hiked in the Gilboa, did a raft building activity and finished off with a kef (fun) afternoon at Gan Sachna. The final last night show and prom-night 80's themed party, organised and run by them, which included a meal out at a local restaurant, some excellent presentations via video clips, awards and speeches and a final party at a local club. That took us to the closing tekes (ceremony) this morning.

In closure, we hope that you have appreciated these update letters and that your children have enjoyed their Machon experience educationally, socially, spiritually and in terms of their personal development as much as we've enjoyed working with them.

All the best,

Iris & the Machon tzevet

boneh final update

Shalom parents!

After returning from Jerusalem seminar, we got back into Boneh routine with a week on the history of youth and youth movements. This week looks at what is the specific significance of the period of youth, what different kinds of meaning and activity can be central to this period, and how youth have created youth movements as a forum for empowerment. We then looked at the origin of the Habonim movement specifically. We wrapped up the module with a visit to the Illegal Immigrant Detention Camp in Atlit, where we heard a few of the amazing stories about how Habonim, Dror and other youth movement members from Israel, Europe and North America ran a dangerous and illegal international endeavor that brought tens of thousands of homeless Holocaust survivors to the land of Israel.



The following week was the final module, which dealt with the Jewish communities of Australia and New Zealand. We examined them first through a humorous look at some of the lesser-known facts about these communities, then through a look at the origins and the history, an examination of the present, and finally a discussion of the possibilities for the future and the place of Habonim Dror in shaping that. To wrap it up the Shnatties built board games that convey the Australian and Kiwi Jewish experience in a fun way:



That week they also enjoyed a tiyul with their madrichim to “White Cliff” hill, a beautiful hiking trail literally across the street from Ein Gev:



The past week was the Boneh ending seminar. During this week we took a look back at the material we have dealt with in the last four months, and asked the question of how it connects to going forward to messimot in Kaveret and to leading the movement back in New Zealand and Australia. The Shnatties also enjoyed a Hebrew treasure hunt around the kibbutz by Nira, their wonderful Hebrew teacher; some communal ice cream on a hot ein gev day; a last conversation with Muki Tzur, and a nighttime bonfire and kumsitz on the beach. And to wrap it all up, they planned and ran a final tekes (ceremony) saying goodbye to the kibbutz and Boneh with speeches and presentations in Hebrew and English:






We wish all the Shnatties a great time and a meaningful experience in chofesh, kibbutz and kaveret!

Ruth, Fabian, Gil and Nadav

short wrap up

Hi all,
The year is flying by with both the Boneh and Machon components finishing up last week. In the next few days, separate updates on both programs will be posted here.
A few things I wanted to highlight. The first is the annual Masa Mega-Event, held in Tel Aviv. This year it was a special concert highlighting volunteering in Israel and the 100 years anniversary of the 1st Hebrew city, Tel Aviv! Even the Prime Minister, Bibi, came to speak. Our shnatties were lucky enough to play a part in the show, by performing a flag parade in front of the crowd of thousands, making us all very proud. The show ended with a concert by famous singer Mosh Ben-Ari.



Then, on the first weekend of June, the Machoniks all came up to Kibbutz Ein Gev to spend the weekend with the Bonehnikim, and a short seminar was run by the madrichim. Short peulot (programs) were also planned by a few different participants of each program. This gave the entire group an opportunity to meet up and have some informal fun in anticipation of their reunification.
At the moment all the shnatties are on chofesh (break) until next Sunday 21st June. They will then participate in 2 weeks of various seminars (based in Lavi forest, Kibbutz Ein Dor and Arad) before arriving at Kibbutz Hatzerim on Sunday July 5th where they will stay until mid-August.

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