Post-Poland

After a long and intense week, the shnatties returned back to Israel safely early this morning. A thorough update will be posted next week! Shabbat Shalom !

pre-Poland

This week the shnatties began settling into their homes for the next 3 months, in both Acco and Carmiel. They arrived on Sunday afternoon around 4-5pm and by 7pm there were many eager chefs already in the kitchen chopping vegetables and boiling water (no small feat when you are cooking pasta for 20+ people!).
On Monday and Tuesday the shnatties had their final Poland preparation seminar, which was held at the Lochamei Hagetaot (ghetto fighters) Museum which is conveniently just north of Acco. The Kibbutz of the same name was established by many youth movement members who after making aliya post-Shoah have dedicated their lives to Shoah research and rememberance. You might remember that on Yom Hashoa the group went to the closing ceremony which was held at the museum.
Some of the exhibits explored were - Janusz Korchak, Resistance, Righteous Gentiles, Warsaw, and Ghetto & Deportations. A highlight of the seminar was the testimony/meeting with Chavka Folman -Raban a member of "Dror" in Warsaw who acted as a courier until she was caught and sent to Auschwitz.



This past 2 days, Wednesday and Thursday have been an opportunity for the shnatties to relax, finish unpacking and settling into their houses, do some washing, explore their towns and even visit family or friends.
While in Poland there is no phone or email access for anyone, however if you need to contact us urgently, please be in touch with Gabe or Jo. You can also fax us at the hotels, just be sure to write "attention:Habonim Dror Group"

Leaving the south

Tomorrow the shnatties will be departing from Hatzerim, after 6 lovely weeks down south. Hatzerim has been very accommodating, and the majority of the shnatties had an opportunity to meet and experience a real and functioning kibbutz! A lot of the group also utilised the hebrew ulpan (lessons), and the increased interactions with Israelis, to work on improving their language skills!
During this period, the whole group also split into 2 locations for Kaveret - Acco and Carmiel, and there was also a continuation of the Poland preparations.
This week the shnatties will be focusing on unpacking and setting up their new homes for the next 3 months; and will be spending 2 days at Lochamei Hagetaot (ghetto fighters) Museum, juts north of Acco, continuing the Poland process preparations.
Late Thursday night/Friday morning the group departs for Poland.
We will send another update out beforehand!

Yom Habonim Dror

Last Thursday July 16, Yom Habonim 2009 took place on Kibbutz Sdot Yam beach. Participating were over 650 chanichim on long or short term Habonim Dror programs in Israel from the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Brasil, Canada, France, Holland, New Zealand, South Africa, Turkey, Uruguay, USA and the UK, together with bogrei tnua (movement graduates) who have made aliya. This was the largest Yom Habonim Dror in memory, and will prove a highlight of the year for our shnatties.

Hatzerim!!

On Sunday the shnatties arrived at Kibbutz Hatzerim, where they are living for the next 6 weeks. They are doing an ulpan, which involves hebrew study 3 mornings a week, and working on the kibbutz for another 3 days. Its on a rotation, so half the group has hebrew classes, while the other half works. The next day they swap, and so it keeps going..
The shnatties live in 2 buildings right next to each other, with 3 of 4 in each room together with a bathroom, some furniture and most importantly - air conditioning!! The shnatties have their own moadon (clubroom) with a TV/DVD, 2 computers and a kitchenette with a fridge which is permanently stocked with yoghurt, fruits and vegetables!
The work places vary, with a majority being outdoors in the Jojoba fields, or the gardens.

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