Boneh pre-Pesach update

As Pesach approaches, we can all look forward to the questions we ask ourselves on the holiday celebrating the exodus from Egypt. (Why is this night different? Etc.) Boneh shnatties will be ready, having been asking themselves related questions over the past two weeks.

Last week Boneh finished up the module on antisemitism. In classes, we looked at modern antisemitism, the connection between antisemitism and criticism of Israel, the historical conditions that contributed to the development of antisemitism, and the forms antisemitism has taken. On Sunday we screened the film Gentleman's Agreement, in which journalist Philip Green writes a story about antisemitism by posing as a Jew. To my delight, I just discovered that it is possible to watch the whole movie on youtube. See this video at 7:58 to 9:42 or this one at 0:44 to 3:10 for a few of my favorite clips. Ari Levy, a graduate of Habonim Dror North America and founder of Hechalutz, spoke with the shnatties on Tuesday evening about antisemitism and exile. We explored the traditional kibbutz principle of self-reliance and self-labor through a few facilitated cleaning sessions in the shnatties' rooms, moadon and kitchen and we are happy to report they are taking more and more responsibility over this area of their lives.

This week we moved through the first Zionism module and began the Peoplehood module. (We will be discussing Zionism again in later modules.) In classes this week, shnatties discussed Zionism in the context of European nationalist movements of the 1800s, the need for a Jewish safe haven, and Zionism as a movement for a regeneration of the national character. Muki Tzur, a historian and former secretary of the kibbutz movement, spoke with the shnatties on Tuesday evening about Zionism. On Thursday, the shnatties went on a siyur to Tzfat, Tzipori and Ein Yizrael. At each location, we focused on a particular period in Jewish history. We learned about the Sephardic and Ashkenazic synagogues in tzfat, the Greek and Roman influences on the home of Judah HaNasi, and the story of King Saul's demise on Mount Gilboa while we were looking at Mount Gilboa. We asked how Judaism has endured over such a long time period, and what defines that Judaism.

Chag sameach to all!

Boneh - Southern Tiyul

The Boneh Southern Tiyul was an amazing desert experience! The Boneh-niks were seriously challenged by the intense hikes, but that challenge in the end created a real sense of accomplishment and pride, shared by the whole group, that they will look back on for a long time. And all of that in the beautiful and very unusual scenery of the Judean Desert, overlooking the Dead Sea, for four days.

The first day the group hiked down the Tamrur Cliff and through the Bokek Riverbed (now dry, but still green with plants and flowers from the spring rains). When they arrived at the campsite, they got their first taste of the tiyul “routine” – get some hot soup from the all-Habo-graduates kitchen staff, set up their tents before nightfall, start chopping vegetables for dinner, make a fire, eat and chill under the stars for a while. Then in the morning, rising with the sun, break camp, and set off on their way.

The next day they hiked the Rachaf Ascent and through the Kanaim Stream, a rocky downhill path that required a lot of mutual support and looking out for each other. Then they climbed Mt Elazar, which overlooks Masada, and then went up the Roman Ramp to Masada itself, touring the ancient Jewish fortress and hearing its famous story. Then it was down the Snake Path to the campsite.

Down the Snake Path

The next morning they crossed back across Masada, including a quick ride up on the Cable Car! The group hiked through a long hot stretch of desert, seemingly dry and barren, but when they arrived at the Tze’elim Stream bed they found hidden pools of water still remaining from the last rains, and had a great swim that made the hot desert seem delightful.

Hidden pools

Tze'elim Stream

From there it was all the way down the stream to the camp site. The next morning, the tired Shnatties finished their hiking on a short path through the David Stream to the famed oasis of Ein Gedi, where they played and splashed in the waterfalls. They also visited the kibbutz of Ein Gedi, and to cap off their trip went to the Dead Sea beach for some floating, mineral bathing and relaxing. And then it was back to Ein Dor to relax after an intense, incredible week.

Boneh update

Hello friends and families of shnatties from Down Under, my name is Ben and I'm a Boneh rakaz (coordinator/educator). Boneh shnatties have done a lot since the last check-in and I'm sure you're eager to hear about it.

The last week of February was full of anticipation for hiking Har Tavor that Thursday. The trail is quite steep, so we postponed the hike due to threats of rain (and some actual rain), but even so it turned out to be an exciting day. The Boneh shnatties met some of the northern hemisphere shnatties (Americans, Brits, Canadians, Dutch) at a Masa event in Tel Aviv. The Masa event included a workshop with Etgar Keret, a well known Israeli author whose stories you can read here. The vocalist from the band Monica Sex was also a part of the workshop, and you can hear some of the band's music in this youtube video for the song maka afora or this one for the song od pa'am. The culmination of the evening was a live performance by the Israeli hip hop artist Subliminal.


"Maka Afora" by Monica Sex

The following day, boneh shnatties were invited to the official purim party of Kibbutz Ein Dor. Not only did they attend, but a group of them actually performed at the party a dance to Ke$ha's "Tik Tok". I can't say I'm a big fan of the sentiment of the song, but I admit it is catchy. The creativity and effort by the shnatties showed itself in their performance, which was well received.

The first week of March included a gracious appearance on Boneh by Janet and Ezra, two members of Kibbutz Ein Dor who were passengers on the hijacked Air France Flight 139 in July 1976. To prepare for meeting Janet and Ezra, the shnatties watched the movie that dramatized the events surrounding Operation Thunderbolt (a.k.a. Operation Entebbe a.k.a. Mivtza Yonatan). Janet told us the powerful story from her point of view as a passenger and then hostage more than three decades ago.

That Thursday, we hiked to a village near Ein Dor and visited the village museum. The village is called Kfar Tavor, and it was founded in 1901 by immigrants who came as a part of the First Aliya. Kfar Tavor from Ein Dor is about 2 kilometers as the crow flies and about 5 kilometers as the shnattie hikes. The famed palmach commander Yigal Allon was born in Kfar Tavor, as we learned from our captivating museum guide Tali.

The South African, Australian and Kiwi Habos on Machon visited Kibbutz Ein Dor that weekend and met Ea, the fourth of the organic madrichim for Australian/Kiwi Shnat.

This past week Boneh shnatties went on a tiyul in the Judean desert, but I'll leave the description of that for another blog post.

Shavua tov!
Ben

Israel - New Zealand relations

The 5 New Zealand shnatties, together with one of their madrichim, Gabe Freund, and Mr McCulley.

As some of you might know, the Foreign Minister of New Zealand, Mr Murray McCulley is visiting Israel at the moment. Together with help from a caring expat, we managed to have the 5 Habonim Dror Aotearoa New Zealand shnatties invited to attend a special event at the King David Hotel held in honour of McCulley. A small crowd of dignitaries were invited by the Australia and New Zealand Israel Chamber of Commerce to hear Mr McCulley speak and to celebrate the forthcoming reopening of the Israeli embassy in Wellington. Eight years ago Israel closed its New Zealand embassy and diplomatic relations between the countries soured significantly after the passport incident in 2004. The importance of Mr McCulley's visit--the first in his official capacity--and the reopening of the embassy signal a significant shift in relations between the countries and an earnest mutual desire to strengthen ties. The Shnatties were privileged to meet personally with Mr McCulley and to explain to him Habonim Dror's important work for the Jewish communities of New Zealand as well as talk to the Israeli Ambassador Designate to New Zealand. Perhaps the most inspiring person they met though was the man who was Mazkir of Habonim New Zealand and sent the very first Garin l'Aliyah from the land of the long white cloud.

Machon update

This is an update we received yesterday from the director of the Machon:

Dear Parents, Shalom,

Well, it is now about three and a half weeks into the programme and, as the Director of English Speaking Machon, I just wanted to write to let you know how things are going from our perspective and to share with you a few of the highlights from this opening period, though hopefully your children also have been keeping you up to date with what is happening on the programme from their point of view.

It seems to us that the Machon is in general going very well so far, the atmosphere among the Machon community seems really good and most of them seem to be really enjoying the programme and the early stages of the learning. In the very first week, straight after getting them settled into to their new home at Kiryat Moriah, we took the whole group on a 3 day desert-based tiyul (trip/hike) down to the Massada and Dead Sea area of Israel. The main aim, apart from seeing that area, was a group bonding one where people could start to get to know and make friends with people in from the other youth movements with their very different ideologies (we have 5 movements on Machon, Habonim Dror, Hashomer Hatzair, Netzer, Betar and Hineni), as well as those from other cities and countries (we have Australians, South Africans and New Zealanders on this Machon).

In particular we also wanted them to get to begin to bond within their chavura, the small group framework that the Machon is structured around. To that end much of the desert activities were done within these chavurot including various desert hikes, a navigation exercise and a blindfold 'trout' walk. As a whole group we slept out under the stars for both nights, there were evening bonfires and a lovely barbeque on the beach by the Dead Sea and we did a great early morning climb of Masada to be there for the sunrise. The tiyul was really successful and their feedback showed how much almost all of them had enjoyed it, especially the hiking and the bonding elements.

The week after they came back from the tiyul we started to move into the various lessons in earnest. There are 5 basic areas of learning on Machon – Judaism, Israel/Zionism, Hadracha (youth leadership), Hebrew and the Story of the Jewish People, which is an overview of Jewish History. In each area the Machonikim have various choices of courses, some based on different content and some based on the style of learning that they most wanted. Some classes are more lecture-based while others use more interactive programmes. As well as the classes in these main areas there are a couple of other slots in the week when they can choose from a range of sessions covering a whole variety of different topics. To give you some idea, some of the more popular options for this first part of Machon included such courses as Israel Advocacy, an Introduction to Arab culture, the 19 letters of Samson Raphael Hirsh, Drama and Israeli society through music.

After they gave all their choices on the second day just before the tiyul, the team worked out who could do what and in almost all cases most people were able to get either their first or second choices. Within the first week or so of lessons anyone who really thought they were in the wrong place could ask to swap classes and we tried to allow that whenever possible. Things have now pretty much settled down and we as a staff team are pretty pleased with the level of participation and learning going on.

Two to three times a week we get them out for educational experiences in places other than Kiryat Moriah. Once or twice a week we have half or full day trips to important sites around and near Jerusalem. So far these trips have included a visit to different sorts of communities in and around Jerusalem including an Ultra-Orthodox community, a Mechina (a pre-army gap year leadership programme for young Israelis) and a couple of "alternative" communities. We also did a tour of the Old City including the fascinating Kotel Tunnels tour, the tunnels that run under the Western Wall.

On Wednesday afternoons everyone is involved in some form of 'meuravut kehilatit' (community involvement) experience. The idea is to get off campus and become involved in some way in the community of Jerusalem. Many of the options involve some kind of volunteering or hadracha experience that gives them a sense of involvement in, and commitment to, different aspects of Israeli society though there are also some non-volunteering choices as well. This time we have 9 options that are running, more than ever before which is very exciting. In terms of volunteering style activities, a large group are helping teach English to disadvantaged Israelis, some are working on the creation of a community garden in a deprived neighbourhood, a small group are working with disabled adults at an organisation called 'galagalim', a group are teaching after school activities such as music, dance and media at a local school in a difficult area, a large group are involved in a social justice project where they must research an area of social need and then plan and run a small scale project that can help with their issue, a few are running an English speaking fun club at Kiryat Moriah for local children and finally some are involved in practical tzedaka work including a rotation of different activities such as picking fruit and vegetables for an organisation called 'Table to Table' which provides food to families living below the poverty line and helping renovate houses for ex-soldiers in need.

On the non-volunteer front, a group of 13 do "Jerusalem Journeys" where they visit and walk around less well known neighbourhoods in Jerusalem and also learn some basic guiding skills while others are getting out into Jerusalem in order to practice their Hebrew out and about in the city. It is of course very early days but already after the first couple of weeks many have talked about the satisfaction they are getting from these activities and a feeling for many that they are not just taking and learning but also giving something back as well.

There are also a couple of other special elements throughout the week. On Sunday evenings we have a slot called 'Sunday Selections' which is optional but where we bring in to Machon, among other things, some exciting guests including contemporary Israeli artists. The first week we had a band called Remedy come in which was a very up-beat start to this series of events. Tuesday afternoons is time they spend in their separate youth movement groups with their own movement madrichim and Wednesday evenings is a special programming evening, some of which later in the programme will be run by them for each other, some will be run by us and some will be a Beit Midrash style informal Jewish texts study evening which will be optional. So far we have had a Movements Ideology presentations evening and a Machon Idol group singing competition. We also took them last Thursday evening to a special MASA organised Israeli arts evening which consisted of a concert by the group 'Subliminal' and a chance to take part in workshops with famous Israeli artists such as the renowned writer Etgar Keret and the famous Bat Sheva dance company. This was also a great chance for them to see their many of friends who are on other MASA programmes.

Every other Thursday morning we have a new slot called Open House. Most of the education on Machon is organised in courses lasting anything from 4-12 weeks but on this morning we bring in some interesting outside people and offer a fascinating range of one-off sessions that they can do without needing to commit to a whole course. We try to cover different content and methodologies and for the first week some of the sessions offered included: the history and future of Zionist Youth movements, Israeli Folk Dancing, Kabbalah and Mask Making for Purim.

Most weekends they are free from Thursday evenings until we start classes again on the Sunday morning. They can of course stay at Kiryat Moriah if they wish but this is also a great opportunity for them to go off and explore other parts of Israel and see family and friends around the country. When the weather becomes a bit more certain, many will also no doubt choose to go hiking and camping on their weekends. We certainly encourage them to make the most of their time here and to do such things and are always available to give help and advice about places they might visit if the need.

Finally, earlier this week it was of course Purim. Being in Israel during the Chagim (Jewish holidays) is one of the great experiences of Shnat and Machon. On Saturday evening when it is Purim in most parts of the country but not in Jerusalem, many of them spent the evening in Tel Aviv to experience the street parties and clubbing scene that goes on there during Purim and of course alcohol played its part since it is one of the Purim mitzvas!.

Then on Sunday afternoon some of the group ran a masquerade activity for everyone else to help them get into the Jerusalem Purim spirit. We the Machon then offered a choice of classes looking at different aspects of the Megilla and then there was an option of different going to listen to different Megilla readings around Jerusalem for those who wanted. In the evening there was a joint Fancy Dress Purim party and competition together with the South Americans which took place at a club that we had hired out for them. There are almost 200 South Americans on the Spanish Speaking Machon and thought there class time contact is limited by language we wanted to give them the opportunity to start to meet a few of them at least and to be able to start to get to know them in their non-class time.

For Shushan Purim itself on Monday morning there was a joint fun Purim drama style activity, again with the South Americans, and in the afternoon they were free to go off into different neighbourhoods around Jerusalem as they wished, to experience Purim in the city. In particular, those that, instead of staying at Kiryat Moriah or going to the more touristy spots, made the effort and went and found unusual neighbourhoods to join in the street parties and atmosphere really got a lot out of it

I think that is all for now and I hope that I have been able to give you a small flavour of the programme thus far and what has been happening. We the staff are very much enjoying working with the Machonikim, both individually and as a group. I hope to write again in a month or so, just near to the Pesach break, to give you another Machon update.

Until then, best wishes to you all and we hope you all had a great Purim whatever you were doing.

Haggai Kimmelman and the Machon staff team