Machon Update

Dear Parents,

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 sharing their different holiday experiences with us and with 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 involvement in one of the two laid back dance and music festivals taking place at this time, Boombamella which many of them went to, and Zorba which attracted a slightly smaller group.

We were soon getting them back into the atmosphere and routine of their regular classes where a new set of choices began for certain of the classes, including the 'Story of the Jewish People' topic, the Hadracha specialisations and a new set of Electives. Some of these Electives courses are repeats from the first round as they were so popular ('Intro to Arabic' and 'Israel Advocacy') and some were new such as a philosophy based course with the short and snappy title; "My parents wanted me to be a Doctor, they think a man accomplishes himself through his profession! Is that true?!"

For the first two weeks back after Pesach however the regular classes took a bit of a back seat to the special feeling created because of this period of specifically Israeli Chagim; Yom HaShoah (Holocaust memorial day), Yom HaZikaron (Memorial Day for Fallen Israeli Soldiers) and Yom HaAtzma'ut (Independence Day). On the Sunday evening and Monday of the first week back it was Yom HaShoah and we introduced the topic with a special seminar day on the Sunday which included looking at the way the Holocaust had influenced Israeli society and how Shoah related issues were treated today in Israel. The next morning there was a moving tekes (commemorative ceremony) prepared and run by a group of the Machonikim and then, after the tekes finished, we all walked down the road to one of the local busy junctions to listen to the commemorative 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 minute silence.

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 afternoon just before Yom HaZikaron came in, we walked some of the Burma Road with them, the site of one of the key incidents of the War of Independence. From there we went straight to Ammunition Hill where, on Yom HaZikaron eve, we together with the South American Machon, as well as thousands of young people on gap year programmes in Israel, all attended a special MASA tekes. It was very moving, especially when one of the Machon staff, ex-Director Sharon Almogy, spoke about Nir Cohen, a Machon madrich who had died in the second Lebanon war just a couple of months after the Machon group he had worked with had ended.

The next morning we 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.


For the evening and day of Yom HaAtzma'ut we gave them the day off and encouraged them to go off and explore how Israelis and different parts of Israel celebrate Independence Day here. For most that consisted of parties in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on the evening and barbeques and a carnival atmosphere kind of fun in the city centre on the day itself. Again, 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 days have of course taken up much of the focus of the time since the Pesach 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 West Bank to visit both Hebron and Tekoa and to look at the issue of the settlements and the settlers, a "three religions" tour of Jerusalem where they met representatives from both the Christian and Muslim religious leadership in Jerusalem and reflected on the issue of Jerusalem as a holy city to all three monotheistic religions, a full day trip to Tel Aviv exploring some of the more difficult social issues that Israel is dealing with today, such as poverty, foreign workers and refugees and finally a trip to the Bar Kochba era caves in Beit Govrin for Lag B'Omer where some of the group performed a special play about Yochanan Ben Zakkai down in the caves themselves.

There have been a number of special Sunday evening programmes; one a film about modern neo-Nazism for Yom HaShoah and a meeting with top Israel photographer Adi Nes. Last Saturday night was the evening of Lag B'Omer, a time traditionally marked in Israel with bonfires. The Machon decided not to run anything that evening in order to encourage Machonikim to attend bonfires with the Israeli friends and see how Israeli society celebrates this day but then the next evening, a committee of the Machonikim organised their own such bonfire with pitta making (as someone put it, "for Lad B'Omer"!) which was a really lovely group atmosphere. One of the most difficult challenges they faced was hiding/guarding the wood they had found so that it wasn't taken by the thousands of other Israeli children who were spending the few previous days seeking out any spare wood for their own fires the night before. Other special programmes run by us include two optional Beit Midrash sessions run on the Wednesday evenings, which about a quarter of the group attended, one on the theme of Memory and the other on the 'Harry met Sally related theme of what Jewish sources have to tell us about whether men and women can indeed have successful, Platonic relationships.

In addition to the above mentioned Chagim related activities things run by small groups of the Machonikim, the peer-led element of Machon has continued apace. On three of the Wednesday evenings there have been big peulot (programmes) run by the three chavurot who hadn't yet had this chance. One was a huge Super-Mario games competition, one was a reality show television evening where Machonikim got a chance to compete in their own special versions of such shows as Fear Factor, Project Runway and Extreme Machon Makeover, and the final one was a huge wide game which took place all over the campus. In pairs they have also continued to run peulot in their hadracha groups including some on the themes of memory and independence for Yom HaZikaron and Yom Haatzmaut and others on the theme of such issues as poverty and Israeli music.

That's about it for this update. I hope that you too had a good time celebrating with Israel over Yom HaAtzma'ut wherever you were and, until next time, best wishes,

Haggai Kimmelman and the Machon staff