Kvutza Creations, Rabin Seminar, and Idan Raichel

So much has been going on! To make it easier to explain the exciting things that have been happening, I'll divide this post into three sections: Kvutza Creations, Rabin Seminar, and Idan Raichel.

Kvutza Creations
(as seen throughout our kita)

To the right is is our bulletin board for kvutza Warm & Fuzzies and the projects, skills, gan (garden) ideas, and movie lists. The Warm & Fuzzies section was created by Maia and Anya, who have designated themselves to be on the "Warm & Fuzzies Va'ad" that they created. Each kvutza member has a beautifully decorated pocket attached to the wall, and other kvutzamates are encouraged to put notes and pictures (aka the Warm & Fuzzies) into one another's pockets. The projects list is a growing list of projects that we as a kvutza would like to do (examples: build a fort, create a zine, make homemade pita pizzas). The skill lists is a spot where kvutzamates can list various skills they have that others might find useful or might want to learn, and the gan ideas list is a place where kvutzamates can write suggestions for what we can grow in our garden (for which a va'ad was formed). Finally, the movie list serves as a guide for what movies we should watch as a kvutza, and the paper helps us to see our ongoing list of preferences.

Here, we have our Weekend Chart which I designed, along with the Birthday and Zman Nikayon Calendars which I'll describe next. The Weekend Chart is a space where kvutzamates can list weekend plans that are happening on the kibbutz and also fun events occurring across Israel. The chart also serves as a space for kvutzamates to write that they are traveling and need a place to stay.

The Birthday Chart is a chart that lists not only Workshoppers' and Brits' Birthdays, but half-Birthdays as well. I find it very useful to know everybody's Birthdays in advance!

The Zman Nikayon Calendar is a calendar provided by my va'ad, the Cleaning and Health Va'ad. The calendar lists when each kvutza member has toranut boker (rotation for washing the dishes and clearing the kitchen in the morning) and toranut laila (the same rotation at night). It also lists what each room will be cleaning everyday. Each room is named after a different Israeli political party (my room is Meretz, a social democratic party), and cleans together from 7pm to 7:30pm. The cleaning tasks include cleaning outside, the bathrooms, the kitchen, and the floors and kita. Once a cycle, one lucky room gets to clean their own bedroom! I really enjoy Zman Nikayon each day--I love the sense of communal responsibility as the entire kvutza cleans the house together, as well as the look of the clean house come seven thirty!

The last board I want to post about now is the general information and ep-ep calendar board. This board contains the monthly schedules of Boneh, the list of va'adot, various tzevet phone numbers, and a sign-up sheet for leaving kibbutz each weekend. The ep-ep (evening peula after an evening peula, basically an extra activity at night after programming) is a calendar created by the Chinuch (education) Va'ad. This is a calendar where members of the kvutza can sign up to run educational or fun peulot for all of Workshop. This is one of my favorite structures that my kvutza has, as it gives the opportunity to everyone in the kvutza to bring Workshoppers together and teach other Workshoppers about their own interests, enhancing everyone's knowledge of various topics and our relationships with one another. Some examples of ep-eps that we've had so far are a peula about graffiti run by Danny Berman, a "Nostalgia Night" (essentially a night of games relating to childhood television shows and movies) run by Jonah and myself, and a peula about oppression run by Amit. All of these ep-eps have been successful and I'm looking forward to many more to come!

Rabin Seminar

On Friday morning, all of us Workshoppers and Brits traveled to a seminar center in Modi'in (a town near Tel-Aviv) to gather with the Habonim Dror Australians, South Africans, and New Zealanders to engage in a seminar about Yitzhak Rabin, a former prime minister of Israel who was assassinated seventeen years ago in Tel-Aviv. I found the seminar to be phenomenal. The peulot we had were fascinating, and dealt with not only learning about the history of Yitzhak Rabin and the political and social direction of the state of the Israel before the time of his death, but also about the legacy of his assassination and the effect that it has had on the democracy of Israel's government and mentality of the Israeli people today. 

After the seminar on Saturday afternoon, all of the Habonim Dor Olami (worldwide Habonim Dror) members at the seminar journeyed to Rabin Square (the site of Rabin's assassination) in Tel-Aviv to attend a rally organized by Hanoar Haoved, Habonim Dror's sister movement in Israel. 20,000 people attended the rally, and notably not only including members of leftist youth movements, but members of the more religious not so left-leaning youth movement, Bnai Akiba. Other organizations represented at the rally were Avodah (Israel's labor political party), Meretz (Israel's social democratic party), and Peace Now (an Israeli activist organization that promotes a two-state solution). The rally held a lot of energy, with cheering and enthusiasm erupting from all across the square.

With the theme of the night focusing on democracy, speakers spoke about the issue, as well as calling for peace and activism of the youth. In addition to the excitement of being surrounded by thousands of people and of listening to the speakers and musicians on the stage, it was also fun running into old friends! Us Galilniks ran into our Madatz (junior counselor) madricha who made aliyah earlier in the month, our Bogrim (oldest age group at Galil) madrich, and a madricha that worked on Galil tzevet with us this past summer.

The rally was very empowering, and I left feeling satisfyingly inspired and further motivated for the rest of Workshop.

Idan Raichel

On Monday night, all of Workshop and the Brits left Yom Kvutza early and took a long bus ride into Jerusalem for the year's first Masa event. Masa is an organization that supports many groups going to Israel, and has provided many of us with scholarships. I was not so excited to listen to speeches about the importance loving Israel and having fun throughout the year as I was to see Idan Raichel, one of Israel's most prominent musicians. The first half of the event was quite absurd--with dancing to backdrops of Israel, blasting hava nagila in the background, and strangely filmed videos of Masa participants explaining to everyone just how amazing Masa is. The speeches also were not received favorably by the Habonim Dror group, with speakers simply saying how wonderful Israel is without saying anything all that substantial.

Once the Idan Raichel Project came onto the stage, the event became instantly more enjoyable. The music was incredible, and lots of event attendees pushed their way as close to the stage as possible!

This past week is a perfect example of just how busy Workshop can be! The days feel chock full of activity, yet it all seems to be happening so fast. I'm looking forward to the activities in the coming week!

 

So, Boneh's Really Begun

Boneh has really gotten into full swing! We now have a concrete schedule for each day of the week.

Sunday: We begin a shiur just after breakfast and aside from a small break, remain in the shiur until lunchtime. Each week the shiurim focus on a different topic. Last week the topic was anti-semetism, and this week the topic is Zionism. After an hour and a half break for lunch, Va'ad Chinuch (Education Committee) runs a section of the day called Chuggim (clubs), and Workshop and British Shnat members are encouraged to run small clubs that everyone can choose to attend. Following Chuggim is Ivrit (Hebrew), and the Workshoppers and Snatties are split into three separate Hebrew classes. After Zman Nikayon (cleaning time) which occurs Sunday through Wednesday at 7pm, everyone has dinner in the Cheder Ochel and then gathers for Erev Tarbut (cultural night), which is essentially a fun activity.

Monday: Yom Kvutza!

Tuesday: These mornings are avodah (work) for my kvutza! Each of us has different avodot around the kibbutz. I work with the horses along with two other kvutzamates. Last week, the three us painted the horses' jumping poles. I'm looking forward to interacting with the actual horses in the coming weeks. Other avodot include working with a kibbutz member who makes cheese, with the plumber, with the handyman, with young children, at the elderly center, machbesa, cheder ochel, mitbach (kitchen), and at the puppet shop. After lunch, we have a period of the day called "Hadracha," which is basically leadership training. Workshop then splits up for tzevet planning time, and then that reconvenes for Zman Pa'il (active time). Last week, everyone participated in fun relay races! Following dinner, everyone sits in a large circle outside the chader ochel for Moetzet Boneh (Boneh Council), which is essentially a town meeting, or Workshop-wide asefa. 

Wednesday: The day begins essentially identically to Sunday mornings, with shiurim in the morning up until lunchtime. After lunch however, we have a section of the day entitled "Israeli Society" prior to Ivrit. This is my favorite section of the day and I look forward to it throughout the entire week. I feel that it is extremely important to remain informed about modern Israeli issues and structures. During these past two weeks, our "Israeli Society" time has been dedicated to learning about and questioning Tzahal (IDF, Israeli Defense Forces). Anyway, after Ivrit and dinner we either have a speaker or an educational movie.

Thursday: Typically, the entire Workshop goes on a siyur each Thursday, however, occasionally we might have a Yom Meyuchad (special day), and thus remain on kibbutz. This was the case this past week, and everyone participated in a Yom Meyuchad about education structures.

On Thursday, we went on a siyur to Atlit, a British prison that was active before the official establishment of the state of Israel. The purpose of the prison was to hold Jews attempting to get into Palestine by via ship. After the siyur, a few of us went to Kfar Tavor to hang-out for the night. We walked around for a while, and even talked with some former members of Hanoar Haoved (Habonim Dror's sister movement). Eventually we stopped at a sit-down cafe/restaurant and had what was probably the nicest meal that I've had throughout the duration of Workshop. The next day, I left Ein Dor and stayed with some friends that my father has known since his involvement with the labor Zionist youth movement, Hashomer Hatzair. The family lives on Kibbutz Shomrat, which is located just on the outskirts of Akko. It was nice to relax with the family and walk around the kibbutz, particularly near the avocado trees!

I decided to stay on kibbutz this past weekend. All of my kvutzamates on kibbutz decided to have a special Friday lunch together. We assigned characters for ourselves, and then enjoyed the meal we had made while acting our parts!

Each Shabbat on kibbutz, a different machaneh has the opportunity to facilitate the weekend's programming and design the schedule to reflect the Shabbat atmosphere at their machaneh. This weekend was Galil Shabbat! My favorite parts were the oneg (in this case, as skit that we wrote and performed to poke fun at Workshop members) and our medurah (bonfire). I have to say, I loved collaborating with my Galil friends, particularly with Dan and Doron while writing the oneg, and again with all of the Galilniks while recreating the beloved medurah acts that are performed at Galil. Shabbat ended successfully with us serving ice cream, just as we do on Saturday nights at Galil.

Later in the week, all of us Workshoppers will be leaving the kibbutz to take part in Rabin Seminar, a seminar to learn about and commemorate Yitzhak Rabin. Yitzhak Rabin was a former prime minister and defense minister of Israel, and was assassinated at a peace rally in 1995.

I'm looking forward to another busy and exciting week of Workshop!

Just a Hike Across the Country

On Tuesday morning during Sukkot, us 44 Workshoppers along with Shnatties from Habonim Dror UK, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa met on the beach of the Mediterranean to embark on Yam L'Yam, a four day hike from the Mediterranean Sea to the Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee, Israel's fresh water lake). After a short tekes (ceremony) by the sea, we got onto a bus to take us to a point where we would begin hiking. I learned that the trip wasn't quite hiking Yam L'Yam, but Otabus L'Otabus (Bus to Bus), as most hikes began with a bus ride and ended with a bus ride.

Anyway, each morning began with a 5:30am wake-up. We left the campsite by around 7, and started hiking in the early morning sunshine. The hikes were long--often until around 5:30pm--but the scenery was breathtaking.

Additionally, all of the Habonim Dror groups were split and mixed together, so half of my kvutza and I were in a group with Australians taking part in Kaveret, the second half of the Workshop/Shnat Tochnit (program). The Australians in my group are currently living in houses located in Akko and Rishon L'Zion. We spent the hikes playing games and getting to know each other. I was fascinated to hear differences about both the North American and Australian Habo movements, as well as differences between our Israel programs! For example, my kvutza is taking part in a kupa system, meaning that we have created a structure amongst ourselves to share spending money. The Australians have toyed around with kupa structures, but primarily just rely on personal money. Another difference is that the Australians have the opportunity not to live on Ein Dor and take part in Boneh, rather they have the choice to instead take part in Machon, a more formal Israel education program that is located in Yerushalayim.

At the end of each day, we all arrived at a campsite and set up either tents or mats. I chose to sleep on a mat each night, wanting to see the stars over my head. We all ate dinner together, and then one Habo group would run a fun yet relaxed activity for everyone.

It was wonderful to finally arrive at the Kinneret on the fourth day! After reflecting on the journey within our groups and having another short tekes, we said our goodbyes and returned to our various houses across Israel.

Today I was overjoyed to wake-up to pouring rain! Kvutzamates rushed out of the house and danced in the yard, and a few even took part in a mud fight! It was nice to experience our first real rain since we've arrived!