Aleh V'Hagshem!

The two weeks before the end of Boneh were absolutely packed! We had two seminars prior to the week of Boneh Sikum (closing of Boneh). I'll explain each seminar and the sikum separately, as well as my trip to Shiloh with Doron.

Shiloh

On a weekend earlier this month, Doron and I went to Hod Hasharon, a town outside of Tel-Aviv which happens to be the very town where we spent a trimester of high school with our classmates in eleventh grade. We weren't just in Hod Hashron to reminisce, however, rather we were there to meet up with Doron's teacher from that trimester, Reuven, and travel with him to his home in Shiloh, a settlement in the West Bank. Historically, Shiloh was the religious center for the Israelites prior to the latter being located in Jerusalem, and thus was the site for the Mishkan (Tabernacle). Many settlers--Reuven included--choose to live in Shiloh on account of the religious history that the land holds.

Upon our arrival, Doron and I helped Reuven and his wife, Tamar, prepare for Shabbat. As we were helping with the cooking, three friends of ours from high school, Yaakov, Samantha, and Noah, arrived. Before leaving for the shul which is only a minute's walk from Reuven's house, the five of us went outside to take in the scenery. Reuven's home stands on the edge of a cliff with a gorgeous view. From his house, we could see beautiful rolling hills, as well as scattered Arab villages.


After shul, we returned to Reuven's home for an incredible home-cooked meal, and we enjoyed more delicious food the following day as well. At each meal, Reuven encouraged us to discuss politics. Indeed, the best parts of the weekend, in my opinion, were the discussions that we had with Reuven about Israel today, and also about where he lives. His views certainly differ with Habonim Dror's ideology, and personally I think that it would be beneficial for all Workshoppers to have a settler come and speak or for us all to go to the West Bank.

The weekend was incredible. The food was fantastic, Reuven's family was warm and welcoming, and it was wonderful to learn about a place that I don't often get the opportunity to visit.

Jerusalem Seminar

We began with Jerusalem seminar, which was essentially two days of traveling around Jerusalem and hearing speakers from various backgrounds and different ideas of Judaism's role in politics in the state of Israel.  In Mea Shearim (a religious neighborhood in Jerusalem), we met Yehoshua Weinberger, who explained to us his views as a member of the Hareidi sect of Orthodox Judaism. We then met with a former Habonim Dror North America member named Itamar Landau, who previously went to Machaneh Gilboa, a movement camp in California. Itamar explained how he began to explore Judaism and incorporate it into his life, and how he felt that unfortunately Judaism had not been a large aspect in his Habonim Dror education. The next day, we met with an orthodox man from Beit Shemesh who will soon be running for Knesset (the Israeli government) with Yesh Atid (There is a Future), a new Israeli political party. He explained the prominent religious tension in Beit Shemesh, a neighborhood which has been highlighted by the media, and how he feels that tension all over the country among those who observe Judaism differently is one of the most important internal issues of the day. Finally, we met with Anat Hoffman, the leader of Women of the Wall. Women of the Wall is an organization that works for womens' rights to pray as they choose at the Kotel (Western Wall). Anat Hoffman fights for more womens' rights as well, such as no more segregated buses of men and women. Anat explained to us her tactics of civil disobedience and utilizing the court system to slowly obtain the rights for women that she believes women must be allowed to have in a Jewish and democratic state.

The seminar, though our shortest, was an excellent opportunity for us Workshoppers to evaluate how we feel Judaism should be present in Israel's politics, as well as Judaism's role as an educational pillar in Habonim Dror. I feel similarly to Itamar Landau--that Judaism is the most neglected pillar of the movement. Personally, I feel that this unfortunate disregard results from a cycle, where Habonim Dror educators are less knowledgeable about Judaism than other pillars, thus they educate their chanichim (campers) less extensively about Judaism. These chanichim then grow up with a similar amount of knowledge as their madrichim (counselors), and so the cycle continues. In small groups, Workshoppers discussed Judaism's role in the movement today, and my group brainstormed ideas for how to more thoroughly educate Judaism when we return as educators to our machanot (camps) to shape the movement as well feel necessary.

Habonim Dror Hagshama History Seminar

This seminar is essentially the history of actualization of movement values within Habonim Dror. Each day for a week, us Workshoppers and the Brits would travel from the kibbutz to meet former and current Habonim Dror members all across the country, and would return to the kibbutz at night for dinner and either a few hours of processing the day or a peula.

We began at the Hachshara (training) farm at Degania, and visited graves of early chalutzim (pioneers) at the Kinneret Cemetary. Our first set of speakers were from the earlier garinim aliyot (groups of members who moved to Israel) in Habonim (before it merged with Dror). These speakers spoke of the need to move to Israel in their youth, and explained their process in building kibbutzim across Israel. We then began meeting speakers who spoke about the crisis of the kibbutz movement, and told us how their kibbutzim transitioned from being socialist, agricultural communities to privatized ones. One kibbutz in particular that stands out was one called Kibbutz Yizrael, which is one of the only kibbutzim in Israel that is not privatized. However, the kibbutz holds an extremely high standard for new members (must be of a certain age, education, and status), standards that seemed to be in contrast to the kibbutz movement that we idealize so dearly.

  

Finally, we met with current members of Habonim Dror and Hanoar Haoved. One group of current members explained how they had formed a city kibbutz, and now still live in a kibbutz and movement structure with their families. Other Habonim Dror members explained their decisions to make aliyah, and one kvutza (56, members that are six years older than us) showed us their home where they continue to live communally and work for the movement.


The seminar was filled with new ideas and information, and the movement's phrase, "Aleh V'Hagshem!" (Arise and Actualize!) reverberated in my mind. The purpose of the seminar, I realize, is not to serve as a pressure for decisions that I make right now in my life, but rather to be a resource to help me make large decisions in the future for how I wish to actualize the values that I share with the movement. It can be overwhelming to hear about the history of movement members and feel that I must decide how to follow in their footsteps immediately, but I must keep in mind and encourage others to keep in mind that reflecting on those ideas later and with more perspective will be far more beneficial for both ourselves and for others as well.

Boneh Sikkum

The final week of Boneh was an intense one. During the day, we had shiurim relating to our final module: Youth Movements. We read about the formation of Habonim in England, read about the ideologies of other Jewish youth movements, and discussed what it means to be a youth movement as opposed to being a youth organization. We also concluded other components of our Boneh routines, and met one last time with our avodah "bosses." Mine, Amit, and Shahar's "boss" for working with the horses, Galit, put out quite a feast of jelly donuts, krembos, and popcorn for our last meeting. She stuck candles into a horseshoe to create a makeshift chanukkiah, and gave us each a horse keychain and an Ein Dor Riders bumpersticker. It was lovely to sit around and eat and talk, and Galit invited us to visit whenever we should find ourselves back on the kibbutz.

Our nights were often filled with asefot, particularly asefot to decide our rooms in our new house on Kaveret, One night, however, the North American kvutzot gathered for "Wish Night," where each person grants another Workshopper's "wish." Basically, everyone gives their assigned wish recipient something creative that that the giver thinks that the recipient would wish for. Another night was our final musicale of Boneh, and lots of acts went up to sing to the entire group as well as to the rakazim. Finally, one night included a tekes (ceremony), and each kvutza presented different gifts and the rakazim sang us a farewell song to the tune of a new Flight of the Conchords song. Chava, the Ein Dor seminar center's caretaker, spoke to us, as well as Aryeh and Varda, one of Ein Dor's founding families that has welcomed us Workshoppers into their home and has spoken to us as a group on two occasions.

After two days of extensive cleaning, the buses arrived on Sunday morning to take us all to our three separate houses in Karmiel, Rishon L'Tzion, and Akko. It was sad to say goodbye to friends that we've been living with for almost four months, but we all know that we can see each other often. Eventually, we boarded the buses and saw our final glimpse of Kibbutz Ein Dor as we pulled out of the front gate and continued down the curving road leading from the kibbutz...

...and went on to our new house in KARMIEL!!!!

And so, the journey continues.