Eretz Yisrael Sheli Yafa

These past two weeks were ones filled with lots of nation-wide celebrated events! The first of these was Yom HaShoa, a day in remembrance of the Holocaust. On the eve of Yom HaShoa, Max, Julia, and I went with our chanichim in Tveria to represent Hanoar HaOved V'HaOved at a city tekes (ceremony). The following day, all of Workshop participated in a Yom Schichva, where both kvutzot from Karmiel (Kvutzat T'kuma) and from Rishon (Kvutzat Rakefet) engaged in peulot together at the ken in Kiryat Chaim to evaluate our relations with each one another as kvutzot here in Israel, and discuss our presence in the movement post-Workshop.

Later that evening, we all went to Kibbutz Lochemei HaGettatot (The Ghetto Fighters' Kibbutz) for an enormous tekes. Many speakers addressed the crowd, including Chavka, one of the ghetto fighters who was part of the Dror movement. The tekes also included a Hanoar HaOved singing group, representatives from various youth movements expressing their throughts, and an actress performing a dramatic monologue of one of the ghetto fighters--one that happened to be sitting in the audience, in fact.

The following Tuesday was Yom HaZikaron, Israel's memorial day for fallen soldiers and victims of terror. Workshop attended a tekes in Nahariya, and joined Hanoar HaOved in its mission to hand out free flowers to those entering cemeteries. Flower prices rise for Yom HaZikaron, and the purpose of this mission is to ensure that everybody can afford a flower in order to pay respects to fallen loved ones.

Tuesday night marked the beginning of Yom Ha'atzmaut (Independence Day)! Those of us who decided not to travel spent the night celebrating with all of Karmiel! We saw The Idan Raichel Project (for the second time on Workshop!) play outside of the Iriya (City Hall), and then spent the night exploring the crowded street and attending a city-wide silent rave! The next day was a rainy and windy one, and we spent the afternoon barbequing against the wind and enjoying our day off taking pleasure in each other's company. We finished the night by moving the couches aside in our salon (living room) and doing Rikkudei Am (Israeli Folk Dancing)!

These past two weeks also included the Birthdays of Workshoppers Joel and Julia! To celebrate, members of both Kvutzat T'kuma and Kvutzat Rakefet spent last Friday hanging-out at the beach in Akko! It was a very fun, beautiful afternoon, and was a great opportunity for the kvutzot to spend some quality time together!

This past Thursday, Kvutzat T'kuma spent our Yom Kaveret on a siyur (tour) of Haifa with a focus on kiyum mishutaf (shared existence), between Jews and Arabs within Israel's largest mixed city. The siyur was an interesting one, visiting various sections of the city and interviewing random passerby. Some residents we interviewed expressed loving Haifa and elaborated on their satisfaction by saying that Jewish and Arabs live and interact with each other peacefully. Other residents said otherwise, explaining that Jews and Arabs don't really interact much, and keep to their own groups for the most part. After discussing how we envision kiyum mishutaf throughout all of Israel and whether or not Haifa is a commendable example of it, the day ended with a small group of us visiting members of World Hashomer Hatza'ir living in Haifa on their gap year program. It was nice to meet more people taking part in a similar experience, but visiting the commune also made me very happy to be on Workshop.

This past weekend, us North Americans joined the Brits, Australians, New Zealanders, and South Africans at Kibbutz Ravid for May Day Seminar! Similarly to Rabin Seminar, we split into small groups of people from different countries for peulot. Aside from getting to know each other and playing lots of fun games, together we discussed the history of May Day and its purpose as a holiday whose significance changes each year, exploitation of workers in the world today, and capitalism's presence throughout the wide spectrum of exploitation. One particularly heated sicha (discussion) was one following a peula about sweatshop labor and other employees working in almost unbearable conditions, and a movie about the benefits (such as laundry service, free food, and a fully equipped gym) to workers at Google working happily for 12-hour days. The discussion questioned whether employees at google are exploited, as their benefits are given in order for advantage of the company to gain better profit, even though they're happy while working there.

It was fascinating to learn about a day concerning unity and human rights that is rarely recognized in the North American community, and also important to have this seminar before going to the large rally in Tel-Aviv on May Day. Additionally, this seminar was meaningful to me as a compliment to my messima. On one Yom Tzevet, Orr (my tzevet's melaveh) took Julia, Max, and I to a shuk in Tveria to interview youth that we saw working about how long they've been working, how much they're paid, and if they enjoy their jobs. We've also been temporarily running the BAMA inside of Tveria's Snif, a center for working teens. Looking at the posters in the Snif explaining the proper rights and wages of youth workers really resonated with me throughout May Day Seminar, particularly with an article describing Hanoar HaOved's recent mission in creating a union for the youth who work at BurgerRanch within a couple of hours. Indeed, labor rights are human rights, and are rights that I want to encourage others to think about, as well as their role in a society that mistreats it's members through many levels of exploitation. 

THIS Year in Jerusalem!

The week before Chofesh was an eventful one, with tzvatim running Pasechot for their chanichim, and my tzevet in Tveria renovating the new BAMA building. It also included my seeing Jordana and Natalie, two friends of mine from home, who were in Israel for the week! Finally, all of us kvutzamates packed up and were ready to embark on our own separate adventures for Chofesh! The night before separating, Bar and Sarah came to our house and the kvutza had our very own seder! We removed all the couches from our salon (living room), and arranged cousions on the floor so we could truly relax. Our Haggadot (books for the seder), were compiled by all the members of the kvutza! In groups, we each led sections that we had prepared throughout the weekend, sharing texts that we found meaningful and engaging the kvutza in sichot that we found relevant to the themes of Pesach.

The morning after the kvutza seder, I took a direct bus to Jerusalem to meet with Anya and her family, which was visiting her from Philadelphia! Anya and I have been very close friends for some time, and her parents and siblings have always graciously welcomed me as an additional member of the family. The night I arrived, we went to a family that invited all of us into their home for the seder--even though they didn't know any of us! It turns out that they invite guests they've never met before into their home year-round.The seder was a long one--lasting until 1:30am--as the family leading the seder decided to incorporate meaningful discussion, lively singing, and interesting current events into night. All in all, it was a fascinating seder to be a part of, and the food--particularly the salted chocolate matzah--was absolutely delicious!

The next day, Anya's family and 

I spent the day at the Israel 

Museum! We first visited the Herod exhibit, which has been getting a lot of publicity. I personally found myself bored. The exhibit was focused on the long-awaited discovery of Herod's tomb, but I longed to learn more about Herod himself as a leader. After exploring the museum a bit more, we ate dinner and then went to an Ice Festival! The festival included watching an show where the performers danced and did acrobatics entirely while ice-skating! Following the show, we each received coats and entered a large room filled with gigantic, colorful ice sculptures! Some notable ice attractions included a scene filled with ice dinosaurs, an underwater scene with lots of fish and large sea creatures, and a slide! Once we felt that we'd had our fill of the unique festival, we picked-up Zak, a friend in the Rishon kvutza (Kvutzat Rakafet), and then had a second dinner at a restaurant that served Kosher for Passover Pasta! The pasta tasted exactly like regular pasta, and after the meal Zak, Anya, Avram (Anya's brother), and myself went out for sushi--our third meal of the night!

The next day was one filled with lots of traffic across Israel, and my travel time from Jerusalem back to Karmiel tripled that amount of time that it normally would. I spent the night at the house with a few kvutzamates, and then headed to Tel-Aviv the following morning to spend the day with Joel, one of my close friends from Galil in Kvutzat Rakefet. The two of us spent a large portion of our time together at the Eretz Yisrael Museum at Tel-Aviv University. Our favorite exhibit was one about Ethiopia, which described the history of Ethiopia through the presence of different religions in the country, as well as the history of Ethiopian Jews and their presence in Israel. As the sun was beginning to set, Joel and I made our way to Yafo for dinner, where he enjoyed schwarma and I had shakshuka! After eating, we walked along the water, and then explored Yafo's night-life! Together, we admired paintings in an art shop, learned about an ancient method of jewelry-making, and enjoyed festive live music!

The next day, I journeyed down south to stay at the home of Kristina, a friend that I'd made on Muss! As Kristina and her family mostly spoke in Russian I attempted to pick-up a few words. On Friday night, we stayed-up late playing guitar and singing on the porch, and the following day included a fun trip to a Monkey Park (which is exactly what it sounds like--a park filled with monkeys). After saying goodbyes, I stayed in Karmiel for a bit to hang-out with some kvutzamates, and then ventured to Kibbutz Shomrat, a kibbutz next to Akko which is home to family friends that I have visited multiple times throughout Workshop. I joined them for their Mimuna Dinner (a tradition within Israel), which they took as an opportunity to do a mock seder to entertain the grandchildren! 

It was nice to spend the end of Pesach with family friends, but it was even nicer to return to Karmiel. Everyone has been so excited to be with one another and make the most out of the rest of our time together for the rest of Workshop, and I hope that this mentality remains for the next two months!