Daylight savings

Just a quick note to remind everyone that on Friday morning, 30th March, Israel moves the clocks forward 1 hour, and starts daylight savings time. Shabbat shalom!

Boneh Update: Exile and Migration module, Southern Tiyul, Purim festivities and more

Since the last Blog update, the chanichim have had a pretty exciting couple of weeks. The first week’s educational theme was Exile and Migration. The chanichim looked at Jewish history during the First and Second Temple periods and what life in exile looked like after the destruction of the Second Temple. They examined what keeps a Jewish community together and the patterns of migration from the Babylonian exile to the French revolution, including a giant Choose Your Own Adventure style game with simulated stops in Jewish communities throughout the world. This week also included the regular elements of Boneh: Hebrew twice a week (it is amazing to see how much they have learned in a very short period of time!), a peer-led evening program, Hadracha (leadership training), and a course on Israeli Society. The guest speaker for the week was Arieh Malkin, a 92-year old founder of Kibbutz Ein Dor who came to Palestine before the state was established on an Aliyah Bet (illegal ship transporting immigrant refugees). He has an extremely powerful life story and the chanichim were very touched to hear him speak. They also heard a bit from his Australian-born wife who spent time on the youth movements' hachshara farm outside Melbourne. The Shnatties have also settled into the work they are doing on kibbutz. The Kibbutzniks that they work with are very appreciative of the work they do and I think both the chanichim and Kibbutzniks are building positive connections with each other.

The new Power Courses track of elective courses of interest to Boneh participants has been a great success; this 'semester' we are offering Middle East Politics, Gender Relations and Exploring the Exodus Story through Drama. I teach the Middle East politics course which so far has explored the development of Islam, the colonial period in the Middle East and modern Arab nationalism; the discussions have been wide-ranging and I am amazed and excited about the deep interest the Shnatties have brought to the course. At the end of the Power Course 'semester' the participants from each class will build and lead a workshop to teach the rest of their Boneh machzor some of the key elements of what they have learned.

Unfortunately, the Thursday siyur (day trip) for the week was rained out and had to be postponed, but the chanichim had a fun day of programming on the kibbutz.

The following week, we also spent three days in the Judean Desert on Southern Tiyul. The tiyul was a great introduction to the desert, its striking natural beauty and its centrality in the history of the Jewish people from Biblical times until today. It was also an awesome experience of classic youth movement-style tiyul - full days that start by waking up with the sun and then hiking, cooking, cleaning, pitching tents, building bonfires, and enjoying evening cultural programs. This kind of trip develops independence and self-reliance as well allowing a unique environment for group bonding and getting to know one another, through shared hands-on activities. The hike was led by our awesome tour guides, Vered and Ben, who know the land and its history as well as the trails that run through it, and the Shnat madrichim played a key role as well. The group finished off the last day with a tour of the ancient Jewish stronghold of Masada, discussing its tantalizing and complex symbolic meaning; we then drove down to the Dead Sea for an invigorating dip and picnic lunch before heading back to Ein Dor.

After a short sleep-in on Wednesday, the Shnatties had mostly a regular day including Hebrew and their power courses. Thursday we had Yom Purim on Boneh which included making contemporary movies retelling the Purim story, a peulah about how and why we relate to the Purim story and what role contemporary meanings have in how we celebrate the holiday; making hamentashen cookies and newspaper baskets, and educational Chuggim (one-off interest groups). The chuggim topics were Feminism in the Purim story, Vengeance vs. Justice and the absence of God in the Purim story. The Shnatties broke into groups based on what interested them and all had meaningful discussions that allowed them to think more critically about the themes of the Purim story.

This week’s theme is Jews in the Modern World and we are looking at the place of Jews and Jewish Life in Europe right before and after the Enlightenment. More updates on this and the happenings of Boneh coming soon!

Machon Update #1

Dear Parents, Shalom, Well, it is now almost four 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 have also 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 the idea was to set up the big questions that will accompany and confront us throughout the programme; questions of Jewish Peoplehood and our connection to Israel, to Zionism and to leadership and community. On Monday, after taking just one day to get them settled into to their new home at Kiryat Moriah, we took the whole group on a 2 day desert-based tiyul (trip/hike) down to the Judean desert area. 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 from the other youth movements with their very different ideologies (we have 6 movements this year; Habonim Dror, Hashomer Hatzair, Netzer, Betar and Hineni) as well as those from other cities and countries (we have Australians, South Africans, New Zealanders British and Americans on this Machon). All told, we have 78 Machonikim (as we call them) in the group. In particular we 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, and survival style activities such as a blindfold 'trust' walk and various group challenge exercises. As a whole group we slept out under the stars for the night, and had an evening bonfire where they cooked their own dinner. On the Tuesday we also had a chance for swimming in the springs at Ein Gedi and a lovely barbeque lunch. Overall the tiyul was really successful, especially the hiking and the bonding elements. Then, later in the week, we went out from Kirya to see some key sites that symbolise for us the big educational questions mentioned above, such as Har Herzl and the Old City of Jerusalem, including the Kotel tunnels, and we also devoted a whole morning to exploring what kind of community they wanted to build and what would be the norms of behaviour that they would want their community to live by. At the start of the second week we moved more into class mode and actually started with 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 few 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, the options for this first part of Machon included such courses as "Couples in the Bible", "Contemporary Israeli Politics and the Disengagement", "Streams of Judaism" and a "Jewish Identity through Coaching" workshop. As part of these main topic areas there is also a weekly Israel Update class focussing on what's going on in the news in Israel and a course looking at issues of Jewish identity through key biblical stories. At the very start of that second week we went through the programme in detail and they gave all their choices for the various courses and then 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. By the Monday therefore we were already starting the classes for each area, though 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. Once a week we get them out and off the campus for educational experiences in places other than Kiryat Moriah. Each Wednesday we have a more or less full day trip called "Yom Yisrael" to see important sites around and near the Jerusalem area. So far these trips have included a day focussed on our connection to the land of Israel (including a visit to Tel Gezer and Kibbutz Gezer to contrast the old and the new and to the Tayelet to see an overview of the whole of Jerusalem and process the day) and a day focussed on the Education system in Israel including them visiting two contrasting schools that represented different approaches to education here, which including meeting students and teachers and chatting to them about their view and experiences of the schools. One of the particularly special moments for one of those groups was discovering when they left the school that one of the students that they had been chatting with during the visit was actually Prim Minister (Bibi) Netanyahu's son, even though they didn't know it at the time. There are also a various other special elements throughout the week. Sunday afternoons they have an In-Depth session where they can choose one of the above 5 main Machon learning areas to specialise in and look at in more depth. Twice a week, on Sundays and Wednesdays, they meet in their chavurot small groups to do group building, reflect on what they've been learning and thinking about and plan activities for the rest of the Machon. 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 group called Bible Raps who came in and for the first hour did a performance with audience participation of Raps they have written to biblical stories and then after that they split our group into smaller groups to write and perform their own rap about their experiences so far this year which they would then record and create into one whole piece. The evening went so late that we couldn't finish it that night but they will hopefully be coming back later this week on one of their free evenings to finish it off with those that can be around. Then in the second week there was a guy whose work is based on the 'Pay it Forward' idea and movie where he teaches participants, in a fun and really participative way, basic sign language and then they must commit to teaching it to two new people they know. Finally, this week, we had a one-woman show where the actress portrays a number of clearly defined different characters from within Israeli society in a very challenging way. Initially, for the first character, a Haredi woman, they do not know that she is an actress and when she revealed herself as such, there was an explosion of laughter and a release of some strong feelings and even frustrations which her character had created. The whole evening was enormously successful. So far these first three such evenings have had 55, 30 and 65 people attending respectively out of the 78 people we have on Machon which is a great level of participation for an optional activity from our point of view. On the Tuesday afternoons and evenings is a time slot that 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 the first Beit Midrash on the theme of different interpretations of the Adam & Eve story in the garden of Eden (it was really fascinating having teachers drawn from various different Jewish streams and approaches) and a "Dancing with the Stars" group dance competition run by the tzevet (staff team). 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. Last Shabbat however was one of the two weekends where we do ask them all to stay and where we have Shabbat activities that we do together. We had planned some of the ideas to be out and about in Jerusalem but during the week a really cold snap came to Israel and, finally, the snow that had been predicted for Jerusalem for the last week or two finally fell. Although they were very excited (for many it is the first time they have actually experienced snow) and enjoyed a snowball fight or two, it did mean that we had to cancel the Jerusalem based activities we had planned for the Friday morning. On the Friday evening, despite the weather, they all went out to be hosted for Shabbat dinner by different families around the area, some being their staff and teachers on Machon and others being friends of the staff and people who work for the Jewish Agency and are based at Kiryat Moriah. On Saturday morning they had a choice of participating in a service at one of the many local synagogues of various denominations or of participating in a Cultural service here on the campus. Together with activities centred around the Shabbat lunch, where they shared their different movement's' songs, and Seuda Shlishit (the 3rd Shabbat meal) where they discussed and shared how they 'do' Shabbat at home and in their movements, and a very spirited Havdala, it all made for a very special Shabbat which seems to have been enjoyed by all. For the second Machon Shabbat later in the year a group of them will be planning and running everything for the rest of the group rather than being done by the staff as it was this time. 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. Later this week it is Purim which should be a lot of fun and then next week we are going off on our one week 'Southern Tiyul, where we will be exploring the South of the country. 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 have a great Purim wherever you are in the world. Haggai Kimmelman and the Machon staff team