May Fever

Since returning from the Pesach break, the shnatties have plunged into the frenzy of national holidays in Israel.

On Yom Hashoa, all the workshop and shnat groups gathered at Lochamei Hagetoaot, a kibbutz near Acco that was founded by fighters in the Warsaw ghetto and members of Dror, which also contains a very unique musuem [that we visited as part of the Poland preparation process]. Every year the official ceremony to close Yom Hashoa is held at the Amphitheater. It is a very special and unique ceremony, often with a focus towards the Youth movements in Israel. A highlight was the speech by Chavka Folman-Raban, a fighter from Dror in Warsaw, who spoke about the need of the youth to fight against the destructive elements in Israeli society today. Before the ceremony itself, we held a small Habonim Dror remembrance ceremony which was prepared by our very own Brits.
The week after, we celebrated May Day - the workers festival . Although traditionally celebrated on May 1st, as there was a conflict with Yom Hashoa, it was moved to May 4th this year. We gathered in Kikar Rabin in Tel Aviv and participated in a march through Tel Aviv streets, together with a few thousand members of youth movements in Israel - Hanoar Ha'oved V'lomed, Hashomer Hatzair, and Machanot HaOlim. It was an incredible sea of blue and red, and we then finished outside the Workers Federation Building with performances, dancing and singing and lots of sitting in the beautiful sunshine! Although it was a long day, it was also a really nice event, and afforded a great opportunity for the shnatties to see their friends from their "sister chavot".

Following that week was Erev Yom Hazikaron (Remembrance Day for Fallen Soldiers), and Yom Ha'atzamaut (Israeli Independence Day) - which was extra special this year as Israel is celebrating its 60th anniversary.
The shnatties have also been on a siyur at Ein Harod, to learn about the differences in the Kibbutz movements; and also on a tour of the seperation fence along the Wadi Ara area of Israel.
This week has been the final full week of Shnat, with messimot coming to a close and cleaning in full swing! The American shnat group has already departed, and a great farewell dinner was had at a restaurant in Tel Aviv together; needless to say there were many tears shed at the airport!
The shnatties leave their home of the past 4 months in Holon tomorrow (Friday) morning and will be at the Nachsholim guest house, on sikkum seminar, until they depart Israel on the morning of the 27th May. I will try to put in one more post before they finish!!

Pesach Day Camps

Throughout the week prior to Pesach, there is generally no school. This year, all of the shnatties participated in the "English Pasechot", run together in partnership with Hanoar Haoved V'halomed (our sister youth movement). The English Pasechot are 4-day-long day camps, with an emphasis on learning English, run for children in the 4-6th grade. English is taught through a range of activities such as tiyul (hike), cooking, crafts and acting with an obvious focus on the chag of Pesach.
This project (in previous years this was run in a different format of "english camp" for 3 days) relies heavily on the shnatties and their English skills.
The Pasechot gave the shnatties a chance to spend more in-depth time with their regular chanichim and build even greater bonds between them. The feedback from all involved (particularly from the parents of the children participating) was tremendously positive and overall this experience was extremely worthwhile.

Chag Sameach

Shalom and Chag Sameach to all,
Kaveret has been bustling along at a fast pace, with the intense realization to all that the Shnat end date is creeping closer and closer. Messimot have been in full swing and just last week all the shnatties were involved in special Pesach day camps (more of that to follow later).
Pesach has arrived and we are in the midst of the break. All the shnatties attended Seders with their family or friends or through arrangements we made available to them. During the break which goes until the 27th, they will have the opportunity to rest, relax, and perhaps have some excursions around the country. As is always our policy during breaks, we have a schedule of where every shnattie will be staying and at least a rough itinerary of what they will be doing every day. Additionally they will need to check in daily to make sure they are fine and sticking to their pre-arranged plans. We also of course review the safety and security guidelines for their travel during the break.
A few weeks ago, the shnatties went on tiyul (hiking) for 2 days in the Golan heights region. On the Thursday they walked from Nimrod's fortress all the way to the Banias waterfall. Nimrod's fortress was built in the crusades period and is 1 of 3 fortresses in the region (one of which is Beaufort, known to many after the contemporary Israeli film) and is the largest in Israel. From the top, you have a view of much of the Eastern Golan heights, together with the Hula Valley and the Naftali mountains. Suffice to say, on a clear day the view is spectacular. The shnatties basically walked down the mountain to the area of the Banias and then along the Banias (Hermon) River to the stunning waterfall at the end. The hike was relatively comfortable and painless for all! That night, the group slept on Dugit beach, on the eastern shores of the Kinneret, after a sumptuous barbeque feast on the sand. On the Friday, the group walked in Susita - from above Kibbutz Ein Gev, all the way down, practically to the beach. It was also a comfortable hike, except for the end part which involved a very steep decline, requiring many shnatties to sit down and slide part of the way!
With only a few weeks left of programming, most of the supplementary Thursday classes (Israeli Society & Judaism) have finished. There are many upcoming 'chaggim' in Israel - Yom Hashoa, Yom HaZikaron, Yom Ha'atzamut together with May Day which will prove to be a very busy last few weeks of Shnat.
I hope you all had a wonderful Passover seder, despite the empty chairs that you were all thinking about. Rest assured your shnattie will miss your family traditions and will be excited to return home next year for your seder.
Wishing you all chag sameach

Weekend Seminar

Last weekend, March 28+29, a World Habonim Dror Seminar was held on Kibbutz Afikim. Participants included shnatties from English-speaking countries such as North America, England, Holland, South Africa, Australia & New Zealand. This was the first formal opportunity the shnatties had to meet the "new" participants from the southern hemisphere, who arrived early in February.
The seminar was a lot of fun, with programming partially built by different participant groups themselves. The shnatties were responsible for a wonderful Kabbalat Shabbat involving performances by mixed mishpachot (families) from amongst all the countries participating.
There was a lot of games, skits and chuggim (small interest groups).
On Saturday we had chuggim on various issues facing children across the world, such as child exploitation; child soldiers; child sex-trafficking; child refugees and more. This was followed by a screening of the movie "Newsies"based on the true story of the Newsboys strike of 1899 in New York City (a youth-led campaign to force change in the compensation given to the child-labour force).
Following the movie we had a wonderful barbeque lunch in the sunshine, and one more peula which looked at the UN Declaration of Human Rights and other examples of how a unification comes through an expression of responsibility for the other and finding a partnership of building the same society.

Socio-Economic Tour

Last week the shnatties had a mini-seminar over the course of Monday, Thursday and Friday, where they looked at the Socio-Economic status in Israel today.
The seminar started at looking at Herzl's vision of a utopian society in his book - Altnueland; and examining what the vision for Israel each of the shnatties had. A number of 'concepts' including - Im Tirzu (if you will it); Private Ownership; Cooperatives; Labour; Education; Care for the elderly and Universalism were looked at from Herzl's vision. This followed with an exhibition on the Histadrut (Trade Labour Federation), which was the organization that eventually helped found and create many of the institutions Herzl wrote about before his death.
The following part of the seminar looked at the dismantling of the Israeli welfare state and how privitisation has progressed in Israel today. This culminated in a siyur (excursion) on Friday to various Tel Aviv neighbourhoods - HaTikva (The Hope); Ha'argazim (The Crates); Neve She'anan (Oasis of Tranquility) and Kikar HaMedina (State Square), each of which are unique its in makeup.
HaTikva is a poor southern Tel Aviv neighbourhood, made up of a mainly elderly, North African population, which has recently become more popular with young trendy Israelis. Just next to HaTikva, is Ha'Argazim which is an unrecognized suburb in Tel Aviv - despite that it has existed since the 1940's. It is remarkable to see this suburb, where the houses literally look like crates (argaz = crates) and much-needed infrastructure such as roads, is missing. Next stop was Neve She'anan, near the Central Bus Station, a 'workers' suburb founded in the 1920's after the Arab riots in Jaffa. Today the suburb is populated almost exclusively with foreign workers from Africa and Eastern Europe. The final stop of the day was at Kikar HaMedina, an upmarket, North Tel Aviv area well known for its expensive shopping. Finally, the seminar conclusion looked at the 'privitization' of Aliya in Israel today, and the shnatties role through their Kaveret messimot in taking an active part in the Israeli society today.

Update

Hi everyone,
I know it has been a while since last updating the blog - since Kaveret has started, it is proving much harder to update as every day and each individual tzevet often have very different days.
I will try to give a brief overview of activities, and hopefully, some of the shnatties themselves will begin to 'guest blog' and share some of their experiences with you.
The shnatties are split into 3 different messimot - Holon, Tel Aviv - Jaffa, and Rishon L'Tzion.
All of the tzvatim work with different schools (of different ages) and different after-school educational frameworks such as youth movement kenim or after-school clubs. They work within various sectors of the community - mainly Israeli but also with a large immigrant population. Their days vary, with some shnatties needing to travel roughly an hour each way to get to their messima. Most tzvatim are in the schools/etc between 2-2.5 days a week, with extra time set aside each week for the Yom Tzevet - planning future activities and learning together as a tzevet.
Aside from messima, the shnatties also are studying 2 courses altogether - Israeli History & Society; and Judaism. These take place alternatively on Thursday mornings. On Sunday evenings, they have Hebrew Ulpan, they are split into 2 learning levels, and the focus is more informal - giving them extra tools and skills in order to integrate into their messimot and their lives in Israel.
Mondays and Thursday afternoons are kvutsa days - the madrichim come and run peulot, or sometimes the workshoppers run peulot for themselves too. Some Thursdays have siyurim (excursions) and there also seminars held throughout Kaveret - last week was the first, and the topic was Israeli Society and Economics, including a walking tour throughout Tel Aviv.
An update on the seminar will follow shortly.

Holon House

Here are a few pictures of the house in Holon, where the shnatties will be moving into next Wednesday 16/1.

The front gate:

The kitchen:


One of the outside spaces: