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.