April
2013
Dear
Parents, Shalom,
I
hope this letter finds you well. We have now reached the half way
point of the Machon programme and, as promised, I wanted to write to
you again to let you know how things are going since our last update
letter. Overall our feeling is that Machon continues to go very well
and that, for the most part, the Machonikim are still really enjoying
the programme and are learning a lot.
The
Pesach chofesh actually came quite early this year but, despite that,
they were all very much looking forward to their well-earned break.
We have been back from their holiday period for just over a couple of
weeks now and though they have started to get back into the regular
Machon routine to some degree it is also the case that in this post
Pesach period the regular classes take a bit of a back seat to the
special feeling created because of this period of Israeli Chagim; Yom
HaShoah (Holocaust memorial day), Yom HaZikaron (Memorial Day for
Fallen Israeli Soldiers) and Yom HaAtzma'ut (Independence Day). As I
write this, Yom HaShoah is just behind us and later on this week they
well be experiencing Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzma’ut out here; but
more of that later.
Since
my first letter all of the regular courses have been continuing and,
in general, seem to be going really well. One measure of that for us
is the relatively small number of Machonikim who have asked to change
their classes, something which we allow them to do in the first week
or so of each course. We did however get them to fill in a detailed
feedback sheet at the end of last week telling us to what extent they
are enjoying each of these core courses and how much they feel they
are learning. In the next few days, as we process, all of this
information, we will have an opportunity to see whether our positive
feelings are borne out by their responses. For the rest of this
letter however I want to concentrate on the various special events
that have happened in this last month.
The
week before they went away on chofesh we had a week-long desert based
Tiyul down in the South of the country. Just some of the many
highlights from this really successful and enjoyable trip included a
visit to Ben Gurion's grave and where he lived to explore issues
related to his call to populate and green the desert; quite a number
of hikes through the beautiful scenery down South, including on one
day a choice of a hike or a visit to Massada. especially for those
who hadn't been before; a fun yet challenging bike ride in the
'Machtesh Ramon' (one of the world's unique geographical features), a
camel ride; a visit to a very new and young yishuv (community
settlement) who are trying to create an unusual model of a mixed
secular and religious community down in the desert, a night camping
out under the stars and a great fun time in Eilat including a chance
to do some water sports.
I
must say that this group are mostly really into hiking and, just to
give you a sense of that, on our last morning of the tiyul they had
an optional hike which involved getting up early to leave by 7.00 or
they could sleep in till 10.00
and
just under half of the group chose to get up early for the hike! All
in all it was fantastically successful tiyul and the group came back
really feeling that they had bonded much more closely as a result of
this week away.
One
small shame was that the Hashy group could not be with us for the
tiyul as they had their annual Poland trip which fell at the same
time this year but their experience was obviously very powerful and
they got back just before the Pesach chofesh giving them a day to
catch up with their friends on what they missed on tiyul and also to
share some of their very meaningful experiences from Poland.
I
would note that one really special and important aspect of Machon as
a leadership programme is the peer leadership element, those
activities that Machonikim run for each other, and the tiyulim are
one key aspect of this. Two of the Chavurot each took responsibility
for half of the Southern tiyul described above and they ran some of
the evening programmes, took responsibility for many of the admin and
organisational aspects of the trip, whether that be wake-up or
sorting out the room allocation and clear out from all the hostels,
and organising such extra elements as bus kef & ruach (fun and
atmosphere). The various chavurot also each run big evening
programmes for the rest of the Machon and so far there has been just
one of these which was a really successful kef (fun) programme titled
'The Game of Shnat’. In addition, within the weekly
hadracha/leadership course there is a peer led element where each
week two people from each class run a small scale peula (programme)
on a particular theme. This element just started up last week (until
now they had been planning their programmes) and the first ones run
were, naturally on the theme of The Shoah as that week was Holocaust
memorial day. A few examples of the themes of some of the other
peulot that are currently being planned and will be run in the coming
weeks are 'Temptation & Sin', 'Empowerment’ and ‘Technology
and the Future’.
Next
have been the weekly 'Yom Israel' (Israel Day) day trips out, which
focus on different aspects of contemporary Israeli culture and
society. There have been three more of these since the last letter
and the themes were as follows. First we looked at ‘Education in
Israel’, which included visits to a range of different schooling
options in Israel giving a chance to chat with pupils there and a
meeting with madrichim from a variety of Israeli youth movements.
Next we explored ‘Modern Israeli Culture’ with trips out to a
choice of four different places and focuses, namely Israeli food via
a visit to the shuk, art via a visit to the Israel Museum, Israeli
literature via a visit to Shai Agnon’s house and Israeli Theatre.
This was followed by a fascinating talk and a showing of clips by the
Director one of Israel's recent and popular television shows
(‘Srugim’, which looks at the lives and dating scene among the
young, twenty-something Orthodox
single crowd). Finally, the most recent of these days looked as the
IDF, the Israeli army, and its role and influence on Israeli society
and included a tour of an army base where they had the chance to meet
with some current soldiers.
On
the optional evenings front, there was another Sunday selections
evening, this time a special project known as ‘Pay it Forward’
sign language’. In this workshop they learned sign language in a
fun and interactive way but also, as part of signing up for it, had
to commit to then passing their learning on by teaching at least one
other new person in the coming month or so.
We
then came to the Pesach chofesh. The day before they left we ran a
special set of sessions on the theme of freedom as well as a big fun
Pesach-themed Jeopardy quiz and then did a final l’chaim to say
goodbye to each other before letting them get off to their various
destinations. Then, the morning after they came back to Kiryat Moriah
we started with a special breakfast Chavura session where they all
shared their different holiday experiences with us and with each
other, whether that was, to give a few examples, a very different
kind of Seder night than they were used to, a lovely few days spent
with their Israeli family, a series of energetic camping and/or
biking trips around different parts of Israel, involvement in the
popular and laid-back dance and music festival called 'Zorba' that
takes place in the desert down South which many of them went to or in
a few cases, being pampered by the visit of their family from back
home..
As
noted above, just a few days after they got back was Yom HaShoah here
in Israel. The Thursday beforehand we took them to Yad Vashem for the
morning and, though many had been before, there is so much to see
they were able to see some element that was new to them. Then, on the
Sunday afternoon just before it came in, we ran a mini seminar with
sessions offering a choice of a variety of different topics including
such issues as God on Trial/Faith after the Holocaust, the Shoah in
Israeli cinema, changes in the way Israeli society has related to the
Shoah, the Kastner affair and educating about the Shoah as madrichim.
Later that evening there was an optional session offering a choice of
three Holocaust related films, God on Trial, The Pianist and Walk on
Water and some two thirds of the machzor chose to watch one of these.
The
next morning there was a very moving and very well organised tekes
(commemorative ceremony) prepared and run by a group of the
Machonikim together with their madrichim, which culminated in the
official siren and then, later that morning a talk by a survivor.
After lunch there was the peer-led hadracha sessions on the theme of
the Shoah which I noted above and, finally, we took them off to the
big commemorative ceremony held at one of the kibbutzim, Yad
Mordechai which has a very strong involvement and presence of the
Israeli youth movements. Though all in Hebrew it nevertheless gave
them an opportunity to see how Israelis deal with this issue and to
see some foe the real differences between the way they themselves had
run a tekes that very morning. We arrived back to Kiryat Moriah late
evening after a long, fulfilling and quite emotionally draining
couple of days which formed a very powerful and moving element of
their Machon programme for most of them. Later on this week it is, as
I noted, Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzma’ut but more of that next
letter.
I
think that that is about all of our news for now. Once again, if any
of you are visiting Israel, especially Jerusalem, in the coming month
or so, please do be in contact and feel free to come up to Kiryat
Moriah and say hello to us here in the Machon offices.
Best
Regards and Chag Pesach Sameach,
Haggai
Kimmelman
Director,
English speaking Machon
