Second Machon Update

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