3rd Machon Update

May 2013

Dear Parents,

Shalom again from Jerusalem where the Machon is more or less at the three-quarter mark and thus the Machonikim are certainly beginning to feel that the end is nearing. In fact there are only two more weeks of ordinary classes to go and four more weeks in total left of the programme but, despite this, their energy remains high, the machzor is continuing very successfully and most of them seem to be realising that they really have to make the most of every educational and cultural opportunity in this last month or so.  

The period since our last letter continued with the regular classes and courses, including a new set of choices of Electives on Tuesday mornings where they could choose from Book Club, a Photography course, an class on the early Chalutzim (Pioneers) and, finally, ’Talking Israel’ an elective to give them some Hasbara (advocacy) skills to help prepare them for going back to being active Israel advocates on their University campuses back home.

This period has also however been dominated to one degree or other by the religious and national chagim.  A few weeks ago it was the very special days here of Yom HaZikaron (Memorial Day for fallen Israeli soldiers) and Yom HaAtzma'ut (Israeli Independence Day). Which, as you probably know, flow into each other. For Erev Yom HaZikaron on the Tuesday evening we went to Latrun, a famous site about half an hour outside Jerusalem, together with the South American Machon as well as thousands of other young people on gap year programmes in Israel, to attend a special MASA tekes. It was generally very moving, especially when one of the soldiers who was focussed on, who lost his life during the start of the second Lebanon war in 2006, was Nir Cohen, a Machon madrich who had died just a couple of months after the Machon group he had worked with had ended. 

The next morning we took them up to Mount Herzl to see how Israeli families who have lost loved ones deal with this difficult day and we gave them time to be able to wander around the graves and reflect on what the day meant to them as well as to Israelis. Many chose to go to those graves which had no families there for them and some were involved in giving out special flowers to those families and others who came to pay their respects. The place was totally packed but at 11.00 when the siren went off and everything came to a halt while there was total stillness and quiet all over Har Herzl. Though it was for many a very moving morning it also gave many of them a sense of being somewhat more of an outsider to Israeli society than they are usually used to feeling, as this is perhaps the most "Israeli" chag of all. In the afternoon when we got back they met in their Chavura groups to reflect on and process their experiences from the days and then, after running some peer led peulot (programmes) for each other on the themes of Yom HaZikaron (Memorial and Yom HaAtzma'ut, they started to get ready for whatever Yom HaAtzma'ut celebrations they were choosing to be part of. This included beginning to deal with the somewhat unique, strange and very Israeli atmosphere of moving so immediately from the sadness of one chag to the joy of the other within the space of a few minutes.

For the evening and day of Yom HaAtzma'ut we gave them the day off and encouraged them to go off and explore how Israelis and different parts of Israel celebrate Independence Day here. For most that consisted of parties and concerts in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and various other cities on the evening and barbeques and a carnival atmosphere kind of fun in the parks or city centre on the day itself. Again, many of them were able to reflect on the very different ways that Israelis celebrate Yom HaAtzma'ut here as compared to how this is done and what they are used to in the Diaspora.

Next up we had Lag B'Omer, a time traditionally marked in Israel with, among other traditions, bonfires in every neighbourhood. The evening of Lag B’Omer fell this year on a Saturday and thus, because the Rabbinic and education authorities wanted to discourage people from maybe breaking Shabbat before it had gone out, they gave children another day off school and encouraged people to hold these bonfires on Sunday instead. All this mean was that, for most of the country, there became two nights (and in some cases even three nights) of these festivities with different groups and communities doing them on Saturday, Sunday or even Monday evening!

On the Saturday evening those Machonikim around Jerusalem were free to wander round the city and see how Israeli families and kids celebrated this chag while another whole group of about 25 of them organised a bus to travel up North to Mount Meron, the site of the tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the anniversary of whose death is on Lag B’Omer. Traditionally, hundreds of thousands of people make pilgrimages on Lag B’Omer to celebrate this anniversary and our group joined in to see what it was all about. They certainly had a unique experience although it did involve a lot of travelling for quite a short visit and they then got back at about 9.00 in the morning am or so after an all-night coach ride home to go straight into their classes – now that’s commitment to experiencing different aspects of Israeli society! Then, the next night, on the Sunday evening, our madrichim organised a Machon bonfire for them in the local neighbourhood complete with singing and bonfire type food and most of the group came along for at least some of the evening and the atmosphere was really lovely.

Finally, in terms of these chagim, last week was Shavuoth. Just before the chag began we ran a couple of sets of study session, a day time Tikun Leil/Yom if you will. We decided to do this in the daytime rather than doing a Machon Tikun Leil Shavuoth in the evening so that those who were staying in Jerusalem could join the many Jerusalemites who stay up all night to go to study sessions and lectures all over the city, which being in Jerusalem, means that quite a few are in Jerusalem. Lots of them did in fact do this and quite a few others went round to the houses of a couple of the Machon lecturers who invited them over for a more home-atmosphere study evening. At about 4.00 a.m. a whole group of them walked down to the Kotel along with hundreds if not thousands of others Jerusalemites and then went back to Kiryat Moriah to sleep and recover a bit. Since Shavuoth was on a Wednesday this year we decided to the give them the Thursday off from classes and that meant that they had a 4-5 day break including the chag itself. Quite a number of them took the opportunity to go away for some or all of that period to visit friends and family and/or to go camping or even, for one group, to combine the camping with biking around the Kinneret. This morning they returned refreshed to the normal Machon routine for these final weeks. 

These special days have of course taken up much of the focus of recent weeks but, apart from their regular courses and classes which have all continued on as usual, there have also been the usual number of other special events and highlights. There have been three Yom Yisrael days out. The first was focussed on the issue of minorities in Israel, especially Israeli Arabs, and involved a trip to Givat Haviva to meet with and hear from a number of Israeli Arabs about their experiences and the issues that affect their communities. 

The second Yom Yisrael focussed on the issue of Israel as a democratic state and compromised of a special tour of the Knesset for our group where they got to meet a number of MK’s followed by staying at the Knesset for a game designed to explain the Israeli coalitions based political system and then a peula involving party presentations and a mock election ns to see how Machonikim would have voted in our recent elections (which it turns out, perhaps not surprisingly, was somewhat different from the way Israelis did actually vote at the end of last year).  

Finally, we went for the third of these Yom Yisrael days down South to Sderot to meet with residents and learn about what life is like in an Israeli city that has been under regular rocket fire from the Gaza Strip for many years and then across to the Erez checkpoint at the border with Gaza to look at the issues related to this aspect of the conflict. The evening before this trip we offered an optional evening lecture from one of the most popular Machon lecturers, Yair on the background to this part of the conflict and 55 of the 87 came along to his excellent presentation. Yair, as well as being an ex Machonik himself, is now the International Media Coordinator at Office of the President of the State of Israel, President Shimon Peres.

As to the evenings, the optional Sunday Selections have included an Israeli Film Night, a Mind, Body & Soul session focussed on approaches to holistic health and a fascinating meeting and discussion with a number of Jewish and Palestinian young people who have been involved in various dialogue projects through ICCI, an organisation that encourages the coming together of the three monotheistic faiths’ to try and show how religion can be a force for healing within society,

The Wednesday evening programmes have included another couple of optional Beit Midrash session, one on the themes of food ethics and vegetarianism in Judaism and one on ‘Aliya L’Regel’, the idea of the traditional pilgrimages that Jews make to Jerusalem on the three foot festivals each year, Pesach, Succoth & Shavuoth.  Also, there was another of the Chavura peer led programmes for the whole machzor, this time an excellent and really well run fun murder mystery evening as well as an optional programme with the better English speakers from within the Latin American Machon for those people who wanted to get to know some of them a little better.

Another new structure we have started in the last couple of weeks is a slot on Sunday afternoons called "Open House". Most of the education on Machon is organised in courses lasting anything from 4-12 weeks but on this afternoon we bring in some interesting outside people and offer a fascinating range of one-off sessions that they can do without needing to commit to a whole course. We try to cover different content and methodologies each time and just some of the sessions offered so far have been: Jewish Stars in Hollywood, Urban Navigation Skills, Judaism and the Matrix, the History of Youth Movements, a Creative Writing Workshop and a meeting with Michael Freeman, an ex Machonik who is very soon off to be Israeli’s Deputy Ambassador to South Africa.

One major aspect of Machon is its pluralistic nature with a group of people with very different ideological beliefs needing to live and learn together. One particular challenge in this regard is the way in which Shabbat happens. Most weekends are free and Machon participants can choose whether they stay at Kiryat Moriah or go off doing their own thing around Israel. Those that stay need to try and be aware of the differing needs and sensitivities involved in the very different levels of Shabbat observance and this isn't always easy. For two Shabbatot during the programme however we require that they all stay together and we aim to work out a programme that tries to be as pluralist as possible while respecting all the different beliefs. The first of these Shabbatot, in the first month of Machon, was run by the tzevet (staff team) and the second which took place a week or so ago, was run by the Machonikim themselves.

A va'ad (sub-committee) made up of representatives from the different youth movements and ideologies put an enormous effort into making this happen. They organised a great programme that included a choice of creative activities (chugim) on Friday afternoon, a joint Kabbalat Shabbat service and an Oneg on Friday evening with a choice of a relaxing meditation or a story time session. On Shabbat morning they did not try and do something all together but rather organised three separate services for each of the three streams of Judaism represented on this Machon. In the afternoon there was a choice of what they called “intellectual chugim” and then, after a little Shabbat shluff break, they finished the Shabbat with a Seuda Shlishit third meal and a lovely Havdala to close. Of course, not everyone was equally comfortable with everything in the programme but overall it was really successful and had a great atmosphere and a great deal of credit must go to all of those who helped plan this very successful Shabbat BYachad. . 

Despite the really intense nature of Machon we still encourage Machonikim to make the very most of these four months by doing even more in their limited free time. We are always willing to encourage and support the initiatives they come up with and this machzor has been one of the best for some time in this regard.

Some of the youth movements meet regularly on their free evening to spend time building a stronger sense of their group's youth movement identity while a group of them have organised an inter-movement, mixed football World Cup which has involved a high percentage of the machzor in playing as well as drawing a large crowd and a great ruach (atmosphere) for all of the lunchtime games. The organisers have really gone to some lengths to make this special including such things as making sure there are referees and linesmen, doing a live commentary during some of the games and producing a video of the “story of the World Cup”.  

In addition they have organised some extra classes even in the limited free time they have in their lunchtimes. One group of 15 people are doing an extra Judaism class that they asked for which is happening with one of their teachers, Marc, and another group lobbied us for a :”introduction to philosophy class”. We managed to find a teacher for this and some 25 or so of them wanted to join but we had to restrict it to 15 people because of the needs of the teacher. I must say that for us it is really wonderful to see such a great level of commitment to learning that many of them in this year’s machzor are showing.

Finally in terms of their initiatives, the machzor mazkirut (a committee of representatives from each youth movement) are organising an afternoon fundraising English speaking carnival for local kids in order to raise money for a charity of their choice to take place in their last week of Machon. They are really putting a lot of work into it and hopefully it will be the success it deserves to be.

That's about it for this update. Our next and final parents’ letter will be at the very end of the Machon in a month’s time. If any of you are around in Israel visiting your children in mid-June when the Machon programme ends then you are more than welcome to join us at the final graduating tekes (ceremony) which will be on the morning of Thursday June 13^th, probably at about 11.00 am.

Haggai Kimmelman and all the Machon staff