Final Machon Letter

June 2013

Dear Parents,

Shalom for one last time from Jerusalem where the 125^th English speaking Machon has just ended. It has been a pretty packed final month with lots of highlights since I last wrote to you all.

A major highlight of this last month or so was the Tiyul Tzafon (Northern Tiyul), a full week away from Kiryat Moriah up in the North of Israel, getting to know that part of the country. Among many different cities and places we went to, we visited the Kinneret, the borders with Lebanon and Syria, the Golan Heights, a Druze village, Rosh HaNikra and Acco. We explored various topics while at these places including such things as the early pioneers and Aliyot, our borders, past wars and future threats, our relationships with Lebanon and Syria and minorities in Israel. Some special highlights of the tiyul were the visit to the Kinneret graveyard where many of the early Zionist heroes are buried, some beautiful hikes including one pretty long one which included a swim in a beautiful pool towards the end of the hike and kayaking down the Jordan river.

The whole tiyul was done in partnership with the JNF (Jewish National Fund) who helped us fund the tiyul. In terms of accommodation, we camped out for a couple of the nights in big tents at the JNF site at Lavie which was a really beautiful setting to come back to after a hard day’s activities and the increasing partnership we are creating with them is very positive and is something we hope to really build on even further in the future. For the other two nights we were in Nahariya. As always, a group of the Machonikim were very involved in planning and running certain elements of the tiyul and they really did a great job including such things as providing amusement, games and creative quizzes and songs for the long bus rides, running peulot in the evenings and an occasional day time peula linked to the educational visit of the particular pace we were visiting at the time.

Since the last parents’ letter we have had just one and half weeks of regular studies and classes, one week before going off on the Northern tiyul and a final half a week after we got back. This was therefore the period when all of the on-going classes and courses came to an end as we asked them in each one to reflect on what they'd learned in each area and how, as a result, their thoughts and beliefs had changed.

Also in this fortnight were the usual array of special events including a final Yom Yisrael day trip entitled "Over the Green Line" where we took them into a couple of the settlements in the West Bank; Efrat and Hebron. We started the day with an overview lecture placing the history of this part of Israel in context and then went off to Efrat to meet the mayor and hear from him what life is like in his city. Then it was off to Hebron where we first visited the Tomb of the Patriarchs where all of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs except Rachel are believed to be buried. In Hebron we also met with the Spokesman of the Hebron Jewish community. Finally, we met with one of the representatives of Peace Now to hear a left-wing perspective on the issue.  This was generally agreed to be one of their most thought-provoking and interesting trips and sparked off lots of conversations and debates among the Machonikim, coming as they do from their very different youth movement ideological backgrounds.

Other special events in this period included the final optional Beit Midrash on the theme of “our right to the land” in the sources run by someone who teaches at one of Israel’s secular humanist Yeshivas. Coming as it did the very evening we got back from the above “Over the Green Line” Yom Yisrael, it was of course very topical and a significant number of them chose to come along.

There were two more excellent, optional Sunday Selections evenings; a Psychodrama session reflecting on the issues of being away for a year on a gap year and the meaning of “home” in that context and an “Accessibility Tour” where they got to experience one of the trendy streets quite near Machon that has loads of restaurants and coffee bars in it, Emek Refaim, from the perspective of someone with a disability and to see just how easy or difficult it is for disabled people to negotiate the streets and shops there.

There were two more weeks of the Open House structure with a selection of 4 random sessions each time which included such eclectic choices as: “Internet Anti-Semitism”, “Lateral Thinking”, “Intro to the Arab World”, the Israeli Kitchen and an “Israeli Politics simulation game”. This framework has proved a really successful addition to the second half of their programme with a lot of them saying commenting on just how hard it is to choose each time and some even finding themselves wanting to go them all!

In terms of evening peulot, the final Chavurah ran their big peer-led programme which was a fun look back at the last 4 months of Machon plus there was also the annual MASA evening event attended by thousands of long-term Israel programme participants in the country at this time. The highlight for them was a fantastic performance by the Israeli Acapela group, “The Voca People”.

For most of the penultimate week of the programme, we moved into a special seminar entitled 'The Contemporary Jewish World' where we aimed to bring all of the Machon learning together and to leave them with some of the big questions about Israel, Judaism, Zionism and the Jewish People to take with them and to carry on thinking about during either the second half of their programmes as they actually go out into Israeli society for those Southerners who have just started their year and as a form of conclusion to their whole educational journey for the Northerners who are now finishing their year.

One of the biggest highlights of this few days was a huge simulation game looking at the different factions in the Jewish world, both historically and today where, through a form of 'Jewish Congress', we debated which movement and approach to Judaism held, and now holds, the greatest prospect for the Jewish people both surviving and thriving. There was also a budget simulation game where they had to decide on what the key priorities were for a Diaspora Jewish community today, workshop sessions on such topics as “Who is Israeli”, “Who Needs a Shaliach” and “Israel-Diaspora relations”, inspiring talks by high quality speakers such as Avraham Infeld and Gadi Taub, a trip to the Museum of the Diaspora in Tel Aviv (where most felt they would have liked even longer time to wander around) and a really interesting Aliya panel with people from the youth movement world who’ve come here at a variety of times in the last 20 years or os, talking about the challenges and achievements of their own personal Aliya stories. All in all, this seminar provided a very good way to conclude the content learning aspect of Machon.

The vast majority of the group chose to stay at Kiryat Moriah for their final free Shabbat weekend so that they could be together as a group. On the Friday morning most of them went off to Tel Aviv to see/take part in Tel Aviv’s colourful Gay Pride Parade and then, after a mostly relaxing Shabbat, they went off on Saturday evening to the Old City to see the Jerusalem Light Show and then finished off with an impromptu dance party.

Then, in this final week we started with a 2 day special tiyul, again planned entirely by the Mazkirut, a representative committee made up of people from each of the movements. The first day saw a lovely hike, something this particular machzor has really enjoyed doing, followed by the afternoon and evening spent on one of Israel’s lovely beaches near the Netanya area.

Mostly it was a very chilled, social atmosphere with plenty of time for them to simply chat to their friends while watching the sunset but also included a somewhat more energetic Beach Olympics competition and a thoughtful, reflective style peula where they got to think back over their Shnat /Machon period to help them, both as individuals and as a group, look back at what they'd achieved and the relationships they'd made and to start the process of saying goodbye to each other and to the community they've built together over these last four months.

As a nice little bonus, the food was really plentiful and probably voted by them as the best they have had so far during Machon! After a night spent sleeping on the beach under the stars and an early breakfast, they headed off to a Water Park for a final ‘kef’ (fun) experience before heading back ‘home’ to Kiryat Moriah for a shower and a well-earned sleep. All, in all; a very well planned and thoroughly enjoyable start to their final week on Machon.

After they got back everyone was really busy with such closure kind of things as finishing off their Yearbook editing their group videos and collecting their various obligatory t-shirts and any other 'gimmicks' they'd produced. These final few days were taken up with various sikum (closure) activities run by us including, among other things, filling in evaluation forms to help them reflect on their experience and to help us make the Machon programme better, a final Chavura session with again time for reflection on how they've developed individually and as a group through both the group chavura time and through regular individual one-on-one conversations, and a Carnival initiated and run by them for local neighbourhood kids (in English) to give something back to the local community and also to raise some funds for a local Tzedaka project which tries to alleviate some of the worst effects of poverty in Jerusalem. It was a really lovely event with stalls and music and food that they’d baked themselves and a good chance to put some of their hadracha skills into practice, albeit with a much younger age group than they will be working with back home in the movement. They really worked hard to decorate the site and to make some creative and fun activities for the kids and it was great to see how they all pulled together to make it happen despite the relatively little free time they had available at this point in the programme. They also managed to raise a few thousands shekels for the tzedaka organisation they were sponsoring.

Yesterday evening there was the final last night activities which consisted of a nice buffet-style meal on the Tayelet (the beautiful local look view of the whole of Jerusalem), a really excellent cabaret style evening of songs, skits and screenings of the various videos that they'd made plus the giving of the letters they’d written to each other and then a final party at a local club that we had hired out for them. All in all the whole final evening took place in a really lovely atmosphere and it was clear just how much this machzor has bonded throughout this last few months.

That took us to the final morning earlier today where there was an early wake up to do all the final packing, clearing up and the room check-outs and then the traditional Machon closing tekes (ceremony). Quite a few friends and parents who are out at the moment visiting were actually able to join us for this session where we and the Machonikim, handed out their certificates, yearbooks and photos and made some final speeches before formally closing the programme and sending them on their way either home for the Northerners or to the rest of their year with their respective youth movements for the Southerners.

Finally, most of the group went off to eat their last meal (for a long time at least) in the Kiryat Moriah dining room, joined by a few of the parents who thus got to share in this classic Shnat/Machon experience, and then there was just time for some tears and some goodbyes and it was off with their respective movements to the next stage of their journeys.

In closure, we hope that you have appreciated these update letters and that your children have enjoyed their Machon experience educationally, socially, spiritually and in terms of their personal development as much as we've enjoyed working with them.

All the best,

Haggai & the Machon tzevet