June
2013
Dear
Parents,
Shalom
for one last time from Jerusalem where the 125th 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
