Update

This past Thursday the Workshoppers headed out to Tel-Aviv for their second Siyur (out trip) of Boneh. Building off of the themes they have been covering for the past two weeks, the chanichim began their Siyur with a trip to he Diaspora Museum. Built in the 1970s by Abba Kovner,the famous Hebrew poet and leader of the Vilna Ghetto prising, the museum was designed to educate Israeli youth about the long history of the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora. Switching between exploring the museum on their own and participating in group discussions, the workshoppers learned much about the long history of the Jewish People and began to tackle the  question of how Israelis and Diaspora Jews see one another. For many of the chanichim, asking questions about  what ties the Jewish people together five thousand miles away from their homes – but surrounded by models of synagogues from as far away as India and as close as Elkins Park, Phillidephia – was a meaningful one. It isn't often that you get to hear the story of a member of your kvutsah’s first USY dance at Beth Sholom in Elkins Park  alongside the story of the destruction of the oldest synagogue in Baghdad. From the Diaspora museum, we went  on to a little lighter second half of the day in Shuk HaCarmel in Tel-Aviv for a falafel and Schwarma lunch and an  intro-to-the-city scavenger hunt. All had good fun and left the day with a little more knowledge in their heads and a few extra blisters on their feet.

-Adam Levi, Rakaz Boneh

This weekend, the chanichim will also begin preparations for Yam le Yam (Sea to Sea), a four day hiking trip from the Mediterranean to the Sea of Galilee. They will hike with fellow Habonim chanichim from the UK, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

Boneh(To build)

The Workshoppers have now moved onto Kibbutz Ein Dor, the kibbutz that workshoppers have called home since workshop 58, just outside of Afula.  They got settled into their new homes for the next three months and they had a week full of Boneh Orientation.

They were given the Boneh schedule that is packed with Hebrew for six hours a week, current events in relation to history of Israel course, Hadricha class where by kvuzah they talk about leadership, childcare skills, and education.  They have group active time, chuggim; interest groups that will be run for them to choose from, Shi’ur; which is the time of the week where there are educational modules on topics such as Jewish identity, Exile, Migration, anti Semitism, and modern Zionism and Israeli History. They will also have Avodah on kibbutz two mornings a week. A yom kvuzah run by their madrichim (group based on group dynamics and personal development) and lastly a Siyur where they will go to various interesting and places in Israel that are relevant to what they have been talking about in Shi’ur.

This past week they went on a Siyur of Nazareth to look at the multiple stories and histories that exist in the country, and ended the day swimming on the beach in Haifa.

This week they also got to connect with an amazing man from Kibbutz named Areyah who was a member of the Palmach and an original founder of the kibbutz. He shared his very interesting life story with them and it was good for the kids to have an opportunity to start to build relationships with people from the kibbutz.

The Peulot this week were intro conversations about ownership over the program, boneh and Jewish identity. The kvutzot also worked on finalizing there kupa strucutures.

We got a chance to see the workshopers and we enjoyed getting to know them better. We spoke about goals and thoughts for the new year over some apples and honey.

They will be celebrating Rosh Hashana together and have a group of them that are taking responsibility for how they want to have holidays together. Many of them will also visit family and friends. 

Kvutzah Split

On Wednesday evening, the moment the chanichim had all been nervously anticipating arrived: the Kvzuah Split. The madrichim divided the chanichim into two groups that will be ther primary support stucutres throughout the year. although they will continue to experience many seminars, tiyulim(hiking trips), and other educations activities togther as a shichvah(year level), the kvuzahwill be the main gorup through which they will learn and share their year together. The chanichim were very excited to receive their kvutzot andspent the evening with there madrichim getting to know one and other better. 

On thursday, the chanichim embarked on their first day tiyul. THey spend five hours kinking through streams and small pools in the Golan Heights, along the Jilabun Stream. Tonight, Workshop 62 settled in for the wekend at Shlomi Youth Hostel, in the north of Israel . This will be the finalpart of Orientation Semianr before the chanichim move to Kibbutz Ein Dor to begin Boneh on Sunday. 

Kvuzah with Sarah Fisher and Yoav 

Daniel	Berman
Ari	Carroll
Julia	DeVarti
Abigail	Friedland
Jonah	Hamilton
Jeremiah	Hansen
Anya	Hutter
Carmel	Laniado
Noah	Lichtblau
Nicole	Martin
Maya	Paris-Saper
Gilly	Perry
Max	Rosenstein
Rachel	Sacks
Amit	Schwalb
Yonatan	Segev
Daniel	Shippen
omri	silberstein
Sydney	Switzer
Shahar	Sztainer
Maia	Volk
David	Zager

Kvuzah with Carmi and Yael

Lior	Appel-Kraut
Lior	Bar-El
Lia	BenYishay
Cooper	Boyar
Micah	Finkelstein
Samantha	Fogel
Naomi	Frisch
Leeza	Gavronsky
Ethan	Goldstein
Yael	Horowitz
Aaron	Kay
Deborah	Kopp
Nicolas	Levy
Sarah	Lieberman
sam	Myers
Elan	Ness-Cohn
Zachary	Newbart
Joel	Rice
Doron	Shore
Jordan	Siden
Daniel	Weiss
Rachel	Yahalom

  

Welcome To Israel

Workshop 62 At JFK airport 

The Madrichim from the left Yael, Sarah, Carmi, Yoav 

The group at Youth Hostel Tel Chai in the North.

All 44 workshoppers are all together at the Youth Hostel Tel Chi. Played some games and had an introduction Tekes(ceremony)

Orientation Seminar

Everyone arrived safely in Israel. The group is now on it's way to the Tel Hai Youth Hostel for orientation seminar! Everyone is excited for the year that's about to begin.

Workshop Fly Day

All of the workshoppers are through security and on the way to Israel with Brianna! We will post pictures from fly day Tuesday.