From The Desk of the Mazkirim – August & September 2017
Shalom Channichim, Bogrim and Parents
It feels like we say every month as the year goes by, but August and September were jam packed months filled with Habonim activity. In a nutshell, August saw our Israel Leadership Tour take place for our senior Bogrim, VM seminar for all the Roshim where they began planning what promises to be an amazing Machaneh, the official launch for Machaneh17 Na’aleh where we got 200 sign ups in the first 12 hours of the form being open, a Mini Mach 2 in Cape Town that filled our hearts with Habo Magic and much more. September saw Johannesburg’s Mini Machaneh coupled with lots of bogrim events.
Read on to find out exactly what’s been happening in the Habo-sphere this month.
As always, if you have any questions about movement activities please feel free to email any of the email addresses below.
Jess (jess@habo.org.za) and David (david@habo.org.za)
Aleh Ve’Hagshem
David Schwartz Jess Levitt
Rosh Machaneh S’ganit Rosh Machaneh
Contents
- Machaneh’17 Na’aleh
- Israel Leadership Tour
- Kenim Update
- Shnat 2017 Update
- Upcoming Events to Diarise!
Machaneh’17 Na’aleh – We Will Rise
Machaneh17 Na’aleh launched this month – and what an unprecedented response there has been! With over 200 sign ups in the first 12 hours, and more rolling in since then, we are confident that Habonim Machaneh is once again going to be most powerful and far reaching Machaneh in the Southern Hemisphere. Of course it comes at no surprise that there is such a large influx in campers this year after the resounding success of Machaneh16 as well as our fantastically successful events in 2017, but to see so many in such a short period is incredibly inspiring.
The Va’ad Machaneh (all of the Roshim) also had their seminar in which planning for each shichvah’s specific education, activities, and fun was started to be planned. From Shtilim’s Kibbutz project to Shomrim projects week, Machaneh17 is already shaping up to be one for the books! We are incredibly excited for the power that this VM will surely bring, and for all of the Bogrim to join their tzvatim and join in on the planning for the best three weeks that Habonim can possible over this December.
If your friends or family have yet to sign up for Habonim Machaneh17 Na’aleh, we urge you to tell them to do so ASAP in order to avoid disappointment https://www.habo.org.za/signup
Israel Leadership Tour
The 7th-16th of August saw a group of 8 senior bogrim, lead by S’ganit Mazkira Jess Levitt alongside Michelle Mizrahi, head to Israel on one of our premier leadership tours. The aim of the tour was to take a group of older bogrim and have them engage with what it means to take responsibility over Habonim Dror Southern Africa, what does it mean to be a Zionist in the diaspora, issues and complexities in Israeli society on the ground, the conflict and occupation and the movement – in Israel and in South Africa.
The group consisted of Jessie Froman, Talia Anstey, Zac Fleishman, Ryan Kopping, Eden Plein, Ashley Fischhoff, Zena Kruss van der Heever and Jesse Copelyn. The group travelled all over the country, staying at Kibbutz Eshbal, the Shnat house in Hod HaSharon and Kiryat Moriah in Jerusalem. We visited Haifa, Tel Aviv, Sderot, Jerusalem, Kibbutz Yizreel, Mitzpe Shalom and many other places. The group spent their time in Israel meeting with various speakers such as Danny Gutwein from the Haifa University, Daniel Siederman, Noah Sittah from Women of the Wall, Ruth Stevens & Sivan Bamberger from Dror Israel, Muki Tzur the ex-mazkir of the Kibbutz movement, Haggai Kimmelman, Garin Techina (The garin that ex-mazkira Kelly Brook joined in January 2017), members of Shin Pey (the equivalent to the Aviv Shichvah in Hanoar Ha’Oved Ve’Halomed) and many others. When the group weren’t meeting with speakers and guests they were engaging in peulot run by Jess and Mish or just generally having a good time together in the land of milk and honey.
All in all, it was an incredibly successful tour and one that the participants will always look back on fondly. It definitely cemented some bonds within the group and coming home, this group of dedicated senior bogrim are ready to take HDSA by storm and take responsibility over this movement. Well done to everyone involved in the running of ILT2017 and thank you to all those who spent countless hours planning the tour and who contributed financially to ensure this tour happened – we could not have run this without you and your continued support.
Kenim Update
Cape Town
The Cape Town Ken was very involved in the planning of, with the help of Shavit and Givon, Young Limmud for Limmud Cape Town. This was a fantastic opportunity for us to participate in the wider Jewish community and hopefully a relationship that we can continue in the future.
We recently just came back from a fantastic weekend away with Mini-Machaneh Lifroach run by the energised and inspired Mini-Mach VP of Ashley Fischhoff, Tia Unterslak and Cleo Candy. Shtilim and Garinim had a weekend filled with chinnuch and kef that will surely keep them coming back for years
to come. At the same time a seminar was run for Givon on the campsite. They worked in the kitchen cooking food for everyone, and learnt about the story of Chatzar Kinneret, Degania and the Romny Group, looking at how to create the New Jew in their societies and movement. Well done and thank you to the whole Mini-Mach VM for their continued hard work over the weekend and before.
The ken also had members travelling to Israel over the winter break to participate in HDSA’s Israel Leadership Tour. The chaverim have seemingly come back inspired and ready to take ownership of the movement which is fantastic to see. If the tour, in its new conception, can continue to inspire older bogrim then it will serve and energize the movement for years to come, the Cape Town Ken is already benefiting from it.
Keep an eye out for more Friday Night Meetings and of course everyone’s favourite annual late Friday night-time activity THE AMAZING RACE. Peulot will continue to run at the bayit for channichim until machaneh so come help plan or run those if you feel a vacuum of channichim in your lives.
Johannesburg
August has been an incredibly busy and exciting month for the Johannesburg Ken. After a break from bogrim activities due to exams, we resumed FNMs with a bang. We have discussed many topics surrounding identity and culture as well as getting into the machaneh spirit. Signups for this year’s camp were opened on the 20th of August, with tons of signups rushing in from all shichavot.
We also hosted the Machaneh16 DVD screening at Rosebank’s Ster Kinekor movie theatre on Monday the 21st of August. Hundreds of channichim and bogrim came to relive their camp memories, see their friends and chat to their madrichim. Lots of popcorn was eaten, laughs were shared, some tears were shed and everyone left super excited for Machaneh17 Na’aleh!
We entered into the month of September with our second Mini Machaneh of the year. Mini Mach Na’alehtjie saw 103 Habonim chaverim gather together on
Ebenerzer Farm in Delmas for a fun and education-filled weekend. This just goes to show that the Johannesburg Ken has reached new and exciting heights in 2017 as it was the first Mini Machaneh 2 that has taken place in Johannesburg in recent years. We then rode this momentum into a fun day with Bands at the Bayit that took place on the 10th of September. This chilled afternoon saw the band Goldilox rocking out to a large crowd of both channichim and bogrim.
Shnat 2017 Update
The beginning of August saw us close our Summer Kaveret chapter and move up north to Kibbutz Yizrael. After spending our shnat so far in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Kibbutz life is nothing like we’ve experienced before! Our weekdays involve working in construction, gardening, the kitchen, the chicken ‘lul’ and the kindergarten, tiyulim (outings) in the north, mifgashim (meetings) with Kibbutzniks and hours spent in the kibbutz swimming pool. Many of the kibbutzniks are Olim from HDSA who provide us with a fantastic example of our movement’s Hagshama (fulfillment) as well as awesome stories about HDSA from the past.
This month we took part in HHH – History of Habonim Dror’s Hagshama – Seminar with the Habonim Dror Australia and New Zealand Channichim in which we explored our movement’s means of Aliyah and Fulfillment. We began with the history of the Kibbutz Movement and the Second Aliyah, moved towards privatization of the Kibbutzim and the establishment of communal urban Kibbutzim or ‘the Irbutz’. We traveled to museums and kibbutzim as well as met with members of the movement from around the world who have made Aliyah and are living out our movement’s ideology. The seminar was run by madrichim from HDSA and HDOZ who have recently made aliyah and are living the Hagshama with which we engaged this seminar. Making aliyah very much on our minds! – Adam Koor, current Shnattie.
Upcoming Events and Activities
Shtilim and Bonim Sukkah Event (Johannesburg) – 8th October 2017
Come join us at the Johannesburg Bayit this Sunday for a fantastic tea party in our very own sukkah! It’s at 3.30pm and costs R20. It promises to be lots of fun and filled with Habo magic.
Machaneh’17 Na’aleh (National) 8th-27th December 2017
We will be launching our Machaneh later this month so keep an eye out to make sure you don’t miss out on the Habonim magic this December.
Alongside these events, many more (smaller) events will be run in both Kenim for Channichim and Maddrichim so keep an eye out for more information on those.
To keep updated with the latest happening of Habonim Dror SA, please go like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and keep checking our website.
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