Ivrit Ivrit!

Recently, I have been making an intense effort to become fluent in Hebrew. From recording every word I come across that I dont know, to only speaking to peakock in Hebrew, the language is becoming more and more a part of my life. For years Jews have been stuck in exile with no home. Now we have a home, yippie! But as important as this is to me, something just as important is the language. Just like the Jews were lost, so was our language, it even dissapeared completely for years! But, meraculously, it came back. (Shout out to Eliezer Ben Yehuda!) I think that just as there is now a Jewish state, there is also a language for Jews too! To me, this is something that cannot be taken for granted, just as the state. As a result of this, I have made a concious effort to make Hebrew a much more relevant part of my life, in fact, I see it as just as important as english.
So that brings me, and maybe you, to the question of why is this blog not in Hebrew! A few explanations: First, there is no Hebrew on this computer, which is too bad, but even if there would be, its so hard to type in Hebrew! But second, and more importantly, my Hebrew is not yet at the level it should be, due to the fact that in almost any situation, if i say something to the bus driver, our neighbor, or my chanichim in Hebrew, the response will be in English, something along the lines of, "eh its okay, why you talk in Hebrew?" Furthermore, it makes it even more frustrating when this English response I speak of is made up of words that barely make up a sentance!
Being in Israel has made me feel like I am at home. I have the freedom and means to experience it as I want. However when it comes to simple interactions and I cannot even get a response in Hebrew, its a little bit frustrating. I wish I could give you more info but again, its time to give back the computer! My inspiration for this blog comes from James, one of the Pioneers of the New Kibbutz Movement, and for more information on this and his experience i suggest reading his blog entry on the matter.
Layla Tov!

Jersey Shore: Our 6th pillar of H.D

Something everyone must know is G&G's, and maybe all of Workshops love for the MTV show Jersey Shore. Talk about confusion about Garin Aliya, these guys would be great!
This is from Jerseyshorequotes.com
-Everybody at the Shore definitely knows The Situation. As far as I know, everybody loves The Situation, and if you don't love The Situation, I'm gonna make you love The Situation.-Mike "The Situation."
-It's obvious that Sammi has a crush on me... it goes back to the days of prehistoric kindergarten.-Mike "The Situation."
-That's why I don't eat lobster or anything like that cause they're alive when you kill it.-Snooks, or whatever her name is.
-G.T.L. baby. Gym, Tanning, Laundry.-Mike "The Situation."
-I’m gonna break it down dancing, I love the beats, I got my creepy patent move.-Ronnie.

Pre Poland Seminars; 1&2: Important peulot.

As Workshop continues there are challenges that arise daily which face the kvutza, just as any other kvutza in the world. However these challenges are challenges which, no matter how difficult or frustrating they may be, are overcome. By challenges I mean a lot, ranging from kupa issues to value expression issues to ideological disagreements. However, at this point in the Workshop journey arises possibly the most intense of all challenges, where everyone in the kvutza will have a chance to truly function as a kvutza with a tight knit support system, where every one is there for one another.
Two weeks ago we began our Poland journey on a yom kvutza. Since then, we have experienced two intense seminars which have remarkably made me think of the Holocaust on a level I never have before. It is no secret that seminars have been where I have made the most breakthroughs in terms of my personal developments. On Rabin seminar we had our first exposure to apathy and racism in Israel and during Habo history seminar many of us had ideological breakthroughs where we were able to relate to Socialist Zionism on an entire new level. DUring these seminars, I came away with two things in terms of how I think of the Holocaust, as well as an almost endless list of wonders. One being that everything that happened was a choice made by human beings,and two is that with the previous being said, the value of human life which we speak so highly of really is a value which I need to aspire to carrying out every day. Seeing as we probably had a total of a billion peulot, there is no way I could possibly write about all of them, but the things which really stand out to me are blog worthy. Before I go any further, I would like to express how excited I, and the rest of the kvutz is for Miriam to continue to facilitate our journey, as she did an extraordinary job in the prep seminars.
Seminar one: "The journey to uncover the roots of the zionist revolution and the youth movements heroism."
-Question to keep in mind: what's the deal with the tittle of this seminar? there are a lot of important words in that one sentence.
In all of my education of the Holocaust I have struggled to understand that all the events that happened were by humans. I had no way of getting around the thoughts of labeling every nazi as a monster or a robot. Entering the seminar, I maintained that mindset, but the first text we read changed the way I think about things.
I cannot find a link to this article so i will do my best to explain. The tittle of the article is "Against mystification: The Holocaust as a Historical Phenomenon." In a nut shell, this article gives reasons why the Holocaust, due to a variety of reasons, is so often called a mystification. (Mystification: anywhere you look for a definition, you will come across something like, "to hide; or make unclear." or, "confusion resulting from failure to understand." To me, an example of mystification would be apathy towards a certain subject, as a result of feeling that that particular subject is too difficult to comprehend. With that understood, the article gives a few reasons, and points of clarification as to why mystifications do exist, and how to treat them. Above all, from this peula I learned no matter what it is that I am about to engage myself in, it is important to know my intentions. The first mystification is the explanation of why (what I just gave an example of,) people fail to recognize the Holocaust, or on the other hand a mystification could be one thinking that they have nothing left to learn about the Holocaust, and feeling that they have already a complete understanding of it. There are two simple examples of this. One, the attitude where one expresses that they studied that matter, felt sad, and feel they have a complete understanding. And two, like the first, one having a complete grasp on the subject in terms of numbers and statistics, and that individuals knowledge not going passed that point. These are both, in a way a form of escapism. At this point, we went off to a sicha about the value of human life. A question which came up was, what is worse, a holocaust or a genocide. The article introduces the matter,and explains that as a result of the mystification of Jews being responsible for virtually all issues facing the countries people, (from economic economic issues to others)and animal image the Jews were given by the nazis, the intention of the nazi regime was to completely wipe out the Jews. This is a Holocaust. Further explanation; the elimination of every member of a group, eliminating national identity. On the other hand,according to the article, a genocide is taking down a people, but not completely eliminating them. Rather than eliminating their existence, making them objects of people; denationalizing them by taking down their government, social institutions, economy, biological, and as a replacement of the loss of these things of one group, they are replaced with the opposite by the host population. For instance, its no question that it was every intention of the nazis to do this to the Gypsies. The Jews were victims of a Holocaust, and the Gypsies were victims of a genocide, as they were made into a lower class. In the midst of this, the question was brought up: what is worse, A Holocaust or a Genocide? Furthermore, is it worse to have your life taken, or to live a life of torture and be a lower class, yet with some slight hope of one day living a better life. The question is a tough one, and the answer can be different for everyone. But for me, this is where I have formed my opinion that any form of human life is to be valued, no matter what. Under this condition, you can still in some way experience life rather than the alternative. The act of killing is one person taking away another's right to live, in other words, someone else is controlling your death and denying your existence. Back to the point of mystification, there are countless explanations, and I may just give a few reasons for the untrue reasoning of these mystifications. (Or however much time I have before I need to give this computer back!) So, another example of mystification is what I referred to way earlier. There is a stigma of dehumanizing nazis. Doing this, or having the understandings or thoughts that Hitler was a robot is making it difficult to understand the truth. The truth that there were all people who made choices. Yes he was a human, but one who chose to handle problems in an almost unreal way, but it was real, and we cannot tell ourself it wasn't. We came to the conclusion that its not okay to dehumanize the nazis, because they were people who fell for the belief that there is one way to solve problems, and that was inhumane. However stating they were robots is just covering up the truth.
A next mystification mentioned is that of Zionism, and Gutter literature. This type of literature stated that the Zionist movement wanted the Jews of Eastern Europe to be killed. This is a mystification. There is no truth to this stated in the Gutter literature, because many Zionist thinkers are from Eastern Europe, and it was people from that area like Mordechai Anielewicz, an active Hashomer Hatzair member, who was a top commander of the movement in the Warshaw Ghetto Uprising. The exact same goes for other commanders in the uprising like Frumka and Tuvia, leaders of the Dror movement. This is a classic example of why these mystifications have no truth to them. This literature twists the Zionist ideology to a point that makes no sense. Authors feel that by doing this, it makes it easier to believe.
All of these mystifications make little, or no sense. This was our first peula, and it gave me, and the kvutza the understanding that we cannot even think of these mystifications and allow them to relate to ourselves, otherwise it could potentially take away from our Poland journey. Additionally, I came away with the understanding that all human life is to be valued, and its our role to carry that belief out at all times.
This was the first of many of our peulot.
More soon!

My letter to the Kvutz: Chevrati; 1-23-2010

After much confusion and discussion about how to have a feedback session of some sort, the kvutz decided that each member would write a letter about anything from thoughts and feelings to criticsms and points of possible improvement. here is my take on the current situation!

Greetings all,
After four months of an ever self bettering process, I currently find myself happier than ever, and in the midst of intense seminars and peulot. Every single day of Workshop, in either the most simple, or most complicated way possible I have found myself questioning my actions. For example, what am I doing on workshop that separates me from my friends on Year-course, or why is it that I try so hard to live out the values of equality of human worth, informal education and collective responsibility? And why is it that I spend a majority of my time wondering how to be the best Dugma Yeshit I can be. All these questions can either be so simple, or so difficult. But for some reason, perhaps for the better, these questions have never been easy for me to answer. This all comes back to my intentions of this letter which we decided would be the first steps of our feedback session. What is my personal intention of this letter?
High school was a bore for me. I can easily tell you what things I am ashamed of, or how my relationships were not based around anything rather than infatuation of materialistic objects. I didn’t realize the uniqueness of all the people around me. As time wound down in my high school career, I realized how unique life is. All of a sudden, I was driven to become a better person. As time wound by and machaneh arrived, meaning workshop was approaching, I found myself not wanting to go on Workshop. I was terrified of the word “ideology,” and had no understanding of what living in a Kvutza actually meant. A few weeks later, I found myself sitting next to Izzy Busby on an airplane going to Israel, having superficial, materialistic discussions, pretending I was excited, but I wasn’t excited. I was afraid of what I was about to get myself into. I didn’t want to go.
Four months later from sitting on a plane with Izzy and awkwardly thinking of things to do to keep ourselves busy, I can tell you that mine and Izzy’s current friendship is based on love, mutual respect and essential values that are the essence of our character. The exact same goes for every single person in this house. Every time I talk to a Kvutza mate, or anyone for that matter, I do all I can to actualize on having an “I and thou” relationship. No relationship I have with any person in this house is intended to be materialistic, and if it is, then it is just one more thing that can be overcome. Just like with Izzy, my friendships are based on love.
I am currently in the best stage of my life I have been in at any point. As difficult as some things have been, it has all been worth it to me. Every morning I wake up and ask myself how I can make the world better. Ideology has been an unexpected, yet incredible breakthrough. I have only just begun the never ending climb to learning about myself, and how I can apply my knowledge and passions to improve the world. However, I am aware that there are still an almost endless amount of questions I am faced with, but I know that Workshop has been the best place for me to start my process of self improvement, as well as improving society. I have become infatuated with Zionism and the different ideologies, but have never been able to connect with Labor/Socialist Zionism to the point which I am currently at. Every peulah gets me thinking about things critically, all which have furthered my current beliefs.
As part of my development process, I have formed the belief that life is to wonderful to keep to myself, and I see Kvutza as the most effective way of fighting back a society which forces individualism, while at the same time developing these whole relationships I speak so highly of. Weather we are all on board or not, this is our current situation. For some, perhaps it will be a structure to live their lives after college and for others maybe not. But this is our current situation, and we must share a stichia of the value of one another, as well as commitment to the process, which will result in a more wonderful praxis than will make our year more enjoyable. But in my eyes right now, I don’t see this happening as much as it should be. The goal of a Kvutza is not to be best friends with every single person, but to view each individual as an equal human being, and to treat them nothing less. With all of us here for reasons that may not match up, in the end we need to realize that this is a structure for a year, set up for us to learn valuable life lessons that perhaps cannot be learned any where else. It’s such simple words that become so difficult for us to actualize on. Collective responsibilities, shivion erech haadam, the “I and thou” mindset which we have spent hours discussing, are the simplest values to practice, but I feel that we are not there yet. They are difficult to actualize, and perhaps could take moths, or years. But, my biggest issue is that in many cases I do not see these being attempted. I know we're all at different places, with different thoughts, feelings ad emotions. Specifically, I mean the talking behind backs, the lack of rosh gadol. Of course there is a lot too one self, which includes certain needs, but I see little effort in many cases, of even trying to live these values.For those who feel otherwise about those values, I value your opinions, and would love to get to know those qualities of you. The days I spoke of earlier where I was unsure of myself and who I was, even days before Workshop I was as negative as it gets towards shitoof, but I through people and conversation the first few days, I was able to realize that this is just an experiment where I would have to step out of my comfort zone, all the time. Not even a year, just nine months. By steping out of our comfort zones, and challenging ourselves and one another to live out these values for the remainder of Workshop is how I see the Kvutza’s best tools for improvement. Honesty is lacking, and it is a shame. We need to be able to trust one another, and it makes me sad hearing vulgar things about one another behind their backs. Of course I am guilty of these things more than often, but I try to change these things every day, and know that I cannot continue to have these personal breakthroughs without being pushed out of my comfort zone by every one in this Kvutza, and by our madrichim.
We all have brilliant minds, wonderful ideas, and incredible personalities. We have learned so much from one another thus far, and I know we will continue. All I ask of you, and of myself, is to respect one another, and see us as equals. There are a vast amount of issues which we all know need to be addressed, however I feel that addressing those in our one on one sichot, will be much more productive for me. We all have a responsibility for one another to facilitate each other’s growth, and I hope, depending on where each individual is, that this process can be started or continued. We still have four more wonderful months together and have just began the first steps of our possible life changing journey to Poland. Workshop has been great so far, but lets make it greater.

Hagshama and Dissonance: Yom Kvutza (1-10-2010)

Throughout the movement, a word you will almost always hear is the word "Hagshama. The translation for Hagshama is actualization, however the word has taken on an entire new meaning in Habonim Dror, in fact it is one of the five pillars of HD.When throughout my time in the movement the word has always had a simple, but important meaning to me: stop sitting around and do whatever you need to do. Of course that's important, but on Workshop, in sichot which happen quite often the word has taken on the meaning of actualizing, in terms of Garin Aliya. (See Kvutza Yovel.)
In A recent Yom Kvutza, we discussed the role of dissonance, in relation to Hagshama. Here is a copy of the text we read, by an unsure author.

The element, which unites the two categories of values, is the elimination of the dissonance between my ideal reality and the day to day activism which inspires me. The complete elimination of this dissonance would be an impossible dream, so Hagshama is not a particular point to get to however it is a constant striving and a struggle for better. Hagshama is a value in and of itself. THe desire to eliminate the dissonance and the decision to act and live according to my ideals is also a value becuase what is being actualized (Hagshama) must be constantly reassessed. In summary this is the conflict between my judgment and my will.
In the path to Hagshama there is another conflict and this is the conflict between my values and the reality in which I live, which consists of the human, social, political and physical realities. The reality on the ground does not determine my ideals, in fact the opposite because the current reality was not constructed according to my ideals. In the best case I can change the reality to bring it closer to the ideal to which I strive. For this reason I must constantly struggle to decrease the difference between the reality and my ideals.

He who does not wish, or is unable to live with this constant struggle must give up on either his values or their actualization. Values for which no attempt is made to actualize them are only dreams. These dreams may be beautiful but they are bankrupt. Dreaming a dream can sometimes be an excuse for one to abdicate responsibility from implementing it. An example of this is the Jewish dream of the arrival of the Messiah for which generations of Jews said Bashana Haba'a B'Yerushalayim Habnuya(next year in the built Jerusalem) but remained in exile. The generation of Jews who said "At the end of the days...they will turn their swords into plowshares" while all the while people greeted one another brandishing raised swords. The expectation of the End of Days and fear of Judgement Day are two sides of the same coin, a miracle or a holocaust neither of which depend on me. Even the most beautiful dream possible does not change the world. Trading Hagshama with all of the complexity and imperfection involved for the dream in all its purity is tantamount to pronouncing the reality dead.
A social movement which does Hagshama and does not want to atrophy and die must constantly reassess its values, to study the changing reality and to fight to implement its values in a changing world.


After going through this text, I realize a few things. What is the point of Hagshama without dissonance? If, in a perfect world, those who accomplish Hagshama in Israel, or in the world fix all problems, then what? where do we go from there? Dissonance is something that does, and will always exist. Because without it, we will have nothing to strive for. However, as long as this dissonance does exists, we cannot simply accept it,we must do what we can to actualize on what we believe are the needs of the hour. As the great Mukki Tsur says, if you reach to much, and not for what is right in front of you, you will get your dreams crushed. Our reality does not match up with our ideals, but this dissonance is the point of Hagshama. Additionally, because of this dissonance, our ideals must constantly be reassessed, over and over again, in order to see what it is that we really value.
yayy for Haghshama! More about Hagshama will happen once I find a way of fixing our broken computer!

Kaveret Messima!

heyo,
After a lovely chofesh, it was time to start Kaveret. As people with new and improved minds, and an indescribable passion to actualize on our ideals, which you can piece together by reading previous entries, the time has arrived to do so. When me and the rest of my tzevet arrived in thet Hanoar Ha'oved V'Halomed Bayit in Cholon, we met with our melaveh who gave us the scoop. After a few peulot ran for us and getting to know the rest of the tzevet at the bayit, we met our chanichim, and made the early morning commute to beit sefer Yeshayahu.This was the begining of our Messima, and we were pumped.
One of the biggest aims of Habonim Dror is to educate to make better human beings.After Boneh, and daily peulot which educate us about the beauties, as well as issues Israel faces, we were exited to go and help in Israeli society. We were aware that the school system here is much different than we are accustomed to from home, but when we walked in we were shocked, to see the balagan. At every minute throughout the day kids were running around the halls yelling, playing soccer in the hallways, etc...When I asked a teacher about what I saw, I recieved a confusing response which consisted of nothing more than a "no big deal." hmm...As we walked into the class room of about 25 kids fighting and yelling in one another's face. The way that this was dealt wtih by the teacher was by simply yelling at the kids, and sending those who failed to be quiet out to the halls. In the midst of all this, we were told to each choose kids to help teach English. Of course, just pulling these kids out caused those who were taken out to be jealous, but the teacher told us not to worry about it. As I sat down with the student, he did not speak a word of English, so i made a deal with him that I would speak a little Hebrew for him if he let me teach him. He agreed, and I slowly began teaching him the letters. Progress was made, and after a little bit of time the whole tzevet met up, with the kids, and we played games in english together. The experience was rewarding, and I even got asked to go to dinner with one of the kids!
After our day at school we went to the Bayit, where we were greeted by the rest of the Cholon Tzevet with a nice lunch. We then reviewed our first experience, and were given advice on how to deal with the issues we were faced with. Then, we planned our first peula for the chanichim. After helping with homework and getting to know the chanichim, (by means of hebrew conversations!) we ran the peula, and all went well. It was for sure a rewarding experience, and the first of many. One thing for our tzevet to work on is how to handle difficult situations, and how to educate based on our values, rather than just going through the motions. After 4 months of discussing these things, you'd figure this would be easy. But it was a little bit difficult. However, our melaveh as well as the rest of our tzevet is doing a great job helping us. We are excited by the challenge we face, and are happy that we have already began to form wonderful relations with the chanichim.

Givat Olga!!!

I have finally been presented wit a great chance to blog! As i said, you will hear about everything soon, but not until the internet at our house works. In the mean time, Kavaret has officially started! G'N'G is living in the beautiful neighborhood of Olga, in Chadera. Just a 2 minute walk from the beach and a hop across the street to a bnei akiva school. Kavaret is the time where we, for the first time in a while will be actualizing our ideals, and applying the things we beleive in, into our everyday lives. If you ask almost anyone on workshop where one of the most important place to begin to change the world is, they will tell you education. Values based education is what we feel is the need of the hour in order to create a better society, and so that is what we are going to do! Our messimot are all through Hanoar Haoved V'Halomed, our sister youth movement. The messimot include working with airetraien (I dont know how to spell it!) reffuggees, a coexestiance ken in Yaffo, A ken in Olga and a Ken in Cholon. there is so much more to say, but i dont even know what to type! AH!!!
Now, lets be honest, I know that all who follow this blog are probably sitting and wondering, what about the G'n'G gan from Ein dor!!! Well, after a long seperation and getting trampled on by our favorite loud messy painters, the gan made its way to Olga. So yall can relax, i was worried too. Well, i must go, but stay tunned!!! once the olga house gets internet ha'kol will be beseder.

AHH!

AHH! it appears that i have some unfinished blogging to do... All that is blogged at our home computer in olga, but sadly there is no internet at our house, so until then you will need to wait in suspense to hear about all the fun stuff that has happened.