Wow! My life has been very busy recently! Two weeks ago our guest speaker was a man in his forties from the Dror Yisrael movement (the adult movement of graduates from Hanoar Ha'Oved--Habonim Dror's sister movement). He spoke to us about the structure in which he lives his life. He started on the basic level: he as an individual. He explained to us that he is an educator on his kibbutz and he lives in a kvutza (second level) of about 20 people (including children). This kvutza lives on one floor of a building and each floor contains a different kvutza. There are in total about nine floors and about 120 people who are the residents of the kibbutz (third level). Next he talked about the Dror Yisrael movement throughout Israel (the forth level). Then he moved on to the fifth level of all the different socialist movements in Israel. His final level (before everyone in the entire world) was world Jewry. He believes that in order for world change to occur all of these levels must initiate the change, and he believes this change can only begin if started within Israel. I definitely found his thoughts fascinating even though I didn't agree. I personally don't see why change just only involve Jews. Yes, socialism has played a major role within Jews' lives for many, many years, but Jews are not the only people who believe in equality for every human being, and for the entire world to recognize this, the more people who unite in this effort for change, the better.
The following day we all hopped on a bus to Rishon L'Zion (the city in which my kvutza will be living starting in late December). We were dropped off at a huge shopping center and movie theatre, and when we entered, we were completely surrounded with screens flashing the Habonim Dror Semel. There, we met up with Habonim Dror Olami (Worldly). That dinner was hands down the best meal we have had so far on Workshop. Handmade pizza was being created before our eyes, a delicious salad with pear, pecans, and cranberries was constantly being replenished, and the desserts (including carrot cake and fruit salad) were a lovely end to our meal. Masa had given Habonim Dror a grant for all of the gap year chanichim to do "recreational activities." So, The Habonim Dror rakazim (coordinators) had organized for all the Workshop and Shnat participants to attend a showing of the movie, "The Good Lie". The movie follows a group of "The Lost Boys" of Sudan who were orphaned during the civil war through their struggles and their triumphs in adjusting to their lives after escaping Sudan. It features Reese Witherspoon and a number of Sudanese refugees and was a very touching film.
A couple of days later, the Workshoppers and the Brits took a day trip to Zikhron Ya'akov and Kibbutz Yifat to learn about the First, Second, and Third Aliyot. Entering Zikhron, I immediately noticed a difference compared to every other Israeli city I had been in. Zikhron felt and looked very European. It turns out that during the wave of the First Aliyah, the new Jewish immigrants had begun working Eretz (the land of) Israel, but after a bit of time there, the settlers realized they were not well enough equipped to continue their labor, as their children were dying left and right. A wealthy European offered up his land and some money for these Jews to create their Jewish homeland in Argentina. The Jews refused. But, another wealthy man came along, this one a Parisian, Rothschild. He offered to give these Jews money and jobs if they created "another Paris" in Israel-- Zikhron Ya'akov. Zikhron Ya'akov directly translates to "Remembering Jacob" which was the name of the father of Rothschild. Rothschild set up vineyards and wineries throughout the city for which the Jews worked. Walking around the city a bit there still seems to be a large business in winery.
From Zikhron, we traveled to The Pioneer Settlement Museum on Kibbutz Yifat to learn about the Second and Third Aliyah (the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth). Unlike those of the First Aliyah, the chalutzim (pioneers) of the Second and Third, were determined to live their life in Eretz Israel according to their ideology, no matter how hard life got. These chalutzim drained swamps, dug ditches, built roads, and worked the land. They lived in three person tents, cleaned in communal showers, ate in a chadar ochel, and wore communal clothing. This excursion made me wonder how the Second and Third Aliyot were able to succeed where the First failed. Perhaps the chalutzim of the Second and Third were more determined to live idealistically, had learned from the failure of the First Aliyah, or didn't face the same extent of the difficulties the First had... Or a combination of these thoughts and others. Whatever they did worked, and so began the making of Aliyot for Labor Zionist reasons.
The next day we all traveled to a seminar center near Tel Aviv where we met up again with Habonim Dror Olami (specifically the shnat programs from Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, North America, South America, South Africa, and UK). We began a two day long seminar--the Rabin Seminar--on Peace and Democracy. We were broken down into groups of about 20 people. We discussed many, many thoughts related to peace. We read many texts including a couple of Rabin's speeches. We also read two statements: one was denying Zionism and the other denying Palestinian Nationalism. There is validity and issues in both statements, but I think that delegitimizing others in order to legitimize your own beliefs is a very destructive thought and does not exist on the road to peace.
A major aspect to this seminar was defining shalom (the Hebrew word for peace) and saying, "Yes, the dictionary definition might define peace as meaning quiet, tranquility, harmony, the absence of conflict, but is that truly what shalom means?" I believe it is important for us to understand peace in the way it was defined in our choveret (booklet).
"Shalom is not the absence of conflict. It comes from the root word shalem which means complete or whole. It is also related to the word lehashlim which means 'to restore' or 'to complete.' Shalom doesn't just need quiet between people, it demands an understanding of responsibility for the idea that we cannot be complete without it. It means responsibility for how we treat others, for how as a community, as a society, as a nation we are working towards restoring the world to a state of justice."
We spent quite a bit of time during the seminar pondering ways to work towards peace. First we identified the major social and political issues. The social issues we thought of included ignorance/blind following, racism, religious attachment and extremism, bystander effect, clinging to Jewish Law, and fear. The political ones were settlements/right to return, Jerusalem, recognition of a Jewish state, violent responses to terrorism instead of negotiation, and international relations. The two major solutions to all these many, many problems were education and social welfare meaning that the Israeli government stops giving subsidies for Jewish settlement in the West Bank and stops making the neighborhoods (schools, etc) better in the settlements in the West Bank than in Israel.
We discussed quite a bit about how Israel is perceived by the different Jewish communities from which we come. Many of the South Africans and Australians said that the Jews of their community are very pro-Israel no matter what and that the members of the movement from these countries are seen as self hating Jews and are looked down upon. It was upsetting, and definitely more extreme than the Jewish communities in which I've had interactions in my life. But, speaking hopefully, I guess it all comes back to education.
Later that evening we attended the Rabin Rally in Tel Aviv. Ten out of the twelve Israel youth groups were present. We were surrounded by a sea of blue chultzot (shirts)--an identifier that you are part of a movement. We heard a speech by the President of Israel, by the mother of one of the three boys who was kidnapped and killed this past summer, by a famous leftist actress, and others. It was a very special and hopeful experience. However, the events that have been occurring during this past month have definitely left me a lot less hopeful.
I really hope that very soon this country will realize that peace is the only answer.
P.S. Sorry it took me a long time to update my blog. I've been quite busy and I plan to write another entry soon because this is nowhere near to being caught up with the month of November. Thanks for reading, though!
