| Galil,
Na’aleh, Moshava & Hashomer Hadracha Seminar
February 21st, 1999 (Baltimore) –A spokesman from the office
of Habonim Dror Shlicha Maya Natan has confirmed rumours that this past weekend Baltimore
hosted a "Hadracha Seminar" for ken madrichim from areas as diverse as New York,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Over sixty high school students spent the weekend
brushing up on their hadracha (leadership) skills. The Habonim chaverim were joined by a
half dozen chultzot with white strings, being worn by members of Hashomer Ha’tzair.
The highlight of the seminar was attending a speech by former
Prime Minster Shimon Peres. Amongst the collegiate crowd in the Johns Hopkins University
auditorium, the warmest applause for Peres came from the from the left-wing corner, where
a sea of blue chultzot greeted him with much ruach. In the midst of the serious evening,
Peres did break a smile, in the question and answer period following his speech chaver
t’nua Andrew Meyerson prefaced his question with "Mr. Peres, I’m a member
of Habonim Dror." The only disappointment of the evening was that Peres did not
accompany the Habonim madrichim to the Beth Israel Jewish Teen Dance.
Other memorable events of this seminar include the inter-machaneh
Shabbat shira Friday night, Prime Minister Yitzhak Natan Mordechai’s coalition
peulah, and a shivery Havdallah under the setting Maryland sun.
A few seminar participants on the bus-ride home on Sunday were
overheard arguing the merits of the various peulot of the weekend. "I finally learned
how to plan a peulah," said one young madricha.
"Whatever … the peulah where we got to reflect on next
summer in Madatz was the best, man," replied another.
"Dude, I learned so much hadracha this weekend, let’s
just chill out and catch up on our sleep," mumbled someone at the back of the bus.
Moshava
Roshei Kenim Keep Busy
Well, here we are in eizor YOU WISH YOU COULD BE AS COOL AS US,
otherwise known as the Mosh Eizor. So the icy weather here in one-snowflake-means-a-
day-off-school hasn't cooled us down, cause WE ARE SIZZLING. ZZZZZ....
Sizzling our couches, due to not being able to leave our houses,
that is. Anyway, off the weather tangent, our ken is basically rocking the house,even if
the house is pretty cold...
The past few weeks have been the inevitable post seminar recovery
period, But we are getting back to being the most active ken in HDNA! All of us very cool
roshei kenim hit Bennigans for some free food (or free for us anyhow, I think the camp
committee actually paid for my chicken fajitas) and highly amusing entertainment, who
could be more laughs then Stieny and Hayley?? Well, maybe Maya Natan, but don't worry, she
was there too, forcing Stieny's mouth to close every so often so we could do some chatting
about the eizor. The best eizor, if I may add again. Between driving our waitress to
insanity with requests for "just a little bit more honey mustard sauce" and
other various neccessities such as, multiple cups of soda at once, for one person (I
didn't get it either) and lots and lots of extra tomatos for my fajitas.
My personal favorite waitress moment was when she assured me
" You could have your own soda, you know!" as she watched me grab Ilana's pepsi
and take a little swig. She then icily informed me of Bennigan's "soda policy",
(who knew corporate America had gone that far?) "Free refills but no sharing of sodas
allowed" Obviously not give what you can, take what you need. Our next ken peula will
be teaching the value of sharing to the world of bourgousie chain restaraunts...
Besides netting us very full tummies, the dinner also achieved
its goals of planning the next few months of ken activity. Our big excitement is the
upcoming ski trip. In typical Habo fashion we are offering multiple attractions, not only
skiing but a Tu B'Shvat seder and a sleepover with not only us Mosh folks but plenty of
new booty options. Its a joint N'a aleh, Galil and of course, Mosh ski trip. We are
predicting a pretty big turnout, so start polishing up those moves, No, no, not that kind
of moves, i mean with your skiis! We also put a pretty exciting Purim event on the
calendar, in the tradition of great Israeli Purim celebrations we are having a
DISCO.Complete with costumes, face painting and all, it is sure to be mesiba! The REAL
excitement of the evening, though, will be our talent show, each kvutza will be playing
star with their own acts. My plans are to be a rock star, I will be performing my hit
song, "Weak" in a duet with Haley "high note" Pollack.
Tickets are $20 through Ticketmaster , $5 AT THE DOOR, and free
if you bring kupa treats. Just a little joke, we are socialist, its free for everyone and
we will even give you some kupa treats!
So I guess that’s what is going on in the marvelous Mosh
Eizor. If there are any questions on how to run a highly succesful ken, you got the
roster...!
Ariella Cohen, Rosh Ken Columbia
Ken Na'aleh-Ken't Get
Any Better Than This!!
Na'aleh, our newest machaneh is located in New York
State. After being closed for many years Na'aleh re-opened with much fanfare this past
summer. Ken Na'aleh has also been thriving. Even before there was an actual machaneh
the ken had been active, running peulot, holding ken asephot.
The ken today is based in New York city and holds activities every other week. Not all the
kids are New Yorkers though. Kids come from as far as South Jersey ( about 150 miles away)
to experience Na'aleh fun. Some of the New Jersey kids are also active in the Galil kenim,
Chaverim and North Jersey.
Na'aleh's most recent ken peulot managed to encompass two extremely important aspects of
Habonim Dror, social justice and fun (not that the two are mutually exclusive). Two weeks
ago ken Na'aleh, went to the Bowery Mission. Twenty parents and kids showed up to help
out. The Mission runs a soup kitchen and also receives clothing donations. So ken Na'aleh
got down and sorted clothes in to piles for women, men and children.
Then last week found ken Na'aleh ice skating in Central park. Co-Rosh ken
Olivia Gradess boasted that "no one fell and it was 75 degrees so we all skated in
our T-shirts".
We were impressed.
Co-roshot, Oliva and Jesse Weber invite anyone visiting New York to stop by a ken peulah.
They promise you won't be disappointed and as an added incentive also now offer a walking
tour of New York City. The tour includes all the sites where recent ken peulot have been
held (hey you may
not see the Statue of Liberty, but you will get a chance to visit the central office), the
best bagel shop in Sheep's Head Bay and other secret NY hotspots that only participants in
Na'aleh ken peulot seem to know about.
|
| New
Habonim Bayit
It was the weekend of November 13th and I was walking around my
college campus, incredibly bored and decided to check my mailbox. I opened it up and was
so surprised to actually receive mail. It was from Habonim, so I ripped it open and took
out the flier. I was so surprised and excited to see what it said. It was an invitation to
the new Habonim Dror Camp Moshava bayit in Washington D.C. on November 20th.
Memories came flooding back to me from when I
was in Amelim and Chotrim and went to ken peulot at a bayit. Over the
years, I had begun to miss that, I longed for a place where Mosh could
have a place in the city. My parents would talk about how they used to
hang out after school in the Mosh bayit in the 60’s and we would
frequently discuss why Mosh no longer had one. The basic answer was that
no one wanted to live in one. Then earlier this year, I had heard rumors
that maybe Mosh would get a bayit, maybe not, but this flier confirmed
it. Four Mosh alum who used to be my madrichim live in a house and
agreed to use it as the bayit.
So for the next week I was so excited. I called my brother and
sister, who used to go to Mosh to see if they wanted to go. I talked to other Mosh and
Habonim alum here at Goucher College, and by the middle of the week we had a full car of
Baltimore people ready to embark on the trip to D.C.
Friday finally rolled around and we all went to
the Bayit. We walked into the house and the first thing we had to do was
take off our shoes(to feel like home) and make a name tag for ourselves.
This name tag, however, had more than just our name. We had to include
what year we were in Madatz or KMBet and our favorite meal or dish
served at machaneh. This would be used later. So I entered the house and
I’m suddenly surrounded by so many of my old madrichim, old roshim, my
own kvutsa, and current roshei kenim. It was incredible, we had all come
together from our busy, hectic lives to share Shabbat as one.
The night basically consisted of eating,
shmoozing, shira, an icebreaker, and then a short sicha. The icebreaker
had to be the highlight of the evening. This is when the name tags came
in. We all had to go around and read what we wrote on our name tag. This
worked for the most part, but attached to everyone was some funny story
or memory. I hadn’t laughed that hard in a long time. The sicha was
about how we(the ma’apilim) saw the bayit. What kind of things we
envisioned doing there and how we wanted it to be used. The four ladies
living in the house want one Shabbat dinner there a month and one peulah
there a month. A Chanukkah party is also being planned. So, as of that
night, a new Habonim Bayit was born. |
| A MAD LIB FOR
EVERY OCCASION,
OR
KEN ARAVA
CHECKS IN
Ken Arava is located in ____________ (the city of Betsy Ross and
of the team defeated by the Blue Jays). Our chanichim number ___________ (an unbelievably
high number). This year, our ___________ and __________ (some adjectives) leaders are
_____________ and ___________ (members of Madatz '98, which rocked the house all the way
down).
In a ___________ and __________ (more adjectives) plot to attract
_________ (pick your favorite number above 10 or we'll be insulted) chanichim, the ken
went to a _________ __________ (place with snazzy shoes) in late November. After extensive
___________ (gerund) and __________ (noun), everyone had a marvelous time. Over a game of
ten-pins, we discussed the merits of such Zionist thinkers as _____________ (pick your
favorite Zionist thinker).
For our next pe'ulah, we'll be having a ___________ (relatively
unimportant Jewish holiday that is not the Jewish version of Christmas) party in
conjunction with an afternoon of ______________ (everyone's favorite mitzvah). After the
bash at the ____________ (club where the elite meet to have kosher treats), we'll take a
stroll to the ever-_____________ (adjective) South Street to Thrift for AIDS and we'll
help them get _____________ (what Ken Arava always is). What a way to top off our first
season of Ken Philly ruach!
Of course, some mention of our ____________ (pick a nationality)
shlicha is absolutely necessary. Without Maya's guidance, chinuch resources, and superior
performance in the field of ____________ (necessary skill for the smooth running of any
ken), we would be chanich-less at every pe'ulah.
And although we weren't alone at the Galil-Na'aleh Central Park
Reunion or at Galil's fall seminar, we've got to offer a ____________ (inexpensive noun)
to Shoshi for being such a __________ Rosh Eizor. ____________ (exclamatory remark), Eizor
Galil! _____________ (another exclamatory self-congratulatory remark), Ken Arava!
The correct answers
1. Philadelphia 2. 230!!! 3. fearless and brilliant 4. Rachel Profeta and Nava
Etshalom 5. cunning and successful1 6. 30, at the very least 7. Bowling alley 8.
Brainwashing and Pizza 9. Dan Krinsky is the correct answer 10. Chanukah
11. Tikkun Olam 12. Trendy 13.can you believe it?? 14. you
guessed it - Israeli!Organized 15. flyer-folding, -stamping, -labeling, &-mailing! 16.
round of applause 17. fabulous and exemplary 18. woooooohoooooooo
respectfully submitted by Rachel and Nava
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