A camp tries to reinvent the Hebrew language, so transgender kids can fit in

Sam Newman starts a cheer after lunch at Habonim Dror Camp Moshava on Monday in Street, Md. The campers rewrote their cheers this summer to use special gender-neutral Hebrew plural nouns. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)

When Zev Shofar, a 14-year-old from Takoma Park, started going to Jewish summer camp seven years ago, the children all learned the Hebrew words to introduce themselves. “Chanich” means a male camper; “chanichah” means a female camper.

But what if Zev didn’t feel male or female — neither a chanich nor a chanichah? Read more ….

Jewish Teens Learn Lessons of Zionism

MAY 4, 2016
By: Liz Spikol | JE Staff

Participants in Ein Zo Agada gained a newfound appreciation for Israel and discussed why they care about it.

“If you will it, it is no dream,” Zionist leader Theodor Herzl wrote in 1902.

More than a century later, Herzl’s words — translated into Hebrew — served as the inspiration for an auspicious gathering of educators and Jewish teens called Ein Zo Agada (“It Is No Dream”), which took place on a recent Sunday afternoon in Philadelphia.

The event was conceived by leaders of two Zionist youth movements — Habonim Dror and B’nei Akiva — and motivated by a single question: “What are the needs of Jewish teens?” Read complete article

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