Spool Factory

Micah Arnson-Serotta and I both work in the spool factory for our avodah (work) every Sunday morning. For the past few weeks we have been asked to screw on a bunch of washers and other screws onto these giant metal rods that are used to hold the tops and bottoms of the spools in place. We don't mind doing this since it's very easy, but we both would rather be doing more active, heavy duty work. We decided that we would ask our boss or one of the other guys working with us if we could do something different today. When we got to the spool factory, we were asked to screw on things onto the rods again (disappointment!). We figured that since we work on Sunday mornings, the first day of the work week, there isn't much else for us to do. However, after we were done with the giant metal rods, Baruch, one of the workers told us we could help him assemble the tops and bottoms of the wooden spools by hammering washers and screws onto them. We didn't even have to ask!  We also got to use this drill-like device to secure them into the wood. It was really nice being able to do something different today and I'm really beginning to enjoy my avodah that Micah and I do.

The tops and bottoms of the spools we were working with.

Micah drilling the rods into one of the spools

Inside the spool factory, it's surprisingly very organized! All the different sized spools are grouped together.

I'm looking forward to a new week of Boneh. After a long, yet really fun weekend, I'm excited to be going back to our normal schedule of things. This upcoming weekend we will be going back to Kibbutz Ravid to participate in a Rabin seminar with our Southern hemisphere friends, the New Zealanders, Aussies, and South Africans. While I'm not too thrilled to be going back to Ravid, I'm looking forward to this seminar and all that I will have to blog about afterwards. Hope everyone back at home is doing well, I'll blog again soon, Naomi

So what do we do on Boneh?

I haven't really gone over what our weeks look like here on Boneh, so for those of you who are wondering, let me explain.

Here is our master schedule of the week.

Weekends
Our weekends are from Thursday late afternoon until Saturday night. So on weekends we can travel outside of kibbutz, hang out on kibbutz, or really just do whatever we want. Everyone is usually very tired after a long and busy week, so weekends usually consist of a lot of sleeping and watching movies. My kvutza really wants to take a break from the whole being lazy and watching movies aspect of our weekends and start doing fun things together.

This weekend we have many exciting things planned for us by some Workshoppers!

Sundays
Sunday's in Israel are like Monday's in the United States and Canada. Our programming begins on Sunday. My kvutza has avodah (volunteer work around the kibbutz) on Sunday mornings, while the other kvutza has shiyurim (classes). I work in the spool factory with Micah, one of my fellow kvutza members.We have to show up at around 8:30 every Sunday morning and work until about 11. The first week we drilled holes into the wood that is used to make the tops and bottoms of the spools, but for the past two weeks we just screwed on a bunch of washers and screws onto giant metal rods, which are used to holding the spool in place.It could definitely be a lot more fun, but the work is relatively easy and we're helping out the kibbutz so I don't mind. Other people in my kvutza do other forms of avodah such as working in the mitbach (kitchen) preparing food for meals, working with horses, working in the petting zoo, working with the little children in pre-school on kibbutz, and doing some yardwork/cleaning up around the kibbutz to just name a few. We then go to lunch before having a peulah (activity) on hadracha (leadership) and participating in a power course of our choosing. I chose the power course on education, which is very interesting. We talk about the different forms of education in our day to day lives and the effects that education has on people. For instance, so far we have talked about the difference between informal and formal education, democratic schools and the difference between them and regular public schools, etc. Next, we have some cleaning time and a break before we go to dinner. After dinner a few members of each kvutza run an activity for their respective kvutzot. We call this erev tarbut (culture night). We have had fun, crazy activities, but also serious bonding activities with the intention of getting to know one another better.

Mondays
We begin Monday mornings with Ivrit (Hebrew) classes. There are 3 levels of the Hebrew classes. I'm in the beginner class, but I still find myself learning a lot. We then have tzevet (team) time. Within our kvutzot, there are smaller groups that are in charge of doing specific things on workshop. For instance, I'm in the chinuch (education) group, where we run educational activities for each other, inform everyone of Israeli and North American news, and keep track of all the Hebrew words of the day! Some other groups are the food shopping one (self explanatory), Erev tarbut planning group, and bet bet bet/cleaning group, which restocks the soap in the bathroom, the toilet paper, and makes sure everyone is staying healthy (we're a kvutza, we have to look out for one another, ya know?). Next, we have lunch and then the afternoon is dedicated to Yom Kvutza. Our workshop madrichim (counselors) run different peulot for us throughout the whole afternoon and night after dinner. Some of the past peulot during Yom Kvutza have been on values, freedom, and responsibilties.

Tuesdays
Tuesdays are probably the longest day of the week for our kvutza. While the other kvutza begins with avodah in the morning, we begin with shiyurim. Each week these shiyurim are centered around different topics. Some of the topics so far have been Jews in the Modern World, Anti-Semitism, and our Jewish lineage. After lunch we have a course on Judaism and then a course on Israeli Society. After some cleaning time we then go to dinner and have a guest speaker who comes and talks to us about a certain subject. Sometimes these speakers are past Habos, but other times they are kibbutzniks, or other people that come to share their lives and knowledge with us.

Wednesdays
We start out Wednesdays with shiyurim again, but this time both kvutzot have classes. The afternoon is dedicated to a 3 hour block of Hebrew class. We then have a free block to do whatever we want. Sometimes we plan activities for ourselves, and other times we are free to spend the time catching up on sleep, skyping with a friend, or doing whatever we want. After dinner we have the option of taking part in Wednesday selections, which are optional peulot run by someone from off the kibbutz. The first wednesday selection was run by Ruth Stevens, a former Galilnik who now lives in Israel. She talked about shira (singing) that we do at our respective machanot (summer camps). It was very interesting hearing about singing, and made me realize how big of an impact shira has on our lives during the summer at camp. It definitely brings about the feeling of unity when we all sing together.

Thursdays
Thursdays run a bit differently than our typical Boneh schedule. They are our siyur (trip/tour) days. Usually we leave kibbutz for the day and typically learn about something as a follow up to whatever we just learned about in our classes. Over the past couple of weeks we have traveled to Nazareth and the Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv. Sometimes instead of having a siyur, we have Yom Meyuchad (Special Day). This differs that the Yom Meyuchad that I'm used to at Galil. At Galil they are themed days where we plan fun activities for everyone based on that theme. On Workshop, however, they are still educational, but just run with a different theme than what we are learning about in our classes. We had one Yom Meyuchad so far where we learned all about education. By late afternoon around 4 or 5, we are officially on our weekend.

Meals
We make breakfast for ourselves every morning. We have a sign up list for those that want to volunteer to make breakfast for everyone. Since we have a food budget, most of our breakfasts are either eggs, egg in a hole, sometimes french toast, or breakfast sandwiches. Most mornings we also have Israeli salad, bread with spreadable cheese, and cereal on top of what the main dish is.We eat lunch and dinner in the chadar ochel (dining room) on kibbutz every day except during Saturday's when it is closed for Shabbat, and on Sunday nights when we make our own dinner. Usually meals in the chadar include some form of meat (like schnitzel, brisket, chicken breast etc, rice, couscous, some vegetable, and salad. A lot of carbs, I know. On Thursday nights, Kibbutz Ein Dor has a kibbutz-wide falafel night! Thursdays are deemed "burger Thursdays" because lunch is always burgers. However, we are usually on trips on thursdays so I have only experienced burger Tuesday once!

Rabin Rally

After a long, yet fulfilling weekend of picking olives and hanging out on Kibbutz Gezer, the 17 of us Workshoppers who went met up with the rest of the Workshop participants on Saturday, October 12th for the annual Rabin Rally in Tel Aviv. When we got off the van that brought us to Tel Aviv, we were all very tired, but excited to be able to experience such an event. While we were walking to try to meet up with the other Workshop participants, we saw many people wearing chultzot tnua (movement shirts). There were people from HaNoar HaOved (our sister movement in Israel), HaShomer HaTzair, and of course, Habonim Dror. We saw our new Australian, South African, and New Zealand friends from Yam l' Yam just a few weeks prior. We even saw some people walking with Habo Uruguay on the back of their shirts! It was amazing just walking the streets of Tel Aviv before the rally and seeing all the different movement shirts. It's sort of funny because when I'm in Philadelphia or any other public place in the United States, the first thing I look for when  trying to find someone who belongs to Habonim Dror is the blue movement shirts that we wear. In Israel, not so much. It was very confusing having so many people walking around with chultzot tnua. However, that didn't stop us from seeing some familiar faces. While us olive pickers were walking to meet up with the rest of the Workshoppers (holding all of our sleeping bags, backpacks, and a microwave that we found [trust me on this one, it'll come in handy at some point on Workshop]), we saw Oded, Galil's most recent shaliach who just moved back to Israel after working at machaneh and in the eizor the past 2 years. While at the Rally, we met up with 3 members of Galil's 58 kvutza (Anna, Elissa, and Eve) who just made Aliyah last week! We also saw Pele, who is studying abroad this semester in Haifa, Hadar, one of the shlichim who worked at Galil this past summer, and a bunch of other familiar faces of those Habos who had made Aliyah over the past few years. We also saw Segev, who is here in Israel as part of Kivunim (another gap year program)!

The Rally was all in Hebrew, so many people had to translate for us. It was fascinating hearing the different speakers even though I don't speak Hebrew. One of the speakers was Yitzhak Rabin's grandson, Yonaton Ben Artzi, who talked about the importance of working towards peace with Palestinians. It was really interesting actually being at the Rabin Rally. I have heard about the rally from past workshoppers, but actually experiencing it was something special. I even got to hold one of the signs for some time, but I passed it off to someone else after about 40 minutes of holding it. I kept accidentally knocking people on the shoulders with it since I'm so short. Plus, holding up a giant sign requires immense arm muscle and that's just something I don't have. What was really interesting was that the rally had more of a positive outlook towards this event in Israeli history instead of the sadder feel that I get from going to the Rabin memorial service every year back at home in Philadelphia There's something really inspiring about going to a rally in the heart of Tel Aviv and participating in an event with 35,000 other people that commemorates the life and legacy of one of the most famous people in Israeli's history.

But honestly though, the rally was very overwhelming. It was a lot of fun and super interesting, but never having been to anything like that before was tiring and sort of nerve-racking. There were so many people and finding my friends amongst the crowd was like finding a needle in a haystack. At the end of the rally, we all boarded the bus to bring us back to kibbutz. I slept the entire way back, and awoke the next morning feeling extremely tired, yet so thankful that I was able to participate in such an exciting event.

It's now about 1:10 in the afternoon on a Thursday. I'm back at our house on Ein Dor while the rest of the workshoppers minus a few are hiking Har Tavor. I wasn't feeling well so I ended up coming back early and resting/writing this blog post before they return and the weekend commences.

Sarah Kravinsky and I at the rally right before it was about to begin.

Aliyah and I holding up one of the signs together!

"Shalom Achshav" meaning Peace Now.

Some of us Galil kids being silly before the rally/ we were eating our dinner whilst trying to smile whilst the picture was being taken.

Photo creds to Rachel Fishman on this last picture. 

Kibbutz Gezer

Hi everyone! Right now I'm sitting just outside the moadon at Kibbutz Gezer where 17 of us workshoppers are staying for the weekend. We were invited by Rachel Fishman and Jacob Henderson's family friend to go olive picking at her kibbutz! We all took a sherut (communal taxi) from Ein Dor to Gezer on Friday morning and arrived a little bit past noon. 

 

When we arrived at Gezer, we were greeted by their family friend, Roxanne. She began by giving us a small tour of the kibbutz. First she showed us the moadon. This is a hang out spot that is open to everyone who lives on this kibbutz. It's complete with couches, a television, wifi (yes!), and a refrigerator full of food. She then showed us the kolbo (mini market), which is very similar to the one they have at Ein Dor. Right across from the kolbo is a few racks of free clothing. Yes, I said free. I took a shirt from it, and some others took scarves, pants, t shirts, etc. I'll throw it into the laundry when we get back to Ein Dor before I start wearing it. 

The place with free clothing is called meeshmeesh, which means apricot in hebrew.

Next, she showed us some of the houses on kibbutz. 

 As we walked around we saw a lot of families and kibbutzniks. A lot of them grew up as members of Habonim Dror and most actually went on workshop too!

She also took us to the gan and showed us a few playgrounds as well. There is also a very nice baseball field on Gezer and we were able to watch some of the kibbutz boys play baseball. 

One difference between Gezer and Ein Dor is that Gezer no longer has a chadar ochel (dining hall). They used to serve lunch and dinner on kibbutz, but kibbutzim in Israel have changed so much over the years. People have taken a step away from the whole communal living aspect. Don't worry though, we still had a great dinner here on Gezer, which I will explain later in this blog post. 

After the tour, Roxanne took us on a short hike. We hiked up to Tel Gezer, and saw the ruins of the old Canaanite city. We walked on top of an old water tower and a few of us actually went inside of it too. I chose not to though. I was much more content hanging out on top of the water tower and experiencing the great view of kibbutz and the near by cities. Plus, those who went inside said it was extremely hot and muggy in there. 

When we got back to the moadon, a few of us took naps while the most of us played a game. Some people decided to go to the reform synagogue on kibbutz for services. We were  then split up into 9 groups of 2 (one person was by himself) and had Shabbat dinner at some of the kibbutzniks' houses. 

I went to dinner at Ira and Debbie's house with Robert Berman, a fellow workshopper. Debbie, like Robert, is British and the 2 found a lot of interesting topics to talk about. I found myself talking to Ira more, as he was from the States too (Chicago). They both cooked a very traditional, yet delicious meal for the four of us. We ate outside, which was very nice. We started with challah and wine, and then had chicken soup, chicken, potatoes, green beans, pickles, and salad. For dessert, Debbie made chocolate cake and carrot cake. I couldn't resist so I had both, but I'm not ashamed at all. It's quite nice having food that's 1) home cooked 2) not schnitzel and 3) not carb loaded. They kept insisting that we take more food, but both Robert and I were stuffed to the brim. As we were eating cake, we saw 2 other workshoppers walking back to the moadon after they had dinner. Ira and Debbie called them over for cake, and I mean, who could resist cake? So Micah Arnson-Serotta and Eli Jenson joined the four of us for desert.

They also made delicious tea with some herbs from their garden. 

After thanking Ira and Debbie for the delicious meal, we met back in the moadon with the rest of us workshoppers that came to Gezer. Some of the Israeli youth that live on kibbutz came and joined us.

All 17 of us plus the Israeli youth playing a name game. You have to tell the person to the left of you to say their name with a specific accent. For instance, I would say "say your name as if you were a drunk cowboy" and the person would have to say their name with that accent. Afterwards, the kibbutz girls showed showed us their newly installed disco ball and colorful strobe lights. 

We then decided to have a dance party.

After that, some of us workshoppers went to the kibbutz pub and played some pool. The kibbutzniks that we hung out with couldn't come (they are still under 18), but they continued dancing with some of the workshoppers who didn't go to the pub. 

I went to the pub for a little bit before going to bed-- we had to be up at 6 this morning to go olive picking! Kibbutz Gezer is known for its many olive trees. All 17 of us spent the morning picking olives with Donnie, one of the kibbutzniks who actually was a part of Habo and went on workshop!  We used giant tarps to cover the ground below the branches and then used rakes to get the olives out of the trees. Around 9:30 we had breakfast, which was probably the best breakfast I have in Israel so far. We had the best pita with the best hummus, fresh vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, etc), olives (of course), this challah type bread, the BEST olive oil, cheese, apples, oranges, and chocolate wafers. 

We then continued picking olives. The whole time we kept on singing songs and making olive puns. For instance,

1. I don't care, OLIVE it!

Or

2. We OLIVE in a yellow submarine,

Or

3. I don't like you, OLIVE you.

Or 

4. I came in like a wrecking OLIVE, I never raked so hard in love

You get the point. 

We had so much fun olive picking. I think what was best about the whole experience was that we chose to come to this kibbutz and go olive picking. We didn't have to, but I wanted to do something active instead of sitting around Ein Dor all weeekend sleeping or watching movies. Usually avodah like this is part of programming and we usually don't choose to get all dirty and sweaty. But coming out to spend the weekend at Gezer with 16 other workshoppers was truly something special. No one cared how sweaty or gross we all were. I mean it's part of being a chalutz, right? 

And in the end, we had enough olives to make 130 bottles of olive oil! 

Here we all are (sweaty, dirty, and dusty) after a long morning of harvesting olives!

We then went to Varda's house (a Kibbutznik) and had a wonderful homemade lunch which included lasagna, quiche, salad, bread, couscous, pasta salad, cheese, vegetables, and more delicious chocolate cake! We all ate until we were very full mostly because we knew we probably wouldn't be getting this kind of food again for a very long time, but also because it was so good! 

Varda then let Eva Bernstein, Jess Glassman, and I shower in her house (Galil girls represent)! Everyone else went to other houses to shower. 

All 17 of us walking to lunch!

After we all showered, we met back in the moadon for some chill time before we have to begin cleaning and packing up our belongings. And that brings us to right now. I'm sitting outside blogging and enjoying the fresh air before we say goodbye to the wonderful people families of Kibbutz Gezer who let us into their lovely home for the weekend. At 5 we will board 2 vans to take us to Tel Aviv where we will attend the Rabin rally, which commemorates the life of Yitzhak Rabin. There, we will meet up with the rest of the workshoppers who didn't join us at Kibbutz Gezer this weekend. 

I'll post again soon telling about the Rabin rally which will surely be an interesting, yet crazy experience. Thousands of people from all over the country will meet in Tel Aviv, including the Austrliaans we met on Yam l'Yam!

A Day in Tel Aviv

For our second siyur (day tour) on boneh, we traveled to Tel Aviv and went to the diaspora museum. This museum was built in the 1970's by Abba Kovner, the leader of the Vilna ghetto Uprising in Lithuania. We learned about the history of the Jewish people through the diaspora, and explored the connections that Jews have with other Jews from all around the world. My favorite part of the exhibition was the part of the museum that showcased models of different synagogues from these places around the world. There were synagogues from China, Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, Holland, Italy, and the United States to name a few. I thought the synagogue from China was so fascinating. I never knew that there was a big enough Jewish population there. And to my surprise there was a model of Beth Shalom, a synagogue located in Elkins Park, PA which is only about 45 minutes from my house.

We also explored the history of where our ancestors might be from. One wall was filled with an Ashkenazi family tree/timeline and a little further down there was one of a Mizrachi family tree/timeline that was originally from Baghdad. We then went to HaCarmel Market, a shuk with lots of cheap clothing and many shops filled with fruits, vegetables, pastries, and of course, falafel. Some other workshoppers met up with their friend Yehuda who they knew from MBI and Gesher. He recently joined the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) and so it was very nice for people to get to see him, and spend an afternoon with him. I walked around the shuk with one of my kvutza mates, Hannah Martens. We got falafel for 7 shek, which was such a good deal. I think that's about $3 USD.  We then got an assortment of baklava from one of the vendors, which i devoured soon after the purchase. It was some of the best baklava I have ever eaten and I only which I had taken a picture. This baklava place probably had about 15 different kinds to choose from. We got the standard triangle baklava, but also got one was with cylindrical and one with this green powdery stuff on top. I don't really know what it was, but it was delicious. Afterwards, we met up with Aliyah, Sara, Lindsey, and Liat and then did some more shopping and exploring. At 3:15 those workshoppers who were heading back to Ein Dor boarded the bus, and the rest of us who were planning to stay in Tel Aviv for the night or the weekend stayed. I was one of many who planned on staying for just the night. I then went to beach later on and watched the sunset over the Mediterranean with 6 other workshoppers, Micah, Rafi, Hannah M, Matan, Celia, and Dan. It was one of the most gorgeous sunsets i have ever seen.

The sunset over the Mediterranean Sea

Hannah Martens and Micah watching the sunset

After spending about an hour on the beach, we met up with Sara and Lindsey and then the 9 of us got some dinner. 

Funny story: when we were eating dinner a young man who looked a bit older than us starting talking to us. He later told us he was 19. He told us he just landed in Israel this past week and is on a program geared to prepare him for the IDF. We could all tell he was from the States as he spoke perfect English, although he did add in a few "y'all's" and did speak with a thick southern accent (he was from Texas). He then asked if he could walk around with us for a while. After some initial hesitation, we said yes. It was so strange, but we felt safe. We then walked around the city together and explored Tel Aviv at night. 

Although it was mostly just hanging out in Tel Aviv, it was really really nice just getting out of kibbutz and immersing myself in Israeli society. I don't know hebrew that well, but getting a break from the sort of separated, sequestered kibbutz life was very nice. It's quite different from MBI (the Israel summer program I did 2 years ago) because we actually have the freedom to go places without madrichim (counselors). We used public transportation yesterday, which is something that we would not have been able to do as easily on MBI. 

It's now the weekend again, and after a long day yesterday, I'm using the time today to just hang out on kibbutz and sleep.