November on Workshop

Last Thursday we had a siyur in Haifa, where we learned about the history of the city. We visited a lookout point where we could see across the sea to Akko! We also learned about the different neighborhoods in the city.  Wadi Nisnas, an Arab neighborhood, is situated right next to Hadar HaCarmel, a Jewish neighborhood. We got to walk around Wadi Nisnas for a bit, so a few of us walked to a nearby bakery where we bought cookies! Hadar HaCarmel (more widely known as just Hadar), is a lot bigger and is located on higher land elevation. It's home to the Technion, which used to be the Israel Institute of Technology, but is now a museum of technology, science, and space. We ended the day downtown right next to an old Turkish shuk.

 After the siyur, Jess, Toviah, and I met up with one of our madrichim, Anna, who just recently made Aliyah to Israel. We went out for falafel and then went to a German section of the city where we had froyo/ ice cream!

It was really nice seeing Anna and talking to her about workshop and her new life in Israel. 

Another interesting part of workshop was  the module that we just finished. For the past two weeks we have learned about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict through peulot, discussions, guest speakers, and day trips. It was definitely a different kind of topic than the rest of the modules we've had. I think that it's a lot more relevant in our lives right now, not only because we are living in Israel, but also because we are 18 and 19 year olds living in an ever changing global society. This is a conflict that obviously includes the Israelis, Palestinians, and Arabs, however our home countries like the United States and Canada are also very involved in the issue as well. On Tuesday night, we listened to a guest speaker from Breaking the Silence, an organization against the occupation of the territories. Having grown up in the West Bank himself, the speaker posed many interesting viewpoints on the topic. He showed us a video of a border checkpoint where IDF soldiers were treating some of the Palestinians unfairly by threatening and physically assaulting them. 

Since Boneh is coming to a close, we finished many of our last courses this past week. My power course, masculinity, ended with a very interesting discussion on gender stereotypes and norms. Judaism course and Israeli society also ended. Workshop 63 is the first workshop to have experienced a course dedicated solely to Judaism and learning about our Jewish identities. While at times it was boring and very dry, I think that it sparked several discussions and questions that are very important to our growth as young Jewish individuals. I don't think I have ever thought that deeply about my Judaism as much as I did in this course, so it was very eye opening to be a part of it. For the last Israeli society, all of workshop joined together to watch Waltz with Bashir, an animated film on the first Lebanon war. The main character has a terrible vision from the Sabra and Shatila Massacre, so he seeks help from his friends, a psychologist, and other soldiers who served in the war to try to recall his involvement in it.  He eventually realizes that he helped shoot flares into the sky to aid the Christian Phalange militia commit the massacre inside the camps.The movie ends with real footage from the aftermath of the massacre.  Coming from someone who usually falls asleep when watching movies, I was definitely the opposite of falling asleep. It was incredibly interesting, and just goes to show the  psychological consequences that war can have on people, along with the extreme destruction that it can have on the villages and towns where people live.  We also had an incredibly deep and involved discussion about it afterwards. I loved hearing everyone's thoughts about the movie. An important question that we asked ourselves was "What is our responsibility towards the Arab-Israeli conflict? Both as Jews and individuals living in a complex society. What can we do to make sure that something like this doesn't happen again?

Our avodah also ended this past week. Micah and I said goodbye to Hovav, Ariel, and Baruch, and they wished us a good luck for the rest of our year.

Matan's birthday was this past Tuesday, the same day that we watched Waltz with Bashir.  It's definitely not the kind if movie you'd want to watch on your birthday. However, our kvutza had cake later that night, and then we joined with the other kvutza to have a silent rave. For those who don't know what a silent rave is, it's when you bring your ipod/ other music playing device and listen to your own music while dancing. It might sound weird, but it's actually hilarious. It's just a bunch of individuals dancing in a room to different music. Eventually, we played music in the speakers and all had a dance party. 

A major addition to workshop culture (specifically my kvutza) has been... knitting!! Personally, knitting helps me concentrate during peulot, so that's part of the reason why I knit, but it also is fun! I've already made 2 scarves and I'm beginning to make hats now too! There's a knitting store in Afula, so I've made a few trips to stock up on yarn.

On Thursday, November 18th, we had a siyur in the Golan Heights. We stayed in Israel for the entire duration of it, but we could see Jordan and Syria at many points.

Funny story: I uploaded a picture to Facebook from my phone. When you are on a mobile device and have your Location services turned on, Facebook will put the location of where you are with whatever you uploaded. Since I was literally on the Israel-Syrian border, Facebook said I was in Merom Golan, Syria!

It was so cool learning about the conflict over the land throughout the years. But let's be real, I think it was even cooler being so close to Syria and seeing tanks and soldiers alongside the road. What's sort of scary, but also in a way pretty neat, is the fact that there are still land mines in the ground from the wars. Luckily, the IDF has located the mines, and has put clear warnings and barbed wired fences to block off the areas of land where the mines are located. We also talked about how the Golan Heights was such an important/controversial area because of 3 things: the land, water, and military advantage. The land is important because it's near the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret), where water is much easier to obtain than in other parts of Israel. Geographically, it's situated on higher land than other parts of Israel so those who own the land have a clear military advantage. 

Jasper, the one member of workshop who is from Habonim Dror BeHolland, talked with some UN officers in Dutch since they were also from Holland! These officers were filming each other for a tv show explaining what they do at the Syrian-Israeli border.

Micah hanging out on one of the turrets.

The other kvutza all lined up for some artsy photos!

Hannah and Micah, two workshoppers from the Washington DC area in front of sign with many cities and their distances from where we were!

Aliyah looking out over the Kinneret.

Liat exploring some of the underground tunnels!

Chief taking some pictures.

Amit educating us on the history of the Golan.

Although yesterday was Thanksgiving, Workshop 63 is celebrating Thanksgiving on Friday, November 29th. Aliyah, Sara Banai, Hannah Blass-Martens, and I all helped make the dessert for our Thanksgiving/Shabbat dinner, while Jacob Henderson, Sam, Rachel Fishman, Asher, and a few others helped make the actual dinner. Stay tuned for a post soon with more information about our Workshop Thanksgiving!

Speaking of holidays, it's also Chanukkah! We are celebrating this holiday by meeting in the Stones moadon and lighting the candles and reciting the blessings every night with one another.  On Thursday night after our siyur to the Golan Heights, many of us went to the Chadar Ochel on kibbutz for a Chanukkah tekes (ceremony). This kibbutz-wide event included many songs, a few speeches, and some dancing. At the end we all got sufganiot (jelly-filled doughnuts!).

More about food. Lately workshoppers have taken on the role of master chefs. 

Dan and Micah both made homemade potato chips!

We also had French toast sticks for breakfast one morning!

Last Saturday, November 23rd, Toviah, Sara Banai, Aliyah, and I decided to go on a hike! We woke up pretty early and then walked to a nearby kibbutz where we were able to access some of the national trails of Israel. Toviah brought a frying pan, some eggs to make scrambled eggs, and oil. Aliyah brought a jar of peanut butter, cheese, bread, and pretzels. I brought fruit and vegetables! After walking for a few miles, we all sat down, built ourselves a fire and made scrambled eggs!

Toviah also brought his speakers and iPod, and decided to play funny music to go along with adventuring in the "wilderness." We ended up walking downhill a lot, which we hardly noticed until we had to walk all the way back up at the end. We walked past signs that said "wadi" the Arabic word for river. We thought there would be a river so we looked out for the sound of running water. Much to our surprise (but actually not really), the once called river was dried up. Along our hike, we climbed this pretty  steep hill. It was very tiny so it didn't take long to climb at all.

After walking for a few more miles, we decided to have lunch. With the oil, bread, cheese, frying pan, and another fire, Toviah made grilled cheeses for all of us! After lunch we had to start heading back. We thought we would be back around 4, but we didn't end up getting back until 5:30, and by that time it was already super dark. We walked through many orchards and hilly dirt fields to get back to kibbutz. We also saw some wild donkeys on the way back! 

Once we finally got back I could hardly feel my legs! We ended up hiking about 12-15 miles that day!

There have also been many members of workshop who have begun filming music videos. Matan Reshef decided to create a video to Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball, which stars many members of workshop lip syncing and doing other silly things.

You can  check out his video here!

Next week we will be doing a seminar on hagshama and the history of Habonim Dror. Each day we will be leaving kibbutz and travelling to a new location to learn. I've heard it's a very long and tiring week, but I'm very excited to get off kibbutz everyday.

Workshop Prom

This past Friday, we had our very own workshop prom! A few people from my kvutza assigned the couples and tried to make it so we would be with people we might not know that well. I went with Robert Berman, the one Brit we have on our workshop! One person from each couple was supposed to ask their date to prom. A lot of people rushed the askings last minute, but many of them were still cute and really thought out. Throughout the week Robert had made a bunch of origami roses and attached them to a piece of paper that asked "Naomi, will you be my date??" He then made even more roses and made a bouquet with them! Some of the other people were asked by scavenger hunts, and some were even serenaded! They were all in different locations too. For instance, mine was in my house, but others were in the chadar ochel (dining room) and some were in our front yard! Rafi asked Sara B by having Gabe play the saxophone in the middle of the chadar ochel and then he read aloud a poem asking her to prom! Sam asked Pickle by having a lot of us workshoppers hold signs that said "Pickle", "This Way", "Will", "You", "Go", "To", "Prom", "With", "Me." Each one of us held a different word at different spots in the chadar. Eventually she was led to where Sam was standing and then he asked her to prom! He had even picked a bouquet of flowers around kibbutz to give to her. Jacob Faber did a similar thing, but without the signs. He some of the guys sit on one knee in a line and give Liat a flower as she walked by. I, along with a few others formed a bridge for her to walk under and at the very end Jacob was singing and playing his guitar.

Each couple also decided to go with a theme for the night and dressed up based on whichever theme they went with. We took a step back from the long dress, tuxedo type of appearance that most proms have and decided to have a little bit of creative fun! Since Robert is from England and owns a large British flag, he wore that as a cape on his back, and I did the same except with the Canadian flag that we have on workshop. I know what you're thinking, I'm not Canadian. However, I couldn't seem to find an American flag so the Canadian flag had to do. Some of the other couples dressed up in crazy costumes such as cowgirls, galaxy outfits, all denim, and mismatched outfits.

We also had a prom king and queen! Rachel Fishman and Micah Arnson-Serotta both won (sticks represent!).Two of our Australian friends, Dillon and Elliot, also visited for the weekend and they got to participate in prom too!

This is the Canadian flag I used!

Halloween, Health, Akko, and Masa Mega Event

I realized that I completely forgot to blog about one of the best days on workshop so far: Halloween! Although it isn't really a thing here in Israel, workshop decided that we would celebrate Halloween by dressing up in crazy costumes. There were a lot of character costumes, but also some pretty unique and creative costumes such as the green line, a trio of salt, pepper, and cumin, and a fork in the road.It also happened to be Crook's birthday, so Amit and Crook (two members of Tzevet Boneh) planned a day full of kef and games for us! Towards the end of the night, once we were already on our weekend, a few members of workshop planned an awesome Halloween kibbutz-wide scavenger hunt for us! We split up into groups and had to decipher many clues hidden in various locations around kibbutz. Afterwards, we all went inside the Stone's moadon and danced Just Dance to Time Warp and other Halloween-esque songs. One of the best parts of the day was probably breakfast though. Thanks to Aliyah and Micah, we had oatmeal, hot apple cider, and banana chocolate chip cake. Halloween/ Yom Kef was a really nice way to roll in the weekend that we had ahead of us.

I'm the queen of hearts, and Toviah is Macklemore.

Liat and I dressed up in our second costumes of the day!

Hmmm, what else. Lately people have been getting sick on workshop. Not sick enough to be hospitalized, but the common stomach bug has definitely been affecting many of us. Unfortunately I was one of the unlucky few that was sick, but I'm en route to getting better which is good. It sucks feeling like you can't do anything, both physically and mentally. I didn't even have the energy to knit, or watch a movie so I just layed there and stared at the wall or slept. My roommate was also sick so we kept each other company most of the time though. But parents, do not worry, we are all being taken care of and are getting better! 

In other news, both kvutzot finally OFFICIALLY found out what we'll be living in for kaveret! My kvutza will be loving in Akko (shocker) and the other kvutza will be living in Rishon LeZion. I'm very excited. I've heard great things about the city of Akko from past workshop participants who have lived there.

Also, yesterday was Thursday, which usually means we have either a siyur or a Yom meyuchad. However, we didn't do either. Later in the day we had the Masa Mega Event, which is an event that Masa runs for all of the Israel gap year programs that it funds. The bus picked us up at Ein Dor around 2:30 and after a 2.5 hour bus ride, we finally arrived in Jerusalem. It took a very long time to actually get inside, so we sat outside for a while and ate our dinners. Once we finally got inside, we stood around for another hour. While some people got bored pretty easily, I found many ways to entertain myself. Toviah and I took selfies with random people and even got into some of their photos (classic prank). There were so many people there from several different programs, and I even recognized some people I knew. What was really cool was that I met up with a girl who is also on a gap year program in Israel and who will be joining me at American next year. We're hoping that at some point this year, we can meet up with the other American University gap year participants in Israel. Once we finally got inside, which happened to be around 8 PM, all 37 of us found our seats and ... waited for another half an hour or so (shocker!). Once it began, Benjamin Netanyahu came in and spoke for a bit. Although a lot of us don't really agree with his views, it was still really cool to hear him speak. Micah and Big E even shook his hand! The rest of the night consisted of musical performances from the Idan Reichal project, and some videos that Masa put on that expressed the importance of the experiences gained in these gap year programs. We also saw our SAANZ (South Africa and New Zealand) friends again, but unfortuantely it was the last time we will get to see them since they go home in a few weeks.

There were so many people there!

the current prime minister of israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to all of the Masa participants.

Musical performances

Jerusalem Siyur, Afula, and Weekend

On Thursday morning, all of workshop awoke very early and extremely exhausted. But my kvutza wasn't just tired because we had to wake up at 6 AM, although waking up that early will usually make anyone grumpy/tired. Flashback to high school, am I right? Anyways, most of us only got 4 or 5 hours of sleep that night because we had an asepha (meeting) on our kupa money that went until about 1:30 in the morning. I went to bed at about 1 because I could not keep my eyes open any longer. So after a breakfast of paninis made by Jacob and Chief, we boarded the bus to take us to old city Jerusalem for a day of learning in one of the holiest cities in the world. It took us about 3 hours to get there instead of the typical 2 because the bus driver got lost and we stopped for a bathroom break. I slept most of the way there so I didn't notice how late we were until we were already in Jersusalem. Once I woke up, I participated in one of my favorite past time activities to pass the time: people watching. Just observing the different kinds of people walking around Jerusalem was so interesting, but also sort of funny. There were a lot of Hasidic Jews, but I mean duh, I'm in Jerusalem. There was also a man that I saw trying to light his cigarette, but the lighter was out of lighter fluid so he threw it on the ground and it smashed into a million little pieces out of frustration. It was quite strange. Once we got off the bus, we all walked to a roof where we sat down and talked about Jerusalem's prime location and how it serves a great military defense advantage since it sits atop a hill. We then went to the supposed location of where the "Last Supper" happened and continued on our way past the Zion Gate through to a wall where we were able to see many bullets from the 1948 and 1967 wars. We also went to the Western wall where those who wanted to could go up to it and put messages into the stones. I walked up to where the split between men and women were, but didn't feel like going up much farther. Some of the people at the wall yelled at some of the workshoppers for not dressing properly, which was something that we predicted would happen, but was still very aggravating. I guess it just takes understanding that we are different people with different views on Judaism. While we waited for those who went up to the wall to come back, we learned about the history of the Jewish temples, the Dome of the Rock, and Al-Aqsa mosque.

Next, we boarded the bus again and headed to a park for lunch. I had actually been to the park before when we stayed in Jerusalem for Yom Kippur. It has a great playground, FYI. We ate lunch, and then heard a guest speaker talk about his experience working with IRAC (Israel Religious Action Committee). IRAC strives stop segregation on buses, advocate for more womens rights at the Western Wall, and change how marriage and religion coincide in Israel.

We then had a short hafsaka (break) and were allowed to walk around some of the shops around the park. I stopped by Aroma (the equivalent of Starbucks in Israel), and bought myself an iced coffee. We then went on the bus again to listen to our second and last guest speaker in Mea Shearim, an ultra-orthodox neighborhood. We had  the opportunity to listen to a Haredi man speak to us about his views on Judaism and Israel. He doesn't believe that cultural Judaism exists, and doesn't think that the LGBT community should have equal human value. As you can probably guess, his responses were not ones that I necessarily agree with, but it was still super interesting hearing alternate points of view on the subjects. It's not every day that you get the opportunity to hear someone like him speak.

At around 5:30 we boarded the bus again, where about half of workshop went back to kibbutz and the other half stayed in Jerusalem for a night. There was a Renaissance fair happening in Jerusalem that night so a lot of people went to that and then stayed in a hostel for a night. 

Lindsey and Matan being silly with the Renaissance Fair decorations. 

I decided to go back to kibbutz and I'm awfully glad I did. I was still exhausted from a long day and lack of sleep the night before. When we got back we hung out with some of the kibbutzniks and then built a bonfire.

The next morning I went to Afula with Aliyah and Liat so that we could get some knitting supplies and beads. I also stopped by a healthfood store and got myself some dates! 

We also stopped by a pet store in Afula. Craziest jellyfish I've ever seen.

We had a nice few hours out before heading back to kibbutz. It was nice spending a night and morning with a smaller group of workshoppers. When everyone got back, they took naps and showered before Shabbat and our night plans.   All week workshop pretended that it was prom night to cover for what it actually was, Aliyah and Gabe's wedding! Don't worry, it was a fake wedding to celebrate their birthdays that occurred this past week. Matan, one of my kvutza mates assigned roles to every person on Workshop. For instance, there was the jealous ex-girfriend, the extremely drunk girl, the Rabbi, the grandma, the inappropriate 10 year old cousin, the bridesmaids, the best man, and of course, their parents. I played the role of Aliyah's mom, while Michael played the role of her dad, and Jess and Rafi played the roles of Gabe's parents. Michael and I took Aliyah aside and talk to her about how proud we are of her, and how we just want to see her happy. Mind you, she still didn't know that it was her fake wedding at this point. It was awfully funny, but we couldn't tell her the truth quite yet. Soon enough however, we brought her into the house where we walked her down the aisle. Everyone played their parts so well. Chief, for example, played the part of the Rabbi and did a fantastic job. He has quite a way with words that made him perfect for the part. Dan Shahar played the role of the flower girl, and actually threw flowers down the aisle! It was such a funny night that I think everyone enjoyed.

Our lovely flower girl!

A mother and her daughter on her wedding day!

The next day, we were all exhausted (shocker). Everyone, aside from a few people just hung out and napped all day until the workshoppers from Gesher lead us in Havdallah/Musical. It was a really nice way to close the weekend in a relaxing way. The weekends that we have on workshop are always something special. During the week we  have a very packed schedule that leaves little room to hang out all together, so the weekends give us time to be creative and have fun.