Rabin Seminar

This past weekend all of workshop met with Habo South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and a few Brazilians and one guy from Habo Mexico for a 2 day seminar on democracy and the peace process. After waiting around for an hour or so at Ein Dor, the bus (with the Australians living in Akko on it already) finally came to pick us up. We quickly threw our bags on the bus and then rode for another hour until we arrived. Most of workshop was under the impression that we would be staying at Ravid, but to our surprise, we actually ended up staying at a very nice seminar center. It was very exciting seeing everyone again. We saw most of our Southern Hemisphere friends last week, but coming together for a couple of days was a great way to get to know each other a bit more. We were split up into 4 mixed groups to do peulot (activities) in. My kvutza (group) for the weekend had Habo North America, South Africa and Australia in it. What was really nice about my group was that only 2 of the people in it had been in my Yam l' Yam group (and 1 of the 2 is actually in my Galil kvutza back at home so I have known her for a long time), and so I had plenty of opportunity to meet and get to know new people. 

After eating lunch, we split into our groups and began the first peulah. 

The view right outside our classroom.

We were asked to write down our own definitions of democracy. I wrote down something along the lines of a political/governmental system where the citizens are supposed to be represented by the government and vote on candidates in a majority rules fashion. Most people wrote down definitions that were similar, but it was still hard to come up with a definition that most people could completely agree on. One of the girls in my group brought up an interesting point that Australia, Israel, Canada, and South Africa (the countries that were represented by the people in my group) all practice slightly different forms of democracy. While the people in each of these countries all vote,  each one of these countries has different threats to democracy that could potentially alter the system. We also read a bunch of different texts over the 2 days. One was Yael Gvirtz's Black box timeline leading up to the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Another was Ariel Sharon's speech titled Danger for Israel, in which he talks about what Israel is to do next. We also read Tamar Applebaum's speech in the Banish the Darkness Conference, and lastly Yitzhak Rabin's own speech at a convention of HaNoar HaOved Vehalomed where he specifically asks what the youth movements of today can do to bring change and peace.

On Friday night we all gathered in front of the Chadar ochel and brought in Shabbat together. 

We sang songs that we typically sing in North America for Shabbat, but also learned and sang songs that the Southern Hemisphere Habos sing. We then all went inside and ate dinner together. Dinner was nothing special, in fact it was actually worse than what we get at Ein Dor, and that's saying a lot. I didn't mind though, I wasn't that hungry at all. We then went back to our classrooms later that night and had a fun peulah in our groups. My madrichim for the weekend, Maya and Oren, planned a game of trivia for us. We split into 2 groups and wrote down one interesting fact about us. The other team then had to guess which one of us wrote it. After the peulah, some people went to bed, but most people hung out in the grassy area in front of our rooms. And speaking of rooms, I got to room with people on workshop whom I've never roomed with before! I roomed with Eli, Zoe, Sam Sarah, and  Pickle. We didn't spend that much time in our rooms, but I did like the change even if it was only for a night. Don't worry Liat, Sara, and Chief, I still love you guys too. 

What I loved about hanging out in the yard outside with everyone was that I could go up to any circle of people talking and just join in. Everyone is just so nice and I really enjoyed talking with people and sharing stories about random things. And by random, I really mean random. One of the groups I was in was talking about different methods of torture. Actually. Like who has even heard of white room torture before? I certainly haven't for obvious reasons, but it was still an interesting topic of conversation. I talked so much with people that before I knew it, I was one of about 5 people still awake outside talking! And 2 of the 5 were guys from Mexico and Brazil. I learned that most of the Brazilians know both Portuguese AND Spanish and so they communicate with the Mexicans in Spanish. I was able to pick up what they were saying, which was awesome especially since the last time I took Spanish was in 11th grade. 

On Saturday we had breakfast, had 3 more peulot, lunch, and then a closing tekes (ceremony). Perry (from New Zealand), Ella (from Australia), and I a read short little excerpts in front of everyone as part of the ceremony. Afterwards, we had to say goodbye and board the busses to go home. I was sad that this seminar fell over our weekend, but I think it was so worth it. Over the past couple of weeks I have formed many new friendships with such unique, interesting and nice people. It's sort of weird how they are getting ready to go back to their homes in Australia, New Zealand, and Sourh Africa, while we are still kind of at the beginning of workshop.

Soon however, a new set of Southern Hemisphere Habos will come as part of shnat and we will hopefully get to know them as much if not more than we got to know the current shnatties. 

When we returned back to Ein Dor, we had dinner and then gathered together for Havdallah. We did it Miriam style, and so we all layed in a circle with the candle in the middle.

It was an amazing weekend, but now it's time for another full week of Boneh with just workshop.