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From Director Rabbi Yoav Ende:

Dear Friends Shalom,

I hope that you are well and taking advantage of the opportunity to be with friends and loved ones.

Here at Hannaton, the summer is filled with activity. Teenagers from the United States and Canada, from Turkey, and Israelis, too– lots of students have been on our campus involved in a variety of activities and studies .

But I want to tell you about one special group that came to Hannaton from very nearby – Bir el Maksur – the Bedouin village just around the corner.

Within our understanding of Judaism, we see great value in building a shared and equal society for all of our citizens and fostering brave relationships between people from different ethnic and religious groups. It is said that leaders sign agreements, but people build peace. Without detracting from the critical role of our leaders, I’d say this statement is very true. We know that we cannot wait for the reality to change; rather we must work towards creating the reality we want to live in.

“You are not required to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it”.)Mishna Avot 2:16)

(אבות ב:טז) “לא עליך המלאכה לגמור ואין אתה בן חורין להיבטל ממנה”.

And so, recently, a group of 30 children from Bir el Maksur, in 2^nd and 3^rd grade, came to spend

two days of fun at Hannaton with children their age. We played soccer, jumped rope, did art, and more. In the evening their parents came for a gathering with Hannaton parents. During the gathering, we stood in a circle according to the number of children each family has and much to our surprise, the family with the most number of children was from Hannaton – with seven children! The children stayed over to sleep at the Educational Center.

On the surface, this was a regular neighborhood meetup, but the truth is, a gathering like this is almost a small miracle. I say this, on the one hand, with much pride in our work, and on the other hand, with pain about our reality here in Israel. It cannot be taken for granted that others, our neighbors, would feel secure in allowing their young children to stay here (for many, this was their first time sleeping away from home). It cannot be taken for granted that they can come swim in a pool in a Jewish community and feel welcome. It cannot be taken for granted that there is so much good will from both sides.

Similarly, we had another meaningful meeting with Ahmed Zaidan, the imam of the oldest and biggest mosque in the village of Kfar Manda, just a mile down the road from Hannaton. This meeting was possible only after many years of building relationships with the different communities within Kfar Manda. Together with another eight rabbis from South America and Canada, we visited the mosque in the center of the village, where we spoke about God, humanity, and the clash with extremism which many times, to our shame, masquerades as religion. We asked ourselves – what is our role as religious leaders in the battle for a better world? We did not have answers, but at least we opened the door and started the conversation. We finished the meeting with a joint prayer for peace for all mankind.

Wishing you all a wonderful summer,

Yoav

Hannaton Educational Center

Turkish Students at Hannaton

For the fourth consecutive year, rising 7th graders from Turkey spent more than two weeks earlier this summer at the Hannaton Educational Center, in an effort to improve their Hebrew learning from native speakers and to observe kibbutz life first-hand.

“The major lesson that we would like our students to take away,” said Eleanora Bahar, program coordinator and head of Hebrew at the Ulus Jewish schools, “is to experience day to day culture on the kibbutz. The students study Hebrew throughout the school year, but they don’t have the opportunity to experience the true use of the language within a culture where Hebrew is spoken naturally.”

The 13-year-old students have already intensively studied Hebrew for two years at this point and most have been bar or bat mitzvahed, Bahar explained. This trip serves as a type of reward, she said, offering the students the experience to use their Hebrew with native speakers and to have the interactions with the Jewish youngsters visiting Hannaton from the United States and from all over the world, as there are many international students that visit and stay at the kibbutz at the same time they do.

It is a truly formative and unique experience for the students, as there are only approximately 18,000 Jews where they’re from and there is only one Jewish school in all of Turkey. 45% of Jewish community students get their education at that one school, which begins in kindergarten and extends through high school.  The school follows the Turkish national educational curriculum, and in addition to that they have Hebrew courses and Jewish studies lessons.

While here in Israel, the 32 students spent their mornings in Hebrew lessons and their afternoons doing team-building and Jewish identity-themed activities with their counselors.  Some days incorporated site-seeing, as well. But the main the focus of this trip is less on seeing the land and more on interacting with Hebrew speakers.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity, and an engaging program,” Bahar emphasized. “That’s why we come back each summer!”

 

Fixing the World – USY and Kfar Manda

By Carmel Lerner

In July, USY’s Israel Pilgrimage group arrived for a three-day stay at Hannaton as part of their tikkun olam programming. In the mornings, participants volunteered in a variety of local settings, such nearby farm fields where they picked vegetables designated for recipients of Leket Israel, Israel’s largest food bank. In the afternoons, they met with youth from Kfar Manda, the Arab village a few miles down the road from Hannaton.

The week was overall very successful, but in particular, participants and staff alike mentioned the time spent together between the USY group and their youth counterparts in Kfar Manda as the most impactful. I have to note that over the past year, we have had a number of meetings between the Hannaton mechina participants and Arab youth, so I’ve been able to observe what happens in the room during these meetups. This time, the connection between our USY group and the group from Kfar Manda was so strong — they connected so quickly and strongly — that we were all taken a bit by surprise. We could theorize about the many reasons for the difference, but regardless, it was interesting to witness the differences between meetings of Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews (where each side arrives with their own baggage and suspicions towards the other side), as compared to Israeli Arabs and American Jews.

During the first meetup, the participants got to know each other through a kind of speed-dating ice breaker activity, while learning English and Arabic from one another. In the second get-together, they talked about their religions – Islam and Judaism – and cooked a meal together. The third meeting included a tour of the local museum in Kfar Manda and a discussion about the challenges each group faces, as an Arab in Israel and as a Jew in the U.S. There was also some discussion of politics.

It’s easy to see from the many photographs the participants took of each other over the three-days how quickly they warmed to each other and how eagerly they approached the other’s culture in an effort to learn and engage. Both groups also blogged about their experience in their native languages. I am certain it’s a “mifgash” both parties will not only remember fondly, but use as an emotional foundation for future meetings with someone they may consider as the “other.”

Carmel Lerner was the counselor for the USY group that participated in the tikkun olam program with Kfar Manda. Over the past year, she also served as the counselor for the Hannaton mechina program.

If you feel moved to help and or donate follow these links:

 

And in other news…..

A big welcome to Garin Lavi, the NOAM (Masorti youth) group preparing for the army! All 26 participants are now at Hannaton for the next 10 weeks, studying Jewish texts, helping out on the kibbutz, volunteering in the Jezreel Valley and getting emotionally and physically prepared for the army. We’re thrilled to have them with us!

The Hannaton Mechina and the Center for Educational Technology Our mechina was chosen as one of two mechinot to work on a new project with the Center for Educational Technology. Using technology and a plan built by the CET, mechina participants will receive special training in the are of active civil involvement with a focus on social activism.

Mazel Tov to our Mechina Graduates! * Almog and Dor, class of 2016, and Barel, class of 2015, who recently received awards of excellence during their army service. * Or, class of 2013 and Ayala, class of 2014, who spent the summer at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires and Camp Ramah in Nyack respectively. * Kayla, class of 2013, who completed her army service in July and is now a counselor for the NOAM garin Lavi here at Hannaton.