WINTER CAMP - MOSH CHOREF

Hello all,

I have taken the liberty of translating the latest posting by Yaniv (http://ysagee.blogspot.com), written after the just ended mosh choref U.S. I challenge you to read this and not be inspired! I also hope you will comment, and discuss, either on Yaniv's blog or elsewhere.

Chazak ve'ematz
Efrat

Tuesday, December 29, 2009
About a month ago, a delegation of the council of youth movements in Israel visited here in New York (during the years 2003-2006 I was the chair of this council). In a discussion with my colleagues from youth movements in Israel I presented the structure of annual activities of the movement here. I described yearly activities centered around a month and a half of summer camp, 5 days of winter camp, two more occasions of 3 days of camp in the fall and spring, and alongside this, monthly seminars of 6 hours on Shabbat. “What, you don’t have weekly ken activities?” I was asked. I answered no. “So this isn’t exactly a youth movement” I was told. And I answered that of course this is a youth movement because it is built on all the operating principles of a youth movement (youth educating youth, a framework of choice and volunteerism, symmetry of relations, hagshama, multi-dimensional educational activities), but beyond this, I explained that from the vantage point of quality time during which a madrich works with a chanich, here we have opportunities that are even greater than exist in the educational structure of weekly activities and two short camps in Israeli youth movements. I related this story to the madrichim who gathered in the cheder ochel of winter camp for an opening sicha, and I told them that I am a staunch believer in our youth movement and in our educational activities, but the time we have with chanichim is indeed very measured, and therefore they need to grab this educational opportunity with both hands and to exploit it to the end. We sat in the warm cheder ochel. Outside it was 3 degrees below zero (Celsius), and inside sat a band of young people ages 17-21, preparing themselves for an educational mission of 24 hours a day times 5 days, with children in the snow and cold of the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York. The location was stunningly beautiful, the camp is an environmental center operating year round, the tzrifim warm and pleasant. Under these conditions the chanichim of Hashomer Hatzair experienced 5 days of Jewish identity (Chanuka, Shabbat, Hebrew), Israel, group processes, survival in the snow (building shelters, building fires and identifying tracks of animals), ropes courses, ecology of humans and nature, engagement and political activism, cultural evenings – music, drama. And lots and lots of fun and experiences of togetherness and cooperation. When the camp came to a close we reviewed, together with the madrichim, the educational experience we had all gone through. And there was definitely the sense of a very meaningful educational undertaking. These were 5 days of a youth movement at its best, days that brought to the forefront how educationally crucial the youth movement here is. The relevance it affords contemporary “wired” Jewish youth from the big city in the stronghold of world capitalism. On the other hand – this again revealed the large gap between the rare educational quality and the oh so small number of shomrim and shomrot who were at the camp (a total of 55 chanichim and madrichim), and this too was a topic I spoke about with the madrichim at the conclusion of winter camp – how do we translate energy that is so positive, and convert this high quality educational meaning to aggressive marketing that will lead us to hundreds and thousands of participants. This is the essential task and it is also an existential mission. Without a real breakthrough that will turn Hashomer Hatzair into a movement working among thousands of youth here – the movement will not exist for future generations, and maybe not even for a few more years. And as I have stated – for this I am here and by this I will be measured.
Chazak ve’ematz
Yaniv