ShnUpdate - Savyon 18.05.18
This week started on Sunday, the 13.05, we had a hinuch seminar. Every week we had a chavruta session to prepare a session. In Little groups we talked about topics which interested us.
So we started the day with Nathan and Jack, who talked about the Frankfurt school and the dialectic of enlightenment. “We need to educate about antisemitism”,says Jack .
After this followed a session about story telling and Judaism from Alyssa, Harley and Michael. We still have the song ,from this session, stuck in our heads "Oh am I rich" "Well no I'm not!" "But then again" "I've got shabbat" "Oh with the challah" "And the wine" "I love it then" "It's shabbes time" Ja bye bye bye bye bye The next session started also with music, but a complete different kind. It was a session by Tahlia and Sima about the Hasidic community in Melbourne and New York City. As reform Jews it was very interesting for us all to investigate different streams of Judaism.
Next Emily, Leigh and Jess did their session on Jewish guilt and discussing the relation between Judaism and guilt.
Followed by Sam and Gideon who told us about politics and Talia, who made a fantastic session on her own about psychology where we were all caught out on how much we used our especially us two. And last but not least Joe and Sal did theirs on Heradi conscription to the army and their believes in stopping them from a doing so.
On Sunday evening almost of the shnatties crowded around to watch Eurovision and support Israel in winning !
It was an amazing atmosphere then the decision was made. Everyone was screaming and celebrating the success.
On Monday we made our way to Haifa to International living seminar where we had a jam (lots of flavours) packed day. We talked about freedom and what it is to be free and looked specific at the movie matrix. The whole seminar was full with great and eye opening sessions.
We spent time thinking about social media, consumption and how important it is to have an opinion about topics. One of the highlights was the restaurant “robin food”, which cook there with food which was saved from the rubbish. The foods where rejects for supermarket and shops because they didn’t look as aesthetically because the carrot had an extra leg, or being near there sell by date but still very tasty 😋.
On Wednesday we had a session with Rabbi Steve burnstein which was very inspiring as he sharing several of his personal stories. Ady also ran a great session on tikkan olam where we voted the top 3 issues that we wanted to spend our money which were the environment, education and equal opportunities. In the afternoon we had a chance to plan for seminars and any sessions that we are running in the near future. Eight brave shnatties went to do some physical work at the coop in the warm weather and came back to some delicious homemade pizza.
On Thursday we woke up way earlier than we needed to in order to get on a bus to an event run by Masa about the conflict in context of going to study on campus next year. Gideon raised in a controversial question in a ‘provocative’ manner which grabbed the attention of many many Americans and the camera crew, but Gideon managed to hold it own. Well done !!
After we got back everyone was worn out from the busy and hectic week but not Nathan because he still had the energy to take Neil out for a walk (Harley’s twin!!). Happy shavout x
From Sima and Emily
Mazal Tov to our lovley Michael L. for graduating Machon yesterday! Michael was chosen to speak on the behalf of the Machon Chanichim in the closing ceremony - Check it out!
"Hello joni, Dalia and manu, hello to the teachers who recognise me and to the ones who recognise my name on the role. Hello to all the representatives of our movements here, the rakazim and finally my chavura, it's no coincidence we are chavura number 1 it isn't because we are objectively the best but because being with this group makes you feel your best. I've been asked to talk about my experience on Machon and I was eager to talk because I believed I had a unique experience to share, and that's true but so do the other 28 people I've shared this journey with and that's what makes machon such an amazing experience. We all get to share a life changing 3 months together in our bubble going through our own changes but we're free to come hang out in our friends bubble and all together in one bubble. As for my experience on machon, it started a long time before machon did.
Machon appealed to me from the beginning of considering shnat because the idea of a pluralist education space where we can all challenge each other respectfully and then have a good night out together seemed like the perfect way to start my shnat. I've made the choice to not go to university after shnat but still wanted to experience hanging out on a sunny patch of grass with my multicultural group of friends so that was an added bonus. I came on machon as the only member of my movement and one of two people who are Canberra's first shnatties. On my first day in Israel I knew being away from my kvutzah wouldn't be a problem.
One by one I've made some incredible friends starting with yishai, Harry and shisha. They introduced me to the rest of the betar gang and just like that I felt like the luckiest shnatty ever as I was now a part of 3 movements, catz, betar and netzer, I promise that's the last I'll mention catz in this speech. I'm leaving machon with alot of things, friends from around the globe, a leather chair and the most effective education I've ever bear witness to, alot of what happened in class resonated with me through frustration or awe but when I consulted my group asking for input for the speech bae gave me something really special to say.
The division within the Jews is not religious, secular, Ashkenazi or Sephardi. But just educated Jews and not educated Jews and that I'm really happy and proud now to be able to say that we are part of the the educated group but l educated enough to know we still have so much more to learn and educated enough to appreciate how incredible and unique the learning on offer to us is. I want to conclude this by saying thanks to a few people who without them machon wouldn't have happened and ontop of that I've taken very valuable skills from seeing how they work.
Dalia, you are the master of discipline and I'm telling you that as some one who has smiled like an ass through every punishment he's ever recieved.the way you communicate with us rather then punish us and put our fate in the hands of our ability to reflect on our actions is incredible and something I'm going to take with me when I deal with some kids who may not be as sweet as I am but regardless if I employ the techniques you used I'm sure I'll have no problem. Joni your sense of humour and ability to balance between our friend, our advisor and our leader on one foot with 28 weights on you is incredible and I hope one day I can achieve that balance with my chanich. Lauran I'm not sure what rakaz means in Hebrew but if what you've spent the last 3 months doing is being a rakaz then I'm assuming it means friend. You've done an incredible job of being our friend, having gossip with us whilst still remaining professional and that is something I haven't been able to with chanichim of such a close age range. I won't see you out tonight. Lastly to my chavura it's been sick and I don't need to tell you that we can feel the emotions amongst our group these last couple of days. Between Neil Lazarus telling me to medicate myself and asking me if I'd been bullied at school taught me to leave you guys with one last thing so adios mis amigos por favor manténganse en contacto"
