Thats all folks!

Sof Workshop!

After an intense sikkum (concluding) seminar, Workshop 57 officially came to an end this morning. All workshoppers should be landing in the US sometime in the next few hours, and onto their home airports.
Some pictures from the last few days will be posted soon !!

Workshop 57 coming to a close

Well its been quite an adventure. From meeting many of you all in the Winter of 06/07 until now, summer of '08 that this journey has transpired. Spending two weeks in Israel was a great opportunity for me spend time first hand with the Workshoppers and see how the program is/was running. I have a lot of good, positive, and constructive conversations about Workshop and it went for many members of the different kvutsot and what can be done to make the program even better. It was reaffirming to hear that a lot of we think is positive about the program the Workshoppers agreed and places where we are aware of needed improvement also was their perspective. Of course though through these conversations it is clear as always that everyone finds a certain aspect of the program to be their favorite/least favorite and tweaking all those elements to find the right balance is our continual challenge.

There was spending May Day with the Workshoppers in Tel-Aviv, marching, hearing speeches, and bands and having our own Josh Marantz on stage to sing the one part of the Internationale in english was special. Seeing them have a cultural evening with members of our sister youth movement was a fun night to witness. And of course I spent time during one of their Yom Kvutsot, listening to conversations, taking part in the peulot, and seeing the transformations and growth of the individuals and the group over these last 9 months. Its truly remarkable and I certainly am proud of this year's participants and all those involved in th running of program.

That all being said I am still in the process of evaluating this year's program and looking for more feedback to gain a broader sense of how you the parents experience this year and what can be done to improve it. The online survey can be found here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=SRCr8UtNifkmfMkPKjvguw_3d_3d.
But feel free to email me your thoughts if you'd rather.

Some of you I'm continuing to be in touch as the Habonim world continues to turn and who knows when our paths may cross again. I hope you and your Workshoppers have gained a lot from this experience and hopefully have emerged better off and stronger for it. Wishing you all success and good luck in the future.

Shabbat Shalom,
Michael

P.S. If you need to reach me this tomorrow or Sunday call the Habonim Dror cellphone at 917-822-2330. I'll be at the airport in Newark with my staff on Sunday and if any issues arise I will make sure to let you know.

May fever

Since returning from the Pesach break, the workshoppers have plunged into the frenzy of national holidays in Israel. Thus far we have commemorated Yom Hashoa (Holocaust remembrance day) and May Day.
On Yom Hashoa, all the workshop and shnat groups gathered at Lochamei Hagetoaot, a kibbutz near Acco that was founded by fighters in the Warsaw ghetto and members of Dror, which also contains a very unique musuem [that we visited as part of the Poland preparation process]. Every year the official ceremony to close Yom Hashoa is held at the Amphitheater. It is a very special and unique ceremony, often with a focus towards the Youth movements in Israel. A highlight was the speech by Chavka Folman-Raban, a fighter from Dror in Warsaw, who spoke about the need of the youth to fight against the destructive elements in Israeli society today. Before the ceremony itself, we held a small Habonim Dror remembrance ceremony which was prepared by the British workshop group.
A number of workshoppers spent the Friday night and Saturday at the training seminar for the summer shlichim - the Israelis who will be traveling to the different machanot this summer as madrichim on behalf of the Jewish Agency.
Yesterday, we celebrated May Day - the workers festival . Although traditionally celebrated on May 1st, as there was a conflict with Yom Hashoa, it was moved to May 4th this year. We gathered in Kikar Rabin in Tel Aviv and participated in a march through Tel Aviv streets, together with a few thousand members of youth movements in Israel - Hanoar Ha'oved V'lomed, Hashomer Hatzair, and Machanot HaOlim. It was an incredible sea of blue and red, and we then finished outside the Workers Federation Building with performances, dancing and singing (including a great solo by Josh Marantz!) and lots of sitting in the beautiful sunshine! Although it was a long day, it was also a really nice event, and afforded a great opportunity for the workshoppers to see their friends from their "sister chavot".

Tuesday night is Erev Yom Hazikaron (Remembrance Day for Fallen Soldiers) which is followed the next day by Yom Ha'atzamaut (Israeli Independence Day) - so there is still a lot ahead in this week!
Next week is the final full week of Workshop, with messimot coming to a close and cleaning in full swing! The workshoppers leave their houses in Acco and Carmiel on the 15th May and will be at the Shfayim guest house (just north of Herziliya) until the 18th May early morning where they depart.

Pesach Day Camps

Throughout the week prior to Pesach, there is generally no school. This year, all of the workshoppers participated in the "English Pasechot", run together in partnership with Hanoar Haoved V'halomed (our sister youth movement). The English Pasechot are 4-day-long day camps, with an emphasis on learning English, run for children in the 4-6th grade. English is taught through a range of activities such as tiyul (hike), cooking, crafts and acting with an obvious focus on the chag of Pesach.
This project (in previous years this was run in a different format of "english camp" for 3 days) relies heavily on the workshoppers and their English skills. A delegation of workshoppers were based in Beersheva, working in Ofakim, Dimona and Beersheva. They also were able to experience the different surroundings in the southern part of Israel, and participate in tours and hosting by various kvutsot bogrot (adult groups) from Hanoar Haoved V'halomed living in those areas. Other workshoppers travelled to Hadera every day, or joined other towns which needed extra support for the camp (Tiberias, Tsfat) so that for this week, the workshoppers were quite literally spread out all over the country!
The Pasechot gave many workshoppers a chance to either see a different part of the country or work with different chanichim or tzvatim; and other workshoppers a chance to spend more in-depth time with their regular chanichim and build even greater bonds between them. The feedback from all involved (particularly parents of the children participating) was tremendously positive and overall this experience was extremely worthwhile.

Israel or Bust

I hope you all have been enjoying Passover and all its Matzah goodness. The Workshoppers are wrapping up their Pesach break in Israel and getting set to begin the final stretch of the program. While time is short, there is lots of important work and sikkuming(wrapping up) of the year yet to be done. There are also many important holidays, including Israel's 60th birthday, which is a truly special and momentous occasion for the Workshoppers to witness.

I am departing to Israel tomorrow where I will be from April 27th until May 10th. During that time I will doing my best to stay current on any emails and issues that may arise. I can also be reached on my Israeli cell phone whose number is:011-972-52-580-7124. Feel free to contact our offices as they may be able to answer any questions you may have or will make sure to follow up with me to make sure issues are taken care of.

While I am there I will be spending significant time with the Workshoppers to see their impressions first hand and to continue the process of evaluating and improving Workshop.

Chag Sameach and Shabbat Shalom,
Michael