Saturday 7 July 2012

The Weekly Report: 07/06/2012

Dear Parents, Sniffim and Shnatties. Shalom Rav,

What an intense week this has been, it was the last week of intense studying in Etgar and Machon and by the end of next week the northerners will be going to Sikkum Seminar and the southerners to Karmiel for their options period.

This week we also said goodbye to Rebecca Winchell, who left early to lead on camp in USA, we wish a lot of luck and we will miss you.

I myself just got back from England where I was well received by our RSY and LJY sniffim, I went to interview 16 potential shnatties that will be coming this next October on Shnat.

In the Netzer office we are getting ready for the Sikkum Seminar which will be starting on Thursday next week and will finish on Monday June 18th, the last day of Northern Shnat.
In Karmiel, Galit (our madricha) and Miri (our Hebrew teacher) are getting ready to receive our Southerners. Galit is preparing an orientation weekend to get our lovely shnatties settled in the lovely city of Karmiel.

In England, RSY is getting ready to receive Lily and Kathryn who will be helping them lead on camp.

That is it for now; I wish you all a great weekend and Shabbat Shalom.

Michael


Weekly Report By Josh L. (Etgar)

This week has been themed to the Etgar Apprentice. The teams were divided and challenges set with the winner to be announced Wednesday night. The challenges were cleaning, a gangashluff (gameshow) program and a dress up themed night of plants vs. zombies.
The week started as normal with Hebrew class where we a starting to wrap up the course, and as we wouldn’t have really imagined at the beginning, Kita alef (beginner class) is doing most of it b’ivrit (in Hebrew). The day then went into the first Etgar apprentice challenge and finished on Tanach where we learned about how hard it is to be a prophet preaching to people who don’t want to listen through shouting the prophet Jeremiah’s words to the general public.
Sprite Day (formerly Monday) consisted of an all-day class with our Jewish History Teacher Mark Lazar. As this was our last class with him, our sikkum (summary) was to take the lead from him, and, in groups run peulot (programs) for each other on site as he has done throughout the course. The day started at Beit Shmuel with Dan R, Rebekkah and Josh doing a Ma’amad (creative prayer service) focussing on the sites you can see from our rooftop. That was followed by Tara, Kitty and Jake doing a Ma’amad/ peula in the old city overlooking the Kotel. Third was a Schindlers grave peula done by Emily, Jemma, Liz and Jeff, and the day was completed by Naomi, Dan A and Alyson at the Tayelit (a site near machon overlooking most of Jerusalem). We then had dinner at Marks house and went home to have the second Etgar Apprentice Challenge.
Tuesday consisted of Hebrew for Kita alef while kita bet (advanced class) had one on ones with Dana. We then had Reform Judiasm Class with Rabbi Michael Klein-Katz (MKK) where we looked at the difference between presenting comical views on religion and preaching as well as how realistic and how relevant g-d is to religion. Yom Tnua (day together) with Machon at Machon finished the day with a discussion on what ideology is and what our individual ideologies are.
A station rotation on our upcoming Tikkun Day started Wednesday followed by Hebrew for Kita bet while the others had their one on one time with Dana. The day will finish with the third and last Etgar Apprentice challenge of the theme night, plants vs zombies. Who will win the Etgar Apprentice 2012? We will find out next week!

Thanks,
Josh Lazarus

Weekly report by Machon

HEY EVERYONE. ITS JORDY.

Okay so this is my first time writing the weekly report, so bare with me. The last week ended with Jade, Shoshana and I on kibbutz shefayim preparing for Noar Telem camp. There was a lot of bonding, practise peulots, netzer-like shabbat services, fun games in hebrew (probably not as fun for us considering we only knew what every 850th word meant when they spoke as fast they do), amazing feasts of dinner followed by too many little cakes, followed by too many icy poles and israeli dancing. The next day we were lucky enough to got to a waterpark for a few hours which was just amazing, amd so much fun to have the time to just chill with the kids we'll be leading with on Havaya.

Sunday and Monday were Machon's last real classes which felt relieving but also fairly sad for all the educators we're not going to see or be taught by again, many of them becoming good friends with us machoniks. Thankyou to every educator who provided the incredible classes for us :)

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday was an overwhelming but fascinating 3 day seminar about the Jewish culture in Israel and the Diaspora. Tuesday was an introduction to the seminar with a few talks informing us on the different ways people live out their Jewish life. Tuesday afternoon was the horrific moment when we had to comprehend that Becca was returning back home to the big USA. We had a big discussion for a few hours on Ideologies, personal and Netzer, and then with no explanation to Becca, walked down to the Taylelet and threw her a surprise farewell party! Awakardly but accidentally brought Bamba to eat, forgetting she is anafalactic. We didnt open them.
At 7pm on the dot we all waved her goodbye as she flew off in her shirut and then proceeded to watch all the Northeners freak out as they realised that would be them in a week and a half.

Wednesday was full of workshops about Anti Zionism, Anti Semitism, Aetheism, In reach and Out reach. We then spoke about what we wanted our homes to look like when we had a family. Keeping shabbat? Going to shul once a week? Having Mezzuzot? Jewish partner? Naming our kids with traditional Jewish names? This process of discussing between different people from different Youth Movements was very controversial, with many things succeeding expectations of being disagreed on, but then some things suprisingly agreed on between different Youth Movements. The only thing every single Machonik agreed on was what books would be on their shelves - Dr. Zeuss, Harry Potter and some Cook books.

Anyway so that is as much as i can remember from this week. I cant even imagine what the next weekly report will be filled with, re-capping our last week of Machon.

MISS ALL OF YOU AUSSIES BACK HOME.

Especially me ole' mum and dad, love you guys so much :)

Okay, hope you enjoyed it, Jordy out.