by Kadimah Bnei Akiva,Chanan Suiza
In April, we held our famous Mini Mach camp at the SOS camp in Villiersdorp.
It was a fantastic opportunity for our up-and-coming Gurim madrichim and chanichim to meet each other. There is something special about watching chanichim and madrichim make bonds that you know will last forever. A big Kol Ha Kavod to Ryanne Fox for being Rosh Mini Mach and leading the camp with such strength and vision.
We have also kick-started a new initiative in Bnei Cape Town, headed up by our chairman, Nathan Esra, and unbelievably dedicated shlichot. The program is called Sayeret Morasha. With Bnei’s amazing Hadracha Israel program coming up, so did the prospect of further developing the local chanichim going on the program. Sayeret Morasha is a leadership program specially designed for the age-group Morasha, who are attending Hadracha this year. The main idea is to have a buildup of seminars leading up to the program, and a few afterwards to increase the effectiveness and emphasise the meaningful ideas that the program has to offer. We are very excited to say that we have an unprecedented 22 channichim signed-up and going to Israel this year. This past two months also brought forth a few days of commemoration and celebration; Yom Ha’shoah, Yom Ha’zikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut. In remembrance of The Shoah we attended the community commemoration ceremony at Pinelands Cemetery, as well as had the amazing and powerful Ella Blumenthal give a private telling of her story of surviving The Holocaust at the Bnei Akiva Bayit. Listening to her story really was an honor and a privilege. It is very rare to be able to be so personal and get such eye-opening answers to questions which are hard to ask. We thank her for her bravery in telling her story.