Read below for news from Habonim, Bnei Akiva, Diller Teen Fellows, Netzer, SAUJS and BBYO.
Habonim March madness
The old Habonim magic, which we’ve missed for the last two years, was reignited in March.
We welcomed channichimot back to our Onrus campsite for Mini Mach, held some extraordinarily fun Friday night meetings (FNM’s) at the Cape Town Ken’s new Bayit; and are already feeling the excitement of preparing for April Seminar.
Mini Mach, led by Rosh, Tali Levin, felt phenomenal. The campsite is the heart of Habonim Dror Southern Africa, and needs to be filled with kids learning whilst having fun. Mini Mach achieved this and more, with both channichimot and madrichimot realising exactly how much we’ve been missing face-to-face interaction on the campsite. It’s difficult to explain the emotion that came with having again what we had craved so much. And that is Habonim magic — difficult to verbalise but felt by all.
The FNMs at the new Bayit in Vredehoek have been wonderfully whimsical, providing fun and excitement every Friday night for our bogrimot body. Also, in preparation for Mini Mach, we provided new madrichimot a ‘Hadracha Day’, where they learned about the values to which we expect Habonim madrichimot to adhere. The effects of this day were clear as our new madrichimot played a crucial role in the success of the Mini Mach. We can’t wait to see them grow from strength to strength.
Being back at the campsite has already made our bogrimot jittery with excitement at the prospect of returning. From 19 to 24 April, Onrus will host our annual April Seminar. This is a concentrated course for Grade 11s and 12s in which we equip them with tools and wisdom for their future in Habonim Dror. The transition from channichol to madrichol is exciting but filled with new challenges. April Seminar helps in this transition, leaving our future leaders with a sense of personal empowerment and collective responsibility for the continuation of the movement.
We are so looking forward to April, to using the momentum gathered from March to ensure another brilliant month. Pesach has always been an important chag for us, and we wish the entire community a Chag Pesach Sameach. We hope this year’s Pesach will be meaningful, thought-provoking and an enjoyable change from Pesachs we may have spent apart from our families.
A reminder that this year we have a full time mazkir worker, Jesse Lees, based in Cape Town. To get in contact, email jesse@habo.org.za.
Chag Pesach Sameach from Habonim Dror Southern Africa!
Aleh v’Hagshem — Jared May
Bnei Akiva is the busiest it’s ever been!
Hello everybody and Chag Sameach! Bnei Akiva Cape Town is the busiest it’s ever been! We have run over 50 events for all our age groups, shabbatonim, delivered Bnei Mishloach Manot, had the funnest Purim and did the best Mini Mach ever. The most important thing for us is to have a constant connection with our madrichim who will continue to be there for our channichim as an older brother/sister. We will continue providing constant entertainment as well as very meaningful activities.
Have a beautiful Pesach! — Eytan Labe, Chairman Bnei Akiva CT
Diller Teen Fellows – Leadership Shabbaton for Cohort Seven!
After much anticipation, the Diller Teen Fellows of Cohort 7 took part in a unique Leadership Shabbaton. Hosted at the beautiful Masada Guest House in Langebaan, the weekend was filled with learning, nurturing friendships and unforgettable experiences.
Fellow Leo Bachmann said, “The leadership Shabbaton was one of the most meaningful and amazing weekends as a Jewish teenager.
It allowed me to explore my Judaism in the most fun and engaging way I could have imagined. Walking out of the experience I feel refreshed and so excited for the rest of the year with this unbelievable programme.”
Follow Diller Cape Town on Instagram @diller.capetown to share in the experiences of our brilliant young Jewish leaders. — Martine Katz
Netzer’s pool and slumber party
We are thrilled to have had the opportunity to host our first in-person Netzer event in the span of two years since the start of the pandemic.
We held the event at the Temple Israel West Coast synagogue in Milnerton, where we ran activities and watched movies in the main hall, and spent time cooling off in the pool. We all got to be a part of the havdallah service with Temple Israel over Zoom and have our own ma’amad service the morning after.
This event was not only an amazing time for the children who attended, but a huge learning experience for our new madrichimot and mazkirut board, as we took the event head-on with the Netzer camp spirit we all grew up to love. — Ghaim Atash
SAUJS – Return to campus life
Welcome back! Recently, we’ve seen the return of students to campus — whether to UCT, Vega, or Stellenbosch, all of our students are back! This semester, UCT is beginning to phase their students back into an in-person learning environment which we are all hoping for, so that we can feel the student spirit that we so missed. With the return to campus comes excited new students and new opportunities. SAUJS Western Cape cannot wait for all the fun and exciting activities we have planned. Good luck to all students on their upcoming year and we hope to see you in person, soon! Follow us on Instagram to keep updated on our various events and sign-up raffle coming up! — Erin Dodo (SAUJS UCT Chairperson)
The use of “imot” in Hebrew when referring to groups is to better include women and non-binary people. The traditional use of ‘im’ as a plural including male and female is male-centric, diminishing the importance of women, and disregarding people who live outside of the gender binary.
BBYO’s International Convention in Washington DC
BBYO, the Jewish teen-led organisation that currently spans over 60 countries worldwide, hosted their annual International Conference in Washington DC and Baltimore, where 3000 of their teen leaders met. South Africa sent a first-ever delegation of 17 leaders from Johannesburg and Cape Town.
King David Linksfield student Lior Kolman described her experience, “For seven teenagers born and raised in the Jewish community, 12 days abroad among 3000 other Jewish teenagers changed our lives. The main goal of the convention was to unite Jewish teenagers, and we can gladly say that the connections we made bonded us forever with our new friends from around the world. Living in the South African Jewish community, our understanding of the world was limited. Teenagers from over 40 countries, speaking over ten languages, opened our eyes to a new reality. Each and every one of us is completely different to the other; we celebrate the holidays in totally different ways, we have different words to describe the same thing. However, most remarkably, despite coming from different corners of the world, we had countless things in common.
On Saturday night, after a unifying Shabbat learning how each person celebrates differently, and having multiple Shabbat services to accommodate everybody’s customs, we all united in the hall for Havdallah. Every person had their arms around the person next to them and sang. It didn’t matter if they spoke Spanish, German, French, Chinese or English, every person had the melodious Hebrew words pouring from their mouth. This is the power of us. Despite being so different, we are all Jewish.
Arriving back home, we have made lifelong friendships with people from all over the globe, and we’ve learnt that the world is more than a little Jewish community in South Africa.”
— Lior Kolman, President BBYO Johannesburg
Find out more about BBYO by emailing southafrica@bbyo.org or @bbyo.sa on Instagram.
Keep up to date!
Habonim: website: Habonim Dror SA, Facebook HabonimSA
Netzer: website: Netzer.org.za, Instagram netzer_southafrica
Bnei Akiva: website: Beni Akiva South Africa, Facebook Bnei Akiva Cape Town
SAUJS Western Cape: Facebook @SAUJS, Instagram @saujs_westerncape
Diller Teen Fellows: website: Diller Teen Fellows , Facebook Diller Teen Fellows, Instagram @diller.capetown
BBYO South Africa: Instagram @bbyo.sa, website www.bbyo.org
Find the SA Zionist Federation – Cape Council online:
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, www.sazfcape.co.za
Published in the PDF edition of the Pesach/April 2022 issue – Click here to get it.
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