Ma Rabu and Magic at Mosh
by Rachael Feldman, Community Engagement Coordinator at Camp Moshava
We are nearing the end of our 4th week of Mosh – and what a summer it has already been!
Our mazkirut chose Ma Rabu (how great), as our summer theme. As our Rosh Mosh, Eliza Roth, explains, “it is amazing for us all to be here together. At Mosh, we notice and wonder with amazement at the incredible joy and love that exists here.”
Our first session began on June 23rd. In just a few short weeks, we have seen our camp community translate Mosh magic into connection, creativity, and kahilah in amazing ways. Our chanichimot share the avodah of caring for camp and each other by cleaning the shirutim (with cheers!), toranut after meals, and collecting and chopping wood for our weekly medurah. 
They have supported each other as Bogrimot-Amelimot and Bonimot-Nitznimot buddies. Campers have discovered new relevance of their Judaism through rikkud and other Shabbat celebrations.
Older campers have demonstrated impressive leadership skills, and have fulfilled experiences they have been waiting years for, like Bozman. The theme this year was Circus – and it really was! Campers were transported to The Bozo Circus, before being split into groups for a round robin of activities. They threw water balloons at the clowns; completed a short obstacle course made of hula hoops and mattresses; danced across the basketball court, learned a song about the day to the tune of Britney Spears’ “Circus;” ate pudding to clean up “animal poop;” and played the classic circus game, Balloon Pop. As Go Orringer, one of our fabulous Bogrimot, describes, “when I was younger, I always looked forward to the day I would run Bozman. Now that I have, I can say it 100% lived up to expectations.”A perennial summer highlight is tiyul, when our already de-screened chanichimot truly get back to nature. They headed to a clearing in the forest on our campgrounds, pitched their own tents (with oversight and help from the tzevet), and settled in for two days outdoorsy fun. Activities in the wild include chopping wood for the campfire; kneading, shaping, and cooking pita; hiking; swimming in Deer Creek; yoga and journaling; and connecting with nature, with each other, and with themselves.
Our first Special Day of the summer focused on labor organization and unionization, through the lens of our campers’ favorite movie character – a hat tip to the Writers’ Guild and, now, SAG-AFTRA strikes. As Dove Begleiter, our Communications Specialist shares, “chanichimot were woken this morning by Spider-Man and Yoda, and gathered after breakfast to explore Habowood, our own version of Hollywood. Some of their favorite characters joined them, and they had a great time playing games all together. But after experiencing the realities in the writers’ room that made these stories possible, the chanichimot decided to form a union and seek better working conditions. They learned about picket lines, collective action, and the challenges that workers face when forming unions. Through self-selected activities, campers were able to discuss the writers’ strike, teachers’ strikes in Israel, the Amazon labor union, and graduate student strikes across the US.”
As our first camp session comes to an end, we are confident our campers have made memories together that will sustain them until they return in Summer 2024. Our tzevet have created innovative activities for second session. When our new campers pull into Mosh on July 24th, more magic awaits!
All About Chuggim (Electives) at Camp Gilboa
from the Gilboa Blog
The main choice block of the day is called chuggim (electives), where kids pick one chug (elective) to attend for the entire session. This is an excellent time for chanichimot (campers) to get to know kids in different age groups while connecting over a shared interest! Our madrichimot (counselors) always go above and beyond in creativity to provide chanichimot (campers) with fresh and fun options each session.
Here are this session’s chuggim:
- Chug Sensory: An exploratory adventure journeying through the senses !
- Noah’s Art: Chanichimot create art with objects found in nature! Pinecones and rocks…the natural world around us makes for an excellent canvas 🙂
- Chug Copy Cat: This crew ‘copycats’ every other chug by each day pretending to be a different chug! They get a little taste of everything.
- Aussie: The Australian madrichimot (counselors) show chanichimot all of the best food, sights, phrases, and animals from Australia.
- Origins: How did the world begin?! Chanichimot explore this question and more…like how did Gilboa start? How does anything originate?!
- 2 Hot 2 Handle: An elective that explores activities having to do with temperature. Think: trying new hot sauce, cold plunges, and more.
- Top Gun: A chug dedicated to recreating the classic film Top Gun with chanichimot!
- Travel to Buratia: This group of witches travels through Russia on an epic adventure!
Protesting Israel’s Judicial Reform at Camp Galil
Like protesters in Israel and around the world, Galil chanichimot took to the “streets” to protest the Israeli government’s reforms.
MBI 2023
by Ben Markbreiter, Rakazol Tochniot
MBI 2023 is taking place from June 29 to July 27. There are 74 chanichimot from all 6 machanot attending MBI this summer. They started in the desert and moved their way up north, visiting Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and the Galil, hitting the classic spots such as Masada, the Dead Sea, the Western Wall, and the Kinneret. They also had some unique experiences, like seeing a concert by Eurovision winner Netta, spending a day with Arab-Israeli teens from Hanoar Haoved, and including Israeli teens on the trip for a week. All the while, they had peulot every day regarding the current situation in Israel and their connection to the land as North American Jews.
Habonim Dror members advocate for progressive Zionism, against “judicial reform”
In April 2023 two members of the HDNA family – David Weiss, Executive Director of Camp Galil, and Alisa Belinkoff Katz, co-chair of HDCA – traveled to Jerusalem as delegates to the World Zionist Congress, known as “the parliament of the Jewish people.” David and Alisa represented the HATIKVAH: Progressive Israel slate along with Leah Schwartz, a recent Olah (immigrant to Israel) and former HDNA Mazkirol, and with leaders from Ameinu and other progressive Zionist groups.
The Congress was a huge success for the cause of progressive Zionism! We passed all of the resolutions proposed by the center-left coalition, including:
- Opposition to Netanyahu’s “judicial reform”
- Support for conversion to Judaism through all religious streams (not just Orthodox conversions)
- A commitment to uphold the values of Israel’s Declaration of Independence – social and political equality for all of Israel’s citizens
- Inclusion of LGBTQ+ and female voices in the activities of the World Zionist Organization; and
- We also defeated right-wing resolutions, including one that sought to amend the Law of Return to exclude many in our community from Israeli citizenship.
During the Congress, we organized a march of 250 delegates to the Supreme Court building where we demonstrated against the judicial reform. Here’s a photo from Ha’aretz depicting our group getting ready to march, with both Alisa and David clearly visible in the front row:
We were joined at the Supreme Court building by several HDNA Workshoppers and “Shnatties” from other countries, very identifiable in their HD chultzot (“Shnatties” are participants in year-long Israel programs, analogous to Workshop). Leah Schwartz is visible on the far right:
Ha’aretz summed up the results of the Congress this way (5/24/2023): “The World Zionist Congress, in a powerful statement, voted [in May] against the religious-right agenda of Israel’s current government. In effect, the so-called ‘parliament of the Jewish people’ declared that Diaspora Jews do not support key policies being promoted by the Jewish state, under the most right-wing and religious government in its history.”
Leading As My Authentic Self
by Erica Kushner, HDNA Mazkirol
We are so proud of Erica for writing this beautiful piece for the Women of Reform Judaism blog. Please click on the image below to read the entire article.
Kol hav
Although Veida 2022 feels almost like ancient history at this point, we are excited to carry conversations that began at Veida on to Ma’apilimot Seminar. The theme of Ma’apilimot Seminar, HDNA Runs on Demand, continues discussions which began at Veida about what it means for ma’apilimot to be responsible for the movement. It was clear at Veida that people want to be responsible for the movement but maybe don’t know how or haven’t internalized all the ways that they can shape HDNA. We hope the conversations at Ma’apilimot Seminar will give them more concrete ways to be responsible. For example, we are spending a two hour peula block discussing the responsibility of ma’apilimot to actively grow the movement and recruit chanichimot to their machanot.
back to HDNA!
Highlights included a scavenger hunt at Granville Island, Havdallah and Kumzits at the beach, and a hike through Pacific Spirit
Park. We of course also spent some time learning together, with a peula about socialism and another about the judicial reform and protests in Israel. We were also joined by a guest speaker from the British Columbia Federation of Labour (BDFED) who spoke about young workers rights and unions!
The program began on Thursday November 17th with the Executive Directors of all 6 machanot, Erica Kushner, Mazkirol of HDNA, and Tamar Levi, HDNA shlicha. On Friday afternoon the rest of mazkirut artzit joined us for more important conversations as well as some fun making lip balms from essential oils and herbs grown at Pearlstone’s organic farm.
We are all operating as HDNA, but what are our responsibilities to each other? We divided into 6 groups to focus on 6 topics and discuss our partnerships.
Wow! MBI was such a blast – we can’t believe it has been over a month since we got back!
us. The discussions were a good mixture of meaningful (exploring the concept of shivyon erech ha’adam) and silly (trying to find our “soulmates” based on this-or-that questions). Even though our buses are made up of two different kvutzot, everyone has gotten a healthy dose of bonding, especially through bus cheers and the now infamous seatbelt song! Although we have our classic Habo traditions, we still have fun seeing the differences between machanot.
We couldn’t finish this without mentioning the food! There is nothing like it! Israeli breakfast with shakshuka, cucumbers (but different – better – then in North America), and burekas is the perfect start to each day, and getting real Israeli falafel and pita or shawarma during pizza lunches are highlights of our days. What is also so incredible to see and part of what has made us realize that we are not in North America anymore, is the kashrut certification front and center in most shops and restaurants. A bunch of us even went to a kosher McDonald’s – crazy! It really emphasizes the fact we are in a Jewish state, which is really cool and validating.
On September 13th, the Workshoppers flew to Israel to begin Workshop 72. 
now busy with their second seminar, Shorashim Seminar. This is an introduction to Shorashim, the first part of Workshop, where they will be living on Kibbutz Ein HaShofet, doing 
We opened our NEW ropes course and played on a NEW water toy.
Kupah trips! 
This summer at 
Camp Miriam
Of course, I did get around to remembering both the longstanding customs and everyday activities that take place at camp. But I didn’t do it alone. This summer, I worked as a madatz madrichol, one of four Madatz Madrichimot, meaning I spent a lot of time with youth aged 16 to 17. As the future leaders of Camp Miriam, the madatz were grateful to have the chance to take part in their leadership development program. After having lost valuable experiences to the pandemic, they latched onto the madatz program, hungry for the opportunities it would provide them. Throughout the summer, I watched them grow, face challenges, and become people who will be important guides in the lives of Camp Miriam’s chanichimot for years to come. I was impressed and humbled by all the madatz accomplished this summer, and it is largely through them that I was able to remember what it means to be at Camp Miriam.
quite compares to being back in the old stomping grounds of Gabriola Island. Sure, maybe madrichimot had to explain basic elements of camp to kids more times than usual this summer, but the synapses of the Camp Miriam community were firing, and together, we remembered. It is not a far cry to consider the summer of 2022 as a triumph—both in recovering the institutional memory of Camp Miriam, and in providing campers with meaningful summers. I, for one, know that more than one madatz went home with stories they’ll be telling to their own children.
summer at 
Tzevet and chanichimot from Habonim Dror Mexico joined our community and integrated well. The kids and tzevet all loved each other and the Mexican madatz helped the Galil madatz understand taking responsibility for the ken.
Camp Tavor
The theme this summer was roots and fruits. Roots looking into the why and what we do at Tavor and Fruits, the how we put our roots into practice. The theme naturally weaved its way into so many aspects of the summer and was felt in our everyday activities, from our tikkun olam projects to our asepha klalit (community meeting) discussions for the whole machaneh.