HABONIM DROR
Israel Programs
Kehila - קהילה
The Kehila component of the program offers a unique urban and communal living experience. Participants will live in Haifa, a multicultural and diverse Israeli city. By living together as a kvutza (group), participants gain valuable life skills: managing their own budget, shopping, cooking, and cleaning, and building independence and collective responsibility in the process. A major part of the Kehila experience centers around messima: taking social responsibility over your surroundings through service-learning volunteering. Workshop participants work as informal educators alongside Israelis in Hanoar Ha’Oved VeHalomed, our Israeli sister youth movement. Through their messima placements, they work with Jewish and Arab-Israeli youth in the Haifa area and experience the power of education as a force for social change.
Kehila
Week at a Glance
Sunday
Agriculture
Wednesday
Volunteering in Israeli society
Monday
Agriculture
Thursday
Yom Kvutza
Siyurim (Day Tours)
Tuesday
Volunteering in Israeli society
Friday/
Saturday
Shabbat
"Cooking is proving to be a really fun and exciting new challenge for us. We like to make lunches for the entire kvutzah the night before to take to messima the next morning."
Seminars on Kehila
On Kehila, Workshop participants have the opportunity attend several seminars. Each seminar will delve into a different topic and challenge each participant with its themes, values and content. Seminars include:
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Seminar: Workshop participants will look at the significance of Jerusalem in Jewish civilization, the tensions it brings up within Jewish life, and the conflicts it brings up in Jewish-Arab relations and Israeli-Palestinian relations. They will discuss how they want to respond to these dilemmas as Jewish leaders and youth movement members. Workshop participants will hear from many different speakers and visit various sites to learn about the city, its history, and these current conflicts.
Holocaust and Heroism Seminar: Workshop participants will take part in a unique and eye-opening seminar about the Holocaust, covering the roots of Jewish life in Eastern Europe from the Middle Ages up until the Holocaust, the role of Jewish youth resistance and youth movements during this time, and the place of choosing justice and humanity in our lives today.
...and more!
