By Zo Katz, Bogeret of HDOZ and Member of HDUK Mazkirut 5784

What happens when you combine 2 Brits, 1 Australian and 1 Israeli Shaliach for a Yeud seminar in London? You get one keen HDUK mazkirut for 5784!
 
The last few months of forming this dream team mazkirut all came together when we were joined by Coral for our first mazkirut seminar together, and it has left us feeling inspired for leading HDUK to be bigger and better than ever! I would love to share with you some of my take-aways from the seminar and the direction of HDUK.
 
The magic of the movement is bringing together people from across the world with common ideology, care for the movement and demand at the centre of the relationships we create with one another. As a long-time member of HDOZ I could have never imagined flying halfway across the world to take responsibility over the movement in another country, but here I am. This seminar really highlighted to me how special it is to be a part of a movement where you can instantly care for another country’s chaverimot and ideological path as much as the movement in the country you grew up in.

 
The big question we tackled at our seminar was what are our dreams for the movement and how do we get there? We spent time throwing out every wild idea that we could imagine and understood the why - what’s leading us to this vision - and then the how - how we can achieve it. Coral invited us to think about what it means to lead the movement, how our dreams for 5784 have the power to shape the future of HDUK, and how making changes now can mean a thriving future for the movement we care about.
 
We decided that as a mazkirut we want to be dugmaot for the chanichimot and madrichimot of HDUK, and that starts by placing the movement’s values at the center of our lives. Treating our tzevet as a kvutza seemed obvious, but we actively choose to see it as a radical choice to interlace the work we do for the movement, the movement’s values and our lives. We were introduced to the idea of hansakat ha’avodah as another value to underpin our time as a mazkirut, to remind ourselves that the mundanity of office work is meaningful. So now, we’re sad on a Friday and greet each other with “Thank God it’s Monday!” every Monday to remind ourselves how amazing it is that we get to do what we are doing.
 
Our yeud (vision) document is long and juicy, as any good yeud document should be. We put all our energy (going slightly crazy in a windowless office) building a 5784 yeud that reflects us and our dreams for what we can achieve as a kvutza. Here are a couple of our favorite lines: 

Mazkirut 5784 believes that every madrichol is also a chanichol and chooses to be chanichim of Coral Gur.
Mazkirut 5784 believes that diasporic Jews have an inherent connection to the land of Israel and therefore can shape its future, and chose to educate our chanichimot to view themselves as vehicles of change for Israeli society and Zionist identities in the diaspora.

HDUK has already started off 5784 with a bang and we couldn’t be more excited, inspired or passionate coming off this seminar to bring the movement into a new chapter.
 
Aleh V’hagshem