Category: Olimot Corner
Read Time: 3 mins

Hi Habonim Dror people of the world, I’m Brooke from HDOZ!

I made aliyah in March this year and have since been living in the best city in the world - Hadera. I live in garin Tof Miriam with 7 of my friends and movement partners, and I’m lucky enough to be a part of ma’agal Alumot which are such a sweet group of tzabarim and other olim. Right now the main thing I do day-to-day is Ulpan (Hebrew classes). It’s really cool to gradually be understanding more, being able to better communicate with people and feel more at home. At the same time I still have so so much more to learn, which is often really overwhelming and frustrating. My class is such a cute group of people who have been really interesting to get to know almost every day, especially seeing as their backgrounds are so different from mine. We have one Australian (me), one Kiwi (Noah from HDANZ), an Argentinian and the rest of the class is from Russia and Ukraine. 

Other than Ulpan I’ve been spending plenty of time at the beach, travelling almost every Friday to Pardes Hanna and doing day trips around the country when possible. Living in a garin has been so important for me in this whole experience, it makes life so much more fun when you’re living with friends and even more meaningful when you experience garin together. Living in a house with 8 people who all make mess and have opinions definitely isn’t always a walk in the park, and sleeping in a bunk bed at age 23 is a bit odd, but overall it’s been so worth it for me.

We have some people leaving and some people joining over the next few months, a big time of change for our garin that we’ve been preparing for. I’m definitely so sad to say goodbye to some of my closest friends, but I’m also excited to welcome new people into my life and see what energy they bring to the garin! 

Looking forward to watching my garin develop, and to learn more about myself, about Israel and hopefully being really good at Hebrew one day :)

Category: Olimot Corner
Read Time: 2 mins

Olimot Corner is the column in the Iton about movement members who have recently made Aliyah. This month we hear from Noah Mirkin from Garin Tof Miriam in Hadera.

MAKING NEW MOVEMENT PARTNERS; A LOVE LETTER TO MY MA’AGAL

Dear Alumot,

I am writing you this to tell you how you have shaped my first two months as an Oleh Chadash. Two months ago, when I was still in New Zealand I had no idea of all the friends waiting for me here in Israel. I was excited about many things. I was excited to live and share my life with my amazing, supportive and creative kvutzah. I was excited to spend my days connecting to Israel and my Jewish history, and doing Messima that reflected these things; to put movement values centrally into my life. I looked forward to learning and being a part of the educational processes within Israel. In my imagination, these things were done alongside the only other movement partners I knew; Olim. However, for some reason, I never thought about the fact that I was joining an Israeli movement full of Israelis! 

In the few peulot before making aliyah, we spoke briefly of our Ma’agal and what we could expect. In the Bogrim movement, the Ma’agal (circle) structure acts similarly to that of the Shichvah within Habonim Dror. It’s a space to build a collective culture, make joint decisions, and create a shared economy. My Ma’agal is called ‘Alumot’, which translates to “a bundle of wheat”. All I knew of Alumot was that translation and the fact that it was the only Ma’agal with its own symbol (see below). I didn’t yet understand just how important Alumot would be in my life here.

The first interaction I had with Alumot was at the Aliyah tekkes for my Garin, Tof Miriam. Forty people who had never met us turned up to celebrate our Aliyah, support us and introduce themselves as Alumot. It was a special moment and a great introduction to the Ma’agal.

I want to say thank you to Alumot for welcoming my Garin, Tof Miriam, the way you did. Thank you for creating a space where Olim can ask questions and get helpful answers. Thanks for feeling responsible for our Hebrew learning and running Ulpan workshops for us. Thank you for showing us your interests, and caring about ours. Thank you for everything. Alumot is truly an amazing Ma’agal and I count myself very lucky to be a part of it. I can’t believe that I didn’t even know about Alumot, and now it’s one of the most important parts of my life here. For all those reading who are still considering Aliyah, I hope that you are able to have an experience like mine with your own Ma’agal - it’s truly special! 

!תודה רבה אלומות

Love,

Noah

Category: Olimot Corner
Read Time: 3 mins

Olimot Corner is the column in the Iton about movement members who have recently made Aliyah. Our latest column is about Hannah Blount, bogeret of HDOZ and member of Garin Tzur in Tel Aviv.

Several years of messima in Habonim Dror Australia made me extremely practiced at eyerolling. No matter the genuine belief in the vision and purpose of the movement, no matter the love for hadracha, Judaism, Zionism, and a handful of other choice buzzwords, the rhythm of daily movement life did not respond well to being challenged. Of course, technically, my weekly HDOZ messima in the ken could have been more creative, but, well, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. The Olim way over in Israel would metaphorically - occasionally physically - prod my shoulder and babble on about how HaNoar HaOved vHaLomed was constantly creating, initiating, and rocking up to schools without warning in order to grow and invite new chanichim into the movement. Eyeroll.