Page 26 - Issue 19

rights activist once said “You can’t be what you can’t
see”. This speaks to our need as human beings for role
models in order to shape our image of ourselves. We rely
on stories, examples, leaders or images that inform us
about who we are and what our potential is, and our
horizons of possibility are diminished without these
images. Growing up as a chanich, I did not lack for
images of people who took the movement seriously,
devoted countless (and often unpaid) hours to it:
madrichim, tafkidim-holders, mazkirut members, camp
committee members and so on. I saw a horizon of
possibility - reminiscent of coming into contact with the
personal trainer. Personally I perhaps did not dream of
being Rosh Mitbach, or a member of the Parents and
Friends committee. But I
could understand their
significance to the youth
movement, and I could draw
inspiration from their
commitment to it. The only
problem was the limits of
my horizon. I, along with the
other Jewish youth of HDOZ in the early 2000s, did not
meet Israelis my age, and certainly did not meet
Haboinm Dror members from my country who had
made Aliyah. It affected my understanding of the youth
movement, and the place that it could have in my life. It
is my hope that the current mishlachat will be able to
expand this horizon of possibility for the Jewish youth of
HDNA, if only by a little.