Page 17 - Issue 22

Into the Fog

By Tyler Rodriguez, HDNA Alum

I had to endure a very difficult, controversial week-long
experience that I would not want to explore. A small yet
crucial part of my Judaism had to be confronted. However, I
did not have to journey through the fog alone. I had to be
there for everyone to support. And in the end, it produced a
learned perspective of deeper proportions.

I sat on the plane en route to Warsaw in a group of about
forty people from North America and the U.K. We were all
part of the same youth movement: Habonim Dror. It was a
Labor Zionist youth movement who advocated for a Jewish
State, equality, social justice, Judaism, and Hagshama.
When I first joined, I was confused, even apprehensive at
first. Over time, I have grown to treasure it with all my heart.
I was involved in one of Habonim Dror’s Israel programs
called Workshop. I was involved in a kvutza and participated
in various activities, from life on kibbutz to life in the city of
Rishon Lezion. The Poland Trip was another major point of
the experience. While it involved an intimate look at the
Holocaust’s legacy in Poland, it was also the look into
heroism of Jewish resistance. Dror, of the current name
Habonim Dror, was one of those movements.

The Holocaust was not a friendly word that I resonated with.
I’ve learned so much from both Hebrew school and regular
school through books, films, and documentaries. It’s not that
I didn’t have the heart to remember the countless lives lost,
but how I find a vivid connection to it. I know people who lost
family from this, which I truly sympathized with, but this
event couldn’t stir me enough to shed a tear. I recalled that
my madrichim knew that this was going to be difficult, in a