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James Grant-Rosenhead asks: “What do we want to be when we grow up?”

Let's assume, hypothetically, that we have solved the main ideological dilemmas about what the
bogrim in the youth movement of Habonim Dror around the world should be doing with themselves
when they grow up. Let's assume that thanks to their education and experiences in the youth
movement, bogrim are increasingly deciding to try to live socialist Zionist, culturally Jewish lives.
Let's assume that movement hagshama has been renewed, and that significant numbers of bogrim
are 'graduating' from the youth movement all over the world by making aliyah and forming /
joining kvutsot in Israel, thus joining the tnuat bogrim. What next? If members of the youth
movement strive to make their next step upwards on their Hagshama journey by joining the
HDTB kvutsot in Israel, what do the HDTB members see as the road ahead? What do we want to
be when we grow up?

There are many huge dilemmas facing us. For example, although it is clear that the Habonim Dror
kvutzot are lifetime endeavours, it is not clear whether our tnuat bogrim is a temporary stage in
life, or if it is a tnuat chaim – a movement for life – for those kvutzot. That question arises
because one possibility is to build kvutzot which gradually become part of our Israeli tnuat
bogrim sister movements. For example, Kvutsat Yovel could become entirely part of the Machanot
Haolim – Kvutzot Habechira tnuat bogrim, or Kvutsat Ogen could become entirely part of the
Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed tnuat bogrim. In such a model, the Habonim Dror youth movement
around the world would still be a source of growth for the new kibbutz movement in Israel, just
as it was historically for the classic kibbutz movement, with the HDTB in Israel being a
transitional stage in between. This transitional stage would have several important roles, such as
taking direct responsibility for the Habonim Dror youth movement, and absorbing olim kvutsot
into our Israeli sister tnuot bogrim.

On the other hand, there are also arguments for maintaining our own separate tnuat chaim, made
up of kvutsot and kibbutzim of kvutsot entirely from Habonim Dror. If Habonim Dror has
something unique about its values, ideology or culture as compared with the various Israeli tnuot
bogrim, then funnelling our olim kvutsot into the Israeli movements could jeopardise this
uniqueness. For example, if the Israeli bogrim movements are primarily taking responsibility for
Israeli society, pushing forward the historic visions of their own youth movements, then perhaps
Habonim Dror should play a parallel, unique role in taking responsibility for the galut. In order to
fulfil such a massive and unique responsibility, we would need to build and mobilise a significant
adult movement of our own, just as the Israeli movements are doing in order to take on Israeli
society. Such a Habonim Dror tnuat chaim, made up entirely of olim, raises questions about our
absorption into Israel and our connection to Israeli society, and to Israelis.

Overlapping with the questions about whether the HDTB will be a transitional funnel or a tnuat
chaim, are the dilemmas about whether we should be social and political activists, dealing with the
current problems of Israeli society. Education is clearly one significant method of bringing about
social change, but it is not the only one. Members of the tnuat bogrim can and should find a
variety of ways to contribute towards peace, coexistence, equality and justice in Israeli society.
Some might be social workers, others would be campaigners raising public awareness, and yet
others would be project coordinators. We could get involved in a variety of exciting new
initiatives or existing organisations, such as dialogue groups between Jews and Palestinians,
feminist empowerment study centres, refugee shelters, or foreign workers rights counselling.
Since there are no end of problems and challenges facing Israeli society, there are no limits on
the range of projects which our members can get involved in.

However, surely members of the tnuat bogrim should work together, in order to control the
norms of our daily lives, in order to define our own praxis, and in order to be able to build our