Page 33 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - September 14

LUCY TRAVIS
Born - Manchester 1988; Manchester Ken; Mazkirat Habonim-
Dror UK - 2011-13; Aliyah - 2013; Presently part of Habonim
Israel, working with movement graduates and participants of
British Habonim-Dror Shnat Hachshara; resides in Haifa
T has passed through its doors. This is what we
he beginning of my journey through the
youth movement that is Habonim-Dror
occurred by chance and it sounded like a
good idea at the time. I was 11 years old and my
friends were talking about their summer and how
their siblings had been going to camp in tents in
England and Wales for two weeks and had
experienced a most incredible time. This didn't
fit into my usual beach holiday routine of waking
up, going to the pool and eating. But I decided to
partake in a two-week adventure that little did I
know would define not only the next 14 years of
my life, but indeed my whole identity. It
sounded like a good idea at the time when we
returned that summer and went weekly to the
Bayit in Upper Park Road for Ken activities.
Then to Machaneh Horef and on to Machaneh
Kaitz again, it all sounded like a good idea at the
time and my years would pretty much follow this
pattern for the next thirteen years.
It feels appropriate on this 85th anniversary of
the founding of Habonim to celebrate the many
successes the movement has achieved including -
but not limited to - the building of the state of
Israel through the establishment of kibbutzim
across the Jewish homeland, the continued
exemplary rates of Aliyah from members in the
Diaspora and the present tnuat bogrim body that
continues to embody the values at the core of the
movement and to enact a just society in the state
of Israel, through education and activism in local
communities.
Habonim had and still has the power to create
leaders in communities in and outside of Israel.
Regardless of the future of Habonim Dror, we
can be safe in the knowledge that its legacy will
never die within the heart of each member that
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should truly celebrate on this 85th anniversary.
of the movement with an inner self confidence
Habonim has excelled in instilling every chaver
that allowed them to fulfil any dream they
wished to undertake. Through Herzl’s own
writing of the words 'if you will it, it is no
dream', a movement was allowed to reach for the
moon, and even if sometimes we only hit the
stars. We were and continue to be true builders
and dreamers, not just in the physical sense but
in a spiritual sense, no task deemed too big and
no dream deemed unachievable. This is why we
have achieved so much in 85 years, unbound by
usual mainstream societal constraints or
ideologies.
I honestly feel privileged to have had an
incredible opportunity in the past few years to
give my all to a movement that has made heroes
of past and created and still creates leaders of the
future and I will always be proud to call myself a
member of Habonim Dror. The stories of the
Warsaw ghetto uprising stuck with me from the
moment I heard them. These stories inspired me
and spurred me on to keep striving for more in
life and in the movement.
It's not people that make the world go round, it is
values and ideas and common aims and
aspirations. The message I want to pass on in
Habonim's 85th year: Always strive for more
than the present reality, believe that you can
make a difference in the world, never forget
where you have come from and how HDUK
helped you get where you are today. HDUK must
continue to lead this charge as the light in the
community.