Back to Jerusalem

After a challenging and fun weekend the MBIers finished up Machenh Tnua Achot, cleaned up their campsite and bade farewell to their new Israeli friends. The group headed back down to the Jerusalem area to the KKL campsite Nes Harim. After dinner they had a preparation peulah for Yad Vashem, the national Holocaust Memorial Museum. All of MBI watched the movie Gattaca. The film is about a society in which people are categorized as inferior and superior based on their genetic makeup and according to your genetic make-up you are predestined for a certain kind of lifestyle including your job. The main character is dissatisfied with his place in the world and has bigger aspirations for himself so he assumes the identity of someone else in order to achieve his dream of space travel. The basis of the peulah was to explore what a world looks like without shivyon erech ha'dam (equality of human value). Following the film each kvutzah had a short discussion about the concept of shivyon erech ha'adam.

Today MBI went to Yad Vashem had a guided tour through the museum. The museum which was which was recently renovated has a unique design. The building is a long triangle that at the end there are windows piping light and a promenade with a beautiful view of Jerusalem. In order to reach the promenade you have to criss-cross through each section of the museum, which spans from before the Holocaust looking at communities, through the end of the war exploring the many difficult topics and some of the more inspirational tales of righteous gentiles and the youth movements role in the war. The tour tries to focus on some of the aspects of the Holocaust and then ends by discussing the importance of Israel in our history as the Jewish people. The tour was followed by a processing discussion within the kvutzah with madrichim. This was a emotionally moving and important experience for all.

Following the museum the group headed to Har Herzl (Mount Herzl), a national cemetery in Jerusalem, named for Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism. The cemetery was created as a burial place for national figures and fallen soldiers. Each group walked through the cemetery and the stories of some of the figures buried there such as Hannah Senesh and Yitzhak Rabin.

In the coming week there are several "peulah slots" which have been left unplanned. This was done intentionally to give the chanichim the opportunity to plan activities for themselves. This afternoon was set aside as planning time. Each kvutzah sat down and talked about the kinds f things they would like to do and then broke up into groups to plan the peulot. This is a really good opportunity for them to learn how to plan and execute a peulah for their peers. It also gives them a chance to contribute to the experience and take responsibility over what they would like to do in their last week.

After dinner they had a fun activity with all of MBI. Each kvutzah was given a genre of music and they had to pick a song and create a performance with dance and costumes to perform for everyone.