A journey for discovery.
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Dafi Ben Tzvi, A Madricha in the movement’s “Masa” in Poland, tells us about the significance of the Hadracha in preparation for the national seminar that starts today in Naamat school, Petah Tikva.
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The Jewish living room
I'm excited and worried. This year, I chose to lead our journey to Poland – “The journey to uncover the roots of the Zionist revolution and rebellion of youth movements. Holocaust and Heroism.”
The word "discovery" is the word that brings up strong emotions.
The eleventh graders (Juniors) seminars will begin today, as part of a long and complex preparation. We, the madrichim are dealing with a lot of questions: what is the best preparation process for our chanichim? What do they need to know before landing in Poland? What should each and every chanich/a expect?
As a madricha – these are questions that bother me.
The entrance sign to the exhibition
I want them to have a genuine discovery experience, and that it will be interesting for them. I want them to know about the processes leading up to the death camps, I want them to know the human and social choices that preceded the ghettos. I want to come on a journey with a "bag" of questions and thoughts. I want them to feel confident to talk to the group, to express their views, that their opinion is important.
Happily, I am not alone in these thoughts. With me there are dozens of madrichim and we all want the preparation process to be thorough, creative and thought stimulating.
During the next seminar, we will perform excerpts from the play "Ghetto" by Yehoshua Sobol about the history of the Vilna Ghetto. We will also watch a film and through it try to understand the methods of propaganda, education and terrorism in Nazi Germany.
The peak of the seminar will be an exhibition that we have built just for our chanichim.
We thought about all of the content that is important to talk about during the process and set up an exhibition, with a room for each topic.
In one room, they will enter the living room of a Jewish family living in the diaspora in which one son is an assimilated jew and the daughter – a Zionist.
The lives of Jews in the ghetto.
Another room will be like a movement’s ken, as known to the chanichim, but a ken in a movement in Poland.
Another room, packed full and difficult, will describe the rise of the Nazi party to power.
Another unique room tells the story of a North African community in the Holocaust. A story too many of the youth in Israel never heard before.
And my favorite room is the room that tells the story of the Dror movement in Poland. I love it because it reminds me of the preparation process I went through junior year with my kvutsa and madrich Alon Nisser.
I remember the feeling I felt when I discovered the story of the youth in the ghettos. Long before they stood armed in front of the Nazis, they were, like me, chanichim in the ken, young madrichim, dedicated to their kvutzot and their chanichim.
Probably more than anything, I cannot wait to tell my chanichim about the members on this special group. Their rebellion was before everything, "A rebellion of hope".