flashback

A WORD FROM THE EDITORS
Shalom FZY,
As we sit here in Young Zionist HQ, we are very excited to be
writing the editorial for the commemorative issue for the Young
Zionist for FZY100. In the process of putting together this ideological journal, we have been able
to really consider what it means
for our movement to be 100 years
old. 100 years of history is an impressive achievement, and we are
incredibly proud to have had the
opportunity to explore that history
and to invite members, past and
present, to share with us their experiences and memories over the last
century.
Some of these memories have
astounded and amazed us. From
the mobilisation of FZYniks and
Anglo Jewry in the Six Day War
to FZYʼs contribution to the plight
of Russian refuseniks, the history
of our movement is inspiring. To
read about FZY members who had
the opportunity to meet key characters who have now passed away,
such as Hyam Maccoby (whose
works Ilana uses every day in her
degree), is breathtaking. We were
also lucky enough to be able
to spend some time with those
who have worked in the office
for years, and to hear about their
ʻexperiencesʼ as an integral and
central part of FZY.
This edition of the Young Zionist has also given us the opportunity to look forward, to the future.
What can we expect for the next
100 years? What will the FZYnik
of 2020 look like? How can we improve our movement and make it
relevant to the modern age? What
do ʻZionismʼ and ʻAliyahʼ mean
for the Jews of the future? These
are all questions with which our
contributors have had to grapple,
and it has been enlightening and
also very inspiring to read everyoneʼs hopes for the future.
We also thought it might be
enlightening to share some YZ
articles from
the past 100 years with you: from
whether Nazi Germany might
prove beneficial to worldwide
Jewry (yes this article is not just
a myth!) to a 1980s prediction of
what the Jew of 2010 would look
like! On top of this we felt that the
memories on the FZY 100 webpage gave a fantastic insight into
the movement’s history and we
have included some of these too.
We really hope that you enjoy
our commemorative edition, and
that it inspires you as it has inspired us. All that remains to do
is to wish FZY a yom huledet
sameach (happy birthday); may
you go from strength to strength.
B’ahava,
Philippa Goulde and Ilana Kosky
The Young Zionist is the ideological journal of the Federation of Zionist Youth. The opinions
expressed are not necessarily those of the editors or of FZY as a movement.
Head Office
25 The Burroughs
Hendon
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Fax: 020 8201 6662
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Manchester M8 4HE
Tel: 0161 721 4782
Fax: 0161 721 4784
Editors: Philippa Goulde and Ilana Kosky.
A Note From the Editors
Contents
1
Sam Rudnick
What FZY means to me...
3
A. Rosenberg
The Hitler Menace: Will its Effects Prove Beneficial to Jewry?: The Affirmative
4
Naomit Bloom
Memories of the First Mazkira
5
Einav Ayalon
Poverty in Israel
6
Daniela Kotzmann
I came as a Stranger
7
Jennifer Lipman
Thou Shalt All Tweet: Why Twitter is the New Front Line for Zionism
David Kosky
“Daddy, What Did You Do In The Six Day War?”
8
9
Ross Markham
Essex-North London Relations
11
Philippa Goulde
The Road Less Travelled By
12
Emma Nagli
My FZY Footprints as a third generation FZYnik...
13
Jamie Slavin
Age Before Beauty: The Challenges that Face FZY
Marc Simmons
Jew 2010
15
Eytan Halon and Michael Kosky
FZY, Machon & Ideologies – a strained relationship
17
David Reissner
FZY Memories
18
Sasha Stock
ock
A Snapshot into Life as a Year Courser: A Speech from FZY Family Dinner in Eilat
19
Francesca Wolfe
My FZY Journey...So Far
21
Ilana Kosky
‘Tzionut Ze La’asot: Etmol, Kan, Umachar ‘– Zionism Means Doing: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
22
Conducted by Philippa Goulde
An Interview with Louise and Vivienne
23
Ruth Marcovitch
Jewish Women Rule – O.K!
24
Joshua Marks
FZY 2020
Nikki Horesh
Year Course – Loving Every Minute
Jonny Bunt
The Movement that Veida Wants or that the Community Needs?
Niv Zonis
One Israeli and a British Youth Movement
25
16
26
27
29
Matt Plen
The Kesher Revolution
30
Sasha Gold
Aliyah 2010: Time to move on?
31
Samuel Green
FZY – Le’An?
32
FZY 100 Webpage Memories
33
3 Young Zionist
What FZY means to me...
Sam Rudnick
Sam is making Aliyah in 2010
N
o one can doubt that aspects of
the UK Jewish community currently lie stagnant and hollow. If one
takes a look at their fellow Jewish
peers they will witness assimilation at
an ever increasing and alarming rate
and they will witness a slow abandonment of the rich history, heritage and
cultural traditions of the Jewish people. It is all too easy for us to immerse
ourselves in the culture of the everyday man and woman in the UK, which
ultimately has very little in common
with our Jewish ancestry. It requires
pride, confidence, initiative and effort
in order to strengthen our own Jewish identity. This is an effort that most
Jewish people find almost too hard to
bear. There have been many initiatives set-up to inspire Jewish continuity and culture; many of these have
risen and fallen for various reasons.
However the Federation of Zionist
Youth is a Jewish organisation that
has been going strong for 100 years.
It has stood the test of time and survived the financial crises that have hit
our community. It has survived the
political feuds that have all too often
in the past overshadowed and crushed
any bright positive emerging ideas in
our community. In that sense FZY is
a little miracle representing a people
that have survived the test of time
through the power of miracles.
One of the worldʼs most famous
political leaders, John F Kennedy,
famously said, ʻThus it is our task in
our time and in our generation to hand
down undiminished to those who
come after us, as was handed down
to us by those who went before, the
natural wealth and beauty which is
ours.ʼ The Jewish people have such a
wonderful natural wealth and beauty
it would be unforgivable not to offer
these riches to our children and our
childrenʼs children. FZY year after
year sends hundreds of young Jewish children to the Land of Israel. For
many of these children it will be their
first visit. A summer camp with FZY or
a Tour around Israel is more than just
a holiday; it is an enlightening experience, reawakening our Jewish senses
and at times giving young teenagers
a yearning to explore and strengthen
their Jewish identity. I personally enjoyed my first visit to Tsfat with FZY,
I enjoyed my first Kabbalat Shabbat
(inauguration of the Sabbath), and I
became integrated within a Jewish
circle of friends. FZY made Judaism
meaningful for me, and for me Judaism transcended being something of a
burden to become something of pride
and pleasure. Being able to be part of
a cause that focused itself upon social
justice and Tzedekah (charity) was
immensely empowering. The ability
to perform Tikkun Olam (repairing
the world) with other people while
sharing the same goals and ambitions
was immensely inspiring.
Another great American leader,
Theodore Roosevelt, stated, ʻIf a man
does not have an ideal and try to live
up to it, then he becomes a mean,
base and sordid creature, no matter
how successful.ʼ In Britain we are
surrounded in society by the evaporation of ideals. There are individuals
who have succeeded in their line of
work, and who have intertwined their
own meteoric rise with the sacrificial
self-abandonment of their own Jewish identity and history. Jewish youth
movements such as FZY instil ideals
into the hearts and minds of Jewish
children and teenagers. They create
an eternal love for Israel and Judaism that can be passed on for generations. Jewish youth movements
are the lifeblood of our community.
Without them we would be nothing.
FZY sends hundreds of teenagers to
Israel every summer and almost a
hundred to Israel ever year to volunteer on the Year Course programme.
And what is more, these children
grow to become leaders. They grow
to stand up for what they believe in,
and they grow to stand up for ideals.
They march through the streets of
London campaigning for the release
of Gilad Shalit and they write letters
to the United Nations campaigning
for the defence for the rights of Israel.
They proactively educate themselves
about all aspects of Judaism and pass
on this education to their fellow Jewish peers. They dance, sing, and celebrate Judaism, sending out a ripple of
hope to fill every nook and hollow.
“ It is all too easy for us to
immerse ourselves in the culture
of the everyday man and woman
in the UK, which ultimately has
very little in common with our
Jewish ancestry.”
MARCH 2010 4
The Hitler Menace:
Will its Effects Prove Beneficial
to Jewry?: The Affirmative
FLASHBACK
A. Rosenberg
September 1933
T
he details of the catastrophe which
has befallen German Jewry
are too well known to be reiterated
here. It suffices to say that the ruin
of the Jewish minority is all but
complete; the persecution of individuals has been followed by legislation which has degraded about
half a million Jews into what may
be called a class of Untouchables.
Nobody, therefore, in the light of
this woeful tale of barbarism can
gainsay the fact that Hitlerism has
succeeded in practically wiping out
all classes of Jews in Germany. But
if we can harden ourselves sufficiently to disregard the grief in our
hearts, considering the matter rather
through the cold dispassionate medium of the mind, we shall perceive
that Hitler unwittingly has wrought
much good for Jewry.
The persecutions in Germany
have brought into great prominence
several principles which we in England, secure and free as we are, have
naturally disregarded. Hitler, most
cruel of all teachers, has shown us
that Jewry is a unit in this world,
segregated in every way from the
other nations. The wealthier class
of Jews in Germany has been assimilated to such a degree that they
could be called “More German than
the Germans.” But despite their efforts to forget that they were Jews,
the merciless hand of Hitler did not
fail to point them out as such. If we
will learn the moral of their grievous
tale and condemn assimilation as
being as futile as it is cowardly, then
we will have done much to consoli-
date our ranks against our common
foes.
“Hitler, most cruel of all teachers,
has shown us that Jewry is a unit
in this world, segregated in every
way from the other nations.”
Another truth emerges from the mass
of horror and brutality. German Jews
could be broadly divided into two
classes.
Those who had immigrated during
the War period were scorned and
indeed hated by those who could
point to a longer settlement in Germany and who had become thoroughly Germanised. The result of
this hatred was that in a time of crisis these two estranged classes could
not unite against the common enemy; this division in Germany Jewry
made Hitlerʼs task all the easier. We
in England, therefore, should learn
to dispel all class snobbery and distrust, and to unite as true brothers. If
such a bond of union can be effected, then the blood of German Jewry
shall not have been spilt in vain.
In addition, Hitlerism and its attendant brutality has lent a stimulus to
Zionist activity. Jews of all countries
now realise that the disaster which
has befallen German Jews might easily in a time of dire economic distress
overtake themselves. They are looking to the establishment of a National Home in Palestine which will be a
bulwark to Jews scattered throughout the Globe. The realisation of Zionist aims is now a necessity; and it
is Hitler himself who has made us
conscious of our duty to ourselves
and to posterity. He has pointed a
way to a united Jewry with its own
country. Whether this “JEWISH
UTOPIA” will ever be realised is a
question alien to this discussion.
“The realisation of Zionist aims
is now a necessity”
Perhaps I may be accused of having
minimised the importance of the immediate ruin to which German Jewry
has succumbed, in these words – “It
is easy for you to gloze upon this
tragedy when you yourself have not
suffered.” But no words can express
my grief which I am sure equals that
of my imaginary objector. I sincerely
feel that if the sorrow in our hearts
causes us to remember our true position as Jews, to spurn assimilation
and to consolidate ourselves in mutual fellowship, then the immediate
oppression of German Jewry will
be outweighed by the ultimate good
which will befall Jewish posterity.
In the words of the Immortal Bard:
- “There is some soul of goodness in
things evil Would men observingly
distil it out.....Thus may we gather
honey from the weed And make a
moral of the devil himself.”
5 Young Zionist
Memories of the First Mazkira
Naomit Bloom
Naomit was Mazkira in 2000-2001
A
s we celebrate 100 years, why is
it that FZY has only seen one
female mazkira (head of the movement)? In a country where women
are still fighting for equality in the
work place, why arenʼt women
fighting to run FZY? As FZYʼs first
and only mazkira, Iʼd like to share
with you my view on the matter.
When I first started attending FZY
I was immediately impressed by
the women in the movement. From
day one I was inspired by the role
that they took. They were self assured, had a strong presence and
were active in running the show.
I knew I wanted to be like them. I
wasnʼt yet thinking about becoming
mazkira but I did want to help run
my local society, to create interesting
peulot (programmes), to plan events.
But, having grown up in a mostly female environment (two sisters,
all girls school, girl guides) I was
unsure if Iʼd feel as comfortable in
a mixed one. Iʼm not a particularly
extroverted person. I can walk into a
room and hold my own but Iʼm not
the person whoʼll instantly draw all
attention to herself, or whoʼll shout
down others to make herself heard.
“But FZY made me feel present,
confident, sure. I had a place. I
could be a leader.”
And a leader I was. I was active in running my society. My voice was heard
through the peulot I fashioned from
scratch or the articles I wrote for the
Bulletin. And through my contributions and dedication I created a name
for myself - as someone who was involved, who cared and who wanted to
help shape the movement.
After Year Course I studied in Birmingham and, with the help of my
peers, worked to make sure that FZY
found its name there too. For me it
was the natural thing to do. It was
part of who I was. My degree was
something I did because I had to. My
FZY involvement was something I
did because I wanted to. I ran camps,
was Rosh (head) of winter camp
and a Tour madricha (leader). And I
loved every minute of it. And so for
me it was only natural that I would
want to be a movement worker. It
seemed like the obvious progression.
But why mazkira? At first it didnʼt
occur to me to run for mazkira. Iʼm
not that person. I donʼt like having to
make critical decisions; I donʼt like
having to think on my feet or to stand
in front of crowds of parents and
community members and represent
the movement. Those are the traits I
thought you needed to be mazkira .
But then, during one of the many
late night, ideological discussions
that are an inevitable part of FZY,
someone said to me:
“It should be you. Of all the people in our shichva (year group) who
are thinking about movement work,
youʼre the most involved, youʼve been
a part from the start, you care about the
movement and youʼll give it your all.”
I thought about it for a minute. It
was true.
And so I ran for mazkira.
I donʼt think my story is so different
from other women in FZY. I certainly met other involved, empowered
women before and after me. So how
is it that Iʼm the only one who made
it to mazkira?
If I do a quick comparison, FZY actually isnʼt doing too badly. England
has only ever had one female Prime
Minister. The USA has never elected a female president. On the other
hand, Israel, only 61 years young, has
already had a female prime minister.
But perhaps Iʼm looking too high up.
What about other youth movements?
After doing a quick bit of internet
research hereʼs what I found: RSY –
male mazkir, Bnei Akiva - male mazkir, Hanoar Hatzioni – male mazkir.
So, despite living in western, modern societies, women donʼt seem to
be taking leading roles. And thatʼs ok
by you? All you women in FZY are
just going to sit back and let the men
run the show? Why?
Itʼs true, being a leader isnʼt
simple and being head of the largest
British youth movement is no easy
feat. You have to make difficult decisions and then justify them to all sides
– the funders, the community, the bogrim (students), the chanichim (participants). You have to deal with difficult
characters within the Jewish community making continual demands of
you. You have to juggle ideological
decisions with financial ones.
Why arenʼt more women running
for mazkira? Perhaps they believe
that being mazkira is about being exceptionally tough, about standing up
in front of the community and always
believing you are right. And, yes, stereotypes suggest that men may be better at this. Are women put off running
for leadership roles because society
teaches us that men make better leaders? Are they being discouraged from
becoming mazkira because they feel
that the job will require them to be
aggressive or even belligerent? And
are these the characteristics you need
to be a good mazkir? Is that whatʼs
going to ensure the future of FZY?
Well, Iʼd like to suggest that the
job is about something else entirely. I
ran for mazkira because I cared about
FZY, and I wanted to be involved in
shaping its future. For me, the job
was about ensuring that others benefitted from the experiences I had,
it was about teaching our ideology
MARCH 2010 6
and providing members with meaningful Jewish Zionist experiences.
Of course, sometimes I found it unimaginably difficult, but I never faltered. Because I knew what FZY had
given to me, and what I wanted it to
give to others. I knew what it believed
in, and I kept that in mind whatever
decisions had to be made.
You donʼt need a loud voice to
do that. You donʼt need a big ego.
You donʼt need to enjoy making
power point presentations and mingling with machers (involved mem-
bers of the community). You just
need to be involved in the movement and to care about its future.
“I ran for mazkira because I cared
about FZY, and I wanted to be
involved in shaping its future.”
If I once again turn to stereotypes,
donʼt they say that women are the caring ones? Theyʼre the ones who are
sensitive to the people around them
and to their needs. If thatʼs the case, and
women also care for the movement,
why arenʼt they the ones running it?
So all you women out there - the
ones running societies, or camps or
the YZ editors and fundraisers - you
care about the movement, right? You
want to see it move forward? To teach
others what youʼve learned? Yes, you
may be a different kind of leader to
the men whoʼve come before you.
But if you want to make a difference,
and you believe in what FZY stands
for, then maybe you should become
the next mazkira.
After all, itʼs about time isnʼt it?
Poverty in Israel
Einav Ayalon
Einav is the Central Shaliach
different from my Israel... yes there is
a problem with poverty in Israel but is
it really so different from other western countries? Do we even know the
reasons why one in four children are
under the poverty line?
“tzedakah (charity) peulot on
machane shouldn’t just be about
giving money and the Rambam
ot long ago I was in a discussion ladder of justice, but in addition
with FZY Bogrim (graduates/ they should be on more interesting
students) about peulot (programmes)
issues like poverty in Israel...”
on machane (camp). One of the Bogrot mentioned that “tzedakah (charIn the following article I will try
ity) peulot on machane shouldnʼt just and analyse the relevant figures, and
be about giving money and the Ram- try and start to understand what some
bam ladder of justice, but in addition of the reasons for this are.
they should be on more interesting isLetʼs start with the figures (taken
sues like poverty in Israel...”
from the poverty report for 2008) :
This wasnʼt the first time I had heard .In 2008 there were 420,100 families
such an issue mentioned in FZY and in Israel under the poverty line. In
I feel that there are times when our these families there are 1,651,000
chinuch (education) is lacking in parts people, of which 783,600 are kids.
and we sometimes concern ourselves .These families are 19.9% of the
too much with the ʻnumbersʼ and not population - the same percentage as
the story behind them.
in 2007.
Sometimes I even feel that the Israel .The numbers of old people living
that some bogrim and chanichim under the poverty line in 2008 stayed
(participants) are talking about is very the same as in 2007 - around 22.7%
N
.Amongst the Arab population, the
number of families living under the
poverty line has continue to decline
from 54.0% in 2006 to 51.4% in 2007
to 49.4% in 2008. In terms of the general population of Israel living under
the poverty line, the Arab percentage declined from 34.6% in 2007 to
33.8% in 2008.
.The amount of families with children
under the poverty line has decreased
in families with 1-3 children but has
increased in families with more then
3 children.
Israel as we all know is a multicultural
society. If we have a closer look at some
of the sectors within Israeli society, we
will see that their way of life has put
them into this problematic situation.
The two sectors which I will suggest
looking at are very similar in some
perspectives although very different
in their beliefs, and those are: The
Arab society and the Charedi society.
In both of these sectors we can see
that there are lots of families where
just one parent works, and that they
have more than three children.
Currently there is a significant change
taking place in Arab society that can
7 Young Zionist
be attributed to two main factors:
Firstly, more people are being accepted into the working market. There
was an increase of 4% in 2008 and
4% in 2007 (in the Jewish society
from 2006-2008 there was an increase
of just 2%). The second point mentioned in the report is that the number
of people within a family is slowly
decreasing, i.e. smaller families with
less children.
In the Charedi community, the opposite is happening - they are continuing to have lots of children and they
are unable to support them financially.
In the report they estimated that 60 to
70 percent of the Charedi family are
under the poverty line.
Research carried out by Israelʼs
main bank suggested that if you took
the Charedi and Arab population out
of the equation (for the reasons mentioned above) the percentage of unem-
ployment in society would be around
13%, which is similar to other western countries.
One thing we can learn from these
figures is that Israel needs to invest
in opening more work options in the
business sector for the Arab community, to connect them more to the
Jewish sector and to open more options for them, but as for the Charedi
community it is, in many respects, a
case of fighting a losing battle.
Another issue to consider is the way
that we explain the situation to our
chanichim and bogrim. There seems
to be an underlying feeling amongst
many chanichim and bogrim that the
reason for Israel having more people
living under the poverty line than in
other Western countries is that Israel
is a third world country, or that it is
financially unstable. However, in reality the reasons for this problem are
varied – there is not enough social
help from the government and there
is a large gap between the rich and the
poor, but not just that, the features of
the different societies living in Israel
are a major part of it too.
Some of these issues are part of
a different discussion, concerned
with how much the country should
help communities, like the Charedi, a large majority of whom do
not serve in the army and in some
circumstances
are
non-Zionist.
The counter-argument to that is that
they study Torah instead and, as a
result, improve the wisdom of the
Jewish nation. However, this is a
whole new issue and would require
a series of debates and articles, so
perhaps it is better if we leave it for
seminars!
I came as a stranger ....
Daniela Kotzmann
Daniela is the current Tarbut Officer
W
hat is FZY to me? As a fear
ful thirteen year old teenager, I was
persuaded into attending Yad Yamin,
the Totteridge/Whetstone and Barnet
chavura (peer-led society), by a close
friend. I remember very clearly being
greeted by the committee and seeing
the huge numbers of faces around.
Putting my foot through that door is
where my enormous journey begun.
Chavurot was the first real weekly
experience of socialising with Jewish
teenagers I had; having grown up in a
minute village in Austria, during my
first couple of years in the vast city
of London, I faced the challenges of
learning English and integrating into
a culture that was totally foreign. I
really enjoyed Yad Yamin, and attending weekly meetings meant that
I developed a close group of friends.
I began learning about Judaism and
a place called ʻIsraelʼ. Some months
later I joined the committee as coprogrammer with Sarah Maynard
where we were in charge of writing
the nightʼs activities, from the infamous ʻPaul McCartney peulaʼ (programme) to Yom Hashoa (Holocaust
Memorial Day), MIAs, Quiz Night
and a ʻChallenging our Beliefs Peulaʼ.
“We have got each other, new
friends and old ones too, Woah!
Weʼre proud to be Jews, Woah! The
Journey has begun with FZY, education and fun, take our hands we will
follow and lead, Woah! Kesher 03”.
It was my first camp, where it all began to click, the Kesher 03 song in
the tune of Bon Joviʼs Living On a
Prayer, really did have a meaning.
It really was the first time I became
confident in my beliefs and what I
was doing. Kesher was incredible,
especially the ʻEntebbe Raid Peulaʼ.
From there I became co-chair of Yad
Yamin with Joshua Marks, enabling
others to meet new people and challenge their beliefs.
Tour 2004 really was phenomenal,
from climbing the snake path up Masada to wading in cow-pat to get to
a water hike up north. Even now I
look back at Tour as the best summer
ever. Tour was also the first time I
experimented with pluralism, having
had the opportunity to attend different
services.
It was only after my experiences in
FZY had established my passion for
MARCH 2010 8
Israel that I attended the Maccabiah
Games in Israel in 2005. I will always
remember the words of Ariel Sharon,
“Welcome to Israel, welcome home.”
My view on Jewish peoplehood in
Israel really changed that summer as
I came to understand the power and
force of the Jewish people. I went
on Year Course in September 2007,
volunteering in Magen David Adom
which let me see the best and worst of
Israel, from a serious family orientated country to one of abject poverty,,
and from a country which cares for
the elderly, to one of cultural differences and differing life chances. This
was a time of total freedom for me,
exploring my beliefs and enjoying
pure adventure. From contemplating
at the top of a mountain to climbing
down 12ft ladders into water springs
and banana boating, it really was
nine months of fun with memories
that will last a lifetime.
“It really was the first time I
became confident in my beliefs
and what I was doing.“
Sincee then it really has been time
to give back: from being a madricha
(leader) on Ofek 2008 to being on
the tzevet (committee) for Veida and
hopefully taking Tour this summer. I
am also on FZYʼs mazkirut (executive ) as Tarbut (culture) Officer. I
walked into FZY as a stranger and
I am now surrounded by friends. It
really is about making sure that fundamentally FZY in the next hundred
years offers chanachim (participants)
the opportunity to make friends, to
explore religiously, challenge beliefs
and give everyone the opportunity to
develop. However, FZYʼs connection
to Israel is in many ways the most
special aspect for many; it is thanks
to FZY that Israel is no longer “some
country” but rather “home”.
Thou Shalt All Tweet: Why Twitter is the New Front Line for Zionism
Jennifer Lipman
Jennifer edited the Young Zionist in 2008
L
ook, I get it. Mark Zuckerberg
is Jewish. So when Facebook came
around, you had no choice but to sign
up. It would have been rude not to.
But Twitter is a different story.
Who cares what you had for breakfast, who wants to read about what
you bought in the Brent Cross sales
(two dresses, great bargains, thank
you very much)? What can anyone
possibly say in 140 characters that
would be worth listening to?
Actually, they can say plenty. Itʼs
time for Zionists to join the debate.
There are Jewish voices and proIsrael tweeters out there. But as Twitter becomes the forum in which news
emerges, stories are broken and issues
protested, there need to be more.
Among British Jewry, Twitter seems
to have a bad rep. The problem is, itʼs the world.
misunderstood. Sure, Twitter can be
Itʼs a powerful thing indeed to conabout the above trivia and worse, but trol the flow of information a person
thatʼs not all itʼs about.
or group receives, yet this is exactly
what Twitter enables.
“There are Jewish voices and
More than that, itʼs a conversation;
pro-Israel tweeters out there. But
people read a tweet and respond, often
as Twitter becomes the forum in
entering lengthy verbal exchanges.
which news emerges, stories are
Misquotes, unsubstantiated opinion
broken and issues protested, there
and media bias have long been chalneed to be more.”
lenged on printʼs letter pages. Twitter
Far more than Facebook, Twitter provides an immediate and influential
is a hotbed of discussion and analy- way of drawing attention to flawed
sis of all the critical issues of the day. reporting.
It reaches further, too. While setAnd while the tweeting community
is still narrow, itʼs getting wider and ting up Facebook groups is admirable
itʼs certainly getting more influential. and plays a role in hasbara (Israel adThe terms ʻTrafiguraʼ, ʻIranʼ and ʻJan vocacy), those who join your group
are inevitably already on your friend
Moirʼ are testament to that.
On a basic level, Twitter works in list. Twitter is mostly not about folthe same way as the traditional Face- lowing your friends, itʼs about finding
book status. There are followers rath- people with your interests, from polier than friends, people whose tweets ticians to well known media wonks,
appear on your homepage and who, if and from citizen journalists to every
Joe Bloggs with something to say.
they follow you, see yours.
On Twitter, your audience, and
From emerging as Facebookʼs bastard child, the medium has evolved therefore your sphere of influence, is
and is less about sharing uselss ob- your oyster.
servations and far more about sharing
If it seems a bit stalker-like and
internet links to news stories, blog peculiar to latch on to the musings
posts and photographs from around of a perfect stranger, remember that
9 Young Zionist
ʻFacebookʼ was not always a verb.
The ability to engage with anyone,
anywhere and in a simple way is revolutionary in terms of global communication and social interaction. Itʼs crucial
when it comes to Israel advocacy,
because what youʼre not out there
defending, someone else will be attacking.
Virtual debate is no substitute to
actual discussion, but it is necessary,
because Twitter isnʼt going anywhere.
Those newspaper reports of Twitterʼs
role in the Iranian revolution werenʼt
exaggerations on the part of pretentious journalists, but grounded in
fact.
When Jan Moir wrote in the Daily Mail that Stephen Gatelyʼs death
“strikes another blow to the happyever-after myth of civil partnerships”
it wasnʼt the regular readers that held
such bigotry to account. One tweet
with a link to the column became
25,000 complaints to the press regulator.
This can, and does, happen all
the time. But when Kadima politician
Tzipi Livni was forced to cancel a trip
to Britain because a Palestinian group
requested a war crimes arrest warrant,
pro-Israel voices campaigning on the
website were few and far between. Yet
the same vitriol that appeared on Facebook groups is on Twitter and must be
exposed there also.
Seen an inspiring editorial on Middle
East peace? With the click of the
Retweet button, hundreds of people
will have been alerted to it. Want to
see what people are saying about a
subject? Anything thatʼs worthy of
news coverage will have a hash (#)
tag, so you can search for recent comments and flag up anything you want
to question.
Every politician with a clue is on
it posting regularly especially with an
election near; democratic accountability has never been this easy. All the
newspapers post their stories on there,
meaning you get the headlines from
around the world when they happen,
and can see the dayʼs news without
buying a paper or browsing a site.
Itʼs not only about politics, either.
Some of the best Jewish humour can
be found on the site, with comics like
David Baddiel posting regularly. You
can follow everyone from actors and
musicians to sports players and gossip columnists.
A phenomenal source for obscure information, at times, Twitter
works like a giant AQA or Wikipedia. Whether you want to know
where the snow is heaviest, or what
a good chicken soup recipe is, someone on Twitter will have an answer. Think of it as a research aid.
In a busy world, finding the time
to stand up for oneʼs views is no easy
feat. Twitter is a quick, effortless and
influential way of making sure your
voice is heard.
Once upon a time, it was common
thought that the Jews controlled the
media. Sign up to Twitter and take
back the steering wheel.
Follow Jennifer on twitter.com/
jenlipman
“Daddy, What Did You Do In The Six Day War?”
David Kosky
David was involved in FZY in the 1960s
1
967 was a good time to be eighteen
and a good time to live in London. My generation had been spared
national service. The 60s, with all its
promise of change and renewal was
in full swing. The gloom of an austere
childhood was behind us as we entered the era of white hot technological change. Life-long employment
for all seemed guaranteed. England
won the World Cup and swinging
London was the musical, fashion
and cultural capital of the world.
As young Jews we had never
known a world without Israel. Israel represented a progressive, nonmaterialistic secular Jewish ideal
to which we could aspire. Few of
us had actually been there. Foreign
travel still remained a privilege of
the wealthy (which excluded most
of us) and package tours had not yet
targeted Israel. Nevertheless, Israel
was something of which a young
Jew could be justifiably proud.
For many of us, our pride in Israel
found expression in an FZY society.
Here we could meet our contemporaries each week without the intense
ideological commitment of Habonim
or the religious straightjacket of Bnei
Akiva. FZY provided an attractive Israel-centred social life to which our
parents could hardly ob
object.
“Israel represented a progressive,
non-materialistic secular Jewish
ideal to which we could aspire.”
At a distance of forty years it is
difficult to convey how different it
was to be eighteen in 1967 to being
eighteen in 2010. Very few FZYniks
had cars or even access to their parentsʼ car. A weekend seminar meant
hiring a coach. Only a minority went
to university. Most left school at fifteen or sixteen. The myriads destined
for accountancy began their articles
straight after O Levels. Gap years
were almost unheard of.
To this I was a privileged exception.
Having taken A Levels a year early I
found myself with nine months free
before going to university. I had been
active in FZY for several years and
so it came about that I was offered
the temporary position of National
MARCH 2010 10
Organiser from January to September
1967 at the (for me) magnificent remuneration of £15 per week!
FZY had been through a lean time
in the early 60s but by 1967 was beginning to expand under the chairmanship of John Corre. It consisted of
some twenty societies mostly based
in London with a total membership of
about 2000 in varying states of commitment. My brief was to assist in the
development and expansion of those
societies.
At the beginning of 1967 the movement was, “between” shlichim (emissaries). The permanent staff of the
movement consisted of the organising
secretary and myself and the movementʼs premises a small office in Rex
House then the HQ of the Zionist
Federation, Jewish Agency, JNF and
Joint Palestine (yes, Palestine) Appeal
(now UJIA).
My first months in office involved
much hard work and travel around the
country but were largely uneventful.
All that changed in May as the international situation deteriorated and the
Egyptians closed the straits of Tiran.
On 22nd May an emergency meeting of the Zionist Youth Council was
held at which it was resolved to hold a
rally in Hyde Park the following Sunday to coincide with an open letter to
the Sunday times. The initiative was
that of the Zionist Youth alone; suddenly our cosy existence was threatened by the prospect of a war which
could well
result in the destruction of the State
of
Israel. That was a prospect none could
view without alarm.
“suddenly our cosy existence was
threatened by the prospect of a
war which could well result in the
destruction of the State of Israel.”
With the agreement of the Mazkirut
I moved into the Moadon Habonim
(Habonim HQ) to work with the other
movement workers. Our workload
was twenty four hours. Most of us
slept at the Moadon. Perhaps the most
rewarding task was telephoning celebrities and politicians to seek their
endorsement of the Sunday Times
letter. Most memorably I recall persuading an obviously very drunk Randolph Churchill to sign having worn
him down after about an hour on the
phone!
The letter duly appeared in the Sunday Times and despite last minute
hitches the rally attracted some 30,000
people.
The following day, Monday 29th
May, I was summoned to the office of
the Jewish Agency Youth and Hechalutz Department to be told that until
further notice I was working for the
Jewish Agency. The groundswell of
concern for Israel was such that they
and the Embassy had received several
hundred calls from people (Jewish
and non-Jewish) who wished to go to
Israel to help in its hour of need. Israel had ordered a general mobilisation
and needed manpower to help maintain services in the absence of the reserves and the Jewish Agency wished
to set up a volunteer organization.
I pointed out that many in FZY and
the other youth movements had also
indicated willingness to volunteer. It
was agreed that the volunteer organisation would work both through the
youth movements and with the others
affiliated.
We set to work to set up an organisation from scratch. The trickle of volunteers became a flood. Each volunteer had to be processed, interviewed,
medically examined and be told of the
(tentative) travel arrangements. Many
just turned up at Rex House having
quit their jobs or studies.
The FZY office became a hive of
activity, its staff of two expanding to
about twenty overnight all crammed
into a tiny office of two desks. June
was not a good time for people to volunteer – students had exams and articled clerks bound by the terms of their
articles. Nevertheless the number of
FZYniks ready to volunteer seemed
to increase by the hour. Many (like
me) slept at Rex House.
As the week went on war seemed
inevitable. Many of those who volunteered were not those normally associated with Israel. Yet, faced with
the realisation of what its loss might
mean they were prepared to make the
most amazing sacrifices.
On Friday 2nd June the Chief Rabbi
announced that those who were engaged in essential work for Israel
were permitted if necessary to break
Shabbat. I spent the day at Rex House
finalising arrangements for the first
volunteer flight the following day.
On Sunday the flight was postponed
as the plane had been stripped of seats
and loaded with medical supplies.
On the morning of Monday 5th June
I made my first call to a volunteer at
7:30am. He told me that he had been
reconsidering but that when he had
heard the news he was determined
to go. I asked him what news he was
referring to. “Havenʼt you heard?” he
replied, “the war has started.”
Immediate plans had to be made
for the volunteers due to fly that day
to be put up in hotels as Israeli airspace was closed. An air of suspense
and concern filled Rex House. News
was sparse: the censors were allowing
very little to filter through.
I met Bernard Josephs (now a leading Anglo-Jewish journalist) in the
corridor. He had been in Israel on
Shnat Sherut (Gap Year) and his parents had insisted on his coming home.
He begged for help to return.
In the evening I visited the volunteers at their hotel. We watched the
TV news with Michael Elkins reporting from Jerusalem. His report was
heavily censored but he managed to
say, “I would say that Israel has had
a very good day.” At last, a ray of hope ...
On Tuesday the situation became
clearer. Israel had clearly occupied
most of the Gaza Strip but there was
still no real news from the West Bank
or Syria. Rumours spread that the Syrians had made serious progress into
Galilee.
Late in the afternoon the most amazing
rumours started to circulate; Israel
11 Young Zionist
was on the verge of taking East
Jerusalem! The promise of visiting
the Western Wall was something few
would have considered could happen
in their lifetimes. Now it appeared
that the Temple Mount could be in Israeli hands!
By Wednesday the mood was one
of hope and pride as the extent of Israelʼs victory was becoming clear.
A small group of FZYniks left Rex
House with a guitar to go busking
among theatre queues in the West
End to raise money for Israel. Their
efforts were well rewarded.
A steady stream of volunteers was
being processed through Rex House
and on to the airport. Most of the
Mazkirut (executive) (including the
Chairman and Vice-Chairmen) were
among the volunteers. Arrangements
had to be made to run the movement
in the coming months. The vacancies
were filled from those who had to remain in the UK.
“Late in the afternoon the most
amazing rumours started to
circulate; Israel was on the verge
of taking East Jerusalem!”
On Friday
ay I went home ffor the first
time in a week and went to Shul with
my father. The mood was electrifying.
The words, “Yamin UʼSmol Tifrotzi”
(You shall spread out to the right and
left) seemed particularly poignant.
The main group of FZY volunteers
left the following Monday. They were
sent to Kibbutz Hagoshrim just beneath the Golan Heights where they
spent some three months. Eventually they numbered about a hundred.
The ornamental streams which pass
through the Kibbutz and were built
by them bear testament to the labours
of the FZY “trencherim” to this day.
Smaller groups went to Kfar Glickson and Hasolelim and others worked
in auxiliary army units cleaning up.
To those young Jews who lived
through the Six Day War (even from a
distance), everything after June 1967
was different to the way it had been
before. Those six days had a profound
and lasting effect upon their lives. The
same could be said for FZY.
Essex-North London Relations
Ross Markham
Ross edited the Young Zionist in 2008
W
hen I emerged on the FZY scene,
I was sceptical to say the least.
I thought: ʻItʼs just gonna be some
glorified North London Jewish cabal,
where the ubermenschen (superhumans) can all bathe in the glory of
their trimmed beards, private education and firm physiques and rub it into
my big Essex nose.ʼ I was not disappointed. Myself, a squib of a neb
from Essex, with my unruly facial
hair, Jewish comp ʻeducationʼ and rotund physique could not hope to compete on such a playing field. I was so
out of my depth and out my comfort
zone that I latched onto the coat tails
of my fellow untermenschen (subHuman) Essex judenrat, hoping
from our subterranean den, we could
infiltrate FZY and transmorfsify (that
probably isnʼt a word) it into Jewish
Youth Study Group, the sewer out of
which many of the Essex contingent
first spewed forth. It is from this sense
of discomfort and ongoing agony that
I wish to present my symposium.
This dissertation will focus on EssexNorth London relations, with particular regard to the Federation of Zionist
Youth, circa 2006-2009.ʼ
At first we Essexsians stubbornly
refused to give up the traditions in
which we had been raised. And so,
against the Zionist grain of FZY, we
continued to speak in Yiddish, conducting our business in Yiddish and
even making love in Yiddish (well
some of us.) As we disembarked our
Essex and East-London boats, covered in lice and tainted by the antiSemitism of Tsarist Chigwell, we
continued in the Shmutter trade of our
ancestors, inter-marrying and keeping
our vibrant Essex culture alive. But
eventually the North London uberKultur became too overwhelmingly
attractive, with its liberal approach to
Abercrombie, its obsession with Eilat and its predilection for late night
milkshakes in Hampstead. We simple
Essex Jews wanted so much to integrate into the dominant culture and
to establish ourselves as ʻnormalʼ humanoids.
“But eventually the North London
uber-Kultur became too
overwhelmingly attractive, with its
liberal approach to Abercrombie,
its obsession with Eilat and its
predilection for late night milkshakes
in Hampstead. “
So we moved out of the rag factories, and we stopped speaking Yiddish
and we stopped inter-marrying. In our
place came the Bangladeshis, then
the Hugonaughts and then finally the
West Indian community. We discovered a portal which took us as north
as one could go. When you enter this
portal you enter as the cockney sparrows you are. But when you leave the
portal, you emerge clean, clothed in
MARCH 2010 12
the finest Brent Cross has to offer and
speaking the Queenʼs English. This
portal has become known as portal
A406 or the ʻNorth Circular.ʼ We discovered that there were Jews outside
of Gants Hill. These Jews had strange
names like Jason, Rob and the female
of the species was frequently referred
to as Aimee or some variant of that
name. Whereas we Essexians
subsisted on a diet of pilchards,
schmaltz and goat curd, you North
Londoners introduced us to fine meats
like Shwarma. You were so wealthy,
you could afford to eat breads with
the middle removed and you liked to
call this a ʻbagelʼ, although this still
sounds very foreign to me.
Yes sometimes you sneered at our accents and you guffawed at our strange
ways. But eventually you came to
take pity on us and you even clutched
us into the warmth of your bosom.
For some reason the portal appears
to have a valve on it which means
that it only goes from Essex to your
homesteads, but still occasionally,
you make the effort to circumnavigate the portal and make the arduous
trek across the Pyrenees to our glorified mudhuts that we call ʻhomes.ʼ
Although we can see the embarrassment on your faces when we still refer in our archaic way to bagels as
beigels as they correctly should be,
on the whole the relationship between
us has improved. We occasionally sit
on cross-communal panels, debating differences in dogma and practice. On the rare occasion that one of
you has crossed the threshold of the
Ghetto walls, we have welcomed you
into our home and we have fed you
our pilchard heads and schmaltz puddings. Although our gruff exteriors
expose our lack of morals and actual
wealth, we have tried to engage you
in debate and discussion to find some
common ground between our peoples.
Alas they have not been fruitful.
In conclusion, there is a long way
to go before the inequalities of our
two societies are ironed out. This is
how I would address the issue:
- I would repair that bloody portal,
which you keep telling us doesnʼt
work
- I would redistribute considerable
sums of wealth from the pockets of
wealthy north London Jews, to their
less illustrious cousins in Essex
- I would impose sanctions on any
North London Jew who takes issue
with any elongation of words such as
ʻyeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.ʼ
Finally, we in Essex will make an
unconditional promise to cease support for Kebabishes and other such
establishments and will eat solely at
G-d forsaken eateries such as Samis,
Lemonade and other places that you
always rave about but are always as
bloody bland as each other.
As the Talmud says, ʻLet the sheep
lay with the lion.ʼ One day it will. It
really will.
Authorʼs note: the author is from
North East London anyway, so you
can ignore everything I have just
said.
The Road Less Travelled
Philippa Goulde
Philippa is the cur
current Young Zionist Editor
S
itting around in the ʻideological
cotchʼ at the bottom of Mansion
House in Carmel College in December
2005, two chanichim (participants)
and a movement worker stumbled
upon a potentially plausible idea...a
senior chavura (peer-led society); a
chavura for sixth formers. This turned
out not to be just a moment of ideological inspiration soon thwarted by a
reminder of practical hindrances, but
an idea which we followed through
and from which we reaped great success. Five meetings, including two
mifgashim (meetings) with Israelis,
took place in the period from February to September 2006 with activities
ranging from discussions about the
Danish Cartoons and our ideal FZY
Kibbutz in Israel to chocolate fondue
evenings and picnics in Golders Hill
Park feeding an ootka (Russian for
duck as one of the Israelis taught us).
For you see, in my opinion FZY
isnʼt one or even a few big things...
itʼs a million little things...and the
light bulb ideas that begin as seeds of
possibility on Veida, often turn into
some of the most rewarding and enjoyable FZY experiences contained
in your journey. Although you can
have a perfectly pleasant FZY jour-
ney by attending Ofek, Kesher, Tour
and Year Course, and you can return
and be an active madrich (leader) and
boger (graduate/student), the aspects
that you add in to your journey along
the way are the ones that make the
journey exciting. Kesher BʼChoref,
Second
Timers
programmes,
chavurot, and if you were fortunate
enough, senior chavurot, donʼt just
make the journey enjoyable, they
make it that much more worthwhile.
“the light bulb ideas that begin
as seeds of possibility on Veida,
often turn into some of the most
rewarding and enjoyable FZY
experiences contained in your
journey.”
I have ʻaddedʼ quite a number of
things into my FZY journey: Kesher
13 Young Zionist
BʼChoref, Teʼamim, a short stint at
a chavura, the senior chavura, and
attending Veida as a chanicha. These
experiences are, in my opinion, what
has made my FZY journey so special
and are the reason I am still passionate
about my movement today, seven years on.
My FZY journey hasnʼt always
been easy, and there have been plenty
of opportunities to give up, pack it all
in, walk away and leave my movement behind. Yet something told me
that just because it wasnʼt easy, didnʼt
mean it wasnʼt worth sticking around
for. It has taken me a long time to appreciate what that ʻsomethingʼ was;
it was those additions to my FZY
journey that reminded me how much
the movement has to offer, reminded me why I want to be a part of it,
and encouraged me to stay involved.
The passionate people, the inspiring
madrichim and the life-changing experiences my ʻadditionsʼ have given
me are the reason that I never gave up
and never walked away, just in case I
missed another one.
This almost happened to me. Having almost given up on the movement
and walked away in late 2007 and
2008, I decided to stick it out. Thank
goodness I did, or I never would have
had the opportunity of yet another
one of my ʻadditionsʼ: Nitzotz 2009.
Eight days in Israel, volunteering
and working the land as the chalutzim (pioneers) did decades before us,
experiencing the Ethiopian Barmitzvah Project first hand and spending
an inspirational Shabbat in Jerusalem; the experience I took away from
Nitzotz reminded me of why I am so
passionate about FZY and made me
glad, once again, that I didnʼt walk
away when the going got tough.
These ʻadditionsʼ give you first hand
ideological experiences, allow you to
see what tzedakah (charity), magen
(defence of Jewish rights), tarbut
(culture) and even aliyah (emigration
to Israel) look like ʻup closeʼ, and
give you the push that we so often
need in the movement these days to be
inspired by what we aim to achieve.
The Ethiopian Barmitzvah Project is a
fantastic example of this and something
I experienced both on Teʼamim
2005 and Nitzotz 2009. Sitting in a
cold room in Harold House in Liverpool talking about the Ethiopian
Barmitzvah project to bogrim who
have never experienced it, itʼs hard
to convey its magic. Yet ask someone
who has learnt about the programme
first hand from Sefton Bergson, the
projectʼs head; who has put on a funday for Ethiopians jointly with the
Tsofim (Israeli Scouts); and who has
danced for hours with the children
of the Merkaz Klita (absorption centre) in Tsfat about the Ethiopian Barmitzvah Project and they will regale
you with tales of the wonders of the
project, give you ten reasons why we
should stay involved in it and make
you wish you had been there to share
those experiences with them. Our ʻordinaryʼ programmes arenʼt giving our
chanichim and bogrim these same
experiences and opportunities, you
need to ʻaddʼ to your FZY journey
and grasp every opportunity available to you in order to truly appreciate every aspect of this movement.
So I hope it is recorded in FZY and
YZ history that Kesher bʼChoref,
Teʼamim, the senior chavura, Nitzotz
and so many other programmes are
an inspiration to this movement and
a credit to the chanichim that are inspired by them, and the madrichim
that helped to inspire them. That
without these additions when the going got tough it might not be so bad to
walk away. That these additions ensure that a thoroughly enjoyable journey is also immensely worthwhile.
FZY isnʼt just about the big things...
itʼs about all the little things and I can
only hope that the next one hundred
years bring one hundred more innovative ways to inspire our chanichim
and bogrim that are outside of the
FZY ʻordinaryʼ. These additions have
given me a fantastic FZY journey and
I hope that they have and can do the
same for the future generations of the
movement.
My FZY Footprints
as a third generation
FZYnik...
Emma Nagli
Emma iis a Madricha on Year Course
I
may have two chubby, stumpy,
size three feet that many people
like to point out and ʻcooʼ over, but
when it comes to my FZY footprints,
I can certainly say I have been on one
hell of a journey with these little feet
in tow!
When I was told that I would be
speaking via video call at the launch
of FZY100 I didnʼt really think anything of it, and the stresses of a normal hectic week as a madricha (leader) on Year Course meant that I had
nothing prepared at the start of the
call. As my grandmother started to
speak I realised that it wasnʼt such
a normal, average conference call...
the nerves kicked in, and it clicked
that no notes equalled a problem!
Gradually words started to appear
on my scrap of paper in front of me,
my chanichim (participants) finding
my sudden panic relatively amusing.
My mother, Alison, then stepped up,
and the butterflies were now really
bothering me; more and more words
seemed to have emerged...
It all started when I was thirteen,
Sunday Stanmore Zerah meetings
being the highlight of my week. With
my FZY membership card in hand, I
was raring to go at 8pm. Then came
Ofek ʼ01, closely followed by KBC
ʼ01, Kesher ʼ02, KBC ʼ02 and Glasgow seminar in there somewhere...
MARCH 2010 14
Tour in ʻ03, Year Course ʼ05-ʼ06... a
standard list some may say, but nevertheless a list that was vital in bringing me to where I am today.
It all started when I was thirteen,
Sunday Stanmore Zerah meetings
being the highlight of my week.
It is safe to say that as a third generation FZYnik the above list was
inevitable for me... but what followed Year Course, undoubtedly the
best year of my life to date, made it
clear that FZY was, and still is, in my
blood (yes, Iʼm aware that sounds
pretty keen... Iʼm a Year Course
madricha, what do you expect!).
Of course, over the years my FZY
identity, and in turn my Jewish identity, had grown and strengthened,
but it was not until my first year as
a madricha on Ofek 2006 that I really felt part of the family. I was
provided with the opportunity to
work with some of the greatest bogrim (graduates/students), and I learnt
so much from each and every person, some of whom I really feel are
now some of my closest friends.
After working with such incredible
individuals I was excited to get started
at university in Birmingham, and be
a part of my new extended FZY family. Thinking back now, I would not,
in any way, change my three years up
the motorway. Growing up in a youth
movement certainly provided me with
the desire to be actively involved with
the Jewish Society, a keeno from the
start and on the committee for the last
half of first year, and the first half of
second. This, however, did not mean
my FZY identity was sacrificed...ʼFZY
filledʼ would be an understatement,
wearing our ʻBirmingham Bogrimʼ
hoodies proudly around campus!
Bogrim seminars and Veidot...
highlights of my three years, led
me to being Birmingham Netziga
(regional representative) in 2007
and on the Mazkirut (executive) in
2008. In between, I led Kesher ʼ07
and Tour 5 in ʻ08. At each and every
event I met more and more great people, who have all, in their own way,
contributed to my FZY journey and
made it more and more meaningful.
Having referred to my little feet earlier, there was a time when they came
to a slight halt, days before Tour 5 was
due to fly to Israel. I went through
the hardest thing that I have ever been
through, losing a close friend, and this
meant flying out to Tour late, which
was terrifying and it is no secret that I
found the following four weeks unbelievably difficult. However, working
alongside my [extended] family every
step of the way made those four weeks
an experience that I will never forget. There was a time, just after Year
Course, that I felt our shichva (year
group) would never properly click...
I cannot express how wrong I was.
The time between taking Tour
and, well, where I am now, certainly
pushed my FZY identity to the max.
To cut a long story short, I am now
in Jerusalem and have been for the
past five months. However, before I
address my current situation a certain
tsevet (staff) MUST get a mention. I
was privileged to be a part of an unbelievable summer camp in August
2009. Ofek and Kesher were both a
huge success, full of fun and education, truly JAFTAstic! I worked with
not only a great senior tsevet, but also
with motivated, determined and hard
working madrichim, both fresh out of
Year Course and second year Bogrim.
So, now to my present... Iʼve been
so completely jam packed busy over
the past however long, travelling on
an endless rollercoaster of activities and emotions. I am constantly
learning about myself, acquiring new
skills, growing as a person (no, Iʼm
still short!), working with some really
wonderful people, bonding with some
of the greatest chanichim, enjoying
the sunshine and [not] enjoying the
occasional rain storm... overall having
an experience that I would never have
expected. Yes, Iʼd make some changes if I could, but I am enjoying myself,
doing a job I love doing, in a country that I am most passionate about.
The three month mark since the
Brits had arrived came and went far
too quickly. Just as Iʼd become used
to their complaining, their tactics
for missing volunteering and class,
the noise levels at 1/2/3/4am, their
needs to being looked after but want of
independence... but more so their
unique personalities, their levels of
banter, their amazing company, their
want to learn and explore, their love for
Jerusalem, and their ability to cheer me
up as soon as I see them... they were off!
On December 6th it was ʻchangeover dayʼ and I was dreading it! The
chanichim, who I had grown to love
and formed such strong bonds with,
packed up their belongings and
moved to Bat Yam, and the process started again. I do, however, get
to see their “smiling” faces every
Wednesday for hadracha (leadership)
and Zman FZY (FZY Time), and
have just returned from Eilat, where
I was able to be a part of their FZY
Family Day, meeting the loved ones
of those that I now officially adore,
not to mention shedding a little tear
at their Year Course video so far.
It is very weird to stop and actually think where I am and what Iʼm
doing. This is, without a doubt, one
of the toughest jobs/experiences, and
it often scares me to think I still have
five months remaining!
“Yes, I’d make some changes if I
could, but I am enjoying myself,
doing a job I love doing, in a
country that I am most passionate
about.”
This quote is on the ring that hangs
around my neck every single day.
Brought for me by three of my best
friends for my birthday from Hadaya
when we were on Year Course... so
completely relevant here!
My head is constantly full to the
brim of different emotions and I am
pushing myself to be optimistic. As
tough as it may get, it is so reassuring
to know that I have so many people in
my extended family behind me, and
this makes it all worthwhile. I have
travelled on my FZY journey with
such a solid group of incredibly enthusiastic and unique people. I thank
every single one of you for your support, patience and time. I know that
I have grown as an individual, and
owe so much to all those who helped
me through the tough times, and who
were there through all the great times!
15 Young Zionist
Age before beauty, the Challenges that Face FZY
Jamie Slavin
Jamie is the current Mazkir
answer, as with most aspects of the
movement, lies firmly in the hands of
those both younger and, for the most
part, wiser than me.
F
ZYʼs 100th anniversary has
provided many things. The most
obvious has been a chance for celebration – of what FZY has already
achieved and what it will hopefully
achieve in the future. Perhaps most
poignantly, FZYʼs centenary has
provided a link, between past and
present members, between past and
present generations.
But FZYʼs anniversary has also
provided an opportunity for reflection – of what the movement has
achieved up until now and what it
can achieve in the future. It is this
opportunity upon which I wish to
concentrate, and which I believe the
movement must seize in order to define what FZY will become in the
coming years.
FZY faces challenges on a daily
basis – but few of those challenges
have the capacity to impact on our
long term ideological and practical
future. I have been Mazkir (head of
the movement) for five months now
and Iʼve been a movement worker
for almost a year and a half. In that
time it has become apparent to me
that the members of FZY have two
very clear challenges ahead of them
in the years to come.
The first is whether FZY can come
to terms with its size. The second is
whether we are happy for FZY to become a student movement. I do not
intend to give you an answer here.
The beauty of FZY is that its members decide the future of the movement and I simply want to lay out
what I believe will be the challenges
of definition in the coming years. The
“The beauty of FZY is that its
members decide the future of the
movement and I simply want to
lay out what I believe will be the
challenges of definition in the
coming years.”
Let me begin with the issue of coming to terms with our numbers. We
are a big movement – there, Iʼve said
it. We sometimes lack the family atmosphere on which other movements
pride themselves. Our members can
sometimes spend years going on our
programmes and never speak to each
other – but these are not reasons to
be ashamed of our size and they certainly are not reasons to reduce our
size. Indeed, our size should, in many
ways, be a source of great pride. The
more chanichim (participants) we
take to Israel, the more young British
Jews love the State. There are clear
disadvantages to having large numbers, including the two cited above,
but if you were to ask me if I would
prefer to take two hundred chanichim
to Israel and retain 5%, or take twenty and retain 50%, my answer would
be clear – two hundred every day.
And that is because what really matters
is the core; that inner group of people
who are committed to the movement,
who want to take on positions of
responsibility and who do not just
view FZY as a summer movement.
That core, that special centre, is as
strong as it always was; the outer circle that surrounds it has simply got
bigger.
As FZY we need to come to terms
with the fact that we take a lot of
chanichim on our programmes. We
cannot have our cake and eat it and
we certainly cannot wish to reduce
our numbers in pursuit of a pipe
dream that we will suddenly become
a movement which retains more
chanichim or, more importantly, increases that core group of members
at its centre.
We need to be satisfied with our
numbers and accept that if twenty
five people come to Aim Higher, we
should be proud of getting twenty
five. If a hundred come, we should
proud of that. The time has come for
us to stop beating ourselves up because our year round numbers are not
as high as those for our summer programmes. There are plenty of people
who already do that for us.
The challenge that faces FZY as
we enter our second century is how
to expand that core group of committed FZYniks without reducing the
number of young people who form a
positive and long lasting connection
to Israel through the movement.
And so to the second challenge
FZY faces - the issue of age. It is undeniable that during the ten years I
have been involved in the movement
the average age of an active FZY
member has increased. In the last five
years the chavurot in London have
all but disappeared and, as a direct
result, the number of 16-18 year olds
involved weekly has dropped as their
hadracha (leadership) opportunities
have dried up.
In effect, we are gradually but inexorably becoming a student movement. And more worryingly, the bogrim (graduates/students) who make
up the bulk of our members are at the
same time becoming less committed
because they have not grown up in
FZY.
At first glance it looks like we do
not have a choice. Whether we like
it or not we are becoming a student
movement, and try as we might,
no amount of work from bogrim or
movement workers is going to stop
that.
But there is a choice and in fact a
very clear one – either to embrace the
concept of being a student movement
and build the structure of the movement around it, or to try and turn back
MARCH 2010 16
the tide aand find new ways of engaging
younger people.
Whatever choice we make, we need
to commit to it. The challenge here is
to be bold enough to make a choice.
The greatest danger is not making one
at all.
Let me elaborate.
FZY currently has very limited under18 year round activity and yet the structure of the movement and the direction
of our finances are built around the notion of being a youth movement. Out of
four movement workers (not including
the Mazkir/a), three concentrate on under-18 activities. Discounting shlichim
(emissaries), there is no movement
worker who is specifically tasked with
working with bogrim. In effect, despite
the fact that the strongest area of activity for FZY is currently our bogrim age
group, we pump most of our resources
into younger ages.
“Whatever choice we make, we
need to commit to it. The challenge
here is to be bold enough to make
a choice. The greatest danger is
not making one at all. “
This is clearly nonsensical - hence the
choice that needs to be made. To commit to our future as a student movement;
to accept that under-18s no longer want
the same year round activities as they
once did; to redirect our resources and
efforts into what FZY has become – a
vehicle for student activism.
Or the alternative - to redouble our
efforts to enlarge our under-18 activities;
to explore new initiatives to engage our Kedmaniks (sixth formers) by providing tangible
leadership opportunities; to lower the age at
which we allow people to join FZY.
In short, we need to make some drastic, sometimes scary decisions that will
actually have an effect, rather than
muddle along as we are currently doing, neither as a student nor as a youth
movement.
At the beginning of this article I
said that I would abstain from giving
answers. I lied.
For me the choice is clear, on both
levels. FZY does the UK Jewish community an amazing service. We connect
more people to Israel then any other
youth movement, perhaps more than
any other communal organisation. We
should be loud and we should be proud
about this. We should never aim to reduce that number. Instead we need to
concentrate on our programming before, during and after the summer to
retain chanichim. We need to provide
Kedmaniks post Tour leadership opportunities to keep them involved. These
should include a role on camp and on
seminars throughout the year. Chanichim on camp need to sign up to activism committees like the Tzedakah
Vaʼad (charity committee) so that they
can pursue social action even if they do
not want to use FZY as a vehicle to socialise. We should still provide chavurot
(peer-led societies) in London for those
who do not attend Jewish schools, just
as we do in the North, but we also need
to recognise that FZY needs to offer a
diverse range of options to suit different
needs. And when only five chanichim
turn up to a Sunday night activity, we
should proud, but it should be a pride
mixed with a determination to find new
ways to engage young people.
Perhaps most scarily, we need to
invite even younger people to join the
movement. We need to reach out to the
age groups that do want to come along
on a Sunday night to socialise, be this
eleven year olds or even younger. This
in turn will provide even more opportunities for Kedmaniks to practice
their hadracha (leadership), as chavurot
madrichim (leaders).
In effect, the answer to the issue
of coming to terms with our size and
defining what sort of a movement we
want FZY to be is one and the same. If
we concentrate on increasing that core
group of FZYniks by retaining more engaged younger members via better year
round programming, we stop ourselves
from becoming a student movement.
These challenges will not be easy to
overcome. But when, over the last 100
years, has that ever stopped an FZYnik.
We are the movement that has never
slept and now is not the time to start.
The challenges facing FZY as we
enter our second century are clear. The
answers are even clearer.
FLASHBACK
Jew 2010
Marc Simmons
Summer 1985
N
ow Iʼm not qualified to even
begin thinking about the moral
and philosophical questions that Judaism
will arouse in the future (and probably
neither are the writers of science fiction – not incidentally a field short of
Jewish contributors).
I can, however, see that in a world
where time-switches are a legitimate
way of switching on things on Shabbat,
butchers will kosher (imitation) bacon,
and OAPs can use bus passes to travel
to shul on Saturdays is going to cause
confusion.
When weʼve all got robots to switch
on the lights and everyoneʼs food is
made from soya beans so everythingʼs
kosher and we donʼt need to worry
about mixing milk and meat, whatʼs
going to happen to the religion. I know
this isnʼt all there is to it, but it does
give Judaism much of its flavour.
“When we’ve all got robots to
switch on the lights and everyone’s
food is made from soya beans so
everything’s kosher and we
don’t need to worry about mixing
milk and meat, what’s going to
happen to the religion.”
Remember at the end of Mel Brooksʼ
“History of the World Part I” where
he trailed Part II with an excerpt from
“Jews in Space,” flying through the
stars in Magen David spaced space
ships?
So to paraphrase an old science
fiction TV series: What does the future hold in store for Space Family
Rosenberg?
17 Young Zionist
FZY, Machon & Ideologies – a strained relationship
Eytan Halon and Michael Kosky
Michael and Eytan are currently on Year Course
H
aMachon LʼMadrichei Chutz
LʼAretz (Institute for Youth
Leaders from Abroad) is a Jewish
Agency programme established by
the World Zionist Organisation in
1946. Machon believes that in order
to develop strong madrichim (leaders) in youth movements and future leaders, its participants should
develop a broad understanding of
key topics on both Israel and Judaism and produce graduates with a
sense of commitment to their communities, to Israel, and to the Jewish
people. It consists of four months of
compulsory classes in Judaism, Israel & Zionism, Hadracha, Ivrit and
Jewish History as well as options to
study, for example, child psychology,
campus activism and even Arabic.
Machon, over the years, has managed
and continues to employ the most
distinguished of teachers to educate
Machonikim. In addition to this educational base, the programme also
offers regular tiyulim (trips) around
the country (including two weeklong
trips), high profile and often-controversial speakers and opportunities for
peer leadership at the most ambitious
levels. Unlike any other programme
offered, FZYʼs participants are able to
grow in a dynamic, inter-movement
environment that facilitates ideological debate between its participants.
Since its pre-state conception,
there have been over 120 machzorim
(sessions) (we were the 121st) and
more than 12,000 graduates of the
programme. Almost one third of
bogrim (graduates) have emigrated
to Israel over the years and their contribution to Israeli society is clear
to see in terms of the leadership of
Jewish communities and their presence in the top professional echelons
of Zionist Jewish education. In the
programmeʼs own words, Machon
aims to implement the ʻshared vision
of the Zionist youth movements and
organizations with which it is associatedʼ – as such, and considering such
impressive figures, it is a very ideologically strong programme.
In July last year, at Year Course
Orientation, we officially put our
names down for Machon. It was not
an easy decision to effectively separate ourselves from the central programme for nearly half its course, as
well as taking a risk in terms of integrating into the group socially. Now
that it is over, we feel we could not
have benefited more from the experience and there is nothing we want to
see more than future Year Coursers
participating in this prestigious and
long-running programme.
Machon, however, is not only an
educational and ideologically driven
programme. It is an opportunity to
grow and develop as an individual –
in terms of views, emotions, tolerance
of other beliefs and simply in terms
of maturity. Participants are given the
opportunity to argue, strengthen, and
often radically change, their views
as much as possible in this very
intense environment. The directors of
the programme are delighted to have
participants leaving the programme
with little certainty of what they believe in and stand for – not because
they do not have the information to
form and develop them, but rather because their minds have been opened
to all sorts of new ways of thinking.
“we feel we could not have
benefited more from the experience and there is nothing we
want to see more than future
Year Coursers participating in
this prestigious and long-running
programme.”
It would be fair to suggest that
those of us who were looking to go
on Machon in July were dissuaded
from making such a decision – in fact,
there were originally six people planning to go on Machon before Orientation. Such a high turnover, however,
of Machon Bogrim becoming mazkirim (heads) of the movement surely
suggests that the programme has its
merits. It should be no surprise to any
reader of the Young Zionist that the
masses of FZYʼs many chanichim
(particpiants) are no way near as ideologically strong as in previous years
– but I would challenge any chanich
to emerge from Machon without a
love for the country in which they
are spending the year and, crucially,
a desire to better it.
Now, as Machon approaches
its 65th anniversary, this famous
programme is threatened with
closure. Numbers of chanichim supplied by youth movements (notably
our own) to Machon have dropped
considerably in recent years. The
fact that there were only twenty five
MARCH 2010 18
participants on Machzor 121 (the most
recent English-speaking Machon) is
a sad reflection of the commitment
of British youth movements to their
ideologies. The Jewish Agency have
committed themselves to at least
one more English-speaking Machon
later this year, but even its shortterm future seems to be in jeopardy.
As we all know, the Jewish Agency
are looking to save money wherever
possible, and the English-speaking
Machon looks like it may be about
to be culled unless the British youth
movements reaffirm their commitment – and quick.
It is at this time that FZY has a great
role and responsibility as the leading
British Zionist youth movement to
ensure Machonʼs immediate survival
and continuation. Its chanichim are
currently a very small minority in a
programme that has never failed to
assist the movement in achieving its
aims. The year that FZY fails to send
any of its participants on Machon
will be a disappointing landmark in
our ideological history – is this the
way we wish to celebrate our 100th
anniversary?
recall being asked to give an audiovisual presentation. I do not remember the subject. I was not conscientious enough to provide audio or
visual materials to illustrate my talk
and hoped to avoid complaints by
pointing out to my audience that they
could hear me and see me. As well
as talks, weekly meetings included
Derek Reidʼs presentations on Yiddish and regular folk evenings, with
Pippa Reid and other members, as
well as quizzes and balloon debates.
If all this sounds serious, it was leavened by a variety of social events.
Chief among these were rambles
in the countryside (when I always
seemed to lose a contact lens) with
compulsory cream teas.
Debating was a regular feature of
West London and FZY events. West
London held an annual seminar at the
David Eder Farm, and I recall a weekend during which our theme was the
history of the State of Israel – “From
War to Peace – or from War to War?”
On the Friday evening, we startled
the audience by arranging for a discussion to be disrupted by members
claiming they were “hijacking” the
discussion on behalf of the Peopleʼs
Liberation Organisation for Palestine
(“PLOP”). Later in the weekend, I
spoke on the motion: “This House
believes that Jerusalem should be an
International City”; the motion was
defeated, but only by an uncomfortably small majority. Then, no doubt
as now, FZY had an inclusive ethos.
However, I recall with some embarrassment speaking at another occasion on the motion “United we stand,
Reform we fall” and trotting out the
received prejudices of someone who
had only attended a United Synagogue, and never set foot in a Reform
Synagogue.
FZY Memories
David Reissner
David was involved in FZY in the 1970s
I
met Phil Kerstein on holiday in
1969. When, a couple of years
later, he became the Public Relations
Officer of West London Young Zionist Society, it was part of his role to
increase Society membership. He
encouraged me to attend West London meetings – never mind that most
meetings were in Ealing whereas I
lived in Kingsbury and had no car.
West London met on Thursday
evenings in membersʼ homes to hear
presentations on a variety of topics. Looking back, I am surprised
and impressed that we found different subjects to deal with every single
week, with typical meetings attracting around twenty people. We had
a range of guest speakers, some very
distinguished, and members also
gave presentations. Guest speakers
who stand out in the memory include the then local Ealing MP, Sir
George Young – still in the House
of Commons today; and the distinguished historian, Hyam Maccoby
(z”l), whose talk was entitled “Jesus
and the Jewish Revolution”. Professor Maccobyʼs theory of Jesus
as a Jewish revolutionary against
Roman occupation was riveting.
We also had home-grown speakers who might talk about their occupations, or subjects of interest. I
“Then, no doubt as now, FZY had
an inclusive ethos.”
I was keen to play football, but was
not good enough to get into a university team, so I started a West Londonbased club. Westway Dynamo played
its first season in the Maccabi League
in 1973-4. We played 18, won 1, drew
1. Playing for the fun of it, we presented a certificate to the opposition
player who scored the one-hundredth
goal against us that season. We did
have some end of season success, in
an FZY mixed 7-a-side tournament.
We won most of our games on penalties, and drew 0-0 with Hanegev in
the final, agreeing to share a trophy
with them. Later in the year, all the
players were awarded a medal. I still
19 Young Zionist
treasure mine, as the only football
award I have ever won.
I spent two 3-month stints editing
West Londonʼs magazine, The Voice,
and when our Chair, Paul Goldberg,
asked later me to join the committee
as Oppressed Jewry Officer, I jumped
at the chance. This was a time when
concern about
“This was a time when concern
about Russian refuseniks was
at its height.”
Russian refuseniks was at its height.
As part of an inter-Society campaign,
we adopted a particular refusenik,
Boris Levitas and amongst other
things we pestered the Soviet Embassy switchboard with calls demanding
his freedom. We wrote letters of support to him, not knowing whether
he would receive them. I finally received one letter from him. As far
as I can recall, it contained only one
sentence and was in English. It said:
“Dear David, I am permissed”. I do
not for a moment suggest that Boris
was allowed to emigrate to Israel
because of me, but I still remember
when he came to England in 1978
and I was able to welcome him to
a West London meeting. By then,
I had completed a term as Chair of
West London, and was on the Mazkirut as Oppressed Jewry Officer.
This was a post created at the FZY
conference in 1976 after a fierce
debate. Another fierce debate took
place at the FZY conference in 1978
on the question of whether to urge a
boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, or whether to use the event as
an opportunity to visit refuseniks. I
recall being on the losing side as the
motion to urge a boycott the Games
was carried; but like other FZYniks,
my fiancée Helen and I nevertheless
had the opportunity to visit Leningrad and Moscow in February 1980,
and visited a number of refuseniks.
The FZY conferences at St Edmunds (Teddyʼs) Hall in Oxford
were always a highlight of the year,
ending with a neshef (quasi talent
show, traditionally held on the last
night of conference). I still have a
photo of myself in a red wig and lad-
dered pink tights, in the part of the
Sugar Plum Fairy in Snow White and
the Seven Accountants. As scriptwriter and narrator Frank Leighter put it, “Snow White wasnʼt so
white, and Dopey wasnʼt so dopey”.
Conference traditionally ended with a
raucous and slightly bawdy rendering
of “The Farmerʼs Boy” – probably
tame by todayʼs standards.
“Conference traditionally ended
with a raucous and slightly bawdy
rendering of “The Farmer’s Boy”
– probably tame by today’s standards.”
It all seems like yesterday. In my
professional life, I still write regular
articles for publication, so my stint as
editor of The Voice has stood me in
good stead. Perhaps taking part in debates has helped my career as a lawyer. Most importantly of all, I met my
wife, and many of the friends I made
in FZY are still friends today.
A Snapshot into Life as a Year Courser:
A Speech from FZY Family Dinner in Eilat
Sasha Stock
Sasha is currently on Year Course
G
ood evening, I am standing here
to give you a snapshot into life as
a Year Course participant on FZY. You
always hear past Year Coursers say that
their year in Israel was the best year of
their lives. At first I thought this might
be true because of the freedom—free
from parents, free from school, and
most importantly free from rain, and
more recently, snow. But now that I am
here, four months into the programme,
and experiencing this year for myself,
I realise that I was right about one
thing—this year IS special because of
the freedom, but not the freedom I first
imagined. The choices that we have
been given this year lead to greater
things. This freedom is the drive towards maturity, taking initiative, and
personal responsibilities, which I know
has had its affect on each one of us.
My whole life I have grown up hearing
all the crazy stories about Year Course,
and waiting for the day that I could be
telling my own stories. I am not going
to bore you with a day to day schedule
about what we do here—if you want
that, or have any concerns, Joel Jacobs
is hosting a question and answer session
for all your complaints; although from
this group Iʼm sure that doesnʼt apply.
“You always hear past Year Coursers
say that their year in Israel was the
best year of their lives. At first I
thought this might be true because
of the freedom”
MARCH 2010 20
But I am going to give you all a
small insight into what Year Course
means to me, and I am sure to many
others in the room.
Year course isnʼt only about which
classes you sign up for, or what volunteering placement you are put in—itʼs
about so much more than that. Itʼs
about the unplanned experiences you
have with the incredible friends you
have made. Itʼs about maturing, being
independent and deciding what kind
of person you want to become. Itʼs
about challenging yourself and stepping out of your comfort zone to do
something that you never would have
imagined doing—trust me, I know—
living with sixteen girls was definitely
not on my to do list, especially when
we had one bathroom, two mirrors and
thirteen Americans—but it was an opportunity for me to learn how to make
sacrifices for the benefit of the group,
as well as appreciate different personalities working together towards a single goal. This wasnʼt the only pleasant
surprise upon my arrival to this beautiful country. Along with my quiet and
veeeeery private living conditions,
came my 6am wake up, four times a
week in order to attend my clean and
relaxing volunteer placement at the
archeological dig. Here we spent four
hours throwing buckets of dirt and
rocks at each other whilst excavating—who could think of a better way
to start off the day. And even though to
all you Jewish mothers this may seem
like hell, I genuinely CANʼT think of
a better way to start the day—because
every morning on my way to my volunteering, I was fortunate enough to
walk past the Kotel, through the old
city and have a daily reminder of my
connection to this land, and all that I
am thankful for.
Along with all the fun and amazing experiences, weʼve immersed ourselves into Israeli society and have really felt a part of this country. When
I would tell people that I would be
spending a year in Israel, I was constantly asked, “Why?” Or, “Arenʼt you
scared?” But to tell you the truth, I have
never felt safer or more comfortable.
Just the fact that I can walk into a shop
on a Friday and be welcomed with a
“Shabbat Shalom” from the owner, is
such a small detail, yet it is something
that could only happen in this country, which truly feels like our home. I
know this country has its issues, but
as a resident I have been able to form
my own point of view on these topics.
I have very rarely sat through a cab
ride without hearing the name Gilad
Shalit on the radio. All I need to hear
is this name and my mind starts having a debate with itself. Should Gilad
Shalit be brought home? Or is the
number of terrorists that Israel would
have to release too big a number to
sacrifice. The pain his parents must be
going through? But then again, what
about putting others at risk by releasing that many terrorists for the sake of
one life? Questions constantly going
around in my head. And every time
this name comes up, it dawns on me
that I am passionate about this issue, I
have no idea what the right thing to do
is, but I know that this issue stirs in us
such different emotions and I realize
that I have truly immersed myself into
Israeli culture.
Year course has recently moved to
Bat Yam. After an emotional goodbye
to Jerusalem, we packed our bags and
were ready and raring to go, once again
throwing ourselves into a brand new
experience, and what an experience it
has been so far. Who knew going to
the supermarket could be so stressful,
and I can assure all the mums in the
room that we definitely do not take it
for granted anymore. Food is not just
going to be in the fridge when you
open it; instead itʼs up to us to make
a list and go to the supermarket. And
letʼs just say that the Bat Yam supermarket is no Tesco or Waitrose. Not
everyone you live with wants the
same foods, but its about making certain sacrifices. And more than that we
have had to learn to budget - yes dads
in the room - you heard me correctly,
BUDGET. It was only a few weeks ago
that I saw the usual group of hyperactive boys walking around the supermarket, their faces fixed in concentration with their calculator in hand. They
were calculating the exact amount
they were spending in order to save
the most money. I know most Jewish
boys take maths and economics seriously, I just didnʼt realize how much.
Our apartments have become our
own, buying decorations and making them cosy and homely, although
some of the boysʼ apartments looks
like they have raided the market and
bought different random pieces of
furniture and meshed them together.
However, I suppose they love it and
thatʼs all that matters, even if it does
look like a tacky Thai restaurant.
And it was just the other day that it
really hit me how independent I was
being. As my flat gathered round for
the dinner that we had cooked all together, we lit our Chanukiah and sang
together, and it wasnʼt the Christmas
lights that were burning bright in Israel,
it was the Chanukiot in the windows of
all the different apartments in Bat Yam.
Who knew that lighting a candle and
saying a prayer would be such a symbol of maturity and independence.
Itʼs for these exact reasons that I
can truthfully say that so far, these
past four months have been the most
exciting and most memorable months
of my life, and it wasnʼt just because
I didnʼt have to worry about A-Levels. It was because all of us here have
taken the freedom we were given and
turned it into an opportunity to grow,
learn, develop, experience, mature,
and become independent adults. And
we still have six more months to go.
I hope this has provided you glimpse
into our world and I hope you enjoy the
rest of your evening. Thank you for
listening.
21 Young Zionist
My FZY Journey... So Far
Francesca Wolfe
Francesca is the Mazkira Elect
J
ames Baldwin writes ʻPeople are
trapped in history, and history is
trapped in themʼ. Thus our 100th year
is relevant to every single one of us,
as if we want to understand today
we have to look back at yesterday.
Veida 09 was a reflection of FZYʼs
success over the last 100 years. It was
ideological, inspirational, debate was
at a high level and there was a family
atmosphere throughout. I left feeling
extremely proud to be a member of
our movement... I was able to talk to
Veida 09 about my own FZY journey
and I want to use this article as an
opportunity to share and expand on
some of these personal experiences.
Nine years ago I remember getting
out of my mumʼs car and walking
towards my first FZY chavura (peerled society). It was a Sunday night in
Woodside Park, I didnʼt know anyone
going, I had no idea what to expect,
and in all honesty I really didnʼt want
to go. My parents encouraged me;
they said I needed to meet Jewish
people. Turns out that our parents do
know us best as this was the beginning of a life changing journey, one
which has shaped the individual I am
today. At thirteen I craved acceptance
and FZY gave it to me. It was that
warmth that kept me involved and in
our 100th year we continue to make
young people, whatever their background, feel accepted and comfortable.
An inclusive movement is a must!!
“At thirteen I craved acceptance
and FZY gave it to me.”
Israel Tour was a landmark in my
FZY journey; I went from being a supporter of Israel to a Zionist. It was my
first experience outside of Eliat and my
eyes were opened to a new and beautiful culture and society. Tour was the
first time I realised that I, as a member
of the Diaspora, had a connection to
Israel, and with that connection came
a responsibility. At sixteen I didnʼt
quite know what to do with such a responsibility. Despite my behaviour at
the time I looked up to my madrichim
(leaders) as I secretly hoped I would
one day do their job! My relationship
with them gave the entire trip another
dimension. Today I would say that dimension was hadracha (leadership).
I landed at Heathrow airport with a
stronger social identity and a desire
to stay involved with FZY. Over the
last 100 years our Israel Tour has gone
from strength to strength and our reputation for this programme is outstanding. Something, as a movement, we
should be extremely proud of.
The night before I went on Year
Course I couldnʼt sleep. My nerves
mounted as the night drew to a close;
nine months in a country I had only
known on Tour seemed like forever.
We arrived at a campsite in the north
of Israel and I remember feeling surrounded by strangers in a foreign
country. Writing that last sentence
makes me laugh as today those strangers are now close friends and Israel
is anything but foreign to me. In fact
Year Course made Israel a home for
me; somewhere I aspire to live and a
place I am connected too and comfortable in. My belief in getting young
people to spend nine months in Israel
to immerse in Israeli and Zionist culture, and also in the power and opportunity to informally educate on such a
programme is one reason I decided to
run for Mazkira! Year Course was like
meeting the characters of a story book;
the aims of FZY came to life, I saw the
connection between the past destina-
tions of my journey, the present and the
direction going forward. I took home
with me a strong FZY identity which
led me to become a leader, and weeks
later I arrived at Ofek for the second
time – but the first as a madricha.
The last three years I have taken
different leadership roles within the
movement from a madricha to a mazkirutee (member of the executive) all
of them have involved different skills.
There is no doubt I have learnt about
my own weaknesses and how to improve myself as a leader; Hadracha is
no doubt a learning curve! Most exciting was the opportunity to pass on,
to give chanichim (participants) the
same opportunities that I was given.
Even more exciting was the ability to
initiate change and Iʼve managed to
stick around long enough to see some
of those changes unfold! I have felt
the power that FZY give to its youth!
Being a madricha is an incredible and
challenging experience. It gave me
skills I would otherwise not yet have
gained and itʼs allowed me to begin to
see myself through the eyes of others.
My journey through FZY has been
life changing and filled with countless
different experiences, each of which
has shaped who I am today. What led
me to stand for the position as mazkira (head of the movement) was my
belief in the power of youth and the
responsibility I have to give back both
to FZY and to the wider Jewish community. The programmes I have been
on with FZY have given me the tools
to feel passionate about its aims, programmes and people and moreover to
act on this passion. I look around me
today and my friends, hobbies, morals, views and aspirations are all products of my passion, love and dedication to FZY.
I am now about to embark on a new
path of the same journey. I am incredibly proud to be part of a movement
with such history and I am eager to
move our movement forward together
taking it into its 101st year.
MARCH 2010 22
‘Tzionut Ze La’asot: Etmol, Kan, Umachar ‘
– Zionism Means Doing: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
Ilana Kosky
Ilana is the current YZ Editor
I
n the year of FZYʼs 100th birthday,
we are faced with a very special opportunity; the opportunity to look back
over the last century and celebrate
a hundred years of the movementʼs
achievements. And so we have done: a
large part of FZY100 has involved encouraging past FZYniks to share their
experiences of days-gone-by, and to
give members of every generation the
chance to come together and to commemorate as one. However, I think
that this milestone presents us with an
even more important opportunity, that
is, to look to the future. I say this because I believe that a knowledge and
understanding of what has gone before informs our approach as to what
lies ahead, and a time in which we are
particularly conscious of a hundred
years of history seems to me to be the
ideal moment to re-evaluate the way in
which we want to move forward.
And so, to work. I take our movementʼs name, ʻThe Federation of Zionist Youth” as my starting point. Zionist. Zionism. What does this mean?
The dictionary gives, “Movement that
campaigned for a Jewish homeland in
Palestine” - how painfully past tense.
However, if we set the clocks back to
1910, this seems fair enough. The organisation was indeed set up as a collective of young people anxious to
further the cause of the creation of the
state of Israel, and in 1948 that goal
was achieved. Does this mean that,
thirty-eight years after its inauguration,
the pioneering work of FZY was com-
plete, the movement could disband,
and everyone lived happily ever after?
Of course not. From that time on, “Zionism” took on a new meaning, one
which my 1998-published English
dictionary has yet to grasp. The meaning of Zionism post-1948 has been far
more complex, and I suppose can be
summarised as “Movement that campaigns for the improvement of the
Jewish homeland, Israel”. As a movement existing in Britain, FZY has ensured the manifestation of this definition time and time again; from the
early years of the state when FZYʼs
members took it into their own hands
to co-ordinate British volunteers for
the war effort, to more recent campaigns to free MIAs and raise awareness for the people of Sderot.
All of this is great work, but as we
enter a new century for FZY, and also
a new decade, I find myself asking,
are we really moving in the right direction? The ultimate “improvement
of the Jewish homeland”, to quote
my own definition, would be peace
with our neighbours and the end of
the Middle Eastern conflict, but the
promising peace negotiations that coloured the 1990s are no longer taking
place, and wars appear to break out
as often, if not more so, than in the
turbulent years of the early state. Are
we then moving backwards instead of
forwards?
It would take deep analysis of history to understand the chain of events
that have led to the current stalemate
situation. In brief, the problem that
we face today is a new problem: organised, radical fundamentalism has
arisen out of frustration at continued
failure to reach an acceptable compromise for Israelis and Arabs. As such,
communication has broken down and
progressive peace talks have been replaced by damage
limitation on behalf of the Israeli
government. We have as yet been unable to find a way to combat this new,
semi-legitimised form of expression,
which is growing increasingly on both
sides of the conflict.
And so, as I consider my interpretation of Zionism for the new decade and
for the new FZY century, I find that the
most urgent work needing to be done is
to find a way to dispel the hatred that has
grown up and which is now exploding
before our eyes. The title of my article
is a quote, which hangs in giant
letters above the main building at
Kiryat Moriah, the site of the Machon
programme: “Zionism Means Doing:
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”. As
the Federation of Zionist Youth, we
have not only the means, but also the
responsibility to pioneer this effort and
to take the lead in affecting change. The
question is then, how do we go about
“doing” in this new situation? Well,
from my experience, the best cure for
hatred is a very large dose of love.
“The title of my article
is a quote, which hangs in giant
letters above the main building at
Kiryat Moriah, the site of the
Machon programme: “Zionism
Means Doing: Yesterday, Today
and Tomorrow”
Yes, love. Negative activism must
meet positive activism. We ought to
be actively reaching out to those who
quarrel with us, because the truth is,
we donʼt understand them. Nor do they
understand us. The gap will only widen as time goes on, and how can we
ever hope to come to terms if we donʼt
really understand, let alone appreciate,
the counter-argument? Because there
is a counter-argument. Israel has made
mistakes just as the Arab nations have,
just as every country in the world has.
Both sides could continue to point the
finger and accuse each other until the
end of time, but we must recognise that
this is far from productive. The past
must be accepted and the future em-
23 Young Zionist
braced. If we really want to be Zionist
in todayʼs world, then we should be
incorporating this spirit of tolerance and
outreach into all of our aims; Tzedakah
(charity) projects should aim to bring
relief to Israelis and Arabs, Magen
(defence of Jewish rights) should
focus on a defence of rights for all people,
especially for the under-privileged and
under-represented living in the land (topic for an entirely different discussion),
Aliyah Nimshechet (emigration to
Israel that continues FZYʼs ideology)
should continue to promote activism
and should, in my opinion, encourage
the dismantlement of settlements, this
being precisely the kind of stubborn
non-compromise I advocate dispelling
(although this is controversial and once
again opens up an entirely new debate),
and finally, Tarbut (culture), the most
important aim for this purpose and the
best way to gain an insight not only into
our own culture, but others too. How
wonderful would it be to have a real understanding of the entire Middle East,
to study the Judaeo-Arabic of the sages,
even to encourage learning Arabic on
Year Course, to listen to Lebanese music
on Veida, to understand Islam, to be
able to go to Jordan or Egypt and
witness the beauty of the Middle East
besides that which we see in Israel, and
to begin to integrate these cultures in a
healthy way.
By doing all of this, I believe that
we can be pioneers for peace. To make
a positive contribution will encourage
others to do the same, because love is
the one thing thatʼs even more infectious than hate. Until we begin to do
something to turn the situation on its
head, there wonʼt be any hope for the
fulfilment of the new Zionist ideal
in our times, and I for one would far
prefer to see positive action break the
current stalemate than negative. And so,
my 100th birthday wish for FZY is that,
by its 200th birthday, peace in the Middle East will be an achievement of the
distant past, brought about by a change
of attitude that embraces a spirit of
compromise and tolerance. It may
be idealistic, but then again, so was a
Jewish state in the Holy land in 1910.
Im tirzu, ein zo agadah.
Interview with Louise and Vivienne
Philippa Goulde and
Ilana Kosky
Loui is the Office Administrator
Louise
and Vivienne is the Year Course
Administrator.
and it just sort of went from there.
V: I was working for AJ6 and they
were moving from Wembley to Hillel
in town. My youngest daughter was
still young and so I didnʼt want to be
working so far away. I already knew
Louise from administratorʼs meetings
and so I said to her Iʼm leaving AJ6 so
if you need me at all Iʼd love to come
and work for FZY. I had a phone call
from the then mazkir (head of the
movement) very soon after that asking me if I would come and work for
FZY...I donʼt think Iʼve ever even had
an interview!
P: Sorry Louise, but Vivienne
really wanted me to ask this one:
Who was your favourite moveaking a rare peek into the ʻotherʼ ment team?
side of the office, we managed to V: (shocked) No, I told you NOT to
sneak Philippa in to grab a few mo- ask me that!
ments with Louise and Vivienne in an
V & L: W
We donʼt have favourite
attempt to get some embarrassing stomovement
teams; we are loyal to all
ries out of them and find out how they
of them! Every team brings their own
were feeling about the future of FZY.
merits to the movement.
T
P: Easy one to start with, name?
V & L: Vivienne Stone and Louise
Jacobs.
P: Zionist hero?
V: Esther Cailingold.
L: Golda
lda Meir.
P: For those who don’t know, how
many years have you worked in the
Office?
V: 13 years, I star
started
ted on the 1st Februar
Februaryy 1997.
L: More than 30 years.
P: So, how did you end up working
in the FZY Office?
L: I had been involved in FZY since I
was 14 and one evening Paul Lenga and
the then national organiser were giving
me a lift home from a meeting of some
sort and asked what I was doing work
wise (I was 17), asked if I wanted to
work as the junior organising secretary
P: And on that note, a clearly unbiased question; who were (or are)
your favourite YZ editors?
V & L: We donʼt act
actually get to have
much contact with the YZ editors so
couldnʼt choose a particular favourite.
Potentially code for: Philippa and Ilana but we canʼt tell them that!
P: What was the most outrageous
proposal ever made by a movement team?
V & L: One year we were desperate
for a site for tour reunion and ended
up having to use Butlins in Wales!
One of our chanichim (participants)
attacked a man dressed as Mickey
Mouse, we unsurprisingly got a phone
call expressing that we werenʼt welcome back!
P: Probably for the best, I can’t
imagine an FZY event at Butlins
MARCH 2010 24
being overly successful. How about
the most exciting time period for
FZY since you’ve been in the Office?
V: Every year
ar at tthe airport when Tour
and Year Course chanichim come
home safe and sound. Itʼs the most exciting thing every year!
L: Moving into our own building.
V & L: When in 2001 we made the
decision to still send a tour despite the
Intifada (Palestinian uprising) and we
were the only youth movement. We
stood by our guns and said that weʼre
a Zionist youth movement and we are
going ahead with Tour in Israel and we
refused to opt for an alternative location. Also when we raised £30,000 for
bursaries on the Trek and encouraged
other parents to do the same.
P: What’s the biggest crisis you
have had to deal with?
V: Meningitis scare.
L: When there was a man with a knife in
Jaffa that tried to attack one of the groups.
P: *Stunned silence*. Funniest
question a parent has ever asked?
V: A mot
mother
her phoned me to ask me if
there were baths or showers at camp
and when I said showers she said, “Oh
no” so I asked what was the matter
and she replied, “My daughter doesnʼt
know how to shave in the shower”.
“Well”, I pointed out, “Then you are
going to have to teach her.”
L: I like: “Are there size 12 boots in
Israel?”
V: Or, in tthe days where we had a kupa
(money collection) and everyone put
in £25, I had a mother from Leeds
phone me to say (puts on a Leeds accent): “Why have I got to pay £25 for a
kupa when he has a whole drawer full
of tthem at home?”
P: Commonly referred to as the
matriarchs of the movement, do
you have to ‘mummy’ the movement team?
V & L: YES!
L: But
ut we do it automatically! For a lot
of them itʼs their first job and some of
them are away from home so we like to
think they learn some adult skills, like
not to slouch in their chairs in the office!
V: Or to pull their trousers up!
FLASHBACK
P: You do a lot of work behind the
scenes. What’s the most unrewarded
thing you have to do on a daily basis?
V: W
We donʼt expect praise or reward,
we see the reward at the end of the
year and the culmination of everyoneʼs hard work, weʼre a team and
everyone works hard. People donʼt
see that the movement team work
until midnight and travel around the
country to different universities and
then come straight back into the office. Everyone works hard not just us.
L: Well put!
P: How do you manage to leave
FZY at the office with ‘FZY families’ at home?
V: I donʼt!
L: Itʼs very difficult. Sometimes even
when you have left the office for the
day you get phone calls from friends
about FZY...and on holiday! One year
in Eilat Vivienne slipped and she was
trying to dust off and get up when a
parent walked past and said, “Oh Iʼm
pleased Iʼve seen you, Iʼve got a question”... You just think, “Now is not the
time!” At certain times of the year we
donʼt like to go to Brent Cross or Watford, we have to keep a low profile...
V:...and wear dark glasses!
P: Last, but not least, what would be
your one wish for FZY for the future?
V: Peace in Israel so that everyone can
go on the programmes they want to and
no money problems, not just for us but
for all the movements, so that as many
kids as possible are able to go to Israel.
L: And ffor FZY to go from strength to
strength, and for another 100 years.
Jewish Women Rule –
O.K.!
Ruth Marcovitch
December 1981
A
ccording to tradition, women
are the second class citizens, men
being the first. But how many of you
men out there can really say that you
have the upper hand when it comes
to organising the home and bringing
up the children? If I were a man, you
would think this article male chauvinistic; I donʼt mean it as such, but I
am just trying to prove that, all things
considered, women do rule the roost!
If I were a man, you would
think this article male chauvinistic; I don’t mean it as such, but I
am just trying to prove that, all
things considered, women do
rule the roost!
For example, if a woman who is
from an orthodox background marries a man from an Anglicised background, how will the children be
brought up? I say that they will be far
more orthodox than the man, since it
is the duty of the woman to care for
her children and bring them up in the
way she sees fit.
If a woman complies one hundred
per cent with the laws of kashrut
(kosher) and the man eats treyf (nonKosher), what kind of kashrut standards will they have at home? The
kashrut standards will be one hundred
per cent those that the woman is
used to.
25 Young Zionist
As the children are in the company
of the mother far more than they are
with the father, beliefs will trigger
from her. It is the mother who comforts
her baby after he has been circumcised
and it is she also who takes the child
to his first Hebrew class and she who
answers his enquiring mind.
In the Jewish religion the woman is
the main influence in the home. In the
synagogue, the male takes the lead, but
this (in my opinion) is the only time
when he does.
Let us now look at my reasoning
from a different angle:
The man is from an orthodox background and the woman is from an
Anglicised one (the complete opposite of the above). What standards of
Judaism will be present in the home?
I say only those that the woman feels
are necessary. If she does not wish to
abide by the dietary laws of the Jewish
religion she will not do so, and if the
man thinks his partner too good to let
go, he will comply with her wishes and
thereafter alter his upbringing to suit
her. Thus, you see, the woman again is
in full control of the situation.
“So next time you
think that the males are
the superior
breed, think again!”
So think about what I have said. Although I realise I have not included
every situation, the most important aspects of Jewish married life, the home
and the children, have been covered.
So next time you think that the males
are the superior breed, think again!
FZY 2020
Joshua Marks
Joshua is the current Tzedakah
Officer
I
n an edition where many people are
reminiscing about their own personal
FZY journeys, it feels appropriate to try
and project some of the opportunities and
challenges which FZY will face in the
next few decades. If past Young Zionist
articles are anything to go by, I should
probably keep my suggestions relatively
sensible – although I did enjoy reading
about how we would all eat soya-beans
instead of meat (chas vʼshalom) and
wonder around with the help of robots.
My suggestions will be less outlandish,
and thus probably less interesting, but
I hope to outline some sort a vision for
where FZY may be heading in the future.
Jewish Schools
Jewish secondary schools may have
popped up most recently in the news for
their controversial admission policies,
but the increasing role they are beginning to play in Anglo-Jewish life is much
more important. The future of education
in our community appears to be in Jewish schools, which immerse teenagers
in Jewish culture – providing a fantastic
Jewish social life, despite the sometimes
interesting level of Jewish education.
This represents a major challenge for
FZY, most obviously in chavurot (peerled societies) but also in Israel Tour.
When our chanichim (participants)
socialise daily with other Jews and
engage in Jewish studies at school,
it is hardly shocking that they do not
want to socialise with other Jews
in an educational environment on a
Sunday night – nor is it surprising
that their parents do not push them
to go either. The challenge is to realise that, at least in London, our traditional provision does not work, and
to work out ways we can innovate to
fill the gap left where Jewish schools
stop and youth movements can start.
“The challenge is to realise that,
at least in London, our traditional
provision does not work, and to
work out ways we can innovate
to fill the gap left where Jewish
schools stop and youth movements
can start.”
A second challenge is as much a compliment as a threat. Jewish schools realise that there are a number of things
that youth movements do particularly
well, especially Israel Tour; as a result,
an increasing number of Jewish secondary and even primary schools have
run short-term Israel trips. In recognising the success of Israel Tour, many of
these trips attempt to mimic it – raising
a challenge for FZY to keep on offering something different. As the largest provider of Israel Tour, taking out
around 500 chanichim every year, FZY
is the most vulnerable to these new
trips. We must continue to innovate,
and ensure that we remain the marketleader in this area, setting the tone for
the rest of the community to follow.
University Fees
Unfortunately, the floodgates appear to
have been opened with regard to tuition
fees, with large fee increases potentially
looming on the horizon. With proposed
£10,000 per annum fees, and rising student living costs, students are going to
find it increasingly difficult to give time
and dedication to anything other than
making ends meet, and student employment may become the norm alongside the
MARCH 2010 26
challenges of a degree/watching Scrubs
(delete as appropriate). Given FZYʼs
reliance on a large number of university-based bogrim (lit. graduates, largely
of FZYʼs Year Course programme),
this represents a significant challenge.
However, all is not lost; and some creative ideas have already been bounced
around for the last few years, including
using communal resources to provide
internships and job opportunities for
our madrichim (leaders); and encouraging the parents of chanichim to support the employment of madrichim.
On a more fundamental level, youth
movements need to continue to enrich
people and provide strong skill sets to
ensure that our madrichim gain much
more from FZY than it gives to them.
We should also strive to create a strong
sense of community, so that people enjoy and look forward to spending time
in an FZY setting, and are thus willing
to make the sacrifice for their ideology.
“youth movements need to
continue to enrich people and
provide strong skill sets to ensure
that our madrichim gain
much more from FZY than it
gives to them”
Monopolising the Market
AJ6, Betar and JYSG were all youth
movements of the last twenty years,
and all are highly unlikely to be youth
movements of the next twenty years,
given their demise in the last decade.
Throw in the fact that Habonim Dror
barely operate south of Watford and
Maccabi have stripped out any notion
that they are a youth movement, and the
number of youth movements shrinks
rapidly. Given these trends, it is not
unreasonable to predict that FZY may
well be the only pluralist youth movement in twenty years time.
Whilst those movements aligned with
a religious denomination have vast financial resources to draw on and are
experiencing relative success, the only
three major pluralist youth movements
are BBYO, Hanoar Hatzioni and FZY.
Speaking to Hanoar bogrim, and looking at the composition of Ofek (FZYʼs
first summer camp), the case can be
made that Hanoar has effectively become a feeder movement (albeit a very
good one) for FZY. BBYO do some
fantastic work with peer-based teenage activity, but the growth of Jewish
schools in London and the decline of
our chavurot does not bode well for
them; whilst the fact that they have no
chanichim on a gap year programme
this year, and only had one three years
ago raises some serious questions. All
in all, it seems a bit arrogant to predict
the demise
mise of our competitors, but there
m
are a number of signs to suggest that
FZY is not only going to be the biggest kid on the block, but perhaps the
only pluralist one in twenty years time.
Technology
So I guess I should restrain from predicting robot-controlled summer camps
or three-dimensional holographic Israel
programmes from the comfort of your
own living room, but technology does
have a key role to play in FZYʼs future.
Over the last few years, FZY has been
relatively slow at adapting to the latest
technological advances: FZY has only
just got onto Twitter and YouTube,
and we still fail to utilise Facebook to
its full advantage. We need to adapt as
quickly as possible to the latest technological advances, so that we are able to
communicate and educate in the most
innovative ways to our members. If
this means using Blackberry messenger to communicate messages to bogrim, or Tweeting daily camp schedules
to chanichim each morning, then letʼs
experiment with these new methods.
Given the word count Iʼve just exceeded, I guess I should cut my final message
to the 140 characters of every Tweet:
FZYʼs come a long way in the last
century and will succeed in the challenges and opportunities of the next
one. Kol Haka
Hakavod and Bʼhatzlacha!
Year Course – Loving Every Minute
Nikki Horesh
Nikki is currently on Year Course
Y
ear Course is known to be a ʻonce
in a lifetime experienceʼ. However,
even after a four day orientation and
talking to numerous friends and family
who have been on the programme, nothing can prepare you for the real thing.
When we arrived in Israel and moved
into our apartments, I discovered I was
the only Londoner, with my roommates
from Scotland and Manchester and the
other girls were from LA and Canada.
Once the excitement had died down,
we had to settle into the reality of living
without parents, including cleaning up
after ourselves, cooking and doing all the food shopping. You would
think living with your friends without
parents means no responsibility and
nothing to worry about, but none of us
realised how difficult it can be to keep
the apartment tidy and to keep things
running smoothly. I found there was a
big culture shock living with Americans, from differences in eating habits to completely different views on
keeping the apartment clean and tidy.
27 Young Zionist
One of the best experiences of my year
so far was being in Jerusalem for Yom
Kippur. Waking up to a bright sunny
morning was nice enough, but the Kotel (Western Wall) being a thirty minute
walk away is a big change to my two
minute walk to Woodside Park Shul
back home! I walked with a few of the
girls the long way round to the Old City
so that we passed The Great Synagogue
on the way and popped in to the service for a bit. I had been there before, and
the shul itself is beautiful, but this time,
it was full and everyone was wearing
white, and it was so different to my experience of Yom Kippur back home. When
walking into the Old City, all the streets
were empty as all the cars stop for the
day and there were people out walking
and riding bikes. As in The Notebook,
we thought we would take this opportunity to lie in the middle of the road
at what is usually the busiest junction
nearby where we live because we knew
there were no cars around! By the time
we got to the Kotel, they had just started
Neʼilah (the last service on Yom Kippur)
so it was pretty full and I had to push my
way up to the wall to daven (pray). At
the end of the fast, everyone rushed to
a table where they were giving out food
and drink and it was amazing to break
the fast over one bracha (blessing) with
all the other people at the Kotel – definitely a once in a lifetime experience!
“Once the excitement had died
down, we had to settle into the
reality of living without parents,
including cleaning up after
ourselves, cooking and doing
all the food shopping. “
Nights out are also a big part of Year
Course and I can honestly say that the
nightlife in Jerusalem is nothing like in
London! Rivlin Street off Ben Yehuda
is known to have the best bars, such as
Zollyʼs and clubs like Triple, which Year
Coursers have been flocking to for years.
However, this year things have changed.
For the first month or so, every night was
the same – getting ready for hours then
going to a new bar called Kingʼs, whose
staff knew us all by face if not name. After doing this repeatedly for weeks, we
all decided to leave the old Year Coursersʼ
bubble and explore our local area of
Talpiyot a bit more. We found a cinema a ten minute walk away, which we
went to on a girly night to see ʻFameʼ
and as for the dressing up to go out,
Iʼve realised how acceptable it is to
go out in the evening in your pyjamas,
and no-one says anything! As for the
clubs, weʼve found some good clubs
locally with either free entry or free
drinks on Monday nights, so Monday night has ended up being the big
Year Course night out for the week.
Weekends away are definitely the
highlight of Year Course so far, and this
year we have really benefitted with all
the Brits being together on one section,
as it means weʼve organised weekends
away for big groups of us, including
coach travel and accommodation. My
two best weekends of year course so
far have been camping at both the Kinneret and the Dead Sea. Camping at
the Kinneret was a lot of fun, because
we were camping at the same place we
stayed for Maccabiah two years earlier on Tour, which brought back lots
of memories! Seeing as it was the first
weekend we all went away together, it
was a really good ʻbondingʼ opportunity, including late night swimming and
very little sleep. To add to the camping
experience, we all brought disposable
barbeques to make dinner on, and one
of my best moments of Year Course
has definitely been watching the sun go
down whilst cooking and making Kiddush (blessing over wine) with everyone overlooking the Kinneret. On top
of this, because Iʼm on both Shevet and
Manighut (two Year Course tracks), we
have had weekends planned for us, including drinking and dancing in Tsfat
for Simchat Torah, and appreciating
Jerusalem with the ʻManighut familyʼ.
“Weekends away are definitely
the highlight of Year Course so
far, and this year we have really
benefitted with all the Brits being
togetheron one section”
Moving to Bat Yam has probably
been the biggest change this year – we
went from the luxury of our Jerusalem
apartments in a closed complex, to living amongst real Israeli citizens all over
Bat Yam. However, now weʼve settled
in a bit, weʼve made the most out of
living so close to Tel Avivʼs nightlife
and we take advantage of being walking
distance from Japanika and the beach!
I canʼt believe Iʼm writing this half
way through Year Course and our winter
chofesh (holiday) has already been and
gone! The FZY dinner we had amongst
friends and family really made me
appreciate my time here and the
independence Iʼve gained this year.
Whenspeakingtomyfriendsbackhome,
I canʼt imagine being in England, in the
snow, studying for exams at uni. Instead, Iʼm out here in a heat wave having
the once in a lifetime experience I was
promised and enjoying every minute
of it!
The Movement that
Veida Wants or that
the Community
Needs?
Jonny Bunt
Jonny was Mazkir in 2007-2008
A
s we look back, I wonder which
period of its history FZY can be
most proud of. I have to bow to other
contributors in this issue for institutional memory and I would hate to
misrepresent our past. Nonetheless,
the last ten - fifteen years have seen
the movement take a new and different role within the Jewish community.
Some would describe that position as
Britainʼs leading movement, others
the biggest movement in the country, even the continent. As Mazkir
(head of the movement) I would refer
MARCH 2010 28
to FZY as the UKʼs premier Zionist
organisation. I have even heard us
described as an Imperialist, megalomaniacal soulless corporation!
Any active boger (graduate/student) of FZY today is used to being
cornered and questioned about the
movement. What happens to the four
hundred Tour kids that do not go on
Year Course? Why do fewer members attend our Veidot (AGM)? Why
do we monopolise the market and
prevent superior madrichim (leaders)
leading Summer Tour in their smaller movements? All fair criticisms
in my opinion and when faced with
these allegations I hope our bogrim
are conciliatory with their accusers.
After all, it is all true; we lose many
chanichim (participants) later on our
journey, our annual conference attracts 4% of our membership and
according to independent assessment our Tour madrichim often have
lower levels of chinuch (education)
and hadracha (leadership) than other
tnuot (movements).
In some ways, the movement we
belong to today bears little resemblance to things fifteen years ago.
Back then, thriving Sunday night activities translated into a committed
membership on a small summer Tour
with no Kesher (summer camp) or
Tour and a gap year that was considered a “year off” from the movement.
The central hardcore of our movement long for a return to those days
and those values. Those people are
often referred to as “keenos” or FZY
geeks, though I prefer to represent
them with the term “Veida” as they
are the ones concerned with changing the movement.
“In some ways, the
movement we belong to today
bears little resemblance to things
fifteen years ago.”
Some say that FZY has become
the movement of the lowest common denominator. That is why Tour
madrichim and movement workers sneak off into corners at the In-
tro to FZY seminar to pour scorn
on the chanichim we have acquired.
That is why three hundred of those
chanichim will never return to FZY.
Many feel these realities diminish
the value of Tour as an experience.
What about those great chanichim
from Kesher, who go to NMH and
whose experience will be undermined
by these brash, disinterested Londoners? Never mind that, these kids will
be harder to educate, require more
discipline, dominate our attention
and time and ruin our best prepared
educational experiences. This is not
the movement of plenary at 4am in
pyjamas backed by Hadassah. Not
the movement of coach journeys
home from the Leeds Ball tuxedoed,
tee-total and taking your neighbour
to task over the Security Barrier. Not
even the movement of impromptu
Friday night sing-alongs that contain
more songs in Ivrit (Hebrew) than
those on the shiron (song sheet). This
is not the movement Veida wants or
that Veida is.
So how can one defend such a
movement? What Veida does not
consider, is the central role FZY now
plays in our community. Simply, FZY
is exactly what our community needs.
After my time working for the
tnua (movement), I was lucky enough
to take another amazing community
professional role. UJIA Birthright
takes to the Holy land those 20-26
year olds who missed the summer
Tour or year nine trip boat and since
have not really bothered with Judaism
or Israel. When I took the job a few
people questioned how I could jump
from Mazkir of FZY to an enemy of
the movements? This is laughable.
Birthright is not alone a strategy for
the community; the problems that remain in the USA are evidence of this.
However, Birthright is no enemy of
the movements; it also does what
FZY does so brilliantly. It appeals
to those without a foothold in our
communities and offers them fantastic experiences. Sadly, on the whole
young people are increasingly disinterested in a dyadic relationship with
their community and prefer to simply
take without contributing. Both programmes ask less of their participants
in exchange for the experience and
perhaps the nature of this offering is
at the core of their success.
With a membership like ours, a
few trends emerge; a greater novelty
in Jewish experiences, less interest in
peulot (programmes) and more trepidation towards Jewish-Zionist education. This means they derive less
satisfaction from the fantastic educational and experiential aspects of the
programme. Some of our chanichim
have an experience of prayer that
involves sitting next to their mother and/or father and being shushed
while they sit through a cousinʼs Bat
Mitzvah. Their own Bar/Bat Mitzvah is an intimidating and awkward
experience that concludes a relationship with cheder classes where the
only Hebrew word they learnt was
sheket (be quiet).
Many think this is a destructive
problem or a huge impediment. I
think this is a fantastic opportunity
and an enormous responsibility. This
is the reason why we are the most important movement in the community!
If we provide the four best (sometimes only four) shabbatot of someoneʼs life on Tour, they must be
phenomenal and they must have a
significant effect. When someone
who does not know the aleph-bet
learns the words to Ana Bekoach
(even if they get them all wrong) we
infinitely increase their knowledge of
Ivrit. When we give young people the
greatest summers of their youth, some
of their defining experiences as Jews,
and even as people, we leave our
fingerprints all over their lives! We
are there when they wear their Tour
t-shirt for bed at university, when they
flick through their Tour diaries or when
they chill with their (Tour) friends.
The truth is; the harder the chanichim are to
educate, the more impact that education
has, the more potential there is for
change and the more imperative those
interactions become. We should seize
29 Young Zionist
the chance to lead that education!
“If we provide the four best
(sometimes only four) shabbatot of
someone’s life on Tour, they must
be phenomenal and they must have
a significant effect.”
The argument that this model
is unsustainable is being disproved
all the time. FZY continues to produce enough strong leaders to fill our
own movement teams and the young
leadership of organisations across the
community. The office team of 5771
may not include graduates of the
chavurot (peer-led societies) and that
is even less likely the following year.
Yet the movement is able to sustain its
position, despite changing times.
This article touches upon a key
challenge of our kehilla (community)
and is therefore extremely tough to
conclude. The movement faces a huge
question as it enters its second century. FZY today has lost some of the
fine characteristics it has attained over
the last hundred years. In their place
we have a pretty different animal.
Sometimes Veida might not be proud
of the movement as it is today. Yet the
FZY machine today adds more Zionist value to Young British Jews that
it ever has before and crucially still
retains its soul. It is one of our communityʼs
most important bodies and if any of
those 480 young people missed out
on the life-changing experience, they
might never have it again.
How we tackle this challenge will
define our movement over the coming
years and I genuinely cannot be sure
where I stand. But either way, here
is to another 100 years, debating the
future of our movement.
One Israeli and a British Zionist Youth Movement
Niv Zonis
Niv is the Northern Shaliach
T
he first time I got to know FZY
was as a madrich (leader) on Year
Course (YC). I joined the YC team
after working at a Young Judaea summer camp, and wanted to continue
my way with the movement. At first,
I didnʼt want to have anything to do
with FZY; I was on the “American
side”.
It didnʼt take long for me to get to
know the Brits on the programme, and
to understand what a big difference
there was between them and the Americans, and the differences between the
movements. I found a true ideological
group, and I was very surprised to
know that FZY is an actual movement, nothing like I know from the
American model. For me, as someone who grew up in the Tzofim (Israeli scouts and a sister movement of
FZY), it was a big issue.
For me, there are not many organizations/programmes/frameworks that
are more important than youth movements. The future will always belong
to the youth, and the more educated
and active they are at this stage of
their lives, the better people they will
be when they grow up.
The key to this education of values is constant activities and opportunities that will stimulate the people
to think and to act towards their and
the movementʼs ideology. The basic
thing, of course, is frequent peulot
(programmes) and meetings, like
any Zionist, or at least Israeli, youth
movement. The more time you have
with people who share your point of
view, stimulated by good madrichim
- the better.
I donʼt think I need to say that
our programmes such as machanot
(camps), Israel Tour and Year
Course are also an amazing tool for
education, but I will say it anyway, it
should all be part of the process that
an FZYnik goes through. It is important to say that the process as a whole
is the important part and not the parts
which build that process.
“The future will always belong
to the youth, and the more
educated and active they are
at this stage of their lives, the
better people they will be
when they grow up.”
In our movement, the journey doesnʼt
stop at the age of 18, and FZYnikim
are still active while they are at university as part of the bogrim (students) community.
For me, itʼs amazing to be a part of a
student event where the main topic is
Israel and the studentsʼ role in my
homeland.
In conclusion, I would say that I am
proud to be a part of this amazing youth
movement, that emphasises a Zionist
education and activism for youth, and
I hope it will continue in the same
way for many more years.
MARCH 2010 30
The Kesher Revolution
FLASHBACK
Matt
att Plen
Spring 1993
I
have been occupied for some
time past with a work which of
immeasurable greatness. It has the
appearance of a gigantic dream.”
So wrote Theodor Herzl, the father
of modern Zionism, two years before
organising the first Zionist Congress and
setting the Jewish people on the road
towards statehood. When my FZY
Yearcourse group returned to Britain
in the summer of 1991, we too had a
dream, a dream that seemed at the time
little more than a starry-eyed vision. Our
vision had been shared by countless
generations of Yearcoursers before us,
but had always proved to be futile. Until
now. This summer our dream is coming
true in the shape of the first FZY summer camp for nearly two thousand
years. Its name is Kesher ʼ93.
From being a mere daydream under
two years ago, Kesher is now taking
shape. With an adventure camp site in
beautiful Yorkshire, an excellent team
of first class madrichim (leaders) and
a rapidly filling roster of chanichim
(participants), Kesher is well on its
way to becoming part of FZYʼs thriving culture. But what does that mean?
What impact is Kesher going to have
on the organisational and ideological
identity of the movement?
“
“This summer our dream is
coming true in the shape of the
first FZY summer camp for
nearly two thousand years.
Its name is Kesher ’93.”
First things first. Kesherʼs immediate impact is going to be in terms of
age. At the moment FZY is squarely
based around sixth formers. Although
there are a lot of fourth and fifth years
in FZY, they are not the movementʼs
true focus. All that is going to change.
As from this year each summer will
mean a new influx of fourth and fifth
years into FZY. Whatʼs more, these
new members will have been exposed
to a solid two weeks of FZY culture,
hadracha (leadership) and identitybuilding.
The new age group is also going
to have its effect on FZYʼs style of
hadracha. The movement is clearly
already edging away from purist peer
hadracha towards a kind of half way
house where societies are peer led but
the national movement recognises
a clear division between madrichim
and chanichim. Kesher is set to move
FZY even further in this direction.
But even these exhilarating winds
of change seem dull and lifeless in
the face of the ideological whirlwinds
which Kesher is about to unleash
on the unsuspecting and cowering
movement.
Kesher has three stated educational
and ideological aims, to quote the
brochure:
1. To provide an environment within
which everyone can experience
Judaism in a positive way
2. To strengthen our kesher (connec
tion) with Israel
3. To raise awareness of social issues
facing young Jews living in Britain
today.
Jewish identity and Israel are standard fare for FZY but the third aim is
the start of a new experiment. Drugs,
sex, racism, homelessness and AIDS
are issues weʼve steered clear of in
the past. Kesher will for first time see
FZY taking on its responsibilities as a
youth movement, educating its members about the exciting yet potentially
pitfall-ridden world they live in.
In many ways FZYʼs failure
until now to take these issues on
board goes to show just how stagnant our ideology has become. Anyone can recite the four aims, but how
many people have any idea of what
FZY believes in? At Veida we were
forced to sit through epoch-stretching
debates on minute points
of organisational detail without once
being forced to consider the important issue: what do we believe in?
Now, this may not come as too
much of a surprise, but I believe I
have the answer! That answer is Kesher. Yes indeed. Kesher has brought
us face to face with the challenge of
starting from scratch, of draining metaphorical swamps and making figurative deserts bloom, creating a beautiful
garden full of shrubs and herbs where
once dry rocks held sway.
In the process weʼve discovered a
few things. Strange but true, ʻkesherʼ or ʻconnectionsʼ is actually the
lynch pin of FZYʼs ideology. Kesher
between Jews and Israel, kesher between us and the world we live in, and
kesher between all Jews reminds us of
FZYʼs three central beliefs, enunciated for the first time by Matt Plen in
this issue of the YZ: Zionism, social
awareness and Jewish unity – the underlying motivation behind our pluralist stance.
“FZY is on the move and Kesher
is the transit van taking it where
it’s going. Hop aboard.”
Kesher is the opportunity to build
something from scratch, the chance to
put directly into practice our ideas and
visions, and most importantly the clearcut need to re-evaluate exactly who we
are and what we want for our movement. FZY is on the move and Kesher
is the transit van taking it where itʼs
going. Hop aboard.
31 Young Zionist
Aliyah 2010: Time to move on?
Sasha Gold
Sasha is the current Aliyah Officer
T
his winter, while attending Limmud
conference, I attended a session
entitled ʻAliyah 2009: Time to move
on?ʼ It featured a panel of speakers,
discussing their views on whether
Aliyah (emigration to Israel) is or is not
still relevant to us as Jews in the 21st
century. Although I went into this debate with an expectation of hearing a variety of different views on aliyah, I was
still shocked by what was said. The first
panellist loudly proclaimed his speech,
declaring that aliyah and Zionism are
a ʻdelusionʼ and true Jewish history
and culture has been, for the last two
thousand years, centred not in Israel but
in the Diaspora, and that the Diaspora
is the future of Jewish identity and
continuity.
After this passionate celebration of
Diaspora Judaism, and dismissal
of Israel, my row (made up of various FZYnikim) loudly gasped, taken
aback by such a controversial claim.
However, the rest of the audience,
representative of many different areas
of the world Jewish community, did
not seem at all surprised by what had
been said. When time came for questions, unexpectedly most of the crowd
seemed to side with this panellist and
not the other three, who had given
varied responses on why, for them,
aliyah is still as important today.
As a member of FZY, this response
really surprised me. Having grown
up with Zionist education I simply assumed that aliyah was generally accepted as a concept, although perhaps
not personally for everybody. I had
heard people who were not bothered
about Israel, but I had never really
heard the opinions of those Jews who
do care about a Jewish future, but see
Israel as irrelevant to that. Had we all
been living in a Zionist bubble? Had
the world changed, and we were simply too slow to realise? In the hundred years that FZY has existed it is
obvious that the world is a very different place. Perhaps the values and
ideologies that the movement was
founded on have become anachronistic, and we need to move on. As one
of the two new aliyah officers on the
Mazkirut, the idea that aliyah, one of
the cornerstones of our movementʼs
ideology, may no longer apply to the
world in which we live, really upset
me and thus I take it upon myself to
reclaim aliyah and source its importance to us as young Jews.
“In the hundred years that
FZY has existed it is obvious
that the world is a very
different place.”
Looking back on Jewish history, we
can see that the idea of focusing on a
vibrant Diaspora life and culture is
not a new one. In the late 19th century,
at the
same time as different forms of Zionism
were being explored and strengthened, Simon Dubnow was proposing
his ideas of what modern Jewish life
needed in order to survive. Dubnow
believed that a nation went through
four stages of identity, with the final and
strongest stage being that of spiritual
and cultural ties. He believed that
Judaism had evolved from a national
tribe connected by land into a people
who could live anywhere, and still be
connected by their spiritual strength.
His idea of Jewish Autonomy makes
Zionism irrelevant. The sentiment of
his ideas seems to have been revived
today, with Jewish culture thriving
in Diaspora cities around the world,
a revival of Yiddish culture and an
interest in other aspects of Diaspora
Jewish life.
“I take it upon myself to
reclaim aliyah and source
its importance
to us as young Jews.”
However, the question is still if
this is enough? Can the thriving of Jewish culture ever be fully completed
without a return to Eretz Yisrael?
As a Zionist, I believe not and this
is because, in the Diaspora, we will
never be able to truly be our own
people. Thinking of Judaism as a nation as well as a religion, logically as
a British Jew (or Jewish Brit?)there
will always be a conflict with my
national identity.
However, in Israel, the two merge
and nationality and religion become
one and the same – the conflict is lost.
Dubnow advocated Jewish self-rule in
the Diaspora as part of his belief, but in
the 21st century world we can see that
this is not viable. The only place we
will be able to be autonomous is Israel.
Although identities are now becoming trans-cultured and trans-national,
Judaism still retains this unique sense
of people hood intrinsic to the history,
culture and religion. Until this disappears, aliyah, the idea of creating a national autonomous Jewish future, will
still exist.
The words of the Hatikva (Jewish
national anthem), which we sing at the
end of every FZY event, embody this
connection between Jewish people
hood and the land of Israel, implicitly
connecting the potentiality of a future
in Israel to the two thousand year long
survival of the Jewish people.
MARCH 2010 32
As long as in the heart, within,
A Jewish soul still yearns,
And onward, towards the ends of
the east,
An eye still looks toward Zion
Our hope is not yet lost,
The hope of two thousand years,
To be a free nation in our land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.
Today we have the State of Israel, and
should feel lucky that we are able to
be a part of that Jewish future, to be ʻa
free nation in our landʼ. Although the
Diaspora is creating vibrant cultural
and spiritual Jewish movements, a
Diaspora without Israel would never
be able to keep alive a sustainable
Jewish people, as the conflict in identity means either Jews will be com-
pletely assimilated into their adopted
society or completely isolated from
modern life. In Israel the Jewish
people is able to be a modern people while still retaining their cultural
heritage. 100 years later, therefore,
aliyah is still as relevant to us as a
Jewish youth movement. We definitely
do not need to move on, perhaps just
move up.
ried professionals, and has retained
the majority of its independence.
Achieving this is not simple. Any
organisations which have been around
for such a significant period of time
whilst maintaining success have
reinvented themselves constantly.They
have stayed true to their essence, whilst
adjusting methodology and positioning to be in touch with the people
of their time. Think New Labour,
Apple post-iPod, or even the music of Madonna which has changed
dramatically over her albums to tap
into current trends, ensuring a long
career with new and fresh output.
FZY is no different and the FZY of
1910, a grouping of young Zionist societies from around the UK, is barely
recognisable to the members of FZY
100 years later. It does not even take
such a great time span to see differences; members from the 60s would
find the movement of the 30s quite
unfamiliar; even those who left the
movement in the 90s would find todayʼs FZY very changed from what
they would remember.
Arguably, the time is again ripe for
such a reinvention. chavurot (societies) are no longer relevant for the vast
majority of Jewish teens, and have not
been for some time. Likewise, winter machane (camp) cannot compete
with the Eilat sunshine. University
courses are becoming more focused
on continual assessment, and summer
vacations are for internships. Bogrim
(students) no longer see themselves
as there to do the movementʼs bidding; rather demanding privilege and
personal benefit for their time and ef-
fort. These are just a few examples
of the results of attitudinal changes
amongst young people in the past
decade, but the list could go on for
much longer. The landscape in which
FZY operates has shifted significantly.
There is no use complaining about
these trends. They are happening,
and to reverse them is beyond FZYʼs
power. Rather, the movement needs
to adapt radically and rapidly in order
to cater to the needs of todayʼs Jewish youth, while continuing to propagate its ideology. A failure to do so
could send FZY the way of many of
its peers who are now a footnote in
Zionist history; success would build
a strong foundation for prosperity
for the next 100 years and beyond.
Arguably, this has to begin with a
deep understanding of young Jews.
FZY needs to know what they are
looking for, in order to meet their
needs. The role of a Jewish social
meeting place has largely now been
overtaken by the burgeoning Jewish schools. But maybe FZY can tap
into different needs, such as providing great UCAS form content or the
opportunity to give back to others and
therefore have a sense of purpose. Internships are often perceived by students as essential stepping stones to
the best jobs, but clash with summer
programmes. How can FZY work
with community leaders to build internship programmes around machane
and Tour so that bogrim can do both?
These are just a couple of examples of
where this work could lead, but are still
based on conjecture; the movementʼs
decision makers need to commit
FZY – Le’an?
Samuel Green
Samuel was Mazkir in 2006-2007
L
eʼan”? - “Whither”?: the question
asked in the title of Mordechai
Zev Feierbergʼs novella about the
future of the Jewish people, a seminal work in early Hebrew literature.
FZY might well ask itself the same
question. A centenary is an extremely impressive milestone to reach.
Any organisation, whether Jewish or
gentile, non-profit or profit-making,
would be very proud, and FZY and
its members deserve to celebrate this
achievement. For perspective, only
one Zionist youth movement in the
world has been around longer: Young
Judaea (est. 1909). Lasting for so long
is impressive enough, but FZY can
also boast to bringing vast amounts of
young Jews to Israel and leaving them
with a strong connection to the land
and their people. This is even more
remarkable given the fact that unlike
the vast majority of its global peers,
it is essentially run by volunteers
and sabbatical staff, rather than sala“
33 Young Zionist
to spending serious time with the
members and potential members in order
to shape the movement according.
It is only after doing this basic
foundation work that FZY can begin
to think about how it will adapt itself
in order to ensure it remains relevant
for this new generation. The movement can use the knowledge it mines
to build robust strategies to ensure the
strength and pertinence of the Four
Aims for the years to come. And this
leads to the second challenge. Because
of a lack of clear strategy, the movement struggles to take decisions or act
in a focused way. In a recent conversation with a prospective movement
worker, I asked them what success for
FZY looked like. They were unable
to answer. In fairness, I could not
answer it either. With hindsight (a
beautiful thing), given what I have
learned since my term as mazkir, I realise that we often struggled to take
decisions and make difficult choices
precisely because of that reason. Does
success mean size? Does it mean
amount of members actively engaged
on a regular basis? Is it related to the
amount of money raised annually for
tzedakah (charity)? Is it about the aliyah (emigration to Israel) rate? Maybe it is about all of these things, maybe none, but until these fundamental
questions are answered the movement
will continue to face challenges in decision making and moving forward.
As part of the centennial
celebrations, I challenge the movement to establish this foundational
work to understand its audience,
and build its strategies, in order
that it may continue to further its
ideology long into the future.
However, unfortunately it iss not that
simple. This kind of long-term work
is often sacrificed in order to react
to short-term needs. Moreover, it
requires thinking beyond the oneyear term of the average movement
worker or mazkirut member. As part
of the centennial celebrations, I challenge the movement to establish this
foundational work to understand its
audience, and build its strategies,
in order that it may continue to further its ideology long into the future.
MEMORIES
F
or the last few months people have
been asked to leave their memories of the movement on the FZY
100 webpage. Some of them were so
amazing that we thought we ought to
share them with you:
Susan Appleson (née Lewis): In
1955 a new FZY Group was started
in Leeds - it was the first there had
been and was called the Moadim Society. The first chairman was Martin
Clarke (who now lives in London),
Vice chairman was Robin Gittleman
(now Gilmore) and I was on the committee. We were very active and I
have happy memories of inter-functions with Groups from Manchester,
Newcastle, Liverpool and Southport.
We went to FZY Conference in London and met all the mazkirut (executive). In January 1957 I became the
second chairman and enjoyed leading a very enthusiastic Group. One of
our fund raising activities was going
door to door amongst the local Jewish community collecting money for
the Huleh Valley Reclamation Fund
in Israel.
Nicky Wolfe: Memories, memories.
Itʼs over 30 years so a bit hazy. Sunday night gatherings more often than
not in my house. annual dances, 26
mile sponsored walks, trips to visit
FZY groups in Manchester and London; it was great fun - but with a
purpose. The movement in Glasgow
was very strong then, the biggest, I
believe, outside London. The reason
being, I think, was because it was a
social thing which happened to also
be educational and a fund raising vehicle. Thatʼs the secret. My daughter
Francesca is now following in my
footsteps. She did the summer trip on
the 30th anniversary that I did it, then
Year Course. Am I that old??? Congratulations to FZY on their 100th. I
hope you continue to go from strength
to strength.
Anthony Luder: I became a member of Southgate Hafinjan (society)
in 1969 if memory serves and later
a founder member of Hanegev YZS.
These two societies were the best and
most successful FZY groups of their
time (no really!). Among other things
we spawned the Superquins and the
Third Seder Hagada which was devoted in 1972 to Israel-Palestine Coexistence (Oh the foolish innocence
of youth). I was a madrich (leader) on
the FZY Israel trip in 1975 and 1976
was persuaded to take on the post of
National Chairman of the Mazkirut.
Other minor characters who helped
me from time to time included Paul
Lenga, Eden Lenga, Barry Green,
Nigel kat, David Vinegrad, Herbie
Goldberg, Robert Cohen, Elissa Feingold (as was) and a host of others too
numerous to mention (also creeping dementia has obliterated many
names). I had the honour of working with great shlichim (emissaries)
some of whom remain good friends
to this day. This blog is too short to
list all the great annual conferences
with their motions and amendments,
seminars, events, parties, trips, demos and other things we did. Funny
thing is that I didnʼt meet my wife
Judith through FZY, thus busting the
original intention of my parents. One
thing I did was to travel to the Soviet
Union in 1980 to meet refuseniks of
the time, a truly memorable mission.
In 1983 I made aliyah (emigrated) to
Israel where I have been since with
one break. Three kids, one grandchild, all Hebrew speakers. Mission
accomplished!
Jonathan Cohen: I will never forget the time my friend turned up at
MARCH 2010 34
school and said that he had booked to
go on FZY Israel Tour and said that I
must also, when I had my heart set on
going with a different youth movement. Iʼd never even heard of FZY!
That was when it all changed for me!
Six months later there I was on my
first FZY event and my first visit Israel. It was near the end of the experience that I decided that this was something I wanted to do and be involved
with, so when my Tour madrich asked
me to set up a local FZY society I
fell in love with the idea. Five years
later I found myself as an Israel Tour
madrich, asking a small group of chanichim (participants) to do exactly the
same thing having also just secured
a post in the FZY office as a movement worker. These two moments I
think perfectly sum up what I think
this wonderful movement of ours is
all about and to see it reach 100 years
young I think is a huge achievement.
Hereʼs to another 100 years. Oh, and
the time I got married to someone on
camp as part of a grand peula, that was
also pretty good. So were the tzevet
(staff) meetings on Ofek 2002, and
all of Year Course 2001/02, and the
time when.....well you get the idea.
Shula Arnhem: It may appear to
be almost 100 years ago (!), but I
was on the FZY 7th Shnat Sherut
group which left the UK in September 1953. Together with other West
European chaverim, our 10-week
hachshara was in Villeneuve-sur-Lot
in South-Western France in a derelict
farmhouse (but spectacular countryside) which had housed many preState illegal immigrants destined for
Palestine. Sadly, most of them were
probably interned in Cyprus, but we
hoped eventually arrived in Israel. In
November, we sailed from Marseilles
on the SS Negba, and landed in Haifa
on a miserably cold and wet day, so I
was initially disappointed in the Land
of Milk and Honey. Kibbutz Usha
was our destination. I remained there
for a short time and then moved to a
religious kibbutz in the Negev. Other
chaverim in our group dispersed after
the programme, some to remain in Is-
rael and others to return to their home
countries. After 52 years, I did finally
make aliyah. Iʼm still in contact with
two people from our group, but maybe
there are more of you out there? Best
wishes to FZY and members on its
centenary.
Noreen Firestone: I was a member
of GYZO(Glasgow) from about 1954
- the days of Donald Silk, Sydney
Shipton. When I moved to London in
1959 I worked at the ZF (Zionist federation) in Great Russell Street, continued my involvement and was on
the Mazkirut. I met my husband(��)
at an FZY Purim Spiel in Dean Street
synagogue....we married in Glasgow
in 1960, lived in Gants Hill and continued our relationship with FZY. David
had been on Shnat Sherut (before we
met) and he was also on the Mazkirut.
In fact he put together The History of
FZY. In 1972 we came on Aliyah to
Karmiel...and when FZYI was set up
I was part of the committee for some
years. Already recognised some of the
names...here Susan (née Lewis) from
Leeds, Antony Luder of course...and
others. And for those who remember Wally & Natalie Gold of Summer School fame, I am still in close
contact with Natalie and her children
David and his sister Davina. Wally
passed away a number of years ago.
Stephen Freedman: I was a member
of the Weizmann Society in Westcliffon-Sea from 1964 until 1972 when I
made aliyah. The weekly meetings and
the trips helped me to integrate into
the Westcliff Jewish community after moving from Tottenham, London.
Sometimes itʼs hard to believe that I
have been living here for the last 38
years and have had experiences which
were not possible in England. Such as
Kibbutz life, I.D.F. service, two degrees from the Open University of Israel and being an Israeli civil servant.
I can say that the FZY played its part.
Rebecca Gilmore: My FZY journey began as a shy little girl from
Leeds, attending the weekly Sunday
night Ketura meetings. I then went on
Kesher in 2001, ffollowed by Tour in
2002. This is the point when I knew
I wanted to spend my GAP year in
Israel with FZY. Following the most
incredible year, I led Kesher in 2005
and then Ofek the year after. My FZY
journey ended in summer 2007 as the
madricha for Tour 8! As I look back
over these amazing memories, I realise that FZY was not only responsible
for providing many fun summers, but
regarding the friends that I have, the
job that I do and the things that are
important in my life today, FZY has
helped me define who I am as a person.
Daniel Moses: There were always
two obvious choices for my gap year.
One was a year in Israel, the other
FZY. The FZY programme was far
better than any other that I had seen
or heard about, so it was the obvious
choice. Nili was my group, Nilidogs
was our name! That year of Kibbutz, Marva, Haifa, and Jerusalem,
was by far the best year I have had
so far, and various events throughout
that year shaped me in to the person
I am today. My FZY involvement on
a national scale took a little dip, but
it was the Manchester kehilla (community) led by Miss Lainie Sless,
which included the famous Jonny
Bunt, and Adam Pike, that kept me
hooked. Just to put it out there, Manchester definitely did, and still does
have the best bogrim kehilla FZY has
ever seen! Each summer since YC I
worked at Sprout Lake, a Young Judaea camp, learning my trade, and after I finished university, where better
to apply my skills than FZY, as the
Northern Fieldworker. The past year
as Northern Fieldworker overall was
a great one! Meeting so many FZY
members from those in the chavurot
(societies) to bogrim (students) all
over the country. I would like to use
this opportunity to thank everyone
for a great year of movement work; it
was a pleasure working with you all,
especially the best movement team
of Slav, Rafi, Guv, Einav, Ayelet and
our leader Jack! Not forgetting the
amazing office team!