The day started with a classic ruach (spirit) competition between all the different youth movements. Habonim Dror, with representatives from North America, South Africa, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico and even one New Zealander, dominated! We were also proud to have Daniel Samowitz, former HDOZ Mazkir and current Rosh Chinuch (Educational Director) of World Habonim Dror, hosting the opening ceremony. Check out the video of the Brazilian Habonim chanichim leading everyone in a song.
Below, a list of some of the speakers we saw:
Brief: We seem to
be in a “post history” stage of the story of
Israel and the
Jewish people. Guy Spigelman will take you on
a journey starting
in Budapest, where he was part of the revival of
Habonim Dror in
Eastern Europe at the end of the Cold War, to Nazareth in 2014 and
the launch of the
first hi-tech incubator for Arab entrepreneurs in Israel. He will pose the
question: What are the big stories of today, and what
can you do to shape their outcomes?
Mr. Spigelman
spent 14 years in Israel’s hi-tech and bio-tech industries in senior
management roles.
He also served as the chairman of Merchavim, the Institute for
the Advancement of
Shared Citizenship in Israel. Mr. Spigelman is a Major in the
IDF Spokesperson
Unit (serving in the reserves), and has appeared numerous times
in international
media during times of conflict. In 1996 he was on the Labor list for
the Israeli
Knesset after leading a public campaign, together with former Education
Minister Yuli
Tamir, to reform higher education finance. Mr. Spigelman was brought up
in Sydney,
Australia and to this day says that his spiritual home is Habonim Dror, where
he served as
Federal Mazkir, and where he met his wife Naomi. Today he and Naomi
live in central Tel Aviv with Eden, Galia, and Neta.
Dr. Tova Ganzel, Director of the Midrasha, Bar-Ilan University: "Raising the Glass
Ceiling: Participation of Religious Women in Israeli Halachic Discourse"
Brief: Through her
personal story, Dr. Ganzel will present the
work of “yo’atzot
Halacha,” female Halachic advisors who answer women’s questions
about Jewish law.
She will explore the consequences of this relatively new role in Jewish
society, which gives women an opportunity to ask private
questions to other women,
rather than to
male Rabbis. Has the status of “Rabbi” been diminished, or has it risen
thanks to the work
of Yo’atzot? Dr. Ganzel will explore what each of us can do in order
to increase the number of women sitting around the table
of Halachic discussion.
Dr. Ganzel was one
of the first Yo’atzot Halacha (female advisors in Jewish law) produced
by the unique
Yo’atzot training program at Jerusalem’s Nishmat Institute. She holds a
Ph.D. in Bible
from Bar-Ilan University. A former Tikvah Fellow, she is the recipient of a
number of
prestigious academic awards and grants. Dr. Ganzel has published over 20
articles, book
chapters, and encyclopedia entries. She is also the author of A Visionary’s
Oracles: From Destruction to Restoration, Studies in the
Prophecies of Ezekiel.
Yair Zivan, Co-Founder, Kol Voice Seminars Jewish
Activism – A Call to Action for Jewish Youth Movements”
Brief: Mr. Zivan
will examine the role of youth movements in
Jewish activism –
what have we accomplished, and where are we
headed? As a proud
graduate of the world of Jewish youth and student movements, Mr.
Zivan will argue
that youth movements should be leading the Jewish community from
the front, and creating just the right amount of chaos
along the way.
Mr. Zivan currently
serves as the International Media Advisor to the President of the
State of Israel,
Shimon Peres. Formerly he was Campaign Director for the Union of
Jewish Students in
the UK, responsible for the recruitment and training of political
activists,
liaising with the Jewish community on political strategy, and representing
Jewish students to
the media and to the UK government. He is married to Rebecca,
together they
founded Kol Voice Seminars after making Aliyah in 2009. Kol Voice
Seminars works to
strengthen Jewish identity and improve the standard of activism
across the Jewish
world. The Zivans founded Kol Voice on the belief that active
engagement with
complex issues would create confident Jewish activists and
stronger Jewish community.
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