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Habonim Dror
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Habonim Dror (; Translation: 'The Builders - Freedom') is a secular Socialist-Zionist youth movement formed by the merger in 1982 of the Habonim and Dror youth movements.
Habonim Dror's sister movement in Israel is Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed, the Working and Studying Youth.
Ideology
Habonim Dror is a Culturally Jewish Socialist-Zionist youth movement, which exists to take responsibility for the Jewish people, Israeli society and the world.
Discussion
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Encyclopedia
Habonim Dror (; Translation: 'The Builders - Freedom') is a secular Socialist-Zionist youth movement formed by the merger in 1982 of the Habonim and Dror youth movements.
Habonim Dror's sister movement in Israel is Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed, the Working and Studying Youth.
Ideology
Habonim Dror is a Culturally Jewish Socialist-Zionist youth movement, which exists to take responsibility for the Jewish people, Israeli society and the world. The ideology is split under different headings for clarity. They are Hagshama Atzmit (Self-realisation), Socialism, Zionism, Judaism and Chalutziut (Pioneering). But these headings are not separate ideologies, each platform makes helps to make up one ideology with each part integral to the next. Each and every chaver/a (member) embodies the spirit of Habonim Dror based on their experiences and values gained in the movement. Habonim Dror's ideology is an attempt to represent that spirit in words.
History
According to Habonim, Great Britain, 1929-1955, there is "a certain mystique" about the establishment of Habonim but "there is little doubt that the major personality behind the idea was Wellesley Aaron". An article from the Spring 1929 Jewish Chronicle also credits cites Aron as founder.
Habonim was modeled after the Wandervogel movements in Germany. In 1930, Norman Lourie founded Habonim Southern Africa, with the first camp taking place at Parys in 1931. The idea soon spread to other English-speaking countries and finally throughout the Christian world. The movement was responsible for founding, amongst others, Kfar Blum, Kfar Hanasi, Beit Haemek, Mevo Hama, Tuval and Gesher Haziv.
Dror was founded in Poland in 1915 out of a wing of the Tze'irei Tziyon (Zion Youth) study circle - the majority of Tze'irei Tziyon had merged with a group called Hashomer in 1913 to form Hashomer Hatzair - those who remained outside of the new group formed Dror. The group was influenced by the teachings of the Russian Narodniks.
Members of Dror participated in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Mordechai Tennenbaum and Emma Sobel, Dror members, organised two underground factions in the Bialystok Ghetto.
Dror was aligned with the Kibbutz Me'Uchad network while Habonim was aligned with the Ichud kibbutzim. When the two kibbutz movements merged in 1980 to form the United Kibbutz Movement (TaKa"M), so did their respective youth movements.
Famous graduates of the two movements include Golda Meir, Mike Leigh, Mordechai Richler, Jonathan Freedland, Stanley Fischer, Chaim Herzog, Tony Judt, Sacha Baron Cohen, Seth Rogen (40-Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up), Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson, producers of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Alexander Bickel, Leonard Fein (columnist of The Forward and founding editor of Moment (magazine)), J.J. Goldberg (editor-in-chief of The Forward), David Twersky (columnist with the New York Sun), Aaron Naparstek, Matt Witten Mark Regev, Shuli Egar, Guy Spigelman, Tooker Gomberg, Baroness Deech, Evan Mendel, Jack Markell (the incoming governor of Delaware), Kenneth Bob, and Ron Bloom.
Today
Today, Habonim Dror exists in seventeen countries worldwide. It is aligned with the United Kibbutz Movement which recently merged with the Kibbutz Artzi Federation aligned with the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement.
Countries in which Habonim Dror operates
Habonim Dror North America
Habonim in North America was founded in April 1935 by the youth arm of the Poale Zion Party at a convention in Buffalo, NY. At its height, the movement had over 2,000 campers attending eleven summer camps throughout the U.S. and Canada. Today, Habonim Dror North America (HDNA) runs many programs during the year, including a biannual veida (a mass meeting with representatives from around the movement), local events in central cities, kibbutzim in Israel, a year long program in Israel (called Workshop), and many other ideology-focused gatherings.
HDNA also runs 7 summer camps across the continent. These have become a large part of the movement, and in most cases are more important to members than local meetings (called ken meetings). The seven camps are as follows:
- Camp Galil (Ottsville, Pennsylvania, USA)
- Camp Gesher (Cloyne, Ontario, Canada)
- Camp Gilboa (California, USA)
- Camp Miriam (Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada)
- Camp Moshava (Street, Maryland, USA)
- Camp Na'aleh (Bainbridge, New York, USA)
- Camp Tavor (Three Rivers, Michigan, USA)
Some now defunct camps and Habonim hachshara farms are:
- Camp Amal (Vermont 1948-49, Na'aleh 1950, Cream Ridge 1951, Moshava 1952, Galil 1953)
- Camp Bonim (Dallas, Texas)
- Camp Kinneret (Chelsea, Michigan)
- Camp Kvutzah Gimli (Gimli, Manitoba)
- Camp Kvutzah Montreal (St. Faustin, Quebec)
- Camp Tel Ari (New York)
- Camp Tel Hai (New Buffalo, Michigan)
- Camp Tel Natan (Troy, Missouri)
- Camp Yad Ari (Waupaca, Wisconsin)
- Cream Ridge Farm (Upper Freehold, New Jersey)
- Smithville Farm (Smithville, Ontario)
Additionally, a five week trip, named Machaneh Bonim in Israel (MBI) is a summer tour of Israel for 16-year-olds (summer after 10th grade). Students from the seven camps spend time together and learn about Israel and the movement.
HDNA publishes B'tnua, the regular movement magazine.
Habonim Dror has collaborated with Ameinu, Hashomer Hatzair, and Meretz USA to form the Union of Progressive Zionists campus network.
Habonim Dror Australia
Habonim Dror has five kenim (branches) around Australia. They are in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Byron Bay and Perth. The three largest Kenim in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth hold weekly meetings, regular seminars and two camps each year (winter and summer), with chaverim (members) from all of Australia coming together for senior summer camp.
Every year chanichim (members) travel to Israel for a year on Shnat Hachshara le'Aliyah Ve'Hadracha, commonly referred to as Shnat, where they go on an extensive experiential and educational process and actively carry out movement aims and discuss group issues.
Habonim Dror Brazil
The movement arrived in Brazil by influences of the Argentine activists, and began in Porto Alegre (Southern Brazil) in 1945. Within a few years, Habonim reached Curitiba, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Some time later, it arrived in Recife, Salvador and Belo Horizonte.
At these seven branches across the country, Habonim runs weekly activities for children, teenagers and young adults from 7 to 22 years old, as well as weekly-long Machanot (camps) in Summer and Winter. Also twice a year is held the National Machaneh.
Once in a two-year cycle, a Veidah Artzit (National Convention) is held, comprising a meeting of all the senior members of the National Movement. The Veidah has powers to modify HD Brazil's ideological platform, as long as it doesn't oppose to the World Movement's principles.
Habonim Dror Southern Africa
Habonim Dror Southern Africa (HDSA) was founded in 1930 by Norman Lourie. HDSA annually hosts a summer camp with over 1000 people – the largest in the southern hemisphere – at their campsite in Onrus outside Cape Town. As well as weekly meetings and other national events, HDSA coordinates tours to Israel for 16 year-olds and school-leavers.
Its two primary kenim (branches) are based in Cape Town and Johannesburg, although the movement operates across the country.
In 2005, Habonim Dror SA celebrated its 75th anniversary. Over 1,300 current and former members met at Kibbutz Yizre'el in northern Israel, for what was likely the largest ever reunion of South African Jewry. In Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, the movement hosted then Israeli Housing Minister Isaac Herzog.
Habonim Dror South Africa does not include Socialism as one of its pillars.
The movement has made some steps towards social relevance and activity in the "New South Africa" while constantly reexamining its role vis-a-vis Israel and socialism.
See also
External links
- – World Habonim
- – Habonim Dror United Kingdom Homepage
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- – Habonim Dror Southern Africa
- – Reunite with past HDSA chevre!
- – Habonim Dror São Paulo, Brasil
- – Habonim Dror Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
- Habonim Dror Mexico
- – Habonim Dror North America Homepage
- – HDNA's movement magazine
- – Habonim Dror Australia Homepage
- Habonim Dror Aotearoa New Zealand
- – Habonim Dror Hungary Homepage
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