Youth Organization

Beshert | First the Misses, Then the Hit

Barry and I met at a Halloween party when we were 13 years old. Neither of us liked our dates, so we chatted outside. We didn’t see each other again until high school, at a Kansas City B’nai B’rith Youth Organization convention where he was a big macher. Jewish/Zionist organizations dominated our junior and senior years—he brought me into Young Judaea, and I brought him into United Synagogue Youth. We began to date, then go steady. We got unofficially "engaged" when I went to university but I broke it off because I didn't want to settle down yet. We got back together and, this time, we got officially engaged, but he broke it off. He felt he wasn't ready. I was devastated. We each went our own ways in marriages, in cities, in life. Barry married another woman. He...

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The New "New Jew"

By Lily Hoffman Simon A new kibbutz movement is sweeping Israel. Most often, it is comprised of irbutzim (city kibbutz), which are collectivist structures based on the original ideas of the agricultural kibbutz. Instead of creating an alternative community on the fringes of everyday Israeli life, however, these communities are placing themselves in the heart of Israeli cities, from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.  Just as the kibbutzim were centred on the idea of creating an ideal society to influence the greater Israeli society, so do irbutzim, which like their predecessors share communal bank accounts and emphasize youth leadership.  This adaptation represents a hopeful future for the kibbutz movement and Israel itself. The traditional agricultural kibbutzim were based on socialism, egalitarianism, environmentalism, hard work, interpersonal relationships and the liberation of the Jewish people through a Zionist revolution. The...

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