Opening Day: Wednesday July 23
Welcome to Camp Stone Moshevet haMedinah – Summer 2025 Session 2!!
Our Roshei Moshava this month – Didi Blau and Noa Berkowitz, the hadracha (counselors) and our tzevet (the staff that runs all of the activities) have been preparing, training and cleaning for a week, and finally the chanichim have arrived! Opening Tochnit has always been dramatic and exciting, and this year was no exception. Our month’s noseh (topic) will take us from Nov 29, 1947 until March 26, 1979. We opened with the UN vote about the Partition Plan, and we will close with Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Prime Minister Menachem Begin signing a peace treaty – the first time an Arab country recognized the Jewish State. Your children will not only learn about this time period and all the heroes, thinkers and politcians of this period – they will live IN it. They will watch it come alive through skits and programs and night activities.
The buses dropped off the campers on the upper baseball field where they saw wooden bleachers, various countries’ flags and a stage with a huge UN symbol and the date November 29, 1947. Once everyone arrived, they sat in the seats and watched the vote unfold. They received a “scorecard” to keep track of who was voting yes, who was voting no and who abstained. 2/3 majority was needed, and it was achieved!!!
You can be inspired by watching a wonderful 10 min video about that special miraculous history-changing day here:
We all cheered and were told we are going to Medinat Yisrael now! Each eidah took a walk around camp, seeing tzevet dressed as Jews walking from other countries to Israel as well. They passed a table handing out snacks and danced under the Arch of Titus, celebrating the end of the 2,000 years of exiles since the Romans attacked and destroyed our Temple. They walked around the agam (lake) and evaded British soldiers throwing water balloons (from the High Ropes!!) and ultimately ended up at the Outdoor Beit Knesset. The OBK was decorated with Israeli flags and streamers and had tzevet singing and playing drums. We sang “Am Yisrael Chai” and David ben Gurion (if you looked closely you saw it was Didi with baby powder in his hair!) spoke to us and declared the State of Israel! Pretty unforgettable!
Once we all davened Mincha and came down from that excitement, the chanichim were dismissed to go see their bunks and unpack a little before dinner. Interesting fact: over 1600 pieces of chicken were served tonight 😊
Machal arrived and immediately stood in a huge circle, where each of their Roshim (Micah and Hannah) introduced themselves and spoke about the Machal program’s goals. They ate dinner and had a special initiation ceremony where they burned their shelet-aish (their shevet’s name חיים in flammable twine) and they received their מספרי ברזל – their numbers which they will use to take attendance throughout the month. They were given time to unpack…and then repack. Just a small bag for tomorrow’s first hike day!
Kaytana began their first day in machane with meeting their Roshim – Beni and Maayan – and all of their counselors. Then they “met” Avraham Avinu who was at his father’s idol shop. Avraham was trying to prove to the customers that idols have no power and zero ability to control anything. They believed him and started smashing the idols – all the kids joined in when they realized these were pinatas!! Dum-dums came out and they were happy to have destroyed that avodah zarah. The group heard Hashem’s voice telling Avraham to go to Eretz Canaan where he will be blessed and made into a huge nation whose mission will be to practice, teach and spread “righteousness and justice” (tzedek u’mishpat) All of Kaytana followed Avraham to the Promised Land, which turned out to be their Kaytana bunk. They went right to the shuk set up and had falafel! Once their bellies where full, they unpacked and spent some time learning each other’s names before dinner.
We are looking forward to a wonderful, fun, educational, inspirational month and ALL OF IT will be reported here daily in our blog. Signing off for now – Layla Tov Sugar Grove!
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