Dear Habonim Alumni and Friends,
On a recent trip to Israel, I spent time with Habonim Dror olim at their urban kibbutzim in struggling neighborhoods.
In Petach Tikvah, a city in central Israel, the local “kibbutz” has established a weekly food bank for people, including foreign workers, who suffer from food insecurity in town. Building relationships with local produce merchants, they distribute fresh fruits and vegetables every week to those in need. The personal connections generated by this small initiative are only a piece of a larger network of relationships they have made in the process of living and working in the town, which allows them to be an effective agent for social change.
These Habonim Dror alumni – like so many of their chevrei throughout Israel, the US, and Canada – are leading lives guided by the core values- the pillars – that they first learned at Habonim Dror camps and movement activities.
Will you donate to make sure these values continue to inspire young Jews today and tomorrow?
They were nurtured and inspired by Habonim Dror’s dynamic educational programming in summer camps, Israel programs such as the Workshop and Machaneh Bonim in Israel (MBI), and year-round activism in North America. They are fighting hard against cynicism and hopelessness and are training other young people to follow them.
My first engagement with Habonim was at Camp Na’aleh in 1971. Later I went on the 24th Workshop to Maayan Barukh and made aliyah to Kibbutz Gezer in 1984. More than 40 years after my first summer at Na’aleh, Habonim Dror is a still a core piece of my identity. It’s part of my nefesh – my soul. That’s why I’m proud to chair the Habonim Dror Foundation. The Foundation was founded in 1994 to support HDNA – to help keep the dream alive for the next generation of Habos.
Did you know that the Habonim Dror Foundation supports:
- Movement programs to Israel like MBI and Workshop
- HDNA hadracha (leadership programs) like Winter Seminar, Veida and moetzet chinuch – training the next generation of Haboheads.
- Financial assistance for all HDNA programs.
I hope you will join me in supporting Habonim Dror with a tax-deductible donation to the Habonim Dror Foundation. Help us meet our fundraising goal this year. Click here to make a secure donate online. Canadian residents or to donate by check please click here.
L’shalom,
Rabbi Tom Gutherz
Chair, Habonim Dror Foundation
