Oren Brandvain, K'tanaw Schiff and Dov Lerman-Sinkoff
check out the cows at Kibbutz Netivah Halamed Heh.
EXPERIENCING
Israel
Three Detroit teens live out
their progressive Zionist ideals.
Leah B. Stern
Special to the Jewish News
1 j
Jerusalem
ntil a few months ago, Dov
Lerman-Sinkoff, K'tanaw
Schiff and Oren Brandvain
were taking final exams at Detroit
area high schools. Now they spend
four hours a day picking peppers,
learning Hebrew and playing with
Israeli kindergartners.
These three Detroit-area teens
decided to defer admissions to top
universities like Stanford and
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology to spend a year in
Israel living on Kibbutz Netivah
Halamed Heh, 45 minutes outside
of Jerusalem.
"We are living within the frame-
work of a real-life Labor Zionist
Movement, it is totally amazing!"
.
November 24 2005
says Brandvain, 18, of Farmington
Hills and a graduate of North
Farmington High School. His par-
ents are Beth and Avi Brandvain.
Two older siblings were part of the
same program.
The trio is participating in a
program simply called
"Workshop," a yearlong course
offered through their progressive
Zionist Youth Movement, Habonim
Dror. All have been actively
involved in the group for more
than a decade, and became
acquainted at Camp Tavor in
Three Lakes, Mich. They are
among 63 teens participating from
North America.
"Habonim played a large part of
my life, really the foundation of my
morals and ideas. growing up in
Michigan," said Schiff, 18, of
Huntington Woods and a graduate
of the Jewish Academy of
Metropolitan Detroit. She is the
granddaughter of Bernard and
Sarah Schiff of Huntington Woods.
"I learned to feel more connected
to Israel while living abroad. Now, I
am able to practice what I have
been learning all of these years,
actually working the land."
The five pillars of Habonim —
Zionism, socialism, actualization,
Judaism and social justice — help
them actualize their life goals. Now
living in Israel provides for the
perfect environment to live out the
ideology of their movement.
Amongst participants from
nearly 30 countries, group mem-
bers spend most of their day
exchanging ideas and studying up
in classes like Social Zionism,
Cultural Judaism, Jewish history
and Israeli society and history.
One of the greatest lessons the
Michiganders say they've learned
is about the difficulties and impor-
tance of living within the frame-
work of a socialist lifestyle. At the
beginning of the program, divided
into groups of 20, the students had
to determine what they would do
to earn money. At the end of the
day, the income would be deposit-
ed into a communal fund — a
give-what-you-want, take-what-
you-need lifestyle.
"When one person spends, the
entire group feels the impact':
Brandvain says. "You always have
to keep an open mind and think
about everything you do before
you do it because someone some-
where is affected by your actions:'
Schiff admits, "I realize how
many material things I have in the
U.S. that I don't need. Here we have-
the necessities and we are
resourceful. We build our own
sukkah, we do our own work and
grow our own food."
"In the States, we get whatever
we want because we can',' says
Lerman-Sinkoff, 18, of West
Bloomfield and graduate of
Bloomfield Hills Andover High
School. He is the son of Drs. Ruth
Lerman and Mark Sinkoff. "Here
when you spend money, you are
spending everyone's money, and
your personal actions are affecting
someone else, so you think twice:'
The three also contemplate
whether the Jewish homeland
could replace life in the
Midwestern.United States.
"Being here really makes you
think about aliyah," Brandvain
says. "It is something tangible
instead of being idealistic. I'm try-
ing things out, but I know this is
not what living in Israel would
really be like."
Sinkoff says that he now under-
stands the allure of aliyah."Before
coming here I never imagined I
could do if,' he says.
Kibbutz life will take a sharp left
turn in one month when the group
packs up and moves northward to
the Golan Heights. They will work
for Israeli social services for the
completion of the year.
For now, they will savor the
month they have left living as sim-
ple kibbutzniks, while their friends
back home stress through
midterm exams and feel the pres-
sures of college life.
"We are definitely changed by
our experience here': Schiff says.
"We will bring back major leader-
ship skills and make an impact on
the lives of people•back home in
our communities ... and perhaps
teach them a thing or two about
what being an Israeli is truly
about." ❑
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