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B’nai Akiva youth. It was the culmination of chodesh irgun, Movement Month, and I imagine many parents sigh in
relief to see the month over.
The B’nai Akiva youth group is very popular here in Israel.This religious Zionist youth movement was established in 1929. The Hebrew
letters taf and ayin adorn the logo; taf represents Torah and ayin is for
avoda or work. The movement wanted to combine Torah values with a work ethic
and placed a heavy emphasis on dedicating effort to building the land of
Israel. Today, there are B’nai Akiva branches in 23 countries across the
world and it has over 125,000 members, mainly modern Orthodox Jews.
chodesh irgun very puzzling. It begins slowly with events a few nights a week
at the snif (branch) of B’nai Akiva.
The kids in grade nine are specially honored at the end of this month as they
receive their shevet (tribe) name. So
all religious children across the country who are 14 years old take this
extremely seriously even if they had never before attended a B’nai Akiva activity.
This may sound a bit like Fred Flintstone’s unusual
initiation by the Grand Poobah into the Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes. But b’nai akiva puts Fred’s water buffalo horns aside and replaces them with large
Israeli flags.
bring broomsticks from home and learn to march in sequence. They also paint the
snif, which is a code word for painting each other. Case in point; my son came
home last week covered in what must have been the snif’s entire inventory of
paint. His hair was so thickly matted with paint, he felt like a bronze
sculpture. I followed a trail of paint to the bathroom only to find a pile of
gooey splotchy clothes that could have been an abstract art exhibit.
white night, which means they stay up all night. I still do not know what they
did all night. The only information I got from my son was that it was ‘fun.’
The religious high schools are supportive of this and for one week, classes
start late. The days after leila lavan and Tassim are also school holidays. So
basically, the modern orthodox community across the country supports a month-long
fest of paintball and broomsticks.
Last Saturday night was the big event. The mayor, the senior B’nai Akiva rabbi of Ra’anana and every B’nai Akiva member and family member was there. The kids were pumped. They had traded in the broomsticks for real flags and their paint-splotched T-shirts for crisp white B’nai Akiva shirts. They stood in two lines, one for boys and one for girls. The madrichim (counselors) jumped around with microphones and screamed ‘smol, yamin, smol, yamin, smol’ (left, right, left, right, left) over and over again for about two hours while the kids ran around in a frenzy with their flags held high.
hushed and then a grand banner appeared up high with the name AVICHAI. There
was clapping and cheering and dancing and flag waving. A new tribe was
officially born.
stories about what many so-called worldly 14-year old kids are doing and they would
not consider running around holding flags to be ‘fun.’ I am grateful our 14
year olds are expending their energy in a healthy, clean way, socializing in a
supervised environment and waving the Israeli flag with great pride.
As I drove my son back, I said to him with great relief, “Well,that’s over.”
initiation. We need flashlights, water and a snack. See ‘ya tomorrow.”
of B’nai Akiva.
the Torah of G-D, His people, Land and Language
definite periods for the study of Torah
and hates idleness
future of the Jewish people in Eretz Yisrael
courteous to all
brother to chaverim and is prepared to assist them at all times
parents, teachers and leaders
thought and action
nature
cheerful and pleasant
his health
society here in Israel and for this I feel thankful. I drove home alone. I may
not get the brouhaha (which incidentally is originally from the Hebrew Baruch Haba), but how can a parent complain?
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