Adventures in Pioneering

The Story of 25 Years
of Habonim Camping

ADVENTURE
IN
PIONEERING
Editor
DAVID BRESLAU
Associate Editors
AVRAHAM G. HAKLAY ZELDE KRULEWITZ
SHIRLEY LASHNER PINHAS RIMON
© 1957, The CHAY Commission of the Labor Zionist Movement.

Republished by Habonim Dror North America in 2009.
ISBN 978-0-557-16403-5
To those who came before.
To those who will come after.
To those here now.
Foreword
There was little sense of history in the making during that summer of
1932 when fourteen teenagers moved into their single tent at the edge of a
Labor Zionist bungalow colony in the Catskills for the first season of Habo-
nim camp. They knew well that they were living in historic times—a Depres-
sion at home, fascism rising in Europe and the first waves of Arab violence
threatening the Zionist enterprise in Palestine. They believed they had a role
to play in these great dramas. But as movement veteran Saadia Gelb would
recall years later, “none of us in the 1930s thought of himself as ‘making his-
tory’.”
Today we know that they were indeed making history. From that ini-
tial summer, Habonim camping evolved and grew into a network of facilities
across the United States and Canada that has educated tens of thousands of
young Jews to values of Zionism, Jewish pride and progressive social aware-
ness. The Habonim Dror youth movement, anchored in its summer camps, has
nurtured multiple generations of activists and leaders in Israeli and American
Jewish life. The movement has founded seven kibbutzim in Israel and played
pivotal roles over the years in the labor, civil rights, feminist and Middle East
peace movements. Throughout the decades, Habonim camps have been the
heart of the movement experience, generating the passion, teaching the com-
mitment and forging the lifelong friendships that drove everything else.
Habonim Dror and its camps have been a resounding success, but
there was nothing inevitable about any of it. It all started when the Young
Poale Zion Alliance, the young adult wing of the Labor Zionist movement,
decided in that spring of 1932 to try what amounted to a cross-cultural expe-
riment: to see if the American summer camp could be reimagined in the spirit
of the kibbutz and the chalutzim, the socialist Zionist pioneers who were re-
building the land of Israel. Nothing like it existed anywhere in America, and
the camp’s first advocates faced strong opposition, even within their own
movement. Many of the senior Labor Zionists were convinced that summer
camp meant volley ball and boating, not living as a commune, debating ideol-
ogy and hauling their own trash. Others argued that the children of working
class immigrants, Labor Zionism’s main constituency, couldn’t afford sum-
mer camp.
The founders themselves weren’t entirely sure what they had in mind.
They hadn’t even settled yet on the name Habonim. Young Poale Zion had
been trying since the 1920s to establish a children’s organization for ten-to-
eighteen-year-olds, prosaically named Buds. Chapters were formed here and
there, but the results were dispiriting. The numbers remained small and enthu-
siasm was low.
The summer camp would eventually provide the missing spark. That
first summer of 1932, for all its uncertainties, had been successful enough to
merit another round the following year. In the spring of 1933, with the help of
Young Poale Zion alumna Golda Meir, who had settled in Palestine and was
now in New York as a shlicha, the movement acquired a campsite of its own
in Accord, New York. The new location proved enormously popular, and the
camp thrived.
After the 1934 camp season ended, leaders of Young Poale Zion ga-
thered at Accord to discuss the future of their education program. Following
days of stormy debate they decided to create a new children’s organization as
an autonomous unit within the movement. They named it Habonim, after a
new Labor Zionist scouting organization established in England in 1929.
Painfully, they agreed to set aside the radical politics of Poale Zion and build
the Habonim education program around character-building, scoutcraft, devo-
tion to Israel and the ideals of kibbutz pioneering.
The new organization grew quickly. By 1938 it was strong enough to
take over a smaller Labor Zionist youth group, Gordonia, that had been strug-
gling for a decade to find its footing. Two years after that, the Young Poale
Zion Alliance dissolved itself and became the senior division of its own off-
shoot, Habonim.
The fastest growth was in the summer camps. Two new ones were
opened in 1935, in Michigan and Quebec. Three more were added in 1939
and more the following summer and the summer after that. By 1945 Habonim
was operating eleven camps across the continent with a total enrollment of
some 1,600 campers.
By the mid-1940s, too, it was clear that camp was no longer just an
adjunct to the year-round Habonim educational program. Camp had become
the heart of the movement experience. Living for weeks away from their
families in a community of their peers, youngsters developed intimate bonds
with each other and the group. And the camp program was unique. Traditional
summer camp songs and cheers were combined with Labor Zionist ideology
and the movement’s sense of mission, resulting in a powerful brew that was
stronger than any of its components. Those bonds and those lessons, renewed
each summer and deepened over time, yielded for many youngsters a set of
lifelong friendships and a powerful movement loyalty.
The impact of the camp experience could be seen not only on the in-
dividual Habonim members, but on the movement and everything it did.
Summer might end, but the campers still wanted to be together, and so they
spent their weekends going to ken meetings and regional seminars to see their
friends. And when a few Habonim members showed up for a major public
event, many Habonim members showed up—protesting outside British consu-
lates in 1946, marching for civil rights in 1957, protesting the Vietnam war in
1969, rallying for Soviet Jews and California farm-workers in 1975.
When Israel won its independence in 1948 and took to the battlefield
to defend it, hundreds of Habonim members — nearly the entire senior mem-
bership — went there to volunteer. Hundreds moved to Israel in its early years
as members of garinim, communal settlement groups, that founded Kibbutz
Gesher Haziv and Kibbutz Urim. They continued going over in garinim in the
1950s and 1960s to join Gesher Haziv and Urim, and in the 1970s and 1980s
to found the new kibbutzim of Gezer, Grofit and Ravid.
Even in the 1990s and beyond, when the kibbutz movement was sunk
in crisis and Zionism had become a subject of cynicism or worse, Habonim
members continued to move to Israel in garinim, settling in urban communes
in slums and development towns. They went, of course, because they wanted
to make a difference and to live out their values. And because they wanted to
be with their friends from camp.
When the first fourteen Labor Zionist teenagers pitched their tent in
the Catskills in 1932, Jewish summer camps existed to provide children with
exercise and fresh air and to give their parents a breather. The notion of camp-
ing as a laboratory for values education and movement building was some-
thing new in American Jewish education. It’s not even clear that the Young
Poale Zion organizers knew themselves exactly where they were headed,
though they had an inkling.
Today, Jewish values camping is high fashion. The path that Habo-
nim pioneered in 1932 was trod a decade later by Young Judaea and the Ra-
mah camps of Conservative Judaism, and soon after that by the Reform
movement. Those movements dominate the Jewish public square so thorough-
ly that many American Jews are surprised to hear that Habonim camps are
still in business.
But they are still here, as big as they were in their heyday in the
1940s. They’re not as shiny or high tech as some of the better known camps,
but that’s always been part of their charm — the old Habonim principle that
it’s “chalutzic to be schmutzik.” They’ve been written off many times. The
New York and Los Angeles camps have gone bust and then risen again, resur-
rected by faithful alumni and determined groups of teenagers. And still they
carry on, three-quarters of a century after they began. They have to. They still
have an urgent message to transmit. Besides, the kids want to be with their
friends.
J.J. Goldberg, 2009
Contents
Foreword ...........................................................................................................6
Foreword from Original Publication ..............................................................14
Introduction ....................................................................................................16
THE BEGINNING
THE BEGINNING .............................................................................................. 20
ACCORD - 1933 ................................................................................................. 25
GROWTH OF AN IDEA
"KVUTZA" AND KVUTZA ............................................................................... 32
A DECADE OF EXPERIENCE IN
COOPERATIVE JEWISH CAMPING ............................................................... 33
THE MEANING OF KVUTZA .......................................................................... 49
COMING OF AGE .............................................................................................. 55
PRINCIPLES AND PHILOSOPHY.................................................................... 60
THE TURNING POINT ...................................................................................... 68
HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

REVIEW OF TWENTY-FIVE YEARS .............................................................. 74
CAMP KVUTZA IS BORN ................................................................................ 82
LISTEN HERE, YOUNGSTERS!....................................................................... 85
TEL YOHANAN AND RED HOOK .................................................................. 87
KENDALL .......................................................................................................... 90
"KVUTZIE"......................................................................................................... 91
KVUTZA, KVUTZA, WHO'S GOT A KVUTZA? ............................................ 94
KINNERET ......................................................................................................... 95
TEL NATAN ....................................................................................................... 98
MIDWEST CAMP HABONIM ........................................................................ 100
KVUTZA IN THE WEST ................................................................................. 104
THE STORY OF "MOSH"................................................................................ 107
GALIL'S FIRST YEAR ..................................................................................... 109
GALIL ............................................................................................................... 115
GIMLI, MANITOBA ........................................................................................ 122
AFIKIM ............................................................................................................. 125
CAMP MIRIAM................................................................................................ 126
MONTREAL ..................................................................................................... 128
CAMP BONIM, TEXAS ................................................................................... 129
THE COMING SEASON .................................................................................. 131
CAMP AVODA, CREAMRIDGE .................................................................... 134
AMAL IN RETROSPECT ................................................................................ 137
KVUTZA AND THE INDIVIDUAL
NIGHT WATCH ...............................................................................................142
ACCORD DIARY .............................................................................................143
PEEKING IN WITH OUR SHALIAH ..............................................................151
UNTIL NEXT YEAR ........................................................................................153
VIEW FROM KVUTZA HILL, ACCORD .......................................................155
TO KVUTZA .....................................................................................................155
NIGTH WATCH ...............................................................................................156
THE TREE .........................................................................................................157
SO YOU WANT TO BE A MADRICH ............................................................159
LOS ANGELES GLEANINGS .........................................................................161
NEED HELP PACKING? .................................................................................163
KINNERET SHELI ...........................................................................................165
IN MEMORIUM
HAZKARA ........................................................................................................168
MIRIAM BIDERMAN ......................................................................................171
BEN CHERNER ................................................................................................173
DANNY GINSBURG ........................................................................................177
NATE KANTER ................................................................................................180
ARI LASHNER .................................................................................................181
HAYIM RAMBAM ...........................................................................................187
JOSEPH ROSENBERG .....................................................................................189
ENZO SERENI ..................................................................................................191
IRV STERNBERG ............................................................................................199
JOHANAN TARTAKOWER ............................................................................201
Foreword from Original Publication
The year 1932 has an almost ominous ring in the ears of the Jew who
cannot but remember the decade of barbarism and destruction which that date
ushered in. Because of the tragic impression brought on by the forces of evil,
historians are prone to deal with those events much more so than with con-
struction elements which make for progress in the world. Perhaps it is an indi-
cation that the latter are more normal.
* * *
It is good to participate in the celebration of twenty-five years of Ha-
bonim Camping and to help make possible the historic task of “keeping the
record.” It is worthy of note that in that same year, 1932, Habonim started an
important chapter in its youthful story–youthful and on behalf of youth–that
was destined to play a significant role in the psychological struggle which
confronted Jewish youth in the fearsome years of hatred and violence that
were to follow.
* * *
The Chay Commission, the Labor Zionist Commission on Halutziut,
Aliya and Youth, whose purpose it has been to develop further the ideals
which the Habonim camps have been inculcating, takes pleasure in making
the publication of this book possible and expresses its gratitude to the editors
to whom this has been a labor of love, and to all those who have cooperated in
14
the research and the compilation of Adventure in Pioneering. We are especial-
ly indebted to David Goldberg for reading the manuscript, to Chana Haklay
and Zelde Krulewitz for their work in preparing the manuscript for printing
and to Josh Schwartz of Leeds Advertising whose assistance in designing the
book was invaluable. The Chay Commission wishes to thank our patrons
whose greetings appear in a special supplement which accompanies Adven-
ture in Pioneering.
* * *
Twenty-five years of Habonim camping will undoubtedly afford
mixed feelings of reminiscence and of nostalgia to those who have expe-
rienced the pleasure and the vicissitudes of summers within the orbit of these
camps. It is the fond hope of the Chay Commission that its courageous story
will find the appreciation of a much wider circle as well.
Bert Goldstein
Chairman, Chay Commission
15
Introduction
During the past twenty-five years, close to five generations of youth
have participated in the Habonim Camps. The pioneers of Camp Kvutza were
imbued with an all-consuming desire for creative Jewish living. They dedicat-
ed themselves to a form of society based on principles of self-labor and mu-
tual cooperation. These pioneers transmitted their zeal and vision to succeed-
ing generations of Jewish youth in Habonim who followed in their footsteps.
Thus, Camp Kvutza enriched the lives of all who participated in its growth
and development.
It is correct to say that Camp Kvutza is the basic source of strength
for the entire Labor Zionist Movement in America. Today's leaders of Habo-
nim are veterans of Camp Kvutza, as are most of our chalutzim in Israel. The
leaders and chalutzim of tomorrow are at Camp Kvutza today, working, stud-
ying, playing - creating their own society of the future.
Through these years, much has been written both for Habonim and
for the Jewish educational world on this unique form of camping. Many were
16
the deliberations within the movement on the development, expansion, and
content of Camp Kvutza. Many were the reactions written by campers while at
Kvutza and upon their return to the city.
In compiling this collection, we were confronted with the wealth of
material which has been accumulated for a quarter of a century, and with
varying levels of presentation: from that of a thirteen-year old describing his
experiences with childish enthusiasm, to that of a leader enlarging on the
principles by which Camp Kvutza will function, to that of educators and
community leaders analyzing and evaluating the significance of this departure
in Jewish camping. Out of these diverse sources, we have not attempted to
create a literary unit, but have presented the material in the differing forms in
which it originally appeared.
Most of the material included has been gleaned from the Habonim
archives: News and Views, Furrows, Haboneh, Menahel, convention reports,
and internal organizational and educational bulletins. Many present members
of Habonim will no doubt discover herein a world seemingly remote from to-
day's reality. But they will find much which may inspire them and will guide
them in their movement activities. Many adult readers who experienced the
birth pangs and gradual development of Camp Kvutza in the United States
and Canada will no doubt find nostalgia mixed with smiles upon the perusal
of the articles. We hope, however, that each reader will find herein something
of intimate significance as well as informational value.
* * *
We want to take this opportunity to thank the Chay Commission,
Merkaz Habonim, our editorial committee, the office secretaries, and espe-
cially our patrons for making possible the publication of this volume.
The Editors
Summer, 1957
17
The Beginning
THE BEGINNING
THE BEGINNING
An anniversary is a time of reflection; one retraces the years and
comes to the beginning: the first Camp Kvutza. Suddenly all is focused clear-
ly and is full of an inner glow - the beginning. So much comes alive: the cha-
verim, the studies, the camp, the campfire with its songs, but above all, the
Kvutza: the living and studying together, a mutual investigation of the prob-
lems inherent in the ideals which we held in common. Looking backward, one
senses how much importance there was to this beginning, but at that time,
there was merely the living together at a Camp Kvutza among the gentle hills
of New York State.
Today the conception of "idealist" has acquired a strange interpreta-
tion, and it may even sound boastful to say that we were an idealistic Jewish
youth. But in truth and most sincerely, we tried by our own living to create a
new world: a world in which the Jew would live in his own country, the forms
of living there to be based on Socialism.
At the Camp Kvutza these ideals were most meaningful. They guided
and directed our lives. It was very hard for we were going against the stream.
American Jewish living surrounded us. It was the time of the depression, the
economic collapse after 1929. All around us the youth was concerned with
jobs, with making a livelihood. Yet we, the tiny group of Poale Zion youth,
were far away from all that worried Americans. Our minds and our hearts
were concerned with another land and our problems were foreign and distant
to American life. We lived in our ideal: a worker's life in Eretz Yisrael. As
one looks back twenty-five years, how strange it was, how revolutionary, how
"peculiar."
Many of us were born in the United States. Some came to the country
as young children. Our schooling, our style of life, our thoughts were molded
by the country we lived in. We loved this country with its sense of human
20
ADVENTURE IN PIONEERING
dignity and freedom, its pioneers, and its absorption of the downtrodden and
poverty-stricken millions of human beings who flocked to its shores. We were
overwhelmed by its vastness, its mountains and plains, its lakes, rivers, and
oceans. There were before us the grandeur of the West, the charm of the
South, the beauty of the Appalachians, the awe of Niagara, the breadth of the
Hudson. We were conscious of the stirrings of new forces in American litera-
ture, art, and music. The life of America was our life: the jazz, the night club
in Harlem, the new forms of the dance, the new theater, the politics of the
country, the stirrings of the vast labor masses - all this was part and parcel of
our day-by-day living.
Yet we dreamt dreams away from all that America was, vivid with the
hope of the liberation of the Jew, and saw ourselves in our mind's eye with
our comrades in the Promised Land.
Why? What moved us? How did we come to these thoughts, this tiny
group out of the millions of American Jews? Again and again at the Camp
Kvutza, it was important to know the reason. I tried to understand why the
chaverim chose this ideal. What moved these few to meet for a study of Poale
Zionism and ways and methods of bringing this ideal to others?
So I asked and found that one's Jewish consciousness was awakened
by the haunting sadness of the Kol Nidre melody. Or again, it dawned in a
crowded college auditorium as the Twenty-third Psalm was read by a Chris-
tian clergyman, and moved one to closeness to all people of the Book. Anoth-
er was fired by the tales told by a recent arrival from Eretz Yisrael who
worked in Petah Tikva with the Chaverim of the Second Aliya. I learned that
often the home and the parents were in opposition and added nothing to these
unknown deep springs which lived in the consciousness of our comrades.
Some homes were "Bundist," motivated by the thought that Jews need to
build a Jewish entity wherever they may be. In some homes, Russian revolu-
21
THE BEGINNING
tionary songs of freedom and Siberian exile were sung, but not a Jewish folk
song.
Zionist, Poale Zionist, consciousness grew out of this strange soil, and
at times against the wishes of the parents who were aghast at their child's "pe-
culiarities." Why dream of the liberation of the Jews? How about other
peoples enslaved by cruel despotic governments? Why far away Eretz Yi-
srael? There was a working class to be helped in the United States. There
were problems to be solved here: tender children working beyond their
strength, exploited by those intent on profits; there was a large mass of work-
ers with no job security. Why Eretz Yisrael? There are two million Jews in
New York City alone. Much must be done for them, to hold them to some
kind of Judaism, to teach their children about their glorious heritage. Why not
work here at home?
In the first Camp Kvutza, all the above elements were ever present;
they motivated the program of work. We tried to add to the elements already
influencing the chaverim. In the short span of time spent at Camp Kvutza,
there was the singing of the Eretz Yisrael songs which linked us with our un-
known comrades. The rhythm, the poetry of the words, the sentiment of re-
building and heroism, all spoke deeply to us. Around us was the camp fire,
bright and cheerful, amidst the dark shadows of the trees, the tense young fac-
es lit by the flame, and young voices filled the air with Hebrew or Yiddish
songs of Eretz Yisrael and Jewish revival. We wanted to know more and more
about the ideal we so earnestly believed in. For Poale Zion ideology, we went
to the writings of Borochov and Syrkin.
To the Camp Kvutza was brought much out of the American life in
which we found ourselves. We well understood the pioneering life of Eretz
Yisrael, for in America we were still close to pioneering, and American histo-
ry glorified the pioneer who moved West to build up the great United States.
22
To the Camp Kvutza we also brought the new educational theories just com-
ing into being in the United States.
I had just received my Bachelor of Science degree in education from
Teachers College of Columbia University. My special contribution to Camp
Kvutza was to bring to our studies the new educational philosophy of John
Dewey, William Kilpatrick, and E. T. Thorndike. These, my teachers, were
breaking new ground in education. Twenty-five years ago their educational
philosophy was a complete departure from what was then prevalent. It was
new, challenging, and audacious. It was a theory of freedom in education and
especially John Dewey's philosophy, opposed to all forms of absolutism. The
personality of the learner was stressed; he was motivated, he studied on his
own level, his personality was respected, he was taught to work and think in a
group. The project method was concomitant with these new theories. Adult
education was assuming its rightful place. All these methods admirably suited
our need, namely, to study our ideology and to pass on our ideals to many
American Jewish youths.
How happy I was that I was privileged to study under John Dewey,
Kilpatrick, and Thorndike! I was fired by the new philosophy of education
which they taught and I had learned the new techniques which they advo-
cated. Both in planning the program of the Camp Kvutza and in carrying it
out, the chaverim wholeheartedly accepted these new methods which I so en-
thusiastically advocated. My share in the program was to teach and demon-
strate those new techniques so that the chaverim could take them to the clubs
of which they were the leaders.
The new methods were so well fitted to our Poale Zionist ideal, which
was to give the Jew inheritance in his land. The new education stressed re-
spect and dignity of the individual. It aimed to enrich the individual by giving
him the tools whereby he could continue his investigations. These new me-
23
THE BEGINNING
thods taught the individual how to motivate a study not by committing to
memory many facts, but to study for the love of the subject - study deeply and
creatively. So we studied the creative discussion method. We sought to draw
out every individual to full participation. Especially suited to our Camp Kvut-
za idea was the fact that these new educational methods stressed group work
and participation in group discussion and reaching conclusions by group
thinking. This group work was in complete accord with the cooperative ideals
of Labor Eretz Yisrael. What a new world these fundamental methods of
learning opened up for us! We sensed the democracy of these techniques. The
study of Eretz Yisrael problems lent themselves particularly to the new
project method.
I had some years of organizational work behind me, but never had I
enjoyed a more innerly satisfying experience. It was group living and learning
which was deep and lasting in its influence.
Camp Kvutza twenty-five years ago was a small pebble thrown into
the vast ocean of American Jewish youth. The small ripple it caused has
moved farther and farther. The waves in its wake have reached the Promised
Land. For chaverim from the Camp Kvutza have settled on the soil of the
land. By their example they have influenced others to come to Israel. They
were on so-called "illegal" boats, they were in Cypress, they fought in the
War of Liberation of Israel, and they served in Sinai. Their children are grow-
ing up in Israel.
And the genesis was that first Camp Kvutza twenty-five years ago.
Happy are we to have been comrades and partners in that great adven-
turous undertaking.
Sophie A. Udin, 1957
24
ACCORD - 1933
Shortly before I came to America, I attended a convention of a Zionist
scouting organization with which I had been affiliated. It was held in the foo-
thills of the Carpathian Mountains. I saw then what such a camping expe-
rience can mean in the development of the spirit, ideology, and leadership of a
youth movement. The lingering memories found their expression when in
America I became a member of the Central Committee of the Young Poale
Zion Alliance. Many of us began to think in terms of making of the Labor
Zionist youth movement a youth movement in fact, something other than a
mere replica of the senior Poale Zion. One of the first media that came to
mind was the establishment of a YPZA summer camp similar to the one I had
seen in Galicia.
Other members of the YPZA Central Committee were like-minded.
Berl Locker, then National Secretary of the Poale Zion, enthusiastically ac-
cepted the idea. But most of the other leading chaverim of the senior organi-
zations were skeptical and some were even opposed. The reasons were: one,
the lack of funds; and two, the insistence that inasmuch as the movement al-
ready has a children's camp, Kinderwelt, YPZA should utilize that in every
way possible.
In the summer of 1932, we decided to make an experimental begin-
ning in Unser Camp. Sophie Udin assumed the leadership, and while all who
participated gained considerably in their knowledge of Labor Zionism and
techniques of leadership, it was generally felt that the real spirit of a Kvutza,
of a place that one built with one's own hands, in which one labored and
which was governed by its own members, was lacking.
The following winter and spring, therefore, strenuous efforts were
made to obtain a campsite of our own. With the help of Golda Meir, the use of
a beautiful spot in the Catskills was gotten. Jacob Katzman, who was then
25
THE BEGINNING
National Secretary of the YPZA and directed our first Kvutza at Accord, has
already related the story of its birth elsewhere in this -volume. But Katzman
had to leave in the middle of the season to help prepare the forthcoming YP-
ZA national convention, and upon his insistence and that of our Central
Committee, I took over for the remaining period.
I found the campers a most heterogeneous group. Among them were
some of the best members of the YPZA from several communities, young
people with organizational tradition, with leadership abilities, and a fine Jew-
ish background. However, we also had some newcomers who could not even
pronounce the name of the organization. One of the four tents consisted of ten
boys from Orange, New Jersey, to most of whom, camping and the Young
Poale Zion were quite alien as yet. They came because after all, the tuition
was only $7 a week and where could one get such a bargain even during the
Depression?
Under those circumstances, it was very hard to improvise a program
to keep the campers busy, to mold a cohesive group, and to institute self-rule
and discipline. To this day I don't know how it happened, but we succeeded in
instilling the proper spirit of cooperation and a form of self-government.
The first few weeks were the hardest. I bad to conduct all the discus-
sion groups and Shabbat programs, supervise all the camping activities, and
assign work for the daily work crews, whose task it was to bring some mod-
icum of civilization to this wilderness, keep the grounds clean, provide wood
for the stove, carry water from the well, and a multitude of other jobs, includ-
ing K.P. The first substantial help came with the arrival of Mr. Margolin, a
Hebrew teacher, who immediately instituted a program of Hebrew, Jewish
history, and geography of Eretz Yisrael.
Little by little, our senior chaverim started to look upon the camp as
something worthwhile. First of all, Meyer Brown and Shmuel Siegel, who
26
came to visit their families, brought back to the city good reports of what was
going on in Accord. Of inestimable value in this respect were the several days
which Golda Meir spent with us. Her discussions on halutziut were inspiring
to the campers, but her report to the senior movement was of even greater im-
portance in bringing Camp Kvutza to its attention.
The camp reached its maturity when we instituted the forms of "self-
government." Representatives to a camp council were elected by all the cam-
pers. The council took its task seriously. Work was assigned judiciously and
without favoritism. Everyone, without exception, had to participate in K.P.,
which, under those primitive circumstances (without a heater for hot water),
was quite a chore, help police the cleanliness of the grounds and tents, and
share in whatever manual labor was required. The council proved its effec-
tiveness by seeing to it that once a task was undertaken, a program mapped
out, a decision arrived at, they were carried out in a responsible fashion. Dur-
ing that time, we even had the whole camp sit in judgment of a camper who
broke discipline and left camp without permission to go to a dance in a nearby
hotel.
The age range of the first season in Accord was probab1y older than
any of the subsequent seasons. There was quite a large proportion of chaverim
who had completed their preparatory training and were awaiting aliya certifi-
cates.
The first Accord Kvutza was also rich in adventures. There is a limit
to the punishment which even a secondhand army tent can take from the ele-
ments, so it was not surprising when occasionally a tent was blown down.
This was taken in stride. But one stormy late afternoon, when the velocity of
the wind was of hurricane proportion and the rain came down in sheets, the
camp found itself without a single tent standing and without a place for the
campers to sleep. If ever the spirit of the camp was manifest, it was during
27
THE BEGINNING
this emergency. All the campers, with the exception of a few, were transferred
to a nearby hotel. By the time the exodus began, the brook had overflowed its
bank and the water covered the bridge. The taller and older chaverim had to
carry the younger ones, especially the haverot, on their backs to the other side.
The few that remained on the camp grounds tried as best they could to sleep
on the tables in the dining room. However, the roof leaked, and no matter
which way one turned, he got wet. But this did not diminish the spirit of those
who remained behind.
One vividly recalls the morning after-the sky was overcast, our cloth-
ing was soaked, and we were all sleepy, wet, and cold to the marrow. We
emerged from the dining room and began a snake dance to the tune of Cho-
pin's Funeral March. As soon as the sun came out, the tents were put up
again, the cots and all the possessions of the campers were put out to dry. The
advice of the good people around to break up camp was not heeded. In retros-
pect, this experience became a highlight of that camping season.
One would like to characterize some of the campers but that would
take too much space and would be unfair to those not mentioned. It is perhaps
not an exaggeration to say that more campers of this first group went to Eretz
Yisrael than of any other group since. Many have made their mark in Eretz
Yisrael as chalutzim and leaders in the Labor Movement.
Mention should be made of the contribution to the camping expe-
rience of Rachel Siegel and Leah Brown, our cooks, who not only saw to it
that the food was adequate and wholesome, but by their presence, lent dignity
to the camp and helped to establish the reliability of Camp Kvutza in the
minds of our senior haverim.
The first season of Accord was the proving ground for the concept of
a camp run by youth for youth. It pointed the way toward self-discipline and
self-government, and it proved that a camp of this kind lends itself to the pur-
28
suit of serious study of the ideology, history, and problems of the organiza-
tion, while giving the campers a practical demonstration of communal living.
The basic idea of the camp was that no member of the staff was paid
or received any other special consideration outside of the authority deserved
for good leadership. It was most gratifying when months after the close of the
first season, participants got together to evaluate their achievements and to
speak of their experience with a yearning and nostalgia of summer months
well spent.
Most of the campers attended the Young Poale Zion convention in
Philadelphia, held immediately after the close of the season on the Labor Day
weekend. It was mainly due to their stand and influence that this convention
decided upon the reorganization of the Young Poale Zion, to introduce tzofiut,
and to lay the groundwork for what later became Habonim.
Jacob Lemberger, 1957
29
Growth of an Idea
GROWTH OF AN IDEA
"KVUTZA" AND KVUTZA
Probably the query most frequently flung at me during my sojourn in
our Kvutzot was: "Is a Kvutza in Eretz Yisrael really like this?" The answer
was awaited anxiously, as if final judgment would be pronounced by the
words "yes" or "no." Both the question and the intense anxiety for a positive
answer represent, from the educational viewpoint, a triumph for our idea;
therein is contained the keen desire to realize personally, in as great a measure
as possible, those ideals which motivate our movement.
The differences between a Kvutza in Eretz Yisrael and our summer
Kvutzot are quite evident; yet one is surprised to what a great extent the es-
sence of Kvutza life is retained, though expressed in different forms. For what
are the great values introduced by and embodied in our Kvutzot in Eretz Yi-
srael? The mutual relationships between haverim; the responsibility which the
individual feels to the group, which makes him place all his ability at the dis-
posal of the group without measuring how much he receives in return; the true
equality which arises not from an abstract philosophical belief that all men are
equal, but from a heartfelt recognition of the value of one's haverim. All these
are expressed through communal living, communal labor, play, study, worry,
and joy.
This attitude toward one's fellow men is the essential ethical motif in
our educational program and represents the only true socialist mentality.
However, attitudes and states of mind are not created by speeches and lectures
and discussions. These instrumentalities are limited in scope. They can indoc-
trinate a theoretical acknowledgment of what should be. They cannot put what
should be into being. Deeper emotions must be stirred, deeper roots must be
sought, one's entire personality must be overhauled, and no number of meet-
ings in the city can accomplish this. One can master the art of living together
only by living together. That true comradeship, that true self-esteem and es-
32
teem of others, does not arise from common outlooks on the paths to be taken,
but from following those paths in common.
What are meetings?
They signify that all present have come from different directions,
meet temporarily, and then all return to their respective different places. In the
Kvutza, one does not meet with another, one lives with another. Thus our
education, which aims at creating an individual who will not only have defi-
nite ideals but also realize them, cannot be complete without the Kvutza.
Sleeping with one's comrades in tents pitched with one's own hands-eating
food prepared and served through one's own labor-learning some important
fact about Jewish life one hour and the next chopping wood or playing ball
with the same comrades-spending rainy nights on night watch, guarding the
health of others-enjoying starry evenings of collective singing and group
dancing the sum of all these moments which make up Camp Kvutza life is
that self-discipline, self-reliance, and the consideration for the welfare of oth-
ers which years of preaching could never develop.
Ben Zion Ilan, 1937
A DECADE OF EXPERIENCE IN
COOPERATIVE JEWISH CAMPING
Modern educational camping has increasingly emphasized experience
in creative group living and learning. The objective is not only to provide a
change of physical environment and healthful recreation. The camp setting
provides the opportunity to help the camper increase his range of interests,
knowledge and skills, develop socialized attitudes and patterns of behavior,
and in general, to enrich his personality. Jewish camps conducted under
communal or semi-communal auspices have sought, in addition, to provide
33
GROWTH OF AN IDEA
Jewish educational experiences, conceiving their work as an extension of the
program of Jewish group work agencies in the city.
This paper describes a type of Jewish camping program which at-
tempts to apply this philosophy and technique of educational camping, and at
the same time, to provide satisfying and creative Jewish experiences. These
camps, known as Camp Kvutza, have a ten-year history under the auspices of
the Labor Zionist Youth Organization, Habonim. Modeled after the Eretz Yi-
srael collective settlements, the camps are the extension as well as the annual
climax of the Habonim program.
Educational Objectives of Habonim

In order to properly understand the motivation and character of Camp
Kvutza, is essential to know something about the aims of Habonim, which
caters to young people of the age level of 14 to 21. These aims were formu-
lated at the 1940 convention of Habonim as follows:
As an educational youth movement aiming to develop within its ranks
haverim who shall in their own lives realize its aims, Habonim has the follow-
ing purposes:
1. To strengthen the bonds between American Jewry and Eretz Yi-
srael, and actively to support the rebuilding of the Jewish National Home.
2. To train young Jews to become halutzim. in Eretz Yisrael and, as
members of the Histadrut Haovdim (General Federation of Jewish Labor of
Eretz Yisrael), to create a cooperative Jewish Commonwealth.
3. To prepare young Jews for" participation in the upbuilding of a
new social order throughout the world, based on the principles of economic
and political democracy.
34
4. To educate young Jews toward the revitalization of traditional Jew-
ish values; for the study of Jewish life, history, and culture; toward a feeling
of identification with the Jewish rights everywhere.
5. To prepare young Jews for the defense of Jewish rights every-
where.
6. To prepare young Jews for active participation in American Jewish
community life.
The reader must not overlook the importance of the words, "who shall
in their own lives realize its aims." This is a central concept in the educational
program of the movement. At Camp Kvutza, Habonim members live accord-
ing to the principles they have been studying and, in a sense, test their validi-
ty.
Principles of Camp Program

Although all the camps are the expression of a similar social and edu-
cational outlook, it does not follow that they are identical in character. Differ-
ences exist which are based on local circumstances, physical environment,
and personnel. Each camp has developed in time a distinctive character. Thus,
where a camp is located on rented property, it is deemed inadvisable to put
too much effort into construction projects. The vegetable garden is a bigger
undertaking in California than in Winnipeg for obvious climatic reasons. Ex-
perimentation in methods and program materials varies with the personal pre-
dilections of the camp leaders. In one camp there may be more free choice of
activity than in another. The Montreal camp, for instance, reflects the Yiddish
school influences under which the campers live during the year.
Nevertheless, the camps conform within the limits indicated to certain prin-
ciples and patterns. Equality of all persons in the camp is a cardinal principle.
The camp director enjoys no privileges not available to the youngest camper.
35
GROWTH OF AN IDEA
Neither is he exempt from any of the chores which are a part of the mainten-
ance of the camp. In keeping with the practice of the collectives and coopera-
tives in Eretz Yisrael, an effort is made to have no hired labor in camp. The
staff and leaders are all members of the organization who contribute their ser-
vices and regard themselves as members of the camp community. Exceptions
are made when it is not possible to secure the services of a competent physi-
cian or nurse or when, on rare occasions, a cook has to be engaged. Workmen
are also hired when, particularly at the establishment of a new site, it is im-
practical to rely entirely on the campers to build the necessary structures.
Self-government is a third basic principle. The regular camp meetings
discuss administrative problems, programs, and daily routine, and elect vari-
ous committees which are responsible for specific phases of camp life. The
executive committee meets often with the director and staff members to act
upon various problems. Disciplinary cases which are not easily adjusted may
be brought to the attention of the designated committee. The functions of the
staff members and leaders are to direct the educational activities -the discus-
sion and study groups, the singing, dramatics, reading circles, arts and crafts,
scoutcraft, nature study, and sports.
Staff and Organization

Before any Camp Kvutza opens for the summer, considerable prepa-
rations have to be made. A camp committee is established by the local organi-
zation. Where several cities in a region cooperate in conducting a camp, such
committees are established in each community and contacts are made by cor-
respondence and personal visits by their members. Representatives of Habo-
nim and the adult Labor Zionist organizations constitute the committees. The
committees assist in raising funds, recruiting campers, purchasing food
staples, and in other ways. The local Habonim take the initiative in all this
36
work and carry the burden of responsibility. They determine the fees to be
charged and establish the differential in tuition as between members and
nonmembers of the organization. Campers may register for varying periods,
the minimum being two weeks.
Prior to the arrival of the first group of campers, an advance crew ar-
rives at camp to prepare for the opening of the season. This is a group of
members who generally remain as staff members and leaders. They open the
buildings, set up the tents, clear the grounds, repair the plumbing, and get the
camp generally ready. No attempt is made to do a complete job of renovation,
as one of the major activities of camp is to carry forward the program of im-
proving facilities, enlarging the camp, putting up new structures, and beautify-
ing the grounds. In addition, the advance crew spends the evenings outlining
plans for the summer, outlining projects, and preparing for the discussions and
activities they will conduct.
With the arrival of the campers, the full program is initiated. At a
meeting of the entire camp, the director or an experienced camper outlines the
purposes of Camp Kvutza and indicates some of the specific objectives for the
summer. The executive committee is elected, its responsibilities and functions
are discussed, and the various functional committees are named.
In speaking of staff and leaders, it is necessary to bear in mind that we
are considering here individuals generally much younger than their "opposite
numbers" in other camps, both communal and private. The year-round pro-
gram of the Habonim organization provides for the continual preparation of
members for or leaders of groups of younger children. It is very general, then,
to find, both in the cities and in the camps, boys and girls taking responsibility
for the leadership of groups of younger children. These leaders are themselves
active members of groups of their own age at the same time that they are lead-
ing the younger children.
37
GROWTH OF AN IDEA
Work Projects
Some aspects of the camp program and some of the "institutions"
which have developed in the course of years merit detailed description.
Work projects are a consistent feature of every Camp Kvutza. The na-
ture of these projects varies, as has been suggested, with the local circums-
tances. In the kitchen work, the cook, who is usually a member of an adult
Labor Zionist group, is assisted by campers, designated daily by the commit-
tee in charge of assigning individuals to various tasks. The campers help pre-
pare meals, wait on tables, and clean up after meals. In the process they learn
menu planning, some elements of nutrition, and problems involved in main-
taining the camp within budgetary limits. No one at camp is exempt from tak-
ing his or her turn at this work. The maintenance of the grounds, buildings,
and tents is likewise the responsibility of the campers.
Building projects are planned and executed sometimes within one
season, and in some cases, over a period of years. This phase of the program
has been one of the most fruitful sources of creative expression. There have
been instances where it was necessary to curb the eagerness of the campers to
devote themselves to work projects to the virtual exclusion of other activities.
This has been particularly true where the camp was established on a new site
and had to be built "out of nothing." Using hired workmen only where the
tasks made this unavoidable, trees have been cut down, ground cleared and
ploughed, and buildings erected.
In a four-week period one summer at Kinneret in Michigan, the group
finished waterproofing the roof of the dining room and kitchen, dug a tile tun-
nel for the water pump, put up screens and shutters on the doors and windows
of the dining room, built shelves and drawers for kitchen equipment. The girls
painted the dining room and screens. The following year they added a shower
house, new tent platforms, sheds to cover the pump and washing machine (the
38
campers conducted a cooperative laundry), new garbage pits, and the begin-
ning of a storage bin. The greatest adventure was that of "bringing light to
Kinneret." Five trees were cut down, trimmed, painted and erected so that
electric cables could be drawn from the nearest sources of power. The com-
plete electrification job was done and celebrated late in the summer when the
lights were turned on in the dining room, shower house, and recreation hall
with impressive ceremonies.
I have watched the camp at Killingworth, Connecticut, acquire an en-
larged dining room, infirmary, shower house, log bridge and dam over a
stream which fed the swimming pool, an outdoor amphitheater dug out of a
low hill and furnished with a stage platform, and the beginnings of a small
building intended for use by activity groups in bad weather. All this was done
in addition to clearing two large wooded areas to accommodate the tents.
This emphasis on work has several motivations. It is an end in itself
inasmuch as it fills immediate needs and serves to beautify the camp. The
campers acquire considerable information and numerous skills. Moreover, it
serves to inculcate in the campers a positive attitude toward work and collec-
tive self-sufficiency. It is a real-life demonstration of the values inherent in
socially useful labor.
In recent years, efforts have been made to introduce gardening with
varying success. Girls have taken to this activity particularly. The advance
crew usually prepares the soil and plants a variety of vegetables which mature
during July and August. During the weeks of camp, the produce from the gar-
den is used in the kitchen. In some of the camps, the practice has developed to
sell produce to visitors, the income being contributed to the Jewish National
Fund. During the 1942 season, interest in gardening was heightened by asso-
ciating this activity with the need for maximum food in this country.
39
GROWTH OF AN IDEA
Study Activities
The casual visitor to any Camp Kvutza would probably be struck by
the amount of time devoted to more or less formal study. Definite periods are
set aside for this in the daily schedule, but an atmosphere of purposeful learn-
ing permeates the camp at all times. The subject matter, derived from the ba-
sic aims of Habonim, covers a wide range of topics of Jewish and general in-
terest. Group discussion is the dominant method, with projects involving re-
lated activities being used to a fair degree, particularly among the younger age
groups. Talks by visitors from nearby communities, representatives of the
Eretz Yisrael Labor Movement, and staff members serve frequently as points
of departure for discussions. Reading of relevant materials goes on simulta-
neously.
The topics range from the aims and organizational forms of Habonim,
to the causes of war and the prospects for permanent peace, from vocational
problems of American Jewish youth, to the effect of rainfall on the economy
of Eretz Yisrael. Groups have discussed and read about Jewish historical sub-
jects, anti-Semitism, problems of Jewish adjustment, Jewish community or-
ganization, personalities from Jewish and Socialist history, "famous un-
knowns," phases and problems of life in Eretz Yisrael, Jewish migrations and
refugees, the Bible and modern Jewish literature, and elements of Socialism.
The subjects keep changing as events suggest the timeliness of various prob-
lems. At the end of the 1939 season, when war was imminent in Europe, long
and personalized discussions as to the implications of the war took place in all
camps.
Observance of Shabbat
Much attention has been focused upon the observance of Shabbat,
holidays, and special occasions. Here the emphasis is on creating new forms
40
of observance which will give meaning and significance to the holidays, and
which will be emotionally and aesthetically satisfying. Considerable success
has been achieved in this area. The Friday evening at Camp Kvutza is the
highlight of the week. Preparations for Shabbat go on all day. Camp is
cleaned up, laundry is done, the dining room is furnished with fresh flowers
and ferns, tables are covered with white table cloths, and a special menu is
prepared. The ceremonies may begin at flag-lowering, and continue in the
dining room before and after the meal. The use of the traditional Kiddush has
spread in recent years, symptomatic of the swing back from an earlier rejec-
tion in radical Jewish circles of all that smacks of the old and "outworn."
Groups have prepared special readings from the Bible and the Prophets, and
from their extensive repertoire of Hebrew and Yiddish songs, they have
drawn those which lit particularly the spirit of Shabbat. Specific themes may
be used as the foci of the program, and when this is done the first hint may
well appear in the blessing of the candles. These ceremonials, being original,
give to the observance a spontaneity which is so often lacking where the tradi-
tional orthodox customs are practiced. At the same time, they do not stiffer
from that coldness and remoteness which so often characterize the reformist
or "non-sectarian" services in vogue in many Jewish camps.
After the meal the singing normally continues, with or without choral
group to provide direction. There may be also a story or brief talk on a subject
related to Shabbat. Invariably, the evening closes with folk dancing in the
open or in the cleared dining room.
On Saturday, all work projects are in abeyance. The day is characte-
rized by more leisure, reading circles, discussions of current events, sports
and swimming for longer periods than usual. Some experiments have been
made with developing new forms for Saturday morning and with the Havdala
41
GROWTH OF AN IDEA
services at sunset. The Saturday night campfire, where the diary of the week
is reviewed, has become a traditional event.
Other Celebrations
The anniversaries of Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionism,
and Hayim Nahman Bialik, the Hebrew poet, which occur during the summer,
are observed regularly with special programs. Tisha B'Av (Ninth of Av-date
of the destruction of the Temple), too, is observed, and here the tendency to
create new ways of observing old holy days finds expression. In all the camps,
breakfast is foregone on Tisha B'Av, and the money normally spent on the
meal is contributed to the Jewish National Fund. The effect of such practices
is illustrated in the incident reported from Los Angeles where, after the cam-
pers had debated the question of having breakfast or not, it was decided that
"only the solelim (the youngest children) were to have some fruit juice. This
was on Monday. On Tuesday the solelim rebelled. They refused to drink their
juice."
Reflecting their interest in the general struggle for human freedom
and civil rights, it is interesting to note that some camps have observed the
anniversary of the martyrdom of Sacco and Vanzetti.
The Common Fund

One of the most radical features of Camp Kvutza is the elimination of
"private capital." In keeping with the principle of collective living, the camps
have always emphasized the concept of keeping all campers and staff on an
equal basis with respect to money. This has not been achieved without some
difficulty, and every year, each camp takes up anew the question as to how to
operate the common fund. The educational value of the discussions is ob-
vious, involving as they do questions of equality, individual rights, group re-
42
sponsibility for the individual, means of curbing excessive demands, and the
like. The common fund generally functions as follows: All money in the pos-
session of the campers and staff members is placed in a common fund admi-
nistered by a committee. All requests for supplies such as stamps, stationary,
tooth brushes, and combs are placed with the committee which fills the orders
as the finances permit. No accounts are kept of what campers give or get.
Where a request is considered to be out of line with the budget or unjustifiable
for any other reason, the committee advises the camper accordingly, at the
same time enabling him to defend his request if he wishes to do so. The only
exception to this general practice is made in situations where the camper de-
posits with the committee some money to be kept for his return home.
Experience has varied. As indicated, the common fund is not insti-
tuted without prior discussion and acceptance, frequently over the objections
of a minority. Occasionally, difficulties arise, particularly with non-members
of Habonim or with new campers. On the whole, however, it has been ac-
cepted and has worked out very satisfactorily. Where it includes the agree-
ment to share among the entire camp all foods and candy sent to individual
campers, the troublesome problems associated with these gifts, problems fa-
miliar to all camp directors, are virtually non-existent. How well it has been
accepted by the campers is illustrated in the anecdote about the boy who, in a
discussion as to whether or not there should be a common fund, asked: "If we
don't have one, how will we be able to get stamps and batteries?"
After ten years Camp Kvutza has remained true to its original prin-
ciples. Those who have been identified with it from the beginning have grown
with their experiences and have demonstrated the soundness of the theories
with which they began to work. (A goodly number of former campers are now
living in collective settlements in Eretz Yisrael, or, as members of the Ameri-
can Hehalutz, are being trained in agriculture or trades for settlement there.)
43
GROWTH OF AN IDEA
The camps remain physically primitive and unadorned, small tent villages
with a few "communal" structures, so that the pioneering spirit may not be
lost. Camp Kvutza is the climax of an organic educational experience, form-
ing a part of a continuous year-round program of a youth movement, rather
than a single -unrelated event in the life of a boy or a girl. The emphasis con-
tinues to be on translating into personal experience the concepts of individual
and social living of the movement and on providing a wholesome and stimu-
lating Jewish environment. Through such experience the campers learn how
satisfying and enriching a cooperative society can be. Concurrently they ac-
quire information and emotional attitudes toward their Jewish heritage and
contemporary Jewish life which help to make of them healthy mid creative
Jewish personalities.
Abraham Cohen, 1943
44
Y.P.Z.A. Convention, Buffalo, 1935, where decision was made to form Habonim.
Hora, Shabbat, Highland Mills, N.Y., 1932.
Rachel Siegal, Golda Meir, Jacob

Lemberger, Leah Brown, Ralph
Cohen, and Izzy Shapiro, Accord,
1933.
Campfire, first Kvutza, Highland Mills, N.Y., 1932.
Campers at first Kvutza, Highland Mills, N.Y.,

Jacob Katzman and Leo Krown at 1932.
Accord.
Ready for overnight hike, Accord, 1936.
Visitors at Accord, 1939. Left to

right, an unidentified woman, Leah
Goldberg, Hayim Greenberg, Judy
Goldberg, Arthur Goldberg, Rufus
Learsi, Mr. Greyer, Kalman
Whiteman.
The Camp at Hachshara, 1935.

Ben Zion Ilan leading a
discussion.
Parents Day at Kinneret, 1941.
Kvutza truck, Accord.

Washday at Accord.
Outdoor discussion, Accord, 1935.
Campers, Accord, 1935.
Waterfalls, Accord, N.Y.

THE MEANING OF KVUTZA
Camp Kvutza is our way of making the ideas we have developed and
the ideals in which we believe real for ourselves and for the haverim whom
we lead.
We believe in the right of man to be free as an individual. In specific
terms, this means that we want to develop an individual who is awake and
sensitive to his world, who dares to participate in every phase of its life, and
who creates within himself a force that drives him on to self-realization. In
other words, he is a young Jew who understands what is happening to his
people in an alien world and, because of the sensitivity within himself, takes
part in the renaissance of his people. His participation in this renaissance be-
comes the foremost factor in his life as an individual.
We believe in the right of an entire people to be free as a group. Were
we to believe only in man's right to be a free individual, we would choose
other avenues than Zionism on which to live. But it is because we believe in
the value and the necessity for national living that we are Zionists. We fami-
liarize our haverim with our historical past; we interpret our present struggle;
and we point the way to return to nationhood as our only means of survival
and our way of participating in the further development of our people and of
society.
We believe that there must evolve a new society of cooperation where
mankind will develop new values. When we speak of new society and new
values, we are not dreamers after Utopia, but followers after the pattern of life
being created now in Eretz Yisrael. In the new society that we seek to create,
we try to erase the narrow concept of "me and mine," that concept which
makes man struggle to fill his pockets so that he and his small family may
enjoy the fruits of the world. In the place of this narrow view of life, we
would implant a concern for mankind, for our people, for all individuals. And
49
GROWTH OF AN IDEA
this concern would be demonstrated in our economic, cultural, and social
selves. We seek to take the word equality off the lips of our haverim, and put
it in their hearts and in their way of living. Equality must be expressed in
every phase of life economic, political, religious, social; otherwise there is no
equality. This equality and this concern for mankind will become real only
when man is judged by his selfless contribution to society, and only when he
is a laborer for the improvement of that society.
In order to translate these ideas into human living, we must educate
an entire generation of Jewish youth along new lines of thinking and acting.
Discussion is an important part of education, but living is by far the greater
teacher. In Camp Kvutza we live our ideals.
Individual Development at Kvutza

Haverim who come to Kvutza must create the Kvutza. That is our
best way of developing the new individual. Even before he sees the site, our
haver must be made to feel that he is going out on a pioneering adventure to
work out a way of life with a group of boys and girls his own age. While still
in the city, he should become a part of Kvutza. If he is a responsible boneh, he
should have a part in the actual planning of construction, food and equipment
purchasing, and educational programs. If he is too young for this, he should
bear witness to all the excitement of preparation, help to raise funds, prepare
himself to go to Kvutza. Once at Kvutza, everyone must be made to have an
interest in every phase of the day's activity: work, study, development of crea-
tive interests such as, scouting, dramatics, music, art, photography, crafts, and
sports. Everyone must become interested in the management of Kvutza: the
government, discipline and attitudes of the little community, management of
the kitchen, appearance and cleanliness of the settlement. Unless the individu-
50
al is part of the day's activity, we will fail in our attempt to develop him into
the person we want.
Our aims for the haver who participates in Kvutza may be summed up
as follows:
1. To learn to live with a large group of individuals;
2. To deal with the problems of life in a group through the creation of a
society based on equality and cooperation;
3. To understand the significance of being pioneers in a new form of liv-
ing;
4. To experience, through discussion and dramatics, through special pro-
grams and in daily living, the life-struggle of our people today;
5. To know that the future of our people depends on "me, the individual"
and to be so challenged as to take upon himself the task of realizing that
future.
The Madrich of Kvutza

Upon the madrich rests the Kvutza. He will create the atmosphere and
the spirit; he will develop-or fail to develop-all the individuals who come to
Kvutza. If his role is important in the city, it is absolutely vital in the Kvutza.
For in the city, the madrich sees his haverim only once or twice a week, but at
Kvutza he is with them during all their waking and sleeping hours. Now there
are no "company manners" between them. Now there is only day-by-day liv-
ing.
The madrich must come to Kvutza prepared for his duties. If possible,
he should be ready with his discussion material, games, songs, and rainy-day
activities. At the very least, he must be prepared with the proper attitude. For
no one in Kvutza is on a vacation; it is our training ground for the tomorrow
51
GROWTH OF AN IDEA
of our people. The madrich directs the training. He faces a serious task, and
only one who understands the responsibility should be entrusted with it.
Exactly what is his responsibility? First, he is responsible for the
physical well-being of his haverim. He sees that they sleep enough, eat
enough, keep themselves and their sleeping quarters clean. Second, he is re-
sponsible for their psychological well-being. He helps them adjust to their
surroundings, promotes friendly relations among them, wins their confi-
dences, and spends many hours in just speaking with them about all the big
problems we face together and all their personal problems. Third, be is re-
sponsible for their development as individuals. He explains Kvutza and
people to them; he draws them into every activity; he discovers their hidden
talents and interests; he makes them aware of the role they play in their group.
The madrich must be wide awake. He must foresee problems before
his youngsters create them so that he can divert energies to other channels. He
must be a good pal and know how to have f un with them. At the same time,
lie, must know how to put across his way of thinking and the desired way of
acting.
Freedom with a Pattern

Herein lies a real problem for all madrichim. How far can we go in al-
lowing the haverim of Camp Kvutza to go their own way in managing Kvut-
za? Will we create any sins against progressive education and against individ-
ual freedom if we guide all activities and if we are, at times, "firm" in stating
our point of view?
The rosh of every Kvutza, together with the madrichim, must under-
stand that Kvutza is not merely an educational experiment. We do not bring
together a group of youngsters, turn them loose, and then, with notebook in
hand, write up our scientific observations. The luxury of experiments in edu-
52
cation for their own sake we must leave for people more fortunate than we.
We are trying to "turn men into a nation and sand into a country." Camp
Kvutza is our instrument for inspiring and remaking individual young Jewish
lives. We want our youngsters to create their summer Kvutza because that is
the way to teach them that they must build the real Kvutza in Eretz Yisrael.
Kvutza must be a symbol to us-a symbol that we will eventually make real.
That symbol and its realization are the prime forces behind Kvutza.
The rosh and madrichim must keep them in mind always. No amount of
"freedom" is real or desirable if it destroys our Kvutza spirit or discolors our
Kvutza design. Staying awake until all hours of the night is ruinous to health
and humor-it is not freedom. Failure to participate in discussions, in work, in
any group activity, is not freedom but a weakening of Kvutza spirit.
The rosh and madrichim are entrusted with young lives and young
minds; they are likewise entrusted with a great responsibility to the Labor
Zionist movement. Let them not be frightened by terms or by name-calling.
Our only sin can be the failure to make Kvutza what it must be: a pattern of
life for our haverim.
An Orderly Society
Kvutza must be an orderly society. Haverim must live on schedule.
Rising, meals, the day's program-all must add up to steady living. The pro-
gram should be full so that haverim know that one activity follows another
regularly. We need this for the education as well as for the spirit of the Kvut-
za. A day filled with activity, each thing in its place, goes far toward creating
the orderly society, but more is needed to make this orderliness complete. The
appearance of Kvutza must be orderly-clean grounds, clean buildings that are
nicely decorated, neat haverim. There should be clean-up committees of cam-
pers; other institutions may be created to assist in the order of the Kvutza or in
53
GROWTH OF AN IDEA
the handling of haverim who refuse to be a part of the general orderliness. The
better the madrich, the fewer problems will arise. Insofar as possible, all these
problems should be settled between the madrich and the individual concerned
through talks. No general rule may be given for "order" or "discipline," since
each case and the individuals concerned must be considered.
Setting Goals
Each Kvutza is a reflection of the city from which its people come.
Poor enrollment of movement members, poor participation, lack of under-
standing of Kvutza, lack of discipline, a broken common fund-these reflect
the city activities. Therefore, it cannot be stressed too much: Prepare your
members for Kvutza.
Summer Kvutza can do much, not only for the development of our
haverim individually, but beyond that and greater than that, Kvutza should
develop the machaneh. Before going out to Kvutza, rosh and madrichim
should have discussions oil the weaknesses and strengths of the machaneh and
its needs. From these discussions, should come the specific aims of that Kvut-
za for the season. Thus there will be an understanding among those who will
lead the Kvutza, as well as a goal toward which they will work.
For example, the machaneh in which I am now living has chosen its
Kvutza committee; with this committee I have had one discussion from which
we concluded:
1. Our machaneh has expanded rapidly so that only about half of our have-
rim have been to Kvutza and have an understanding of the movement.
Therefore, our first aim for Kvutza is to integrate these new haverim in-
to the movement.
2. Our machaneh has a good group of Kvutza "veterans." They are actual-
ly the "backbone" of the machaneh. Our second aim of Kvutza is to
54
prepare these sixteen-year-old “veterans" to assume, wherever neces-
sary, complete leadership within the Kvutza and within the machaneh.
This year, like last, our movement faces a serious lack of leadership
for our summer Kvutzot. This will mean that all who are madrichim must be-
come well acquainted with the objectives of Kvutza before they go, must
think a great deal about Kvutza as an educational institution and as a symbol,
and must prepare as much as possible for the season.
With our awareness of what is happening to our people in Europe and
in Eretz Yisrael, we become more certain that we will face still greater re-
sponsibilities in the movement here and abroad. Therefore, our haverim must
feel that in Kvutza they are undergoing training for their role tomorrow.
Miriam Biderman, 1935
COMING OF AGE
The thirteenth consecutive year of Habonim summer camping has
rolled around. We have been so occupied in actually preparing for Kvutza, so
immersed in the every-day workings, worries, and business of the camp, that
we have hardly had time to notice the years creeping up on us. It was only
when I sat down and began to count that I suddenly realized, to my amaze-
ment, that Bar Mitzva is upon us. For although thirteen years is a relatively
short period of time in the life of an individual, at that age, an institution such
as camp is considered old and established, entitled to a sedate, thoughtful, and
talkative "Bar Mitzva dinner."
What have we accomplished in these thirteen summers? What institu-
tions can we point to? What have we established, created, contributed? The
first Habonim Camp Kvutza was started thirteen years ago, even before the
official beginning of Habonim as an organization, by a small group of stub-
born young people who were dissatisfied with Jewish summer camping as
55
GROWTH OF AN IDEA
they knew it. They felt it was too occupied with trivialities, gave too little
room for the expression of the creative abilities of campers, and paid too little
attention to intelligent discussion and teaching of Jewish attitudes and herit-
age. They had the impudence to believe that they could operate a camp which
could change these things, change them for the better.
They decided to devote some time each day to discussion of Jewish
current affairs, Jewish history, Jewish problems. They decided that they, the
campers, should work several hours a day in and about the camp. They felt
that the camp should be run democratically with each camper having a choice
in decisions affecting programs and work. They were determined that the spi-
rit of modern Eretz Yisrael should permeate the camp. They called the camp
"Kvutza."
Today, thirteen years later, Habonim is operating eight summer
camps throughout the United States and Canada, and preparing to operate
nine next summer, as it did last. Whereas thirteen years ago the first campers
"squatted" on a piece of land loaned to them, we now own all but one of our
camps, and are constantly expanding our facilities. Whereas thirteen years ago
there was a group of some ten to fifteen campers, we now have an average of
1,400 or more each summer. Whereas thirteen years ago all the principles
listed above were dreams-according to some, dreams incapable of realization-
today they are part and parcel, in a highly developed form, of our camping
system.
Today Camp Kvutza is integrally bound up with the life blood of Ha-
bonim as a movement. It is undoubtedly the strongest educational instrument
which we have succeeded in developing. It is almost a truism that those cities
which have a good Camp Kvutza in the vicinity have the strongest, most alert,
most Jewish-conscious and responsible Habonim groups. We have found no
better way to develop youth toward an intelligent understanding of Zionism
56
than the twenty-four-hour-a-day, two-month living course presented by Camp
Kvutza.
Despite our realization of these things, we are reticent about pointing
to our accomplishments. There are several reasons for this. By their very na-
ture our camps become institutionalized according to a given pattern. The na-
ture of our purpose makes for an extremely high rate of change and adaption
to circumstance. The fact that we are interested in retaining a permanent hold
on the camper through the year as well as in the summer months, that we want
him to assume responsibility, to become vitally concerned with our problems,
conditions the type of camp we have.
We cannot, like others, be concerned simply with supplying a staff for
our camps. Our staff must consist of a certain type of individual, with a cer-
tain type of background, and with roots in Habonim. Thus we have been hit
more than ordinary camps by the current war situation. The eighteen- and ni-
neteen-year-old haverim who would normally assume positions of leadership
are to a large extent unavailable. The fifteen- and sixteen-year-olds who in the
normal course of events would not be groomed for leadership and responsibil-
ity have been forced to become the physical and intellectual core of Kvutza,
and it is increasingly difficult for even them to devote themselves to camp.
Programs have to be adjusted to their level of preparation. New systems for
activity have to be worked out. Ways must be found to draw them actively
into the cause which circumstance dictates they must fight for though they be
unprepared.
The inner strength of our camps is showing itself in the way this crisis
is being met. Perhaps it is because younger people all over are becoming ac-
customed to a greater degree of responsibility; perhaps it is because to an in-
creasing extent they are concerning themselves with problems which have
hitherto been considered the domain of their elders. Whatever the reasons, our
57
GROWTH OF AN IDEA
younger haverim have reacted in a way which leaves no doubt as to the future
of Habonim camping. We have continued to develop during the last two diffi-
cult summers. Three new permanent sites have been acquired, camps are be-
ing expanded, new ideas are being contributed, plans for new camps are under
serious consideration.
So far, so good. All that I have mentioned can definitely be consi-
dered on the credit side of the Camp Kvutza ledger. But there is another angle
from which the whole picture can be viewed. Given the conviction that Camp
Kvutza is a good instrument for the advancement of our approach to Jewish
life, have we exploited as fully as we could have and should have? Have we
succeeded in getting the Labor Zionist movement as a whole to recognize it
and actively support it? Have we succeeded in bringing it to the attention of
the Jewish public as a whole?
The answers to these questions are doubtful. We have encountered
many problems along these lines and to this day, we have not succeeded in
completely solving them. In some cities Kvutza is the summer camp of our
entire movement, receiving enthusiastic backing of all its segments. In others,
the Labor Zionist movement as a whole has failed to recognize its value and
gives it no more than perfunctory backing. In others, there exists no Kvutza
because the movement there has failed to become enthusiastic enough about it
to undertake the establishment of one.
On the other band, in those places where the senior movement has be-
come interested, other ticklish problems arise. The extent to which Habonim
should actually run the camp, the advisability of younger people being en-
trusted with financial and physical responsibility for what in some cases is a
big business, comes into question. We have always felt that an important ele-
ment in shaping the character and initiative of the campers would be lost were
58
these and other responsibilities removed from us and given to our senior have-
rim.
The extent to which the traditional element in Kvutza should be
stressed is something which has caused much discussion. In general, it has
been left up to the individual city to decide on this question although certain
minimum principles such as no work on Shabbat have been adopted national-
ly.
The extent to which non-members of Habonim should be permitted to
come to camp is also debatable. That non-members should attend Kvutza,
thus acquiring contact with our ideas and principles, is naturally desirable. But
it is the general feeling that their number should be limited to a certain per-
centage of the campers in order to preserve the Habonim character.
All these questions must eventually be resolved. Concerted attempts
must be made to acquire the greatest moral and material backing possible. I,
for one, am convinced that Camp Kvutza is the most powerful instrument Ha-
bonim has created for the attraction of young American Jews to its cause. It is
more powerful than city propaganda, more powerful than Hebrew schools,
and its preservation and strengthening is perhaps the greatest contribution Ha-
bonim can make to the cause of Labor Zionist youth in this country. In the
establishment of a network of twice and thrice the number of Kvutzot we now
have, lies the road to the establishment of a really alert Labor Zionist youth.
Murray Weingarten, 1944
59
GROWTH OF AN IDEA
PRINCIPLES AND PHILOSOPHY
I. Social Justice
A. Self-Labor - In Kvutza, there is never hired labor except where ne-
cessary-the cook and the nurse). The maintenance work is done by the cam-
per: kitchen duty, sanitation, cleaning, and where necessary and possible,
even construction of buildings. This is in keeping with our belief in the digni-
ty of labor and with the ideal and policy of the Histadrut - that a man must not
be exploited and that he, in turn, exploit no one.
B. Cooperative Living - In Kvutza, each camper learns to live with a
large group of individuals and to handle the problems of such a life together
with the others in a way most efficient and beneficial to the group, and at the
same time, to each individual. We have, for example, our common fund of
money and food from home. Each person at Kvutza puts in as much money as
he can and whatever food he may bring or receive from home. No individual
accounts are kept. Each person receives what he needs from the common
fund. The food is distributed equally. This is in keeping with our cooperative
ideal: from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
C. Self-Government - Here, perhaps for the first time, the haver be-
comes a full-fledged member of a community with duties, responsibilities,
and privileges that carry consequences affecting him directly. We have a
meeting of the entire camp community to discuss its philosophy, program,
needs, and ways of meeting these needs. We discuss the desires, suggestions,
and interests of the campers in regard to the Kvutza program. And we elect
our committees and our officers.
60
II. Judaism
A. We strive to develop a historical sense and an identification with
the past and present struggle of the Jewish people. The Haggada says that as
we read at the Seder Pesach of the Exodus from Egypt, we must regard it as if
we, personally, in our lives, are experiencing these things. We want to devel-
op in our people a feeling of belonging to all that ever was and is Jewish.
B. We want to develop or intensify an appreciation of the Jewish tra-
dition and a desire for participation in and perpetuation of this culture. We
approach this through our Shabbat and holiday celebrations, singing, dancing,
reading circles, Hebrew study.
C. We want to develop in Kvutza, and in our haverim through Kvut-
za, that intangible Jewish spirit-the folkways of our people. This, though it is
hardest to define in -words, is perhaps the most important part of Kvutza life.
Into this spirit goes the appreciation of the culture and tradition, the identifica-
tion with the people and its struggle, and a positive, comfortable feeling of
being Jewish.
III. Zionism
It is our purpose in Kvutza, as in our machanot, to give the haver an
intellectual understanding of Zionism and an emotional feeling of healthy na-
tionalism. We want to develop the desire to participate personally in the up-
building of Eretz Yisrael.
Camp Kvutza and the Movement

I. The Individual
A. We desire to aid each individual to become self-sufficient, to be
able to make decisions, carry responsibility, and use privileges well. We want
to make him realize his own worth, to have a healthy self-respect.
61
GROWTH OF AN IDEA
B. We strive to develop within him a community mindedness: the
ability to live within a group, to conform without losing his individuality, and
to be able to influence without becoming domineering. We want to develop
within the individual a respect and regard for his haverim in the group and a
successful method of cooperating with them for the general good.
C. We expect the haver to develop intellectually during the course of
the summer. Through self-study, discussion groups, reading circles, discus-
sions with other haverim and with madrichim, one has a real opportunity to
increase his knowledge, general and Jewish.
D. Through the achievement of all the above, a haver is more willing
and able to be active in the movement during the course of the organizational
year.
II. The Group
A. The individual and the group are closely interrelated. Every person
needs a sense of belonging. There are satisfactions which an individual cannot
obtain alone. "In unity there is strength." An individual gains significance,
courage, and stimulation in a group. In the course of such participation, his
personality develops and a socializing takes place. He develops loyalties,
group attitudes, and standards. This is especially important for us because it
makes for strong ties among members of Habonim and for cohesive groups.
B. All of the foregoing is important to the machaneh. When people
have a place in the social setup of the movement, they are more willing to de-
vote time and energy to the movement. For many of our people, Habonim
becomes the social group. Meetings, KM, and the hanhaga, become an
integral and pleasant part of their lives because it is so for their friends also.
III. The Machaneh
A. Kvutza is a stimulant to movement work -When haverim come
from Kvutza, having had a full, stimulating, and enjoyable summer, and hav-
62
ing formed strong group ties, they are usually anxious to get started on ma-
chaneh activities and have a lot to offer intellectually and spiritually.
B. Leadership qualities are developed - Through opportunities for
leadership, committee work, or simply through the group experience, many
return from Kvutza in a position to influence and lead others.
C. Kvutza offers an excellent opportunity to attract, educate and in-
duct new members.
IV. The Movement
A. The movement is strengthened by the activities and stimulation of
Camp Kvutza. "The whole is greater than its parts."
Kvutza Is a Living Community

I. Kvutza Is a Living Community
A. It is not a vacation from our "real" lives. We come together and
have an opportunity to live a portion of our lives as we believe and desire.
Kvutza is a democratic, cooperative community. The campers, madrichim,
and rosh are integral parts of this group.
B. The madrichim are perhaps the equivalent to elected officers in a
democratic society. They have been assigned their roles by virtue of their
wider experience and greater insight and understanding. This gives them a
greater responsibility to the group. Their function is within the group and not
above and outside of it.
C. The rosh, like the madrichim, is a vital part of the community. He
is responsible for Kvutza as a whole and for each of its facets. He can influ-
ence the entire atmosphere of a Camp Kvutza. It is his responsibility to be
sensitive to the needs of the Kvutza and its people, to make a quick decision
where necessary-in other words, to feel and understand the tempo of the
camp.
63
GROWTH OF AN IDEA
II. Relationships in Camp Kvutza
A. The rosh and madrichim must work closely together in order to
achieve the best possible results for the group. The relationship between rosh
and madrichim is important in forming attitudes and understanding in ma-
drich-camper relations. There is a definite carry-over of attitudes. The rosh,
however, because of his particular position, has veto power over decisions of
madrichim and campers in matters of health and safety. He also has the job of
making decisions necessary for the best functioning of the Kvutza.
B. The madrichim in a Kvutza are not counselors in the usual sense.
They are not technicians functioning in the limited sphere of their specialties.
It is in all of the madrich's behavior as a social being, in relation to all others -
madrichim and campers alike-that he influences people. The madrich that
works with a group must be part of that group. He stimulates the group and, in
turn, the group stimulates him, intellectually, socially, and in a creative man-
ner. If we are successful, we enrich our lives through this relationship.
The First Day

I. The first day of camp sets the tone for the entire period. Future relation-
ships between madrichim and campers can stem from impressions received on
the first day. The madrichim must exert every effort to make the campers feel
at home and must be with the campers every minute of the day to aid in their
personal adjustment and orientation to new faces and new surroundings.
A. The Meeting - The first meeting is the most important one of the
season. It is also one of the biggest factors in the tone and atmosphere of the
camps. This is the first community expression of the campers. There we will
determine the policy and principles of Kvutza. There we put into practice our
theory that Kvutza is a "living community.” We want the haverim to under-
stand that, though it is natural that the rosh and the youngest tzofeh are not
64
equal in influence, they are equal in right of expression. The madrichim also
are an integral part of this community meeting, with full voting rights and
complete freedom of expression.
Let us clarify the question of jurisdiction which will arise in some
form. The madrichim will deal with our general educational policy and health
and safety measures. The madrichim must have an appreciation and an under-
standing of all other camp problems.
The primary function of the general meeting, on the other hand, is to
discuss the group life-the community life such as common fund, work com-
mittee, evening programs, and daily schedule. It is clear, however, that an ex-
planation of the guiding principles of our health and safety measures is neces-
sary, that a discussion on the educational aspects of camp can be a positive
thing. If the thoughts of the campers on this aspect of camp life are feasible,
then they certainly are acceptable.
B. Common Fund - Our purpose in advocating the common fund is to
teach the first fundamental principle of a Labor Zionist life. It is not advisable,
however, to impose such a decision on Kvutza. Our job must be to educate in
such a fashion that the haverim will decide themselves that it is practical and
necessary. Our approach should be: How do you want to handle spending
money and food packages? We can get across the point that beside the educa-
tional value, it is practical, pleasurable (isn't it more fun to do things together
as friends?), and is wanted.
Educational Tools
I. We have, in our movement and in Kvutza, established certain definite
and characteristic methods of "getting things across.” We utilize the discus-
sion, the reading circle, creative group activities, and Shabbat and holiday
programs. These are our educational tools.
65
GROWTH OF AN IDEA
A. The Discussion-The discussion has traditionally been our way of
disseminating information. We have considered it our chief "tool." We realize
that informational lectures seldom move a young person or change his atti-
tudes or ideas. Our discussions have often been reduced to information-giving
periods, and only by carefully planning and preparing them, can we avoid
making lectures of the discussions. Methods that are interesting, provocative,
and attractive must be utilized.
B. The Reading Circle-The reading circle is a pliable "tool.” It can be
used in connection with the discussions, as well as independent of them
(Zionist classics, for instance). It can also be a device for transmitting certain
attitudes and feelings. As an example of this last, reading stories and poetry
from Hebrew and Yiddish literature in the original or translation may help in
developing an understanding of and feeling for the literature and folkways of
our people. In Camp Kvutza, where there are a number of Hebrew-speaking
haverim, there is certainly an opportunity for a reading in circle.
Personal Preparation
I. This coming summer, madrichim in our Kvutzot, on the average, will
be younger than ever before. In many cases, this means that the madrich will
be lacking in experience and background. We must be prepared to conduct
more extensive and intensive training in the city for our madrichim prior to
their going out to Kvutza. This can be accomplished in various ways.
A. The madrichim responsible for camp work should begin to meet
once a week. What does such a group hope to accomplish? The group should
aim to have a clear understanding of what Camp Kvutza is, how it differs
from the average camp in this country, what we hope to accomplish with our
campers, and what the ideas of Habonim are. It should aim to have an under-
66
standing of what to do with children and how to make decisions on practical
and technical problems of Kvutza.
B. This "workshop" is to serve as the instrument whereby the madri-
chim obtain basic attitudes and ideas for camp work. After concentrated dis-
cussion, the madrich should be ready for the necessary personal preparation.
Conferences with individuals and supervision of individual assignments is an
important aspect of our training. The facilities of the city can be utilized, and
various haverim can be assigned to take courses in first aid, dramatics, crafts,
carpentry, cooking, sports, swimming, office work, scoutcraft, etc. Others can
begin to think in terms of preparing for the discussion groups, evening pro-
grams, Shabbat celebrations, rainy-day programs, and the work program.
C. The "workshop" and individual preparation do not rule out the ne-
cessity for frequent meetings of all the madrichim. The following items must
be understood thoroughly:
1. Health and safety requirements and standards
2. Kitchen setup and rules
3. Daily program
4. General educational work
5. Role of the madrich in Camp Kvutza
6. Discipline
D. From the beginning we should strive to create the feeling that the
madrichim are working as a group, thrashing out plans, discussing theory and
practice, and helping establish the basic principles which govern their tasks.
The job of this group becomes increasingly important since training and su-
pervision are paramount to achieve the necessary continuity of program and
stability of approach.
Handbook for Madrichim, 1952
67
GROWTH OF AN IDEA
THE TURNING POINT
Habonim camps, at their inception, introduced new and revolutionary
methods and concepts into the field of camping generally, and Jewish camp-
ing in particular. Perhaps we, not to speak of authorities in the field of Jewish
camping, have never fully evaluated or appreciated the new and progressive
approaches we developed in our first camps. Our program was outstandingly
different from other Jewish camping programs; in most phases of camping,
we led the way and were far ahead of other camps.
Alongside the most progressive educational techniques and values,
our camps, from the physical point of view, operated on a most primitive lev-
el. Campers were generally housed in tents. Outdoor plumbing was the rule
and not the exception. Dining halls were small, kitchens totally inadequate.
There were no special facilities for infirmaries. Frequently, camps were si-
tuated in virtually inaccessible sites. There were no special technical person-
nel; an older havera with relatively limited experience might well be the cook
or nurse, and an older haver, the business manager. And no camp season was
complete without at least one good epidemic, fire, or accident, which created
the material for "chizbatim" told to this very day. In fact, the more primitive
the camp, the more enjoyable and satisfying the camp season appeared to
have been.
And, surprisingly enough, parents sent their children to such camps.
Perhaps it was that in the late thirties and early forties the Jewish community
had not as yet reached its present economic middle-class level, with corres-
ponding middle-class standards in regard to the camps. Perhaps parents-and
especially those from so-called "Jewish homes" -felt that the uniquely Jewish
content which we had to offer their children in such a creative and dynamic
manner more than offset the primitive environment to which their children
were exposed. Whatever the reason, though they complained, parents sent
68
their children to our camps, and their children returned from camp none the
worse for wear and full of enthusiasm for the type of creative Jewish camping
which they had experienced over the summer-an enthusiasm which to varying
degrees was communicated to, and shared by, the parents themselves.
Today, from the point of view of progressive educational techniques
and values, our camps are no longer unique. Every year, new camps come
into being which stress similar approaches to the very ideals in camping
which were once almost exclusively ours. For instance, one can find a stri-
kingly familiar description of a day at camp in the March 14, 1954, issue of
The Reconstructionist, in an article entitled, "At a Work Camp of the Ameri-
can Jewish Society for Service," by Hyman R. Sankel. " The day's work is
beginning ... Two boys and a girl start to saw wood for the flooring of the
house they are erecting ... Others are busily mixing mortar and cement for the
foundation of the house... Still others are digging a ditch to lay the sewer pipe.
The cement is ready. The foundation is about to be laid. Now the plumb line
and the level go into action. This is a key job, Cooperation is essential. The
camp individualist, Emanuel, cannot do the job alone. He must ask for help.
He begins to see the value of working together with his fellow camper for a
common goal." This could be a description of a very successful work project
at a Habonim camp, with its emphasis on the dignity of labor and cooperation
among men. It is actually a description of a typical "work camp" of which
there are many, ranging from agency camps, such as the one described above,
to private camps charging high tuition rates.
The monopoly we once had in the field of creative Jewish living" is
no longer ours either. Here, for example, is a description of a B'nai B'rith
camp: "The most popular of the subjects studied was the imaginary trip to
Israel . . . The children were started on this imaginary trip by applying, realis-
tically enough, for visas at the Israel Consul's office. They visited the cities,
69
GROWTH OF AN IDEA
famous settlements, and landmarks of the country. Each site was investigated
for its ancient and modern significance. When they entered the kibbutz
Yizr'el, which is on the Gilboa, f acing the Arab Triangle, they could sense
the immense drama which has taken place and is taking place around this
famous mountain . . . " While we may take pride in the fact that a B'nai B'rith
camp here employs so successfully a technique long known to Habonim, an
even more important conclusion, which can be drawn from this and other ex-
amples, is that we are no longer alone, or among the few, using the approach
to Jewish camping which such an activity typifies.
So now, in 1954, we find that we are not the only progressive Jewish
camp on the scene. On the other hand, though educationally Jewish camping
has caught up to us, technically we have failed to keep pace with the other
camps. And today, more than ever before, the Jewish parent pays increasing
attention to the physical setup of the camp to which lie sends his child; there
are so many Jewish camps from which to choose that he may well be particu-
lar as to the one he finally decides upon. The physical setup and technical
functioning of the camp finally chosen may well be the deciding factors.
Let no one conclude from my foregoing remarks that our particular
type of camping has outlived its usefulness; on the contrary, in terms of our
movement's needs, Habonim camping is as necessary and important to us as it
ever was. For in Habonim, unlike other Jewish organizations, we want to
create halutzim, and only our camps can educate towards that aim.
But one need not have a technically primitive, ill-managed camp in
order to educate towards that goal. A good madrich should be able to educate
towards the aims of Habonim in a modern, well-equipped, well-run camp as
well as, if not better than, in a primitive one; on the contrary, in a modern,
well-operated camp, the madrich has more tools and materials at his disposal
70
to aid him in his job. To defend the primitive camp on ideological terms is to
distort the entire meaning of our ideology.
The need then is to bring our camps up to date in the physical, tech-
nical, and administrative spheres so that we can once again compete with oth-
er Jewish camps and be acceptable to the modern Jewish parent, whose first
concern is with his child's health and safety.
Habonim camping is now at a crucial turning point. If we do not ad-
vance technically, a time will come when our camps will be empty. If we do
advance, as we have set out to do, we may once again find ourselves in a lead-
ing position in the field of Jewish camping in America. We must face up to
the realities of the situation and solve the problems confronting us in a re-
sponsible and mature manner.
Dex Srauss, 1954
71
History and
Development
REVIEW OF TWENTY-FIVE YEARS
It all began in 1932, with fourteen haverim in a tent, living and study-
ing together for a month. The following year, Habonim established its first
Camp Kvutza at Accord, New York. Accord stands out in the memories of all
the old-timers for its sheer physical beauty and difficult pioneering conditions.
During that first summer, the fundamentals of Camp Kvutza were developed:
1) collective-democratic living, 2) a full Jewish life, 3) self-labor.
Inspired by Accord, two more Kvutzot were opened in 1935-in Mon-
treal, and in Chicago at Camp Tel Hai. In 1936, Los Angeles had its first
camp. By 1939, Moshava (Baltimore) and Kinneret (Detroit) were founded.
Close to 1500 haverim attended the camps in 1940, and in preparation
for the 1941 season, new camps were projected for Texas and Winnipeg. The
summer Kvutza had become Habonim's most powerful and most effective
educational weapon and had also become a "big business" operation.
With the development and expansion of the camps came a need for
better planning and direction of both their educational and administrative as-
pects. As a result, the Cincinnati Habonim convention in December, 1940,
called for the organization of a Habonim Kvutza Committee. This committee
established a series of minimum requirements, began to work on the first
Kvutza Manual, and set up a systematic program for selecting the volunteers
to staff the camps.
This by no means meant that our camps were becoming standardized.
In educational methodology, they ran the gamut from experiments in Lieber-
man's Creative Camping to semi-military discipline. Only a few of the camps
were on permanent sites; most sites were rented. In many cases permission
was secured to use the site for an indefinite period of time, but there was al-
ready a feeling that means must be found of assuring permanency and conti-
nuity in the operation of our camps.
74
In 1943, Camp Avoda was operated for the first time at the Hehalutz
training farm in Creamridge, New Jersey. The objective of this experiment
was to create a positive attitude toward collective living and halutziut among
non-affiliated American Jewish youth. The primary educational factor in
Camp Avoda was its proximity to the collective group and the farm. In later
years, a number of highly successful Camp Avoda seasons were conducted at
the farms with groups drawn from within the movement.
In 1945, 1600 youngsters spent the summer at eleven camps, in Kil-
lingworth, Connecticut (for New York), Baltimore, Detroit, Chicago, Los An-
geles, Dallas, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and at Creamridge. 1946
saw perhaps one of the peak years in Habonim camping when over two thou-
sand campers attended Kvutza. Later, Philadelphia founded its own camp
(Galil). St. Louis had its Kvutza, Tel Natan, for several years, but the collapse
of the movement in the city brought about the demise of the camp as well.
New York bought a new camp site at Amenia, New York. For several seasons
this was a work camp in the process of construction.
During the years, there have been a number of significant experiments
in Habonim camping. Foremost among these was the national Hebrew camp,
Amal. Its first season in 1948 opened on a rented site in Vermont with 26
campers. At Amenia (1949) and Killingworth (1950), the camp accommo-
dated fifty campers, gained the backing of six bureaus of education in various
cities which sent scholarship students, and became established as one of the
foremost Hebrew camps in the country. Habonim was the only Zionist organ-
ization to sponsor a Hebrew camp.
Influenced and sparked by Amal alumni, in 1951, a number of inter-
esting and important Hebrew programs were planned at Kinneret and Mosha-
va. Amal itself was at Creamridge. One of the significant results of Amal has
been the proof that under proper conditions, fairly large numbers of non-
75
movement people can be attracted to our camps and integrated into the
movement. In 1952, Amal was conducted at Moshava, and during the summer
of 1953, at Galil. At the 1953 convention of Habonim, it was decided to dis-
continue Amal as a separate institution and to stress Hebrew at all Habonim
camps.
Mahaneh madrichim is an experiment in the realm of leadership train-
ing rather than strictly camping. The first national mahaneh madrichim was
held in the summer of 1940 at Galil for the training of madrichei tzofim. In
1948, two madrichim camps were held, one in Vermont for the East and one
in Detroit for the West. This pattern was followed the next year at Montreal
and St. Louis. In 1950, one national madrichim camp was conducted at Kin-
neret. Each subsequent summer has witnessed large seminars of madrichim,
bonim, and noar, and pre-embarkation seminars for the Habonim Youth
Workshop in Israel. In addition, most camps have conducted training pro-
grams for prospective madrichim. 1950 also saw another experiment long un-
der consideration. Toronto conducted a "rambling camp." A number of have-
rim made a long trip by truck, carrying full supplies and equipment and camp-
ing nights at previously selected sites. The three camps in the East have con-
ducted an annual Maccabia, the sports and cultural festival, in which all the
campers participate.
The past few years, too, have seen a number of interesting variations
and experiments in the Habonim camping picture. There has been an aware-
ness that existing Habonim camps must be put on a more efficient and perma-
nent basis. Many more camps are on permanent sites into which large invest-
ments have been put by the local Labor Zionist movements and Merkaz Ha-
bonim. There has been a trend to put the administration of our camps on a
semi-commercial basis. The national Habonim Camping Association has been
showing steady but slow improvement in the handling of national aspects of
76
camp. The permanent New York Kvutza at Red Hook, New York, was pur-
chased in 1953. New camp sites were purchased for the Midwest in 1956 and
for Camp Miriam in Vancouver in 1956.
We are aware that Camp Kvutza is our most effective educational in-
strument, and increasingly aware of its potentiality as an instrument for ex-
pansion.
During 1957, the following seven Kvutzot, all on permanent sites,
will be conducted: Camp Habonim, Red Hook, New York; Camp Kvutza Ga-
lil, Ottsville, Pennsylvania; Camp Moshava, Annapolis, Maryland; Midwest
Camp Habonim, Three Rivers, Michigan; Camp Naame, Saugus, California;
Camp Kvutza, St. Faustin, Quebec; Camp Miriam, Gabriola Island, British
Columbia.
Kvutza Manual, 1957
77
The Kitchen at Accord.
A lecture at Accord.
Joev Criden and friends, Accord.
"Brocky", at Kendall, New York.

David Breslau, Rosh at Accord,
1939.
Kieve Skidell, Carl Allentuck working on

"sanitation", Accord.
Discussion under "tree of

knowledge", Accord, 1938.
Enzo Sereni and friends ponder a problem, Accord, 1937.

Work at Accord. The Dining Room and Kitchen at Accord,
N.Y.
Campers, Accord, 1935.
Tent Area, Accord, N.Y.

Building at Accord, 1935.
Dining Room at Camp Kvutza,
Montreal.
Abe Meadow installing

electricity, Kinneret, 1941.
Campers, Kinneret, 1942.

"All aboard for the noar seminar",
Kinneret, 1941.
Building the Migdal, Kinneret,

Youth Day, Kinneret, 1941. 1940.
KVUTSA IN THE NEW YORK AREA
CAMP KVUTZA IS BORN

The last days of August, 1932 ... The first Young Poale Zion Kvutza
is winding up its four-week session at Unser Camp, Farband summer colony
at Highland Mills, New York. The closing hours are devoted to evaluation
and self-criticism. The fourteen pioneers have been together for a full month
and have valiantly tried to imbibe three lecture and discussion periods a day,
with two or three lectures in each period. The haverim have learned much and
have had a lot of fun, too. Life in the big tent has been most congenial, yet
everyone feels that something was missing . . . Unser Camp offered too many
comforts and too many distractions. Somehow, it was a camp and not a Kvut-
za, it wasn't our own, the product of our own labors, efforts, and ingenuity.
We were guests and not creators ... Next year we must have a real Kvutza, no
matter what the difficulties, and the more primitive the better! Next year we
must learn not only theory but also how to provide for ourselves.
Mid-June, 1933... Summer is knocking at the door and still no Kvutza
site. We are getting panicky. Suddenly, and from an unexpected quarter, an
undreamed of opportunity. A havera in California met Golda Meir and told
her of a sister in New York who is part-owner of some land in the Catskill
Mountains. The sister would like to do something for "the Jewish people." For
lack of a more specific address, we accept this bid as meaning us. A series of
interviews, enthusiasm waxes high...
Finally one morning we are off to the Catskills: Accord, Granite,
Kerhonkson-never beard of the places. Three hours, four hours, we have lost
our way a half-dozen times, but the country gets more and more beautiful as
the road becomes steeper and the hairpin curves sharper. Soon there is no
highway at all, only a deep-rutted, bumpy, dusty, farmers' dirt road into a wil-
derness. Our hearts sink, spirits flag.
82
A few more minutes and we find ourselves on the summit of a hill, a
beautiful valley below, and in the near distance, a ring of mountains that
seems to change color before your eyes. A singing brook cascades over the
rock ledges forming crystal pools every few hundred feet-and on "our" land!
We are filled with joy at the sight of all this beauty, but also with sadness
when we see how the land lies waste and neglected-grass and weeds waist-
high, the earth is parched, no house (it burned down when the place was
abandoned seven years before). There is only an indescribable shack occupied
by our benefactress and her partner in the summer . . .
The next day, back in the city, a meeting of the National Executive is
hastily convened. This is the place, the answer to our prayers. Far? What of it?
Wild? We've got a job to do. No shelter? We'll build our own. No money?
We'll beg, we'll borrow, we'll owe . . .
Feverish days and nights . . . So much to do . . . Raise money, get
lumber ... We need a car ... Ten haverim want to build a dining room and plat-
forms for the tents . . . What will they eat? Who will cook for them? ... Buy
tents, cots . . . Can you borrow dishes, silverware? . . . How are registrations
coming? . . . Haven't heard from Buffalo . . . Two coming from Rochester . . .
Persuade some Pioneer Women to come out as "cookies." . . . And how about
the program? . . . And how about discussion leaders? ... Time is short-so
short! A matter of days now…
And through it all, a glorious tingle in the blood we are building our
own Kvutza!
Yes, really building! . . . Who can forget the day when the big truck
came rumbling across the wooden bridge to unload the first $400 worth of
lumber . . . All right now, here is what we have to do. Clear the site on top of
the hill. Here, lay it out cross-wise so that the kitchen part will come right
over the spring. Take advantage as much as we can of the cement floor of the
83
burnt-down barn. We've got to finish the kitchen first. Over the dining room
we can stretch canvas if necessary. Here, we will build platforms for the tents
. . . There, down below, the outhouse.
Thursday noon. The Kvutza is scheduled to open Sunday, and it
seems as if everything is still to be done. Every hour brings one or two more
haverim. By nightfall, the original number of the work group is more than
doubled. Friday all day they come trekking in. The cookies become more and
more exasperated as the number of mouths to feed increases, and the old far-
mer's stove bought for $4 refuses to get fired. Nerves are on edge . . . Every-
one is working against time . . . Every newcomer is pressed into service as
soon as he has a bite to eat ... But the cookies work hardest of all.
In the meantime, miracles have been happening. The seven-year
growth of grass and weeds has been cut. The single pyramid tent that had
housed the work crew is now joined by three others. They form a thrilling
silhouette against the sky. The long tables in the dining room are scrubbed
clean, set with dishes and silverware, and decked with flowers, ready for the
first Shabbat in our own Kvutza. In the deepening twilight, twenty-four of us,
scrubbed clean at the brook and dressed in our "best," sit down to break bread
together. The Shabbat, our sages tell us, should be received with rejoicing.
We fulfilled the mitzva with overflowing hearts.
Jacob Katzman, 1942
84
LISTEN HERE, YOUNGSTERS!
You know, sometimes it makes me mad! You who go to Kvutza these
days have a way of saying: “Well – of course, you had lots of spirit back in
1934-35, but did you have any programs?” Why, we had a program of activi-
ties you’ll find it mighty hard to match! Just making it possible to live was
program enough.
Take Accord, for instance. No sooner was the shack or dining hall
constructed than we had a real project on our hands. We had to support the
doddering building. Soon after we braced it, under the expert direction of the
Philadelphia engineers, we really had work to do. We decided to construct a
brand new dining hall. One of our own members, Zalman, made the plans,
estimated the materials, and constructed the new building.
Then the work that was involved in keeping ourselves fed! Becoming
acquainted with the personality of our coal stove was the work of an entire
summer. It took a genius to know how to line the stove with fire brick, how to
replace a broken grate, how to stack the wood so as to direct the heat towards
the pots and away from the cook, how to keep the sickly stove from falling
apart, how to keep the flames from climbing the wooden walls, and how to
extinguish them quickly once they started up–and last but not least, how to
make that stove cook the food the right way at the right time.
Keeping ourselves and our clothes clean was another constant work
project. None of those new-fangled ideas like faucets for us pioneers! In the
old days we trekked down from the hill to the creek, over dangerous cliffs and
precipices to get to the “sink and washtubs”–a swirling, swishing torrent of
icy brook water. When you realize that we had to take the same hike for
washing clothes, for taking swims or showers, brushing teeth, or any time we
wanted to wash our hands – you have an idea of the tremendous work in-
volved in keeping clean.
85
And with all the work we had to do, we still made time for our cultur-
al programs. I’ll always remember the time we had two visitors from New
York. One of them related his experiences in Eretz Yisrael to us. He described
a storm which he had once seen blow down and rip five tents there and he sort
of made fun of our Kvutza as a comfortable, safe summer resort. None of us
noticed the gathering clouds as he spoke. A couple of hours later a storm des-
cended upon us apparently for the purpose of proving to our guest that the
Accord Kvutza was not such a safe place after all. A howling wind and flash-
es of lightning accompanied the rain. Well, the wind tackled one tent after
another until five tents toppled over–two of them torn to shreds. We survived
the event of course, but that is one discussion few of us will ever forget!
Talking about catastrophes reminds me of the forest fire which came
to within half a mile of the Kvutza. Let me tell you–I was proud of our cam-
pers during that real danger. As one man, all responded to the emergency.
People from the village of Accord came out in cars and trucks to take our
baggage to safety. It was many days and nights before the fire was brought
under control–days and nights during which we had double watch–nights dur-
ing which we slept in the open ready to move at a moment’s notice…
But once I get started reminiscing about Kvutza–it’s hard to stop me.
I guess I haven’t the space to tell about the revolution at Tel Hai, Celeritas,
the truck–or even midnight swims. Maybe someday I’ll write a book of mem-
ories. Then you’ll see how much spirit and how much program we had in the
early days of our Kvutza.
Saadia Gelb, 1942
86
TEL YOHANAN AND RED HOOK
That summer, I was a still-wet-behind-the-ears tzofa, spending my
first year in Camp Kvutza. The name of Yohanan Tartakower was completely
unknown to me, but Mahaneh Tel Yohanan was a living thing, not a memori-
al. I'd say that many of us did not know at the time who Yohanan was, but we
lived in such a way that he continued to exist in us.
That summer of 1951 in Tel Yohanan was a six-week honeymoon
with the movement for all of us. When we returned to the city, the great tales
of "adventure" found willing ears, and the registration of Tel Yohanan prom-
ised to expand enormously. In June, the shock of hearing that Tel Yohanan
had been wrecked by vandals was numbing. Who wanted to go anywhere but
to our own Tel Yohanan for the summer? Nonetheless, we went to Galil.
Since the majority of the New Yorkers were of bonim age, and the majority of
the Galilniks were of solelim-tzofim age, the division between the two groups
was extremely sharp. The fact that the Galil campers were living in the cabins
and most of the New Yorkers in a separate tent-camp, did not help the situa-
tion at all.
During the summer of 1952, it often seemed as if we New Yorkers
were marking time. Despite this attitude, the many friendships and traditions
which developed during the course of eight short weeks were to have an im-
portant effect on the future of the New York movement.
New York was determined to build a Kvutza of its own once again.
The Merkaz wore out tempers and tires in everlasting jaunts around New
York State looking for a new camp site. Finally, in the early spring of 1953,
the news was announced: New York Habonim had a new home-at the (then
stupendous) cost of almost fifty thousand dollars.
The mahaneh in Red Hook, New York, faced its first meeting with
Habonim during a spring session in 1953. The first reaction: We were ap-
87
palled! It was all too civilized for our tastes. Gone were the days of cold water
only, a separate shower-house, outhouses, no electricity, and (we thought) no
halutziut.
The first summer in Camp Habonim, Red Hook, served to dispel a
few illusions. We had not only to adapt ourselves to a new concept of camp-
ing with its attendant responsibilities, but were also faced with a previously
unknown problem of incorporating a large percentage of nonmembers. This
perhaps was the more serious of the two. In accepting the "luxury" of our new
home, we could not afford to let our ideals go by the board. At the same time,
active Habonim within the camp did not exceed forty percent of the total pop-
ulation. In Tel Yohanan and again in Galil, the number of Habonim campers
from the New York region was under fifty. The population at Red Hook
climbed to more than double that number, while the Habonim population re-
mained at roughly the same level.
1954 was the "honeymoon" season at Red Hook. Habonim had ar-
rived at an understanding of the needs of this new type of camp and gathered
a staff of the highest possible caliber from every part of the movement. The
campers responded. It became as natural for some madrichim to converse in
Hebrew as for the campers to try to emulate the actions of the staff. There was
a Habonim atmosphere. It was felt in the unfolding of the daily program and
in the Shabbat celebrations which were real "productions" complete with in-
terpretive dance and special effects. It was felt, too, in the activities run by the
campers themselves.
The next summer was somewhat less of a memorable experience-
perhaps because the previous season had been so overwhelmingly successful.
It will be remembered as the year of the Habonim Maccabia with the summer
camp of Hanoar Hatzioni, Camp Hatzofeh. It was a wonderful experience for
both camps. A comradely atmosphere from the outset - even cheers were care-
88
fully censored to exclude any derogatory material about the opposing camp.
The spirit of the entire competition may be imagined from the unanimous pro-
test of the two camps directly before the close of the Maccabia - both wanted
to "rip up the score sheets."
1955 saw a new venture in Habonim camping-that of a successful
Leaders' Training program, with a large number of participants, at camp.
1956 saw the revival of the Habonim Inter-Kvutza Maccabia. Once
again held at Galil, it was the high point of the season. Remember the after-
noon spent in track events, with people from all three camps cheering the
competitors impartially? Each camp had a theme - Yehuda for Red Hook, Ga-
lil for Galil, and Negev for Moshava - upon which the cheers, evening pro-
gram presentation, and songs were based. In addition to the spirit of comrade-
ship which grew up in the three days, a new dimension of education had been
added to the Maccabia which made its meaning even fuller for the partici-
pants. As usual, the New Yorkers won, though not until a contest had been
waged in which every point was in doubt.
What is to happen to New York camping in the future? That is in the
hands of the haverim themselves. Each summer has seen the development of
the concept of Habonim camping-from the tents- cold-water stage to the ca-
bins-hot water stage; from the concept of halutziut "in the raw" to a more ma-
ture understanding of our role in the community and of how we must fill it.
Ziffy Entin, 1957
89
KENDALL
Camp Kvutza at Kendall, New York, opened in 1937 and ran through
1941. It was situated on farm land along Lake Ontario, thirty miles west of
Rochester. A large two story barn served as the kitchen and recreation hall.
The woods behind the tents and the hay loft behind the barn served as
"rooms" for discussions and Hebrew lessons. The burned-out remains of a
house nearby, inhabited by the ghost of two-fingered, one-eyed Pete, and the
empty "haunted house" down the road gave the camp additional atmosphere.
I was only thirteen in 1937 when I spent one week at Camp Kvutza,
and as a result, I cannot comment on the feverish activity involved in trying to
set up the camp for the first time. From my experience on pre-registration
camp committees in later years, however, I can fully appreciate the time and
effort expended by the "older haverim."
Camp Kvutza catered to the Habonim of Rochester, Buffalo, and Sy-
racuse, and was responsible for many lasting friendships. Permanent fixtures
at the camp, aside from many of the Habonim members, were the cook, Have-
ra Atlas, and Mark B. Hanopolsky, our departed haver and teacher. Our camp
was not a large-one. It handled thirty to fifty-five children per week. Many
new Habonim members were obtained through the camp.
It is not difficult to measure the importance of Camp Kvutza to ups-
tate New York. Had it not been for the camp, the Habonim camping expe-
rience would have been denied to most of the Habonim in this region.
1941 was the last year of Camp Kvutza. However, the loyalties it
helped cement bore fruit after the war years in 1946. Several ex-G.I.'s (and
ex-Habonim) formed the Enzo Sereni Labor Zionist group in Rochester. This
group existed from 1946 to 1949 and was probably as active a Zionist group
as existed in this country. Some of the haverim who were campers are now in
90
Israel. Many of the members of the Poale Zion and the Pioneer Women in the
area are people who were campers in those years at Kendall.
Danny Owerbach, 1957
KVUTSA IN THE MIDWEST

"KVUTZIE"
It was a hot June day in 1936, and down Douglas Boulevard in Chi-
cago, three "big shots" were pushing an old, dilapidated, rusty-looking, tire-
deflated 1926 Dodge truck. It was hard, even for members of Habonim, to
realize that the three were none other than Nahum Guttman, rosh Kvutza; Ju-
lius Cohen, business manager; and myself, the super truck driver-to-be, and
that this little scene was actually the first practical beginning of Habonim's
second Kvutza in America at New Buffalo, Michigan.
Only three weeks remained before the opening of Kvutza. The pre-
vious week, we had received our first application with $1 deposit. In these
three weeks, we had to revive a place which was once a beautiful Farband
camp, Tel Hai, but which had been ravaged by fire. The fire had left a deso-
late spot, now overgrown with weeds and grass and ruins all about. The ad-
vance crew would have three weeks of unceasing work to get the place in
shape for the opening, and we were pushing that truck to a garage to get her
running, for upon her depended all the transportation of haverim and materials
for this crucial period and for the Kvutza season itself.
She had been given to us for nothing. The haver in whose lumber
yard she was stationed after serving some time at our short-lived Hehalutz
training farm in Indiana was glad to see her go. But we knew she would run
again, and so we pushed her slowly to the garage and told the mechanic to get
her in running condition for that evening. He looked at us and grinned, shook
his head, and said he'd see what he could do.
91
In the evening when we returned, she was indeed able to run-but no telling
how. She needed a new generator and new battery. We could take the chance
of using her that night if we wanted, but he wouldn't advise it. We decided to
take the chance.
Trembling, I got into the driver's seat. The Dodge was old, the driver com-
pletely new. Julie and Nahum, fearlessly risking their lives, got into the seat
next to me. We started her up, and then somehow managed to drive to the
center. Here we picked up fourteen brave souls and were on our way. The
streets of Chicago are renowned for their holes and bumps and I didn't miss
one of them. Cries of "ouch" rang out and the people along Western Avenue
stared.
After a harrowing hour and a half we were finally out of the city,
when the battery went completely dead. We had no lights. What should we
do? Turning back would mean another precious day wasted. We looked up at
the sky and saw that the moon was full. It was now about midnight and the
traffic was not very heavy. We decided to continue. One of the haverim
climbed up on top of the cab and shone his flashlight down on the road in
front of the truck. With the aid of that flashlight and the full moon, and
through the grace of an inefficient police force, we finally reached Tel Hai.
Those in the back were frozen from the cold night air, those in front roasted
from the heat of the motor, but all the way, there was spirited singing and jok-
ing.
After a few hours' sleep and a little more pushing, we got the Dodge
started on her way back to Chicago-just Julie and I. Before we left, we tried to
think of a name for our truck because we could already see that she was to be
an important factor in the life of Kvutza. Then on the way, when she began
sputtering over a little hill, I urged her on by calling out, "Come on, Kvutzie!"
and thus she was named.
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Kvutzie was the cause of most of the joy and sorrow of that first sea-
son. Her every arrival was the source of the greatest excitement; her every
departure, the source of the greatest fear, for who could tell when or if she
would return? The most spirited singing of the summer and the most gleeful
laughter took place aboard her on trips to the beach and back.
Kvutzie became a legend. Songs were written about her. We played
guessing games as to what time she would return from a trip, how many flats
she would have, and whom and what she would bring back with her.
Miraculously, she served us through the entire summer. Then we de-
cided to take a number of haverim 1000 miles to the seminar at Accord, our
New York Kvutza. "What? With Kvutzie? Never!" Well, we'd see. We had
her gear fixed so it would stay in high. Then we went to buy her new shoes at
an old junk yard about two miles from Michigan City. There, aided by a Jew-
ish girl of about twenty, who had inherited the junk yard from her father and
who was sitting among old rims and tires and spare parts writing a book, we
found four almost new tires for Kvutzie.
What a night that was! We packed eighteen haverim into the back of
Kvutzie and started the trip! It thundered and rained, and everything was
against our getting there. Frightened parents trembled as Kvutzie pulled out of
the dirt road onto the highway at three in the morning. But we survived the
trip, the rain, the mountains, and the sixty hours of traveling. We arrived at
Accord amid great celebrating (and without a single flat tire on the entire
trip).
There, at Accord, we sold Kvutzie to the Hehalutz farm at Crea-
mridge, New Jersey. But Kvutzie had been running on love and sympathy.
Without them, she soon died. They dismantled her and used her parts on other
trucks.
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Others may remember the camp fires, the overnight hikes, the discus-
sion, the comradeship, the wonderful spirit, that first season of Kvutzat Tel
Hai. I remember Kvutzie for she was the creator of that spirit, a spirit which
could take a dead object and give it the soul that Kvutzie had. Only in the
wonderful life that is ours at Kvutza could such a spirit come to be.
Moshe Goldberg, 1942
KVUTZA, KVUTZA, WHO'S GOT A KVUTZA?

When we left Tel Hai at the close of the Kvutza season last summer,
little did we expect that it would be our last summer there. But it was. When
at the winter seminar it was decided to leave Tel Hai and look for a new site
for the Midwest Kvutza, none of us were too sad.
It was decided that Wisconsin would be the lucky state containing the
new Habonim Kvutza. A committee was elected to look for a site, and an
official title was given the committee, the Meshugoyim (mad ones).
How should we go about it? Where should we start? Whom should
we contact? The method we used was quite simple. We took out the trusty
telephone book and began paging through it. R-Radiators-Radios-ah, Real
Estate. With eyes closed, I spun around three times and placed my finger on
the page. I phoned that number.
"Yes," said the man on the other side of the line, "I have just what you
want. And it's only 9,762 1/2 miles from Milwaukee." I hung up. Again I went
through the same procedure. "Sure enough," said a bass voice, "I have just the
place for you. None other like it in the whole state. All you have to do is put a
dozen steam shovels to work for two years and you've got it, see? Nothing to
worry about, I supply the blasting powder." I thanked the gentleman for his
kind offer and consideration and hung up.
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Well, after calling for enough times to have lost count, a place with
real possibilities turned up, only thirty-five miles from Milwaukee, high land,
heavy woods, hilly, and level. It meets all the requirements and we are await-
ing word as to the possibilities of our developing the lake into a swimming
pool. Nevertheless, by the time you'll be reading this article, we will probably
be building for the 1944 Kvutza season.
Armon Kamesar, 1944
KINNERET
In the summer of 1938, a small group of Detroit Habonim, among
them Ben Kaminker, Mordecai Salinger, and Danny Ginsburg, pooled their
resources to purchase a couple of tents which they pitched on the side of a hill
overlooking Waterloo Road near Chelsea, Michigan. A patch of grass sur-
rounded by a D-shaped trench formed the open-air dining table, but for all
other facilities, the hardy group turned to Farband Camp, their neighbors
across the road and owners of their camp site.
While exploring the area south of their encampment, a few members
of the group waded through a swamp to find a large tract of unused ground,
twenty acres of which belonged to the Farband. This they immediately staked
out as the perfect spot for their future ventures.
That winter, they enlisted the moral and financial assistance of active
seniors who helped plan construction of the new Habonim camp to be known
as Kinneret. During the summer of 1939, under the leadership of Ben Ka-
minker, and with the assistance of a professional carpenter, our haverim
cleared a road through the swamp, erected platforms for the tents, built a din-
ing hall and kitchen, and sank a shallow well.
Kinneret was a success and ready for further expansion when Morde-
cai Salinger took over as rosh Kvutza in 1940. A large group of Cincinnati
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haverim joined the Detroiters, raising the number of campers to an average of
sixty during that summer.
Shalom Wurm set the pattern for cultural activities at camp, while
Aharon Remez was the fair-haired boy whose experience and muscle were
relied on to continue with the building program. New tent platforms, the Ash-
kenazy building, a migdal, and last but not least, separate outhouses were un-
der way.
1941 was a quiet year, with Ettie Skidell in charge of camp and the
boys hard at work moving mountains of dirt to lay the sanitation distribution
field. Electricity was installed, and the arrival of four girls from Cleveland
marked the beginning of Kinneret as a regional camp.
1942 was another year of big construction - at Kinneret. The washing
facilities were enclosed and work began on a real outhouse. We built a cabin,
enlarged the dining room by moving the kitchen to a new addition. The rosh
was Paul Milgrom (Pinhas Rimon), with Shirley Milgrom who came along for
the honeymoon.
In 1943, Leon Adler became rosh, and all became sweetness and light
at Kinneret-for once we were genteel. We began work on the hospital, which
was dedicated to Donny Lee of Cleveland, and dug another distribution field
for the modern improved shower house.
In 1944, under the tutelage of Yosef Israeli, work was again the
watchword. The hospital was nominally finished and we began our eternal
project, the storage cellar. Artie Goldberg was rosh Kvutza, and the hills
around Kinneret resounded with labor songs. 1944 also saw the end of the
beloved tower-the termites and old age finally beat the creosote and supports.
In 1945, the rosh, Harry Spoon, arrived late, but the campers carried
on valiantly under the expert whistle blowing of Esty Carson. We added our
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annual brick to the storage cellar and spent the rest of the season looking for
work.
Murray Weingarten, with Dave Katz as his right-hand man, was rosh
in 1946. That was the year of Doris Dombey's bouncing bed, the greatest stunt
ever at Kinneret.
1947 was the year of Joey Criden. Joey brought the overnight hike
back to Kinneret and the innovation of naming the tents-remember the famous
Dorot and Mishmar HaNegev? And not to be outdone, Joey named his quar-
ters, Pipeline HaNegev, in honor of sixteen-month-old Donny. Several more
cabins were built, and Evvy Weingarten made her famous leap from rooftop
to Ann Arbor hospital.
In 1948, Haim Stopak was rosh. This was the year of the "flexible
schedule," and also a year of strong emphasis on scoutcraft. There were many
midnight "Arab attacks," and Blue-White Day was distinguished by its blood
and gore.
Dvora Frankel was rosh in 1949. A madrichim camp was held after
the regular season.
In 1950, Abba (Cherniak) Tzuriel was rosh. The season gushed with
culture, art, modern dance, drama,
In 1951, Doodle Horowitz led Kinneret in its first year as a Hebrew-
speaking camp. Detroit's United Hebrew Schools provided a number of full
scholarships and there was a large enrollment, including many younger child-
ren. Camp doubled its enrollment on weekends-an ambitious weekend pro-
gram. The emphasis was on speaking Hebrew, and the discussion program
centered about the False Messiahs. There was an ambitious work program
mainly centered about maintenance-there were no new projects. Of the sea-
son, the Detroit United Hebrew Schools said that more Hebrew was learned
by their students that year than any other.
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1952 opened with a low registration, but things picked up. Dani Ker-
man was rosh and Kinneret was still a Hebrew-speaking camp. There was no
big construction projects because of the lack of people, but a marvelous busi-
ness manager, Jerry Katz, managed to make money even on only twenty cam-
pers.
Dani Kerman returned in 1953. Detroit had had a very successful year
and camp registration was up, again including younger children. Prior to
opening, a group of “old-timers” packed box-lunches, baby carriages, and
assorted spouses and progeny, and spent a day of labor at Kinneret. The foun-
dation for the wash house was laid that day and work for the rest of the season
had a concrete basis-repairing the efforts of the old folks.
In 1954, Abbie Haklay was rosh.
1955 was Kinneret's last year. Geli Gelfond was rosh. Chicago and
Detroit combined efforts in staff and campers. A new truck was purchased,
and the last year of Kinneret closed with a Bonim Seminar.
Esther Goldberg, Seymour Salinger,
Harriet Gelfond, 1957
TEL NATAN
Tel Natan was the Camp Kvutza for the St. Louis and Cincinnati ma-
hanot in 1947 and 1948. It was unique in having complete facilities.
Tel Natan was named for our dear haver, Nathan Kanter, who was
one of the most sincere and dedicated members of the Labor Zionist move-
ment and represented the best that is found in Habonim. Nate was killed in an
automobile accident at about the time we were beginning to work on the idea
of a camp for our area.
Tel Natan, which we had dreamed of for many years and talked about
for several months came into existence early in 1947 when we found that
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there would be no camp in the Chicago area to serve the St. Louis mahaneh.
In a matter of days, we contacted the movement in Cincinnati, formed the Ha-
bonim Camping Association of Missouri, examined and leased the camp site
sixty miles west of St. Louis, bought a truck, two tons of dishes and pots, and
printed application blanks.
The camp, known to the Missouri State Park Commission as Camp C-
1, Quiure River State Park, Troy, Missouri, was located on a high hill in the
heart of a 6,000 acre park. The camp and the setting were beautiful and the
facilities excellent (two stoves, four sinks, an electric refrigerator, a walk-in
icebox, plenty of hot and cold water, a large dining room, shower house, a
recreation hall, office, guest house, hospital, ten large cabins, and several
buildings we never used.
The first season was a success. Forty haverim spent four satisfying
weeks at Tel Natan. We broke even, no one lost any weight (thanks to Havera
Kanter, Nate's mother, who was our cook), and the two tons of dishes and
pots did not arrive till fall.
We returned to Tel Natan for a winter conference. This was even
more successful than the summer session. The cabins were warm, the food
was good, and the activities and discussions excellent. All that we missed was
the swimming, and since the swimming at Cheetham Pond was not too good
anyway, no one complained.
After we shut down the camp for the winter, we were convinced that
we had made a wonderful beginning as the first year-round Camp Kvutza in
history.
We were wrong, and after one more season, the camp discontinued
operation. I'm not sure why the camp failed or what lesson other camps can
learn from Tel Natan. Perhaps it was too easy. We did not have to struggle
and fight to establish our camp. Perhaps St. Louis was just not ready to con-
99
duct and sustain its own camp. I believe that Tel Natan failed because the lea-
dership in the mahaneh, which was mainly older, went on aliya, to other
movement assignments, or moved on to other personal activity, and left a
void. This void, created by a slowdown in activity during the war, was proba-
bly the main cause of failure.
All that is left of Tel Natan is fond memories, some photographs, and
a feeling of deep regret that the monument we began to erect in memory of
Nate Kanter in 1947 was never finished.
Wil Schoomer, 1957
MIDWEST CAMP HABONIM

Midwest Camp Habonim! A rather plain, innocuous name. Nothing
romantic or exciting or exotic or even emotional about this name. And yet this
name holds for us twenty-five years of memories-memories of other camps
with other names, names such Tel Hai, Kinneret, Yad Ari. These are names
that really bring back memories of our youth, of exciting days and romantic
nights, of work and love and devotion, of singing and dancing, of bonfires and
Shabbat celebrations, memories of a glorious, carefree period in our lives
where we learned and lived the principles of Labor Zionism upon which we
today base our lives and our work for Israel.
For Midwest Camp Habonim is today the culmination of our work
and our dreams of twenty-five years ago when the concept of Camp Kvutza
first took shape in the minds of a few young people who were to be the nuc-
leus a few years later of Habonim - the Labor Zionist Youth. It was a concept
of a place where young Labor Zionists would build their own camp with their
own hands from the ground up, where they would govern themselves in a tru-
ly democratic fashion and work out their plans for building a new Eretz Yi-
srael. This was a new idea, a bold, thrilling one for our haverim of those early
100
years. It was a good idea, for it has endured (with a few changes to meet the
changing times) to this very day and has grown stronger with the passage of
time, and will continue to go on for many, many years.
The first Habonim camp in the Midwest (and the second to be estab-
lished in the United States) was Tel Hai, near New Buffalo, Michigan. The
name, Tel, Hai, today stirs beautiful memories among many of our senior ha-
verim, who recall those days with love and tenderness. Its tenure came to an
abrupt end, however, when it was destroyed by fire.
Then followed an interim period of three years, two of which were
spent at a rented camp near Savannah, Illinois.
In 1948, 160 acres of land were purchased near Waupaca, in north-
central Wisconsin. This was camp Yad Ari, which served the Chicago-
Milwaukee-Minneapolis area. Here the ideals of Camp Kvutza could really
flourish. Here was the opportunity for Habonim to truly build its own camp,
and they did! They built a big, beautiful dining room, which doubled as a
recreation room, and a modern shower house, containing all the necessary
facilities. They planted a pine forest, which has since proven to be the most
memorable part of the whole camp. No other buildings, except for a dispen-
sary, were built, and so it remained a tent camp. The tents, however, were
spacious and comfortable, and the camp itself was always clean and well kept.
Most important of all, however, was the fact that the campers and the
staff were satisfied and happy. Many fine and beautiful traditions were built
here. The physical facilities were not always of the best or the most modern
we had our difficulties and tribulations-our lake dried up after the second
year, so we had to travel ten miles to go swimming; occasionally someone
would get wet at night when he forgot to close the tent flaps; or perhaps he
would forget to loosen the ropes so that the tent pegs could come out of the
ground and cause the tent to partially collapse - but nothing, not even the fin-
101
est of facilities or the most beautiful buildings and grounds, could ever be a
substitute for the most wonderful of intangibles, the true Habonim spirit, the
feeling of real group living, of a closeness and oneness that could be achieved
nowhere else-the indomitable spirit of Habonim, that resiliency which can
change disaster to triumph, turn tears into laughter.
This was Yad Ari; this was Camp Habonim. Can you remember, ha-
verim, the dignity of the flag raising, or the simple beauty of a Friday evening
meal by candlelight, with everyone in white, with the singing and the dancing
afterwards? Those of you who ever attended Camp Habonim, wherever or
whenever it might have been, can never forget.
But, as all good things do, this also came to an end. At the end of the
1954 season, Yad Ari was abandoned, and 1955 saw Camp Yad Ari and
Camp Kinneret combined at Camp Kinneret near Chelsea, Michigan. A new
concept of camping had been born in the minds of the leadership of Habonim.
A good concept, a more modern one, and one that has proven itself. This was
the idea that the very small, more intimate type of camp was no longer feasi-
ble. We had to have fewer but much larger and better (physically speaking)
camps. The changing times and the change in the type of youth now coming
into Habonim made it mandatory that Habonim go along with these changes
insofar as the physical plant was concerned. Thus, the combining of the two
small camps into one large camp at Kinneret. Why choose Kinneret over Yad
Ari? Mainly because of the location. The combined areas would now extend
as far east as Pittsburgh and as far south and west as St. Louis and Minneapo-
lis. Obviously, central Michigan was much nearer the center of this region
than northern Wisconsin-therefore, Kinneret was the choice.
Kinneret was never meant to be the permanent new home of the large,
modern Camp Habonim. It was too small and lacked the proper facilities for a
large number of campers. It was to serve merely for the transition period until
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a new site would be found. It did just that, and did it well. The next season
found us in the new camp.
We now come to the current chapter, the new Midwest Camp Habo-
nim. In the spring of 1956, eighty acres of beautiful grounds near Three Riv-
ers, Michigan, were purchased by Habonim. The purchase itself marked a
new phase of Habonim camping in the Midwest because this was the first
time that Habonim had used its own resources to purchase a camp site in this
region. This camp had been a farm resort and was situated on beautiful Kaiser
Lake. Negotiations were completed early in May and two additional cabins
were begun. With the new buildings we can now house seventy-five campers
comfortably and we have enough room to expand to a hundred and fifty. The
dining hall is probably one of the most ideally situated spots in camp. Its
many high windows overlook the lake and present a truly scenic picture for
the diners.
Midwest Camp Habonim today is, we believe, a combination of the
best of the old and of the new. We have not lost sight of the unique Habonim
camping program and we retain that spirit that typifies Habonim. But to go
along with more modern practices, we have improved upon many of the pri-
mitive physical facilities. The campers are now housed in cabins rather than in
tents (although some of the older bonim may still live in tents at their own
request). All toilet facilities are indoors - in fact, the new cabins come
equipped with these appurtenances. The good old flashlight, with which all
Habonim campers are so familiar, is now almost a thing of the past. The ca-
bins are all equipped with electric lights and even the grounds are illuminated
at night. In short, all the modern conveniences that one associates with the
best in modern camps are present at our new Midwest Camp Habonim. Does
this mean, however, that we are giving up the old idea of Camp Kvutza? Not
at all. The most important features remain - self-labor, self-government, de-
103
mocracy, the concept of a common fund, and of course, that feeling of kinship
and real comradely spirit.
We feel that we now have a camp, that can compare favorably with
any in the area, and a program superior to most. For the first time, the physi-
cal plant of the camp, as well as the program, becomes an attraction for new-
comers to our movement, and once a child has had a positive camping expe-
rience at camp, his chances of remaining in Habonim are excellent.
In looking back upon twenty-five years of Habonim camping, we can
honestly say that we have compiled a tradition of living Judaism which would
be difficult for any group or organization to match. Many graduates of Habo-
nim camp have gone to live in Israel, in kibbutzim, moshavim, and cities, and
many others have remained here to become leaders not only in the Labor
Zionist movement, but in all parts of the American Jewish community. This is
a record that speaks for itself.
Lenny Zurakov, 1957
KVUTZA IN THE WEST

A goat farm, twenty sprightly youngsters, and Ben Cherner; these
were the ingredients of the first Camp Kvutza in the West in the year 1936.
It was during that summer, with Ben's arrival in Los Angeles, that the
idea of Habonim camping ripened and the first camp was established. Sleep-
ing was mostly outdoors, cooking in an abandoned shack, and water had to be
brought by car from about a mile away. Swimming was in a public pool. But
spirits were high, the determination indomitable, and the results were a full
camping season which was followed uninterruptedly for the next twenty-one
years.
Old-timers remember the C.C.C. camping experience in 1937 and
Azusa in 1938. In 1939, the permanent camp in the Angeles National Forest,
104
fifty-five miles from Los Angeles, was bought and the permanent home for
Habonim camping established.
The camp has served Los Angeles Jewish youth for twenty years now
and several thousand young people have gone through it.
Situated, as the camp is, on a hilly and wooded thirty-nine-acre estate,
its original owner's home was remodeled into a dining room and kitchen. A
swimming pool was built and many other facilities added as late as last year.
Last year's camp was a typical Habonim camping year and the follow-
ing report is characteristic of most of the others:
Camp Duration and Composition

Habonim Camp opened on July 1st in 1956 and lasted for six weeks
until August 12th. Campers could register for a minimum period of two
weeks; fifteen percent of the campers stayed for the entire six weeks.
During the entire period, 173 campers availed themselves of our facil-
ities and spent with us 498 camper-weeks.
Camp Program and Activities

Our camp program consisted of a general camp theme, the several ac-
tivities directly associated with it, as well as some that were specifically camp
activities.
Our general camp theme was: "Jewish Heroism Through the Ages."
Through lectures, discussions, literary trials, models, games, and the arts, the
children at camp became acquainted with the heroic moments in Jewish histo-
ry, beginning with our ancient struggles for freedom and independence and
down to the modern deeds of courage and valor of the defenders of the War-
saw Ghetto and of the Hagana. Arts and crafts were integrated into this pro-
gram.
105
In addition, the following camp activities were open to all campers:
swimming, sports, scouting, hiking, arts and crafts, singing, dancing, photo-
graphy, and other camp diversions which took place regularly.
Camp Spirit
We would be greatly remiss in our factual report of camp activities
and program if we were not to stress the spirit of the camp. Here, and for
many campers for the first time, they were in a thoroughly children's atmos-
phere as well as in a thoroughly Jewish one. The Shabbat celebration, the
Shabbat morning Tanach circle, the daily Hebrew classes, the discussion of
Jewish problems and of Jewish achievements, the Israel and Zionist spirit of
all our activities, all this left an indelible impression upon the campers. We
felt it in the expressions of the children at camp; we felt it in the one hundred
percent attendance at the first camp reunion; we felt it even more in the con-
versations with the parents of the campers. Camp accomplished in a very few
weeks what efforts by parents could not achieve for years.
Future Plans
All this progress was made possible through a building expansion
program undertaken last spring. Four large new cabins were built, including
showers, toilets and wash basins. The sports facilities were improved. Much
new equipment was purchased.
We anticipate doubling our registration this summer. We also ex-
tended our camp season to eight weeks. We are beginning to receive campers
from other cities on the West Coast and are rapidly becoming an all-Western
camp.
106
Our plans for this summer are to build a staff building, an arts and
crafts pavilion, to improve the present shower building, to build several new
concrete platforms, to enlarge and improve our dining and kitchen facilities.
Habonim camping on the West Coast is confidently looking forward
to a secure and ever-expanding future along with all Habonim camping in the
United States and Canada.
David Yaroslovsky, 1957
KVUTSA IN THE BALTIMORE-PHILADELPHIA AREA
THE STORY OF "MOSH"

"Half the year you look forward to it-the other half you look back on
it." Such is the effect "Mosh" has on its campers. And it is no wonder that we
all love it, for not only do we spend some of the happiest weeks of the year
there, but the setting is so perfect and the scenery so beautiful that we never
want to forget it.
In 1935 Mr. Sigfrid Sonniborn of Baltimore gave 162 acres of land
near Annapolis to two Zionist groups to be used for a camp site. The two
groups were the Hashomer Hatzair and the Gordonia organization of Balti-
more. The first month of the summer season, July, Hashomer would use the
camp, while Gordonia would have the camp in August.
And so Moshava began its first season!
Needless to say, many changes have occurred since that memorable
year, 1935. Mosh has changed from a small camp sponsored by Gordonia-
whose tents were pitched on the bare ground, whose dining room had a can-
vas top, where there was no electricity whatsoever, and whose campers came
from Baltimore only-to a large camp sponsored by Habonim following the
amalgamation of Habonim with Gordonia. The capacity is now seventy-five
to eighty campers from all over the Atlantic seaboard, with seven tents pitch-
107
ed on platforms, four large airy cabins, an outdoor stage, a well-filled library,
a modern hospital with up-to-date equipment, a piano, a large roomy kitchen,
a newly reinforced dining room, volleyball and basketball courts, and elec-
trical connections.
The picture Moshava presents is truly a beautiful one. Only from the
water tower, however, can one see it completely, spreading below. From
there, one sees the side road leading from the water tower to the hospital op-
posite. These two cabins begin the camp proper, for flanking them, the tents
and stage are arranged in an almost perfect circle. The center of this circle is
the center field, wide and level, where baseball, horseshoe, basketball, and
track events take place during sports periods.
But this is not all. Following a shady quiet path that starts in back of
the kitchen one comes to the crossroads where many a heated discussion can
be heard. Following the path further, one arrives at last at the old cliff that
overlooks the Severn River, a popular place for rehearsals or for a nocturnal
group wishing to read Edgar Allen Poe in just the proper atmosphere.
Scrambling down the side of the cliff, one finds oneself on the bench
near the river. In all directions there is green foliage that beckons to you with
its coolness in the heat of the day, and far on the distant side of the river, this
scene is dimly repeated. One can relax in the mildly cool river water, get an
invigorating swim in the deeper cold water further from shore, or go to sleep
on the sandy beach while taking a sun bath.
Past interesting coves and the beach, we come to the long uneven trail
that leads back to the central field. This trail is the most popular of all. It is
lined with clinging vines draped around the trees, and here and there, tantaliz-
ing monkey vines swing just above your reach. Here on this trail is the well-
known "Tree" on whose roots many a couple sit wrapped in the velvety dark-
ness of night, gazing at the stars, and listening to the waves lap on the beach.
108
It is also on this trail that we find the path leading to the new cliff. The central
field is not far ahead and soon one can be in the midst of activity again.
"Mosh" Diary, 1939
GALIL'S FIRST YEAR

It was after their return from the 1937 Accord season that the Phila-
delphia haverim realized the necessity for their own Camp Kvutza. It was a
crime to travel hundreds of miles for the inspiration and learning we could
achieve on our own grounds.
So the determined Quakers set to work. They formed committees,
printed stationary, contacted sympathizers, and nagged the National Execu-
tive.
Camp Tax became the byword. They slept and ate and grew gray hair
over pledges. But soon the cash thermometer rose and $250 became a realiza-
tion.
And now, a site for camp. Far and wide they traveled. Through mos-
quito-ridden New Jersey to mosquito-ridden Pennsylvania until they came
upon Camp Germinal - former anarchist hangout and spiders' hideout.
In May, the Sunday of the 23rd, the first expedition set out armed to
the hilt with mops, buckets, brooms, and soap. The scrubbed and rubbed.
They screened and painted. They transformed a chicken coop into a habitable
shack.
Then came the eventful day when fourteen haverim, and a rosh Kvut-
za set foot on forty acres of poison ivy studded with two outhouses, hot and
cold water, and ten stall showers which, influenced by their anarchist back-
ground, worked with characteristic irregularity.
The manor house after being scrubbed from top to bottom revealed an
immense dining room, three kitchens, one of which leaked from the luxurious
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bath upstairs every time one of the girls decided to miss a discussion, and the
other which had a natural waterfall coming from the center roof every time
the dishes fell. The six master bedrooms did come in handy when the fourteen
pioneers increased to sixty.
The office served as a lounge, music room, and dance studio.
Who of us can ever forget Sir Ferdinand, named for his predecessor,
the bull, who often stopped to admire the flowers by the wayside? He carried
our haverim down to the swimming hole in the Shamony, or on a line to the
Delaware, and then after a sojourn with the flowers, could be persuaded only
by Schmeer up to the hill again to camp.
Or can we forget our staff-rising and falling like the stock market?
One week ten and the next week four. And their famous idiosyncrasies. Yak
and his travels in Ferdy; Cookie and the chocolate pudding; Leslie and his
hair washing; Yona and her trying girls; Tzip and her hatred of kitchen duty;
Clara's operetta; Aba Kibbile's drama group; Leo and his driving mania; Ernst
who drowned you trying to teach life saving; Edi and Brown Betty; Sossy
from Chicago; and Shlomo and his hat.
Galil Diary, 1938
110
The "Ten Lost Tribes" prepare to
return, Montreal, 1956. Laizer Blitt, Gaby Stalzenberg at work,
Montreal, 1956.
Overnight hike at Montreal, 1957.

"The Women", Kinneret, 1941. Etty
Skidell, Chana Reitman, Shirley
Goldberg, Rose Breslau, Aviva Gootman.
Corn for sale at Camp Habonim, 1957.

All proceeds to the J.N.F. Moshe Goldberg, Kinneret, 1941.
Visiting Day, 1957, Camp Habonim. The Dining Room at Camp Habonim,
Red Hook, N.Y.
Dining Room at Tel Yochanan, Amenia,

Solelim Dance at Red Hook, 1957.
N.Y.
"B'tayavon", Montreal, 1957. The Lake at Tel Yochanan.

Flag Raising at Moshava, Annapolis, Maryland, 1957.
Camp Habonim, Red Hook, N.Y.
Bridging the Creek at Galil,

Ottsville, Pennsylvania, 1948.
The Waterfront at Moshava.
Galil Choir performs for Visitors Day, 1957.

A discussion under the trees, Moshava, 1957.
Harvesting Corn at Camp

Habonim, 1955.
Taking a dip in the enlarged "L"

shaped pool at Camp Habonim.
"Comfort ye, my people". Tisha B’Av, Moshava,

1957.
"Chalil and Drum Corps, Moshava, 1957.

GALIL
In 1938, at the height of the depression and with much trepidation be-
cause of the lack of finances, the Philadelphia haverim rented the old anar-
chist Camp Germinal near Jamison, Pennsylvania (for the then large sum of
$1,500), for the summer, and the first Camp Galil came into existence. Yak
Rycus was imported from the Midwest to act as rosh Kvutza, and staffed
mainly by older haverim of Habonim, a very successful summer program was
carried out.
Our appetites were whetted, and immediately upon the close of the
summer, plans were made for finding, a permanent site for a Philadelphia
camp.
One must recall the times in which this thinking took place. War
clouds were gathering. The White Paper was soon to be issued and the horror
of Hitler-Europe was soon to be upon us. In 1939, it was impossible to raise
the necessary funds or to evoke sufficient interest on the part of the Philadel-
phia movement to even rent a camp site, let alone talk in terms of developing
a permanent camp. During the summer of 1939, as many of our members as
possible spent the summer at Moshava near Baltimore.
Upon returning from Moshava at the end of the 1939 summer season,
we were determined to have a camp of our own. Fortunately, we were able to
convince enough members of the senior movement of the importance of a lo-
cal camp for them to organize a camp committee to seek a site. After much
searching, a site was found near Pipersville, Pennsylvania, which could be
rented for the summer. It included a well-constructed farm house, a magnifi-
cent barn, and a number of cabins which at one time had beeii4 chicken
coops. The site, however, had two unfortunate deficiencies. A county high-
way divided the cabins from the rest of the site, and the swimming facilities
were reached by climbing a very steep hill at a considerable distance from the
115
cabins. Undaunted, the haverim of Habonim, with the help of some adults,
began intensive construction projects to make the site as serviceable as possi-
ble for the summer. Irv Sternberg and his wife, Edie, were the roshim.
Construction went well, notwithstanding the broken arm of one of our
haverim who managed to fall off a roof while shingling it. The summer itself
was full of interesting and varied experiences. At that particular period, the
German American Bund was active in the area. So much so that at the begin-
ning of the summer, it became a nightly occurrence for a truckload of these
hooligans to drive slowly through the camp hurling epithets, and frequently
more, at the younger haverim. In addition, they managed to deface and almost
destroy the dock we had built at the creek. Guard duty became an important
job. To counteract these activities, Irv approached the local sheriff and re-
ceived a permit to carry guns. Word was passed around and fortunately, no
further incidents took place. The rampant anti-Semitism which existed and
which was manifested so clearly made a deep impression upon our younger
haverim. This unpleasantness, however, did not detract from a very fine
summer.
In retrospect, one recalls a most interesting and unusual Hebrew pro-
gram. Dr. Meyer Cohen, a principal of a Philadelphia Talmud Torah, was a
member of the staff, and daily Hebrew sessions were a part of the program.
The group was small-I doubt if there were more than fifty at any one time-but
the spirit was high. One remembers nostalgically the first contact with shli-
him. The most striking memory of this summer, however, had to do with the
last three weeks of camp which was devoted to what, I believe, was the first
national mahaneh madrichim.
The purpose of this particular mahaneh madrichim was to train ma-
drichei tzofim. Haverim came from all over the country and friendships were
created which were to last to this very day. The effectiveness of this endeavor
116
paved the way toward the utilization of the summer camp for serious and in-
tensive discussions of mutual problems which were to transfer themselves to
each city and each Camp Kvutza in the country.
Conditions brought about by the imminence of war 'unfortunately dic-
tated against a camp of our own in 1941. Most of our haverim spent that
summer either at Killingworth, Connecticut, or returned to Moshava. From
1941 through 1945, this pattern was repeated. The movement suffered accor-
dingly, for without a camp, it became clear that the local mahaneh could not
really grow. The impetus of the Camp Kvutza, whether as a culmination of a
year's work, or as inspiration for a new year's activities cannot be minimized.
When the war ended and Habonim haverim, returned from the service, this
dedication to the importance of the summer Kvutza soon manifested itself. All
efforts were bent toward getting a camp for Philadelphia and vicinity. Happily
for Habonim, this dream of having a camp of our own, was shared by one
haver of the senior movement of Philadelphia, Abe Segal, without whom
there would have been no Camp Galil today.
Almost singlehandedly, Abe Segal spurred on the efforts of the
movement to raise the necessary funds to purchase a most beautiful site at a
relatively small cost. The camp was purchased for the sum of $30,000 from
the YWCA. The camp was quite primitive-there was no electricity, the kitch-
en had an old wood-burning stove, and the water supply was dependent upon
an old gasoline engine which worked on occasion. The realization that Phila-
delphia finally had a camp of its own proved a tremendous incentive in the
determination of the young adults to create as fine a camp as possible. It can
truthfully be said, that the young Labor Zionist movement of Philadelphia
grew and was strengthened because of a program which revolved around the
camp. The young branches, whose membership came from ex-Habonim
members, supplied the necessary labor and technical knowledge to begin im-
117
proving the camp site. The electrical engineers in the group planned, de-
signed, and installed electricity; the civil engineers in the group directed the
building of the necessary footbridge to cross the stream; and the general
membership supplied the muscle-power to dig the ditches so that all electric
wires would be underground. Interest in the camp was further heightened by
the events of 1947-48, during the struggle for Statehood.
The next few years were filled with gradual growth and improvement.
Because of the weakness of Habonim in the city, it was at first difficult to util-
ize the camp to its fullest extent. While eighty children could be accommo-
dated, camp rarely, if ever, serviced that number-this, despite the fact that
campers came from as far as Wilmington and the Vineland-Toms River areas.
The cycle was rather vicious. Few children came to camp-the camp leadership
was not from Philadelphia and, consequently, there was no leadership for the
winter mahaneh, which would in turn provide children for the summer season.
In 1952, the New York mahaneh was having its camp difficulties.
Killingworth could no longer be used and the Amenia site was not adequate.
To solve this dilemma an arrangement was made whereby the New York ha-
verim registered at Galil for the summer. Interesting results followed. Aside
from the fact that Philadelphia haverim acquired Brooklyn accents, they were
somewhat overwhelmed by the influx of the New Yorkers. We are all part of
one movement, but there are many local differences and loyalties which can
be positive. The experience for Philadelphia, however, was somewhat unnerv-
ing. The lessons learned that summer were to be utilized during the following
year.
In 1953, haverim of the Camp Committee were approached by the na-
tional office with a proposition to use the site of Camp Galil for the Hebrew-
speaking Camp Amal. The idea as finally formulated called for the establish-
ment of two camps on the Galil site; one would retain the name Galil and
118
would accept campers from ages nine through twelve only. Registration
would be limited to forty campers. Camp Amal would register children ages
thirteen through sixteen who met the Hebraic requirements, and could register
up to sixty children. This meant that the facilities of Galil were to be used to
their maximum.
The idea of two separate camps with separate staffs and differing
orientation was too difficult an undertaking to be of any real success. The best
that can be said of that summer was that, despite all the handicaps, quite a bit
was accomplished in both camps. It was, however, quite clear at the end of the
summer that such an arrangement could never be repeated.
It was during this year that the movement crystallized its thinking
with regard to a central Hebrew-speaking camp. It was agreed that every Ha-
bonim camp should have as much Hebrew as possible in its program, and
while the camps might never become completely Hebrew-speaking, they
should become Hebrew centered. During our camping history, a great deal of
Hebrew was always used. Camp terminology was almost exclusively Hebrew.
But this was not enough. The idea now evolved to include, in addition to the
everyday terminology, actual classes for study of the language. The Camp
Committee of Galil wholeheartedly endorsed this approach and determined
upon a course which would make Galil a truly Hebrew-centered camp and, at
the same time, make use of its facilities by improving the physical plant so as
to be able to attract more children.
The future of Habonim in Philadelphia was therefore dependent upon
those unaffiliated children who could be brought to spend a summer at camp.
Galil was helped considerably in registering children by the fact that because
of the emphasized Hebrew program, the Council on Jewish Education of Phil-
adelphia approved Camp Galil as one of three Hebrew camps for which it
provided scholarships. Being on the approved list of the Council brought help
119
from other quarters. Several of the largest congregations in the city also an-
nounced to its membership that it would grant scholarships to children desir-
ous of attending Galil.
A Hebrew Educators Advisory Committee was organized and the He-
brew program of Galil approved. In addition, a number of staff members of
Galil were employed from the student body of Gratz College, the Hebrew
teachers' training institution of Philadelphia. In most cases, the Gratz College
students were, if not directly connected with our movement, at least sympa-
thetic to our program and completely cooperative in carrying it out. It should
be noted that the national office was never able to supply the total staff needs
of Galil, especially in the case of boys. Supplementing the Habonim staff
were Gratz College students working to our mutual advantage.
During the past three summers many of the campers at Galil have
made considerable progress in their Hebraic studies. In some cases, they have
covered the equivalent of a full year's work in the city. Many of the
youngsters bring with them specific requests from their teachers and princip-
als as to material to be covered. The Hebrew program at Galil is flexible
enough to be able to provide for these individual needs. In 1956, for the first
time, camp was full, and in 1957, registration was closed by the end of March.
Improvements to camp continue. The swimming pool was completely
rebuilt. A second well was dug primarily to provide water for the pool and to
act as a supplementary water supply for general use, if necessary. In previous
years, Galil depended on the creek for water for the swimming pool. During
the past few summers, the water level of the creek continued to fall so that
there were times when the pool could not be properly filled. Not only will this
be avoided in the future, but the well water will be purer and free of algae so
that the pool need not be emptied and cleaned as frequently as heretofore.
120
The future of Galil seems assured. It has made its mark in the Phila-
delphia Jewish community and its prestige is at its highest point. All of this,
however, is to no avail unless it leads to an invigorated and expanded youth
movement in the city. All members of the Camp Committee are dedicated to
this purpose. They are not interested in running a camp just for the sake of a
summer business. The Camp Committee has assumed all of the responsibility
of a Chay Commission, and every meeting has on its agenda a report from the
rosh mahaneh of Philadelphia Habonim, and the problems of the youth
movement are an integral part of each camp meeting.
Habonim camping has traveled a long road in the past twenty-five
years. In the "old days," primitive sites and difficult conditions were almost a
matter of principle. "The road of the halutz is a long and difficult one and if it
isn't, make it.” This in a sense represented our thinking. We wanted to simu-
late the life of the Kvutza in Eretz Yisrael as closely as possible. But, the
Kvutza in Israel has also undergone some metamorphoses and the American
Kvutza must reflect these changes. I well remember the heated discussions
which took place among haverim in Philadelphia when Galil contemplated
installing an automatic dishwashing machine. Haverim cried that this would
violate the principle of self-labor.
But problems have arisen. We are raising a new generation of child-
ren and a new generation of parents. Our parents, immigrants themselves,
deeply committed to Labor Zionism, were no less concerned about our wel-
fare during the summer than parents today. But they were neither shocked nor
disturbed by "primitive" conditions. Parents today seem more concerned for
the material aspects of camp life and, like it or not, those of us now responsi-
ble for our camps must take this into account.
121
Educationally, however, the program we offer has been tried and
tested for twenty-five years and reflects our philosophy of life. In cannot be
changed without destroying the very basis for which our camps were created.
Daniel Isaacman, 1957
KVUTZA IN CANADA
GIMLI, MANITOBA
Camp Kvutza hit the plains of Manitoba in the summer of 1941 when
Canada was already at war and the "United States was still waiting for Pearl
Harbor. It was David Biderman who wrought the miracle of Habonim in
Winnipeg and set the stage for the first camp. The Winnipeg movement was
young and vigorous then, and no one would have suspected that it came about
as a sort of by-product of work for the Royal Canadian Air Force.
In one of those strange wartime transmutations, David Biderman, who
had received a mining engineer's degree from McGill University in Montreal,
changed overnight from an explorer of the earth's depths to an inspector of
flight. He became a military aircraft inspector for the RCAF stationed in Win-
nipeg. The only clue to his earth-bound past was slyly concealed in his home
address: He lived on Burrows Street in Winnipeg. But miner or airman, by
temperament David Biderman was no one-job man; when he was through in-
specting aircraft for the day, he went out to organize Habonim at night.
Once Winnipeg Habonim reached mahaneh status they could settle
for nothing less than a Camp Kvutza of their own. Immediately a camp plan
was drawn up and presented to the community. Only experienced campers
would have balked at such a plan, but happily there were no experienced
campers in Winnipeg and no one withheld his enthusiastic approval. Winni-
122
peg's first Kvutza would be held at Calof's cottage in Gimli on the shores of
Lake Winnipeg.
Gimli has changed considerably in recent years. There is a large
RCAF airbase nearby, and the town itself is honeycombed with the cottages
of Winnipeg vacationers. There were some summer cottages in 1941, but the
town had not yet lost the Icelandic character of its original settlers. Blond,
blue-eyed sons and daughters of Iceland dominated the village streets. There
was a church of roughhewn stone authentic enough to have been transplanted
from the old village back home. And the fishing boats that sailed Lake Win-
nipeg rather than the saltier North Atlantic nevertheless carried salty sailors
and bore names taken from the old Norse sagas.
The camp site, Calof's cottage, was at the outskirts of Gimli, about
two blocks from the lake and close by a public wooded area. The cottage itself
was a one-story wooden building partly enclosed by an L-shaped screened
porch. It was in no way distinguished from other cottages in the neighbor-
hood, neither in appearance nor in the quarter-acre plot it occupied.
Appropriate to the camp site, the staff was small and hybrid. I was
imported from New York to be rosh and factotum. Geulah Green was the reg-
istered nurse and lifeguard. Aliyah Kare was dean of arts and crafts and
second in command of the kitchen. Mrs. Kasedy was cook-and a good one-
and as a special dispensation she was permitted to bring along her son, Shi-
min, a bright-eyed youngster who was under age for camp. The business
manager who commuted on weekends was Sully Spector. He used to drive up
with David Biderman, special friend of the court.
When David and Sully arrived-no matter what the time of day-the
whole camp, forty strong, turned out to greet them. The curious campers wel-
comed the distinguished guests, but special cheers were always reserved for
the venerable Bar Mitzva, a black, high-topped Ford that made the weekly
123
pilgrimage. The Ford often faltered but it never failed, and for Winnipeg Ha-
bonim it symbolized the indomitable halutz spirit.
A fact not generally known is that the Gimli camp almost died in
embryo and had it not been for the great democratic tradition of Iceland, most
assuredly that would have been its fate. One day before the opening, the ad-
vance crew of three set to work pitching tents on the Calof lawn. The local
constable (there was only one constable in Gimli and only one cell in the jail)
dropped by to inform the workers that an ordinance forbade the pitching of
tents within town limits. The tents could not go up without the mayor's ap-
proval.
That day I had a job on my hands. I ran around like Chicken Licken
taking a census. The constable sent me to the mayor; the mayor, in his shirt-
sleeves trimming a hedge, sent me to garner the opinions of the five council-
men. So, while tent-pegs were held in abeyance, I dashed from one council-
man to another, quizzing each on his home ground Nielson in a tractor shed,
Thors in a garage, Olafson in the general store, etc.-until the roll call was
completed and breathlessly I could report the affirmative vote to the mayor.
And from the mayor I brought word to the constable-and only then did the
pegs go in and the first tent go up. That tent was not simply pitched, it was
pitched according to law - democratic Icelandic law.
With the tents up and the campers covered, the season got under way.
It is unlikely that campers anywhere lived more closely than the campers at
Gimli. The advantages in the setup were priceless: No one could be out of
earshot of the discussions. Even the cook in the kitchen could not escape
them.
The camp had the usual trials and triumphs: rains that came and tents
that fell, camp fires at the beach, tired kids, parents who were torn between
their loyalty to Labor Zionism and their concern for the welfare of their child-
124
ren. There were frenched beds and a pillow fight that covered the grounds
with feather-snow. There were earnest daydreams and the stubborn belief that
somehow all of this was bringing everyone closer to Eretz Yisrael . . .
Strangely enough, somehow it did.
Pinhas Rimon, 1957
AFIKIM
The opening of Camp Kvutza at Markham, Ontario, was blessed with
the unfaltering benevolence of King Saul. As a result, over 125 haverim and
friends packed three trucks and several cars and filled the grounds.
At first everything was disorganized as everybody went out explor-
ing. Some inspected the eighty percent-finished dining room and kitchen; oth-
ers looked around the sleeping quarters, with the iron cots and brand new mat-
tresses; still others were disappointed to find the dam unfinished. But the wis-
est of all went exploring in the forests, and one found a most beautiful nook
for discussions. In fact, he offered to rent the spot for every Sunday in the
summer. Moreover, just at that point, one of the rivers (we are at the junction
of two streams) brought fond memories of the beautiful showers of that his-
toric site, Accord.
The opening was held around the flag poles. After Tehezakna, have-
rim spoke for the Poale Zion, the Farband, the Pioneer Women, and Habonim.
And Harry Spoon gave a talk on the meaning of Camp Kvutza to the move-
ment all over the world as he took over the key to Toronto's Camp Kvutza. In
his talk, he stressed the place of America in Labor Zionism in light of the
plight of Jewry in Europe. He hoped the Toronto haverim would choose a
name for Kvutza in keeping with our ideals, the name of an Eretz; Yisrael
Kvutza. Our Kvutza is named "Afikim."
Moshe Rubinoff, 1940
125
CAMP MIRIAM
Camp Miriam was named after Miriam Biderman and is located on
Gabriola Island, thirty miles west of Vancouver. It is a nine-acre, heavily-
wooded camp site with water frontage on a beautiful little cove. At present, it
has a capacity of sixty people. We have been a long time in acquiring it.
Vancouver Habonim was first organized by Bert and Marian Wald-
man in 1948. It was soon realized that as an intensive supplement to the pro-
gram of the mahaneh in the winter, a Camp Kvutza in the summer was neces-
sary.
The first Habonim Camp Kvutza of Vancouver Habonim was held in
the summer of 1949 at Camp Wordsworth, the local C.C.F. camp, on Gabriola
Island. It was rented for two weeks. About twenty-five attended this first two-
week camp. At that time, Doodle Horowitz was rosh Kvutza. Because of the
primitive conditions, Camp Kvutza Miriam was held at Camp Hatikvah, the
camp of the Zionist Organization of British Columbia in 1950. This was a
two-week camp with the shaliah, Amram Milner, as rosh. Camp Hatikvah,
however, suffered from being too close to civilization, and furthermore, it
turned out that we would not be able to rent this camp in the future because
the Zionist Organization of B.C. itself had extended its own camp period, thus
precluding our use of the site. And so in 1951, the site of Camp Miriam
moved back again to its primitive Gabriola Island site, which was again rented
from the C.C.F. for a period of two weeks. Moishe Loffman of Winnipeg was
rosh Kvutza that year.
In the fall of 1951, the idea was first brought forward that Habonim
should own a camp site. The mahaneh set up a Camp Site Investigation
Committee. This committee spent many pleasant weekends traveling around
the scenic local fiords hunting camp sites. Although several places were lo-
cated, lack of adult supervision at that time made the work of the committee
126
abortive. In the summer of 1952, with the growth of the mahaneh, a three-
week Camp Kvutza was made possible. At this time there were about eighty-
five camper-weeks and Abbie Haklay was our rosh. In 1953 Camp Miriam
was again held on Gabriola Island for two weeks with Al Linden as rosh.
Although we were still unable to purchase a camp, it was felt that an
alternative to Gabriola Island had to be found because of the difficulty in
transportation to the Island and the primitive, unhygienic conditions existing
there.
After much hunting, Camp Miriam in 1954 was located at Roberts
Creek, on the site of a former girls' camp. This camp ran for three weeks with
Asher Wallfish as shaliah and Allen (Geli) Gelfond as rosh.
The Roberts Creek camp site was even worse than Camp Miriam on
Gabriola Island, and so in 1955, we again crossed the Straits of Georgia to the
Gabriola Island camp site. Yehuda "Sam" Weissbach was our rosh for that
year's three-week camp. By this time, conditions on the Island had improved
from terrible to merely bad and it was with optimism that we looked forward
to going back again to Gabriola Island in 1956. However, at about this time,
the C.C.F. decided that they would no longer be in the landlord business and
that if we wanted to use the camp the following summer, we would have to
buy it. Some active parents were approached as well as some seniors of the
Labor Zionist movement, and they were told that if there was no camp that
summer, the existence of Vancouver Habonim would be seriously threatened.
The seniors then formed an incorporated society for the purpose of buying the
camp property. Fortunately the C.C.F., being fellow Socialists, sold us the
camp on very easy terms. The 1956 camp was a three-week season with
Nahman Goldwasser as rosh. This camp was particularly fortunate in having
on the staff three Workshoppers. Now that the Gabriola Island camp site is the
property of the Habonim Zionist Society, the problem of its development is up
127
to us and the local parents and seniors. The problem of financing this as well
as down payments on camp is a problem of magnitude completely beyond
anything which the Vancouver mahaneh has previously coped with. In 1957,
the camp season will extend to four weeks for the first time in our history.
Plans for the development of the site include especially development of kitch-
en facilities and playground, which are to have priority in the next few years.
Max Langer, 1957
MONTREAL
Once upon a time, there was a stable (and it still stands today) which
housed horses, not knowing that one day it was destined to house Habonim.
There in Prefontaine, many haverim spent wonderful summers at Kvutza and
at seminars.
Who can forget whitewashing the kitchen (to cover last summer's
soot) and dining room until it was sparkling in the sunlight; those who suf-
fered afterwards from lime burn; trudging through the swamp connecting the
pipeline bringing water to camp; digging a new garbage pit, and then off to
another direction for another pit for another purpose; the little creek behind
the kitchen that was our ice box; the haverim who went to Ste. Agathe to get
axes sharpened, and sort of forgot to come back; or the famous soups that we
had in those days which couldn't be had in the Waldorf Astoria; chasing hor-
nets; the great baseball games at the playing field near the tents; and then a
swim in the North River?
Who can forget washing the dishes in that quaint sink and lugging hot
water from the old stove; those who got many blisters chopping firewood to
keep the stove going red hot all summer; the many times the smoke stack
shifted a bit and smoke was heavy and thick? Who can forget the overnight
128
hikes; the day one haver climbed over a fence and stepped into a hornet's nest;
the many cases of poison ivy?
Years have come and gone. Haverim who were at Kvutza in those
days have traveled and settled in various parts of the world. Camp Kvutza has
changed places, not any more in Prefontaine, but many miles further in the
mountains, at a place called Lac Quenoilles. Times have changed and so has
Kvutza-not like the old camp, but new and sparkling and full of Habonim,
having the same wonderful time.
Cocoa Cheifetz, 1957
KVUTZA IN THE SOUTHWEST
CAMP BONIM, TEXAS

Ever since the founding of Gordonia in Texas in 1929, the haverim of
the Dallas groups planned for a summer camping program. It was not until ten
years later that such an opportunity presented itself. In the summer of 1939,
Habonim groups were functioning, in addition to the four groups in Dallas, in
Houston and San Antonio, Texas, New Orleans Louisiana, and Tulsa, Okla-
homa. It was then that Moshe Smith, a madrich of the Dallas movement, and
Yapha (Jennie) Zesmer, with the writer of this report, acting as a committee
for the Southwest Habonim, selected a site on Lake Dallas for a Habonim
Camp Kvutza. To everyone's chagrin a polio epidemic made it impossible to
open camp in 1940 and necessitated postponement of the program. A Camp
Bonim Association, a group of friends of Habonim dedicated to the precept of
Camp Kvutza, was organized in the course of the year. Several of the Asso-
ciation's members who devoted much time, effort, and financial means,
should be mentioned. Among these devoted friends were Harry Sigel, I. Zes-
mer, Jacob Feldman, Maurice Levy, Isaac Goldstein, and Dr. Irving Brodsky,
129
all of Dallas; Herman P. Taubman (currently in Tulsa), I. Nad, M. Gerber, and
I. Weiner of Houston; and Abraham Sinkin, Bernard Rubenstein, and Nathan
Karin of San Antonio. In each of these communities, and in others throughout
Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, committees of friends of Camp Bonim were
formed for the purpose of making this decade-old dream a reality. In the
summer of 1941, Camp Bonim opened its first season on a leased site on Lake
Dallas. Forty campers from Dallas and several neighboring towns spent a
profitable summer in a Kvutza environment and returned to their respective
homes in the fall pledged to work for the growth of Habonim.
Subsequent years were periods of real Habonim expansion in the re-
gion. The camping program was extended to an ever-growing movement, and
parents in the communities, particularly in the smaller towns where no Jewish
education was possible, called Camp Bonim blessed.
The winter of 1945 saw the purchase of a site on Lake Dallas. Some
$60,000 was contributed through the Camp Bonim. Association by friends in
the three states for the purchase and improvement of the site, and the summer
of that year brought two hundred campers to Camp Bonim.
A number of Dallas haverim, veterans in Habonim, worked with the
writer to make this success possible. Moshe Smith, David Zesmer, Zevi Bo-
rofsky, Raphael Levin, Yaakov Ely, Zalman Schneider, Yapha Chesnick,
Meir Sigel, Bruno Sigel, Ami Levin, Leah Waltman, Zalman Kahn, Shahna
Kahn, all of Dallas, and Yitzhak Groner, Avraham Groner, and Hannah Wie-
derman of Houston - all did a real halutzic job in planning for Camp Bonim
and in implementing these plans. The invaluable assistance of Kalman Shapi-
ro, currently of Minneapolis, then a member of the Dallas Hebrew School fa-
culty, was always considered phenomenal.
From the very outset, Camp Bonim observed kashrut (as do all Habo-
nim camps). This was always considered by the founders and madrichim. as
130
an integral must in any Jewish educational program. The implementation of
this part of the plan was made possible by mothers of haverim who gave of
themselves so selflessly in order to provide proper supervision.
Shabbat at Camp Bonim was, from the very inception, an occasion for
perfect rest, study, and contemplation. From time to time, senior haverim
would visit the camp for Shabbat and sing the praises of the type of education
Camp Bonim offered. The entire camp program was geared toward a full and
enriching Jewish experience in the spirit of Labor Eretz Yisrael.
Yaakov Levin, 1957
EXPERIMENTS AND TRENDS
THE COMING SEASON

My experience last summer with Kinneret, near Detroit, aided me in
formulating and developing certain ideas with regard to the basic principles of
Kvutza.
Those of us who drew up plans for Kinneret last summer were alike
in one respect-we were all inexperienced. We had ideas, however, and we
were probably aided by the fact that because of our inexperience we made
plans which we might otherwise have rejected as too ambitious. Experience, if
anything, would have cramped our style last year, and for this reason, I should
not hesitate to give the campers considerable liberty.
I am sure that, given the opportunity, the campers will decide to do
the right thing at Kvutza meetings. For example, even such a measure as
common fund, which no Kvutza should be without, can be discussed at a
Kvutza meeting and will undoubtedly be passed with very little opposition.
Problems such as bedtime, programs, morning exercise, work, handicrafts,
kitchen duty, can certainly be handled in this manner. The campers may talk
131
about staying up late, but if a discussion of the benefits of an earlier day and
the harm done by late hours is carefully conducted, no one will want to stay
up past a reasonable hour.
To my knowledge, work and handicrafts are not being neglected in
our Kvutzot. Work, of course, should play a major role in Kvutza activities
and, if planned properly, will receive much enthusiasm on the part of the
campers. Habonim are builders, and we should certainly be given an opportu-
nity to build, even at the expense of a more professional job. The dining room
at Kinneret is by no means a professional job, but it means a great deal to
about ten boys who had a band in building it. The best way to give the camp
back to the campers is not by merely giving them a voice in their own gov-
ernment, but by giving them an opportunity to be instrumental in the actual
building of the Kvutza. Our camps present a golden opportunity for us to put
some of the concepts of halutziut into practice, and such a principle as the
"conquest of labor" should be exploited to its limit.
Arm in arm with work goes gardening. This may be difficult to carry
through in some Kvutzot because of unfavorable natural factors, such as poor
soil conditions or extreme drought. However poor these conditions may be,
they can be counteracted by artificial means, and the cost and effort expended
on such a project will be repaid if plans are carefully laid out and executed.
Gardening can and should be of two kinds - vegetable and floral cul-
ture. In the case of a permanent Kvutza, it might also be wise to plant trees for
ornamental purposes as well as for fruit. Both vegetable and flower gardening
must be begun in April or May, and in order to carry out this project success-
fully, it is necessary to take a trip to Kvutza every week and put in several
hours of work. On the surface this may seem a disadvantage, even to the ex-
tent of killing the idea of a garden. On second thought, however, this is a de-
cided advantage since the Kvutza with a garden begins not in July but in April
132
or May. Those who work on the garden in the spring will naturally be more
interested in Kvutza than those whose first connections with camp begin when
the season opens. Gardening also furnishes a permanent work project during
the season. Other projects can be postponed from day to day, but postponing
work on the garden spells failure. In short, gardening entails certain responsi-
bilities which every camper should experience.
It is unreasonable to expect a crop for consumption from the vegeta-
ble garden the first season. This should rather be spent in gaining experience
and learning which crops grow most successfully. Little by little, however, the
garden should develop, and there is no reason why it cannot supply a substan-
tial part of the Kvutza's fresh food products during the latter part of the season
after a few years of experience. The garden might even be developed to such
an extent that after a few years, one or two vegetables could be grown in larg-
er quantities to be sold to neighboring markets.
Flowers and landscaping are also of great significance. A feeling for
aesthetics should be inculcated in Habonim, and here is a grand opportunity.
Flowers and shrubs can transform a barren piece of land into a beautiful
scene, and labor is of little significance if it does not go hand in hand with a
desire for beauty and freshness.
Danny Ginsburg, 1940
133
CAMP AVODA, CREAMRIDGE
Camp Avoda at the Hehalutz farm in Creamridge, New Jersey, began
as an experiment and ended as an established institution. High school-age
boys and girls came to Creamridge to live and work with an established col-
lective group. Although we were rather skeptical at the beginning, by the end
of last summer, most of us were ready to admit that, within reasonable limits,
it is possible to expose successfully young American Jews to collective agri-
cultural life. To our surprise, we found that almost without any conscious
guidance on our part, the campers, in the course of the summer, gradually be-
gan to adopt the outlook and standards of intimate collective groups.
Fifteen boys and girls between the ages of fifteen and seventeen at-
tended the camp. The group was a rather heterogeneous one; a number were
students of the Society for the Advancement of Judaism, where they received
an education along Reconstructionist lines, while several had almost no know-
ledge of Eretz Yisrael and Zionism, not to mention halutziut.
The life of the camp was, of course, built around work. The campers
elected their own person to assign the work who, together with us, prepared
the daily work schedule. The campers were given an opportunity to partici-
pate in the various branches-barn, chickens, garden, cannery, and so on.
Working six or seven hours a day under the hot sun was a new experience for
all of them and it was occasionally difficult to maintain good standards of
work for the group. This was partly due to the assignment of routine jobs to
the campers, such as picking tomatoes or cleaning chicken coops, rather than
giving them an opportunity to do work which they would find more interest-
ing and which would require a certain degree of skill.
The campers participated in both cultural and agricultural discussions.
The agricultural discussions were conducted by members of the farm and
were intended to give a general picture of the various branches of a farm
134
economy. A good part of the discussions, of course, was in reference to our
own farm economy. These discussions aroused considerable h1terest and
proved very worthwhile.
One evening a week was devoted to a cultural discussion concerning
aspects of modern Jewish life throughout the world with particular emphasis
on Zionism. Because of the varying backgrounds of the campers, some diffi-
culties were encountered in presenting these discussions, but the group as a
whole was an alert one and there were many lively arguments and debates.
Five or six times during the summer, the campers met to discuss and to decide
about the problems that arose in the maintenance and the functioning of the
camp. We naturally tried to have Camp Avoda run as democratically as possi-
ble, and except for a few elementary rules upon which we insisted, the cam-
pers were given a good deal of freedom of choice and decision. Despite the
fact that the group was a small one and that camp life followed a rather simple
pattern, there were innumerable small problems, questions, and suggestions
brought up at these meetings. Several campers wanted a room in the house to
be set aside as a recreation and letter-writing room; there was a discussion
about whether boys have to work in the kitchen and clean house as well as
girls; an argument ensued as to whether some campers may go to a movie on
a day when the others are swimming or whether the whole group must have
their recreation together; and so on.
Because this was our first experience with a camp of this type and be-
cause summertime is always a busy and difficult season at the farm, Camp
Avoda in some ways fell short of what it might have been. As mentioned be-
fore, the work program was not organized in a manner that would have been
most beneficial to the campers; the cultural work was too limited and lacking
in intensity-for example, we did not have an adequate library of Zionist and
other literature which campers could read at their leisure. During the first few
135
weeks, there were also a good many technical shortcomings which should
have been avoided.
Yet, we feel that we achieved the basic purposes of Camp Avoda.
Purely on the basis of what they saw, heard, and felt, the campers gradually
began to realize the advantages of collective living. Most of us thought it like-
ly that they would ridicule, for instance, the idea of keeping clothes collec-
tively, but it was just the opposite. They liked us and they liked the way we
lived.
After a time, they began to adopt more and more of our methods.
When at the beginning of the summer, we proposed a common fund, we met
with almost complete opposition; later the campers themselves again brought
up the suggestion and it was accepted. As happens in every camp, parents sent
boxes of candy and cookies. At first the candy was the private property of the
particular tent in which the recipient lived, then it was shared among the cam-
pers, and finally it was decided that the boxes were to be shared equally
among the campers and members of the farm alike.
A few weeks before the end of the season, they were asked to analyze
collective living, to extol or criticize it, on the basis of their own experience.
There was a good deal of disagreement about whether this type of life was
possible on a large scale at the present time, but everyone who spoke as-
sumed, as something that did not need further proof, that living collectively
was better and preferable to any other way of life.
The campers went home with a very real appreciation of the farm and
at least an acquaintance with halutziut. During the year, many of them came
to visit us for weekends and holidays. Several are returning this summer to
participate in a larger, better planned, and better organized Camp Avoda.
Al Weingrod, 1944
136
AMAL IN RETROSPECT
Amal, Habonim's Hebrew-speaking camp, has completed its third
season. After three uncertain years of experimentation, Amal has realized the
dreams of its founders; it has won national recognition as one of the outstand-
ing Hebrew-speaking camps in America. Habonim has never had an opportu-
nity to determine the future of this nascent institution. We have been too con-
cerned with the very survival of Amal to give adequate consideration to its
role within the movement. Institutions, however, do not await official deci-
sions. Amal, in its three years of existence, has established its own camping
patterns and set into motion uncertain forces. Even a cursory evaluation
would disclose that Amal has fostered the study of Hebrew in our movement,
has attracted a considerable number of new haverim, and gained for Habonim
new prestige in the Jewish educational world. But it might also be shown that
Amal's successes have not been achieved without prejudicing the halutzic
character of our camps.
It was but three years ago that we hesitantly opened Amal on a rented
site in Vermont. The movement greeted this venture with singular indiffe-
rence. Few haverim expressed interest in attending Amal. In view of the small
registration, the Merkaz, on one occasion, nearly decided to abandon the
project. But we felt strongly that we had a mission to fulfill in Hebrew camp-
ing. We were disturbed by the cloistered atmosphere of many existing camps.
They were fostering a native Hebrew-speaking elite. Their educational pro-
gram bypassed halutziut. They glibly spoke of the national poet, Bialik, and
chose to ignore the pressing need of Eretz Yisrael: an American halutz aliya.
Therefore, despite the initial movement apathy, we decided in favor of con-
tinuing our efforts on behalf of Amal. We opened in the summer of 1948 with
a handful of campers. The staff had little Hebrew camping experience and
was poorly prepared. This was hardly an auspicious beginning.
137
Haverim seriously questioned reopening Amal in 1949. They felt that
it had failed. Strong arguments were advanced for giving up Amal-our per-
sonnel shortage was acute, there were but dim hopes of registering an ade-
quate number of campers, and the national budget could not again sustain a
financial loss such as it had in Amal's first season. It was therefore with great
trepidation that the Merkaz finally decided in favor of reopening the camp.
This was to be its last chance.
Amal's partisans were soon active on all fronts. Prominent Hebrew
educators were solicited to add their names to our list of sponsors. Several
Jewish educational institutions were induced to award scholarships to Amal.
This time, the camper response was more encouraging. The season began with
forty-five campers who were determined to make it a success. We hoped to
create a camp modeled along the lines of our other camps. And, to a large ex-
tent, we succeeded. We ended our second season with the realization that
Amal had proved itself. It was no longer an experiment. Many observers
claimed that our campers spoke more Hebrew than the campers of any other
Hebrew-speaking camp in America, and this we had seemingly accomplished
without vitiating our halutzic Zionist program. Nor did our work go unnoticed
in the Jewish community. During the winter of 1949-1950, the number of
sponsoring Jewish educational institutions increased from two to six, and
twenty-two scholarships were awarded to Amal by various Hebrew school
systems. In recognition of Amal's promise, the Merkaz assigned Tel Meir, in
Connecticut, to its fledgling Hebrew camp as its permanent site.
This past summer we confidently opened the season with sixty have-
rim. As evidence of our coming of age, an ambitious program was prepared
for the public. On August 9th, a performance of Yitzhak Lamdan's Masada
was witnessed and applauded by sixty parents and guests. Hebrew educators
from many sections of America visited Amal during the season and were im-
138
pressed with the serious educational work that we attempted. Daily formal
class work had been introduced, and great emphasis in the discussion program
was placed upon Jewish history. The 1950 season was most successful.
Moshe Margalit, 1950
139
Kvutza and the
Individual
NIGHT WATCH
Two o'clock -
The raindrops fall,
Soft winds rock
The trees, o'er all
Is quiet -
Three o'clock -
The whippoorwills
Softly mock
From yonder hills
In the quiet -
Four o'clock -
The sky is red,
A promise of
The day ahead
Of quiet -
Five o'clock -
A sun so bright
Has replaced
The dim of night
In quiet -
Six o'clock
The day is come
But at Kvutza -
Till day is done
No quiet!
Rita Greenberg, 1937
142
ACCORD DIARY
Sunday, July 3rd
Campers arrive. Amid much excitement, tents and madrichim are as-
signed. Among last year's haverim, there is great rejoicing over the new out-
house, and the exclamation, "Oh boy, is it swell to be back!" echoes and re-
echoes to the bewilderment of the newcomers. Washing is over, and every-
one, in comfortable camp clothes, leans back (on his neighbor) after a much-
needed supper and listens to Dave's welcoming speech. Then a camp fire,
with dancing for those who are not too tired after the long train ride, and sing-
ing for all. Sleep now, and quiet.
Monday, July 4th

Today the regular daily program begins: Rise and shine – exercise –
washing – breakfast - clean-up - discussion groups – activities – dip – lunch -
rest and correspondence – sports – swimming – supper - and one of the many
evening activities possible in Kvutza.
Tonight we have an amateur hour, under the direction of Benny, to
find talent for the Drama Circle-to-be. Stan and Sol are prize kibitzers, to say
nothing of Avram. And so to bed.
Tuesday, July 5th

The regular program again today. This evening we have a hike to Accord via
the new route discovered by Benny and Yehiel. First and last stop is the place
of business of Mr. Block. Here we are refreshed by popsicles and exactly $.01
worth of candy-no more, no less. Tiptoeing through the metropolis so as not
to wake the immense population, we finally reach home, tired but happy, to
drop right off to dreamland.
143
Flag Raising at Midwest Camp
Midwest Camp Habonim, 1957. Habonim, 1957.
Attacking the Weeds, Kinneret, 1954.
Campers at Midwest Camp

Habonim, Three Rivers, Michigan,
1957.
Volleyball at Kinneret, Chelsea,
Michigan, 1953.
Scout-craft Competition at Maccabia,

Basketball at Maccabia, Galil, 1957. 1957.
In the tradition at Kinneret: Building the Migdal, Midwest Camp Habonim, 1957.
Habonim Camp Kvutza Naame, Green

Valley Station, Saugus, California.
Campfire at Midwest Camp Habonim,

1956.
Friday afternoon lunch on the patio, Camp Kvutza Naame, 1957.

Hora around the Campfire, Midwest Camp Habonim, 1957.
Camp Habonim, 1957.
Campers from Moshava, and Camp

Habonim, arriving at Galil for
Maccabia, 1957.
Dedicating the new Arts and Crafts Pavilion, Camp Kvutza Naame, 1957.
The Swimming Pool at Camp Kvutza Naame.
Joint Flag Raising of the three camps at

Maccabia, Galil, 1956.
Waiting for the Ferry to Camp Miriam,

Gabriola Island, British Columbia,
Canada.
Yemenite Dance, Visitors Day, Camp Kvutza Naame, 1957.

Wednesday, July 6th
It is agreed that "Harishona" is a suitable name for our Accord Kvutza
since we were literally "the first."
Thursday, July 7th

Looking about this morning, one sees a veritable hive of industry. The
library is open, to the great delight of our intelligentsia, and the boys are
working on an aquarium in which to keep material for Sammy's dissection
mania. The camp paper - The Cookooricoo - is begun under the expert direc-
tion of Judy G. We have free time tonight. Struck by the magnificent beauty
of the sky and surrounding mountains, we gather together on the grass to sing.
As the haverim tear themselves away to bed, they feel that the stars sparkling
in the velvet heavens have come nearer to earth and are watching over Kvut-
za.
Friday, July 8th

All day today is given over to preparation for Shabbat. We do our
laundry in the creek. Two haverim volunteer to wash the dining room and
kitchen floors. At lunch the Celibates Club is organized at a special table
which excludes haverot. Their motto is: O.F.F. - Off Ferns Forever. Sammy
and Marvin (who declares that at least he is a confirmed bachelor) are the un-
worthy specimens of humanity who lead this ridiculous movement. Everyone
is dressed in white shorts and blue Habonim shirts for Friday night, and we
march down the hill singing happily. At the table the candles are lit and the
prayer sung by Edna before we sit down to eat. Gathered on the hill, we hear
The Cookooricoo read by Stan and then sing songs of Shabbat.
Saturday, July 9th

Ah, luxury, we sleep an extra half hour this morning. We have a lei-
surely breakfast, discussion, and clean up. As the Bible circles in Hebrew and
English begin this afternoon, it begins to rain.
148
Sunday, July 10th
This morning there is a talk and discussion conducted by Shlomo on
the present situation in Eretz Yisrael. Parents begin to arrive. A new batch of
haverim come from the city and there is much excitement during the meeting
of old friends and new. Tonight we have a camp fire with singing. And then to
bed, with one or two people doubling up because some trunks have not yet
arrived.
Monday, July 11th

Today we are settled again. This afternoon it rains and, as on previous
days, we gather in the dining room for songs and games. Finally the sun
breaks through the clouds just in time to set. Later, stunt night. Each tent
presents a skit or a like exhibition. The grass is very wet as we walk up the
hill to bed.
Tuesday, July 12th

We are awakened this morning by reveille blown by Harriet on her
trumpet. It is decided that haverim of fifteen and over will take an overnight
hike tonight after supper. The elements, however, seem to regard this with
disfavor for it starts to rain. Yehiel's determination is of some avail because
the shower suddenly stops. "Heigh ho, heigh ho, it's off to Minewaska we
go!" And amid the cheers of the remaining campers, the group sets out. So the
younger haverim go to bed, begging Dave for an extra hour of sleep tomor-
row.
Wednesday, July 13th

Kvutza seems empty this morning with only half the haverim here.
No morning exercises, praise be to Allah! The younger people go on a short
hike immediately after breakfast while those that remained for various reasons
help in the kitchen. All the haverim are back for a delayed lunch, after which
149
much napping is done under the pine and apple trees by those campers who
would catch up on their lost sleep. Reading circles are the only activities this
afternoon, and following supper, we have free time. Now bed and sleep at
last.
Thursday, July 14th

There are discussions this morning on the trials in Russia, and prepa-
ration for a debate-" Resolved: That Socialism as such will solve the Jewish
problem." Today the equipment for all sorts of sports is spread over the camp.
Down by the kitchen we have ping-pong, while at the top of the hill are horse-
shoe and deck tennis games. And watch the Schwartzes at the badminton net!
The haverim with musical talent are in the limelight tonight as we all gather
near Dubby's tent to hear them and occasionally join in the chorus. It seems a
perfect antidote for insomnia, but-Miriam L. and Dave R. are on guard duty
so all hopes for a peaceful night are futile.
Friday, July 15th

This morning we again approach the serious problem of laundry and
hie ourselves down to Ye Olde Creeke where we spend the morning washing
clothes. After lunch, besides clean-up, we have arts and crafts and scoutcraft.
Ready for supper, our tents and persons spotless. For Shabbat we snap pic-
tures of our haverim in Habonim shirts and white shorts. A "Candid Camera
Fiend" or two stay behind to record on film our march down the hill. The
stream goes by, and the waterfall competes with Dave's voice as he reads to
us the past week's diary and news from the other camps. Still gathered on the
rocks, we watch Mutzie present Barry with a diploma from Fibber's College.
Back by the tents and joined by the kitchen committee, we listen to The Coo-
kooricoo as read by Avram. Now to our tents after singing and dancing.
150
Saturday, July 16th
Today is the final conflict: let each stand in his place-the campers
play a baseball game of chills and thrills. Amid much excitement and conflict-
ing emotions in the cheering section, the campers beat the madrichim 17-7.
What triumph! What humiliation! The drama group presents an anti-war play
at the camp fire tonight, written by Benny Lappin and produced by Ruth L.
and the author. Afterwards, of course, there is dancing and singing. And so
the second week of camp ends.
Accord Diary, 1938
PEEKING IN WITH OUR SHALIAH

Traveling around the camps of our movement is an experience akin
to that of visiting our settlements in Eretz Yisrael. One expects them all to be
a like - for are they not organized and managed the same way, the same by-
laws, the same institutions, the same program and activities-yet each Kvutza
represents a unique world of its own. Just as all settlements in Eretz Yisrael
differ, one from the other, because the people who live there are different-
coming from various countries, homes, schools, civilizations-so do the vary-
ing backgrounds of our haverim place an individual stamp upon each Camp
Kvutza.
My first stop this year was at Kendall, New York, the Kvutza which
serves our upstate New York movements. Situated on a plain on the shore of
Lake Ontario-no mountains or bills - a few trees mark the spot. Farm land
stretches out on all sides. Most of the farmers are Norwegians and the rela-
tions between the camp and the farmers are excellent. Five wigwam tents in a
straight line and a large and spacious two-story barn, the bottom floor used as
a dining room and kitchen, the top floor used as a handicrafts and cultural
room -that is the entire camp. Swimming is naturally one of the main activi-
151
ties as Lake Ontario with its clear blue waters is only fifty yards away. The
haverim there built a long wooden jetty of water which gradually gets deeper
and deeper as you go on. Only this year, millions of little fish had been
dumped into the lake from the Canadian side, and they had floated over to the
American shores. Thus, during the first weeks in camp, their bodies littered
the beach, kept you company while you swam, and frequently went into your
mouth if you were not careful.
From Rochester, I climbed up and up to the Laurentian Mountains in
Prefontaine, Quebec, where our Montreal camp is situated. Physically, the
camp there is a very poor one, an old building with various compartments
used as cabins, dining room and kitchen, an office, and two tents. In general,
our haverim from Montreal come from very poor districts - most of them
forced to begin working in factories at the ages of fourteen to fifteen. From
many points of view, Montreal is like an East European city with the Jews
living almost in a ghetto and the population, mostly French Catholics, very
anti-Semitic. Most of our haverim there speak Yiddish very well as they at-
tend Yiddish parochial schools.
Singing and dramatics is the specialty of Montreal. Every year they
give a concert attended by 1200 people which is a highlight of the Jewish ar-
tistic season there. No monotones in Montreal-almost all have choir voices
and most of the songs are sung in three voices. Two dramatic' presentations
were carried through successfully the week I was there-one describing the life
of Bialik; the other portraying the history of the Jewish Hagana in Eretz Yi-
srael, from the founding of the Hashomer until the occupation of Hanita.
From there, southward to Camp Galil. The singing there; the manner
in which J.N.F. projects were carried out; the exciting baseball games be-
tween the Varsity and the Scrubs; the ingenious costumes invented for the
masquerade; the adventures of Ferdinand, the truck; the hike in the park near
152
the spot where Washington crossed the Delaware; the spirit of the oldest bo-
not - the famous LeHagshama group of Philadelphia - who though they found
in camp only boys under thirteen and over twenty, expended their energy in
leading groups and building up a healthy camp spirit-these are all unforgetta-
ble parts of Galil.
Ben Zion Ilan, 1938
UNTIL NEXT YEAR

And so it was the last day of Kvutza. We packed, we ran around camp
looking for wrapping paper and twine, and we envied those fortunates who
were staying for the seminar. Busy as we were, however, we could feel some-
thing strange in the air; a small committee had been picked by Dave with
much secrecy and we wondered about its mysterious I duties.
We ate, saying to ourselves and to each other, "This is the last lunch
at Kvutza this year." The gods shared our disappointment, perhaps, for they
sent down a flood of heavenly tears that transformed the camp into a mud-
hole. Through the downpour, our trunks and bags were carried to the truck
and transported to Accord. A small band of brave halutzot rushed down the
hill with a burden of "civilized clothes" which had to be ironed before they
could be worn home on the morrow. And now loud lamentations could be
heard from Kvutza. The secret had escaped; the cat was out of the bag. A gay
farewell party had been planned for this last evening, a campfire, then a march
to the pine trees decorated with Japanese lanterns under which was to have
been set a feast fit for a king and also for us. Sobbing, we planned a substitute
affair and sadly went about making preparations.
At last, gathered at the top of the hill and dressed mostly in borrowed
clothes, we were ready for supper. Suddenly a bombshell landed in our midst:
an evening paper from Ellenville. War, it seemed, was near-the Soviet-Reich
153
pact a reality, not just a fantastic nightmare. Thinking of the three-and-a-half
million Jews in Poland, many our own relations, wondering whether Britain
would indeed stand firm by her pledges to Poland, we were in no mood to
appreciate the meal that was set before us. After supper everyone was chased
back to the tents while preparations went on in the kitchen. Soon the whistle
blew and we tramped into the dining room again. What a transformation! The
room was decorated with crepe paper and balloons strung from the ceiling,
candles of blue and white giving off the light by which we saw the tables
spread with cake, candy, and fruit. We sat down together and sang at the
tables all the songs we had sung during the full summer.
When the tea had been served and cleared away, Dave rose to speak
to us. Because of the news from abroad we were not having the festive even-
ing that had been planned, but still we could look back with satisfaction on a
summer of working, playing, and living together. He hoped that the time we
had spent in Kvutza would provide a stimulus for more and better work in our
various cities during the coming winter.
As we left to go to bed, the sky was not yet clear, but the moon shone
among the clouds. We took a good look around; this might be our last night at
Accord for Dave had said Kvutza might be moved next year. People went to
bed quietly-there wasn't as much noise as is usual on the last night at camp.
Soon the hushed giggling and singing died down and we fell asleep.
Evy Schwartz, 1939
154
VIEW FROM KVUTZA HILL, ACCORD
Around the hill on which we stand are ringed the
woods,
Deep, deep into the valley far below,
And stretch until in fringing green encroach
Upon the fields which roll beyond
The utmost margin of our view to where
The ranks of toothed hills stand row on row,
Green blueing into gray until the last
Is but a cloud.
David E. Goldberg, 1939
TO KVUTZA
In 1933, as we were preparing for Kvutza, the Nazi power was
sweeping through Germany.
As we packed our trunks in 1939, our thoughts turned back to the fall
of Czechoslovakia. Another nation had crumbled because it believed in truth
and decency.
As we returned home from Kvutza that season, civilization was being
crushed. War had come to a world that had not known peace.
Last year we came to Kvutza with heavy hearts. France, the symbol
of man's hope, had been defeated by the Nazi military machine, and Italy was
in the war. The Mediterranean was a war zone and the first bombs had fallen
on Eretz Yisrael.
Now a Nazi band of steel is stretching into the Near East and is tigh-
tening about Eretz Yisrael-a band of steel which reaches about our hearts.
We are again preparing to go to Kvutza. To us, Kvutza never has been
an ordinary camp. To us, Kvutza has been a place where the things we be-
155
lieved could be practiced. It is in Kvutza that there is democracy. It is in
Kvutza that all are equal. Our Kvutza is a place where we might learn and
plan for the day when we could return to Eretz; Yisrael.
In our Kvutza, we could dream and hope together for a day when
there would be no war, when men might live a happier life in peace and secu-
rity.
This is no ordinary season for a far-from-ordinary Kvutza. During this
season, we must win new faith in our beliefs. We have not yet had to fight for
these beliefs of ours. But others are fighting. The British and their allies are
fighting for the same things. The Jews and all others of Europe who believed
in freedom have long endured the oppression of the swastika because of their
belief in the principles of decency. The halutzim of Eretz Yisrael are standing
to their guns to defend what they have built and their dreams for the future.
We in Kvutza must grow strong in our beliefs and let those who now stand in
the front lines know that they can count on us for whatever lies within our
power to give in this fight for the future.
Artie Goldberg, 1941
NIGTH WATCH
The night was cold and dark, the moon passed silently overhead, and
still she slept. Suddenly a tap on the shoulder, a yank of the little pigtails, and
she was awakened by an obliging, sleepy-eyed haver. Hand in hand they
walked to their first destination-the dining room. And there they found more
than just an empty place, mosquitoes about the lights, and dirty dishes on the
table; there was a building of which they were a part-they recently had carried
logs to repair it, and now it was theirs.
Dirty dishes did not matter, the mosquito bites did not itch quite so
much - the place was theirs. Faithfully through the night they guarded it, and
156
when the early hours of the morn began to break, they woke two other have-
rim.
Yes, the girl with the pigtails and the sleepy-eyed haver were on
guard duty. The dining room was theirs-all theirs!
Haboneh, 1941
THE TREE
Limp and lonely and lifeless, it hangs down the side of its cliff. Its
naked roots clutch at the earth like fingers' that have lost their power to grasp
at life.
Around it we stand and we look down on it. And it seems strange to
look down on something to which we had always looked up.
It is The Tree.
If you have ever been in Moshava, you know The Tree. Just across
the grounds and follow the path to the water. You pass the ravine and the road
to the New Cliff. And then you find The Tree.
Or maybe it is that The Tree finds you.
You stop to look at The Tree. It sits on its own cliff and it looks over
the Severn River. It guards the haverim. on the beach and in the water. It sees
the sailboats glide past. It watches the sunsets and the night skies. But when
you stop to look at it, it turns. And it looks at you.
Then you notice its arms are held out to you and you understand it is
your first haver at Moshava. So you climb out on its strong roots and you set-
tle yourself in its lap. For a while, you sit in silence-you and The Tree. And
when at last you decide to leave, you go knowing that you will return.
Many times you visit it. Sometimes you come with your haverim.
Then all of you sit on its arms and around it and you lose yourself in discus-
157
sion. Momentarily you forget where you are. Yet, when you look upward, you
see The Tree and you know it listens sympathetically.
Sometimes you bring your new group to The Tree. You are a madrich
and you want to impress your haverim. And hardly a week passes now but
that one of them recalls, "Remember that time we sat at The Tree?"
Sometimes you come with a Certain One. For The Tree, alone, may
know your secrets.
But most times you come alone to The Tree. Early in the morning you
come to it. Late at night when you cannot sleep. After Moshava has closed
and you are back in the city, suddenly you have such a longing to leave your
routine. And you take the first lift you can get. And you come back to Mosha-
va. Like a mad one, you run down the path to The Tree. And you sit upon its
roots and rest against its trunk.
For a long time we knew it had to come down. Let the truth be
known: There is no time in our memory when The Tree did not "have to come
down." Knowing full well we would not. Each year its roots protruded more
and more above the ground. Each year it extended farther over the Cliff.
If we stood on the beach below it and looked up, we could see its
every vein straining at the earth around it.
In March it snowed. A heavy, unkind, bitter storm that seemed to seek
revenge on the coming spring with which it struggled.
Limp and lonely and lifeless, it hangs down the side of its cliff. Its
naked roots clutch at the earth like fingers that have lost their power to grasp
at life.
Around it we stand and we look down on it. And it seems strange to
look down on something to which we had always looked up.
It is The Tree.
Miriam Biderman, 1942
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SO YOU WANT TO BE A MADRICH
Perhaps you are one who wants to do more than his share at Tel Hai
this summer, that is, become a madrich. Well, if you are new at this game, let
me give you some timely advice.
First of all, you must take into consideration your age. If you want to
work with solelim whose ages range from ten to twelve, we suggest that you
yourself should be at least thirteen so that they can look up to you to some
extent. The same goes for the tzofim who are usually thirteen and fourteen.
That means that you should be about fifteen, or if you wish to give a sage-like
appearance, sixteen. The bonim, as our beloved rosh Kvutza, Harry, once
said, are anywhere from fifteen to twenty-five. But for them it does not matter
how old you are because the bonim never pay any attention to madrichim an-
yway. They consider them a mere formality.
So you think you are old enough for one of these age groups. We
shall therefore proceed to tell you just what will be expected of you in each
age group. We'll start out with the solelim. and get them off our minds (as
though that's even vaguely possible. To work with these little rascals, you
must have a strong constitution and a stronger left hook, the endurance of a
cross-country track star, and the patience of a saint. You must have the fleet-
ness of a greyhound each evening to join the merry chase that occurs when it
is time to put them to bed. A liberal education is a handy thing to have, too,
for you must know everything from the latest processes of making apple but-
ter to the social status of the Jew in Zululand. These little intellectual fiends
can ask more brain-teasers in a day than Dr. I. Q. does in a year. Also, you
bad better stock up on vitamin pills, for these charming youngsters have their
own ideas of how to spend a restful afternoon.
Now for the tzofim. These animals are slightly less energetic, all their
vitality having been exhausted in their solelim days, though they are still more
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active than their mild looks indicate. But the modern tzofeh brings new prob-
lems with which the madrich can expect to cope. For example, you will be
requested to solve all their little affaires de coeur, and if you don't think that
kids of this age are concerned with such problems, you have underestimated
the wide range of their capabilities.
You will be subject to nightly outpourings of their hearts and will be
forced to promise them you will try to get the work committee to put them on
guard or kitchen duty with their current crushes. Yes, being a madrich of tzo-
fim is a splendid occupation, that is, if you are interested in practicing some
early teen-age psychology.
And finally, there are the bonim. These languid creatures have neither
the solelim spirit nor the tzofim trust and confidence in a madrich. They thrive
best if left to themselves to eat, sleep, gossip, and go on night watch. They are
not antagonistic to culture and education-the only reason for their non-
attendance at discussions is evidently that they know it all. And so, while a
guest speaker sits under a tree talking to the few staff members disguised as
bonim to save the reputation of the camp, you may be sure that the bonim are
lounging comfortably in their tents and cabins holding discussion of their
own-of a different sort, however.
Likewise, their non-appearance at work does not mean that they are
lazy. Oh no! The bonim are of the opinion that work was created to give the
solelim and tzofim a chance to work off some of their excess vim and vigor.
On the whole, madrichim will find the bonim a group of sophisticates who
have reached the stage in their development when they come to camp merely
from force of habit.
And now, dear prospective madrich, if you reach the end of the day a
fairly sane person, you will be required, after everyone else is in bed, to attend
a staff meeting. These very exclusive affairs can do wonders for the worst
160
case of insomnia. Two persons are appointed, in two-hour shifts, to rotate
about the room pricking the madrichim with pins, and they do quite a bit of
hurrying about in an effort to keep at least three people awake at all times.
If you do not fall prey to the sandman's charms, you won't be able to
keep your mind on the meeting anyway. You'll keep wondering if the cabin
that's doing all the yelling is yours, and when you're going to prepare the dis-
cussion you have to lead tomorrow morning, and when the darn meeting is
going to end. Finally it does break up, but only on the condition that it be con-
tinued tomorrow when everyone will be fresh as a daisy.
After such a fatiguing meeting, one needs little convincing that a
post-midnight snack is in order, and all troop over to the dining room, loudly
shhh-ing each other although it's quite obvious that the whole camp is still
awake.
Jeannie Reisapfel, 1942
LOS ANGELES GLEANINGS

Dear Mom:
You know that right across the way from the camp there is a high
mountain called Mt. Jupiter-and here the story lies. It is a custom that every
summer some campers decide to do the nearest thing to suicide and climb the
mountain for what they call a "good time." Well, I once tried it, but being out
of condition, got no more than half way up. That was three years ago, but hav-
ing become a fine physical specimen at Kvutza, I decided to try it again.
We were to be guided by the forest ranger, Sandy, who is pretty good
looking so we had no trouble getting several girls to go. As we started out,
someone found out that I had the only knapsack in Kvutza, so they let me car-
ry all the lunches plus a first aid kit and camera. We hiked two miles in the
nice summer sun and began to climb the mountain single file. Jerry, in back of
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me, bad been eating garlic all morning and whenever we stopped, he would
put his head over my shoulder to see what was doing, and made me sick.
There was of course no turning back; Dave Bleviss was at the rear and no one
could squeeze by. After fighting our way through the brush (the ranger and I
wore short pants and my legs are disfigured for life), we arrived at the top,
took pictures (my film), and ate lunch (sandwiches and fruit from the knap-
sack I was carrying). We sat around, sang songs which the ranger liked
though he didn't know what they were all about (nor did we), and then began
to go down. We went down a firebreak. If you don't know what a firebreak is,
I shall explain: A firebreak is a long, cleared strip through the mountain, de-
signed to stop a forest or brush fire. It is made by big tractors which try to find
the steepest part of the mountain they can go up without turning over. I am
sure that this tractor found the steepest part of the whole range of mountains.
It is not true that it is easier to come down than to go up. Once you
begin going down it is very difficult to stop. Also it is quite uncomfortable to
find that you cannot stop at the edge of a cliff. Don't worry, Mom, I stopped. I
played soldier all the way down and it was very realistic; I almost became a
casualty when I tripped. We finally got to the bottom drawn out over a half
mile or so of ground. After waiting until we all gathered-including the loose
parts-we began to hike home. Just as we got near camp, we found a rattles-
nake had been killed a few minutes before we got there. How sorry I was. I
felt just like killing a rattlesnake, too. Well, goodbye now. Oh yes, send me $7
and a snake-bite kit. I want to stay longer. Love.
Your dear son,
Norman
1942
162
NEED HELP PACKING?
Spring is well along,
School will follow soon after,
And then -
Kvutza!
Imagine!
It's just a matter of days before construction crews will appear at
Kvutza sites all over the country and put into effect the planning they've been
doing all winter. And once the Kvutza has been awakened from its winter's
sleep, then comes the time of the year that every Habonim member has been
waiting for impatiently-the opening of Kvutza and the glorious days that will
follow!
All we have to do is pack our duds and hop a train or bus, and presto,
we are in Kvutza!
Yet, some of us don't feel so easy about this packing business. There-
fore, let me-a veteran-give you a few hints as to what to pack and what not to
pack.
First, clothes. Drag out all your old clothes, clothes that are too dila-
pidated for city wear, antiquated clothes that you have long ago forgotten
about, and you will have a great part of your Kvutza wardrobe. Nothing is too
bad for Kvutza when it comes to clothes, because by the time you go home,
very little will remain of them anyway. You see, we are very active in Kvutza.
But your clothes must have one important virtue - they must be able
to endure rough treatment. Also make sure that they are washable. You are
going to wash them yourself, and just between us, we know what kind of a
laundry man you are.
Have your wardrobe include work shirts (for we all work), play shirts,
because we play, too, and dress shirts for Shabbat and Sundays. Our parents
163
are always fussy about the way we look when they come to visit us so we
might as well look our best.
Oh, bless me, I almost forgot to mention the pants that go with the
shirts. By all means, don't forget your pants, haverim. Shorts or slacks or any-
thing that goes under that general heading by a stretch of the imagination will
do.
One item that should be carefully chosen is shoes. Have a pair of
hard-soled shoes for hiking and a pair of soft-soled ones for play and work.
And don't forget the shoe polish, because I'm warning you, I'm not going to
lend you mine. Besides, I'm sure to forget to bring some, in which case, I'll
have to use yours.
Brrr! Nights are sometimes cold in Kvutza. You'll need a sweater, a
warm jacket, and warm pajamas. Your pajamas must not be too nice though
because your neighbor might mistake them for fancy slacks and borrow them
for use on some important occasion.
Mind you, it can rain even in Kvutza. But we don't let that interfere
with our activities. We have indoor games in the dining hall, reading and
study groups, and FUN! But in order to get around in presentable shape, you'll
need a raincoat and boots. So don't forget these important items.
Yet, we don't always hide from water. When it doesn't come to us (in
the form of rain), we go to it (in the form of a swimming pool). That's just to
remind you that you'll need a bathing suit, a cap, and a bathrobe.
Although I know that you are not intending to do much sleeping (how
often I've heard a haver shout into the face of his madrich: "Do you think I
came all this way to go to sleep?"), yet you can never tell. Perhaps you'll feel
like sleeping for some strange reason one night. So you might as well take
along some sheets and warm blankets.
164
That's the general idea. About filling in the details, my advice is that
you comply with your mother's demands. If she is unreasonable in the amount
of underwear she makes you take, you will have use for the extra pairs on
masquerade nights.
Birdie Dekelbaum, 1944
KINNERET SHELI
We stood quietly meditating in the gathering twilight of the field of
Kinneret. That last night, we remembered Kinneret and what it meant to us.
We bade farewell to Kvutzat Kinneret.
The haverim who had built Kinneret gathered on the last night of the
last season. And the memories engulfed us.
The builders remember the watchtower-chopping the trees, knotting
the ropes, constructing the frame, raising the watchtower that would guard
Kinneret. We had slept under its benevolent shadow that summer of 1955.
As we watched the torches for the last time, haverim remembered the
discussions we had had. We remembered sleeping through them. We remem-
bered lively, thought-provoking periods. We remembered discussing leader-
ship problems.
The scouts remembered how we had hiked through the swamps of
Kinneret. We recalled nights of Hagana, tactics. Our feet remembered all-day
hikes. The soles of our feet recollected our nature walks.
Then our hands remembered the semaphore code: K-i-n-n-e-r-e-t s-h-
e-l-i.... Our eyes remembered watching for the answering flags flashing in the
sun. The message was received! We had talked to each other from afar.
We remembered the arduous trek to the lake. Our toes could feel
again the sand rippling as we walked through the Farband camp on the way to
165
swim. The clammy feel of seaweed lingered in our minds. The raft seemed to
beckon to us anew. We swam, we floated in a dream of memories.
We remembered the mosquitoes only too well. The cooling relief of
the ointments soothed us. We swatted away at the infernal pests.
We remembered Shabbat as dusk fell the last time at Kvutzat Kinne-
ret. We recalled how we had danced the hora hour upon hour. Once again we
swayed and swerved to the sound of the shepherd's flute, to the rhythms of
Eretz Yisrael. In our memories we sang. We danced again to the familiar
tunes. The beauty of the Shabbat celebration haunted us. We relived the glo-
rious, comfortable feeling of Shabbat.
This was our camp. We had built it-Kinneret.
We stood quietly in the gathering twilight. We remembered Kinneret
and what it meant to us. We bade farewell to a friend, Kvutzat Kinneret.
Avraham Bass, 1957
166
In Memoriam
HAZKARA
The cannons are still; the rifles are stacked.
The aeroplanes overhead wing their way with peaceful cargoes; the bomb-
racks off.
Brothers, comrades, resting in many lands, this is called peace.
The mighty of the earth decreed it so.
But brothers resting in many lands, there is no peace and your battle is not
done.
The last prisoners of Theresienstadt still stand behind barbed wire, the uni-
form of their captors only changed.
Over the blood-soaked plains of Poland, the sound of firing still is heard
And the dazed survivors of your people flee before the same pursuing mob.
On the coast and in the valleys of our promised land battle-girt intruders bar
the way to wander-weary brothers seeking to come home.
168
Even in this western land of liberty, the voices of the Nazi foe still echo and
repeat the ancient vicious lies.
Only in a brief moment of council, we pause to consider a fitting monument

and to tell our losses.
The familiar faces missing from our ranks, the gaps that never can be filled,
cry for memorial.
The record of the graves, the roll call of the resting places from continent to
continent,
The distant isles and seas engulf us with the magnitude of our loss,
The hundreds upon thousands upon millions, yet calls afresh each loved one
gone.
From ghetto and from concentration camp, from Warsaw, Bialystok, Lublin,
Majdanek, Auschwitz and Stryj,
From every forest haunt and cave where desperate guerilla bands struck at
the foe,
From beachheads and from far Pacific Isles with strange exotic names like
Iwo Jima,
Where in the same wide war fell our sons defending Kfar Giladi,
From the bitter hedgerow battles of Normandy,
From the Rhineland plains and woods, the hard-contested hills of Italy, even
from the waters of the seas, the roster of our dead commands me-
morial.
Brothers resting in the distant lands, the battle, for the remnant of the exile
does not stop;
And what avail soon crumbling stone carved in our sacred script to puzzle
future archaeologists.
169
IN MEMORIAM
Shall your memorial be the silence of forgotten history,
The records of an extinct folk,
The mounds and graves of the ending of our seed
We pause as on a mountain top and see; behind, a line of valiant battles dear-
ly won;
Ahead, still further struggle;
And in the valley, strewn before our feet, the weary, shrunken, shivering limbs
of the wasted few who somehow did not die.
Brothers, from your graves look out!
Look out upon your people!
Look into the ghetto, to the camp, into the ship that bears illegal freight out of
the graveyard of Europe,
Look and say, oh brothers, will they live?
Will this your people, these dried bones yet live?
With loving hands and humbled spirits, let us dedicate the memorial to our
dead scattered through many lands.
Lying in fields throughout the earth, in graves of honor and in lime pits of
shame.
And the monument we dedicate is their own people,
Worn and weary but imbued with the flame which kindled them at the foot of
Sinai's peak.
Rest, O Brothers, for we dedicate to you a monument eternal-
We are your memorial.
D.E.G.
Habonim Convention, December, 1945
170
MIRIAM BIDERMAN
We are a movement of young people. The number of haverim that we
have lost is mounting too quickly. Each time it seems that our best is taken.
Each time it seems impossible, unbelievable. We are at a loss as to what to
say or do, how to react.
Miriam came to us late. Nevertheless, all of us, even the old timers
were able to learn a great deal from her. She joined us when she was already
in her twenties. She came to us because she had decided upon the path of self-
realization. Immediately, she threw herself entirely into our work. She was
among our most devoted; she had a great capacity for hard work. Sometimes
it seemed as if she carried the whole burden of our movement and our people
on her slight shoulders. During one of the war years, when we were suffering
from a critical shortage of leadership personnel, she served as rosh of the New
York region, as rosh of one of the mahanot, as rosh of several madrichim
groups, as rosh of our national funds work, and as editor of Alot (the national
publication specifically for our halutzim)-all these at the same time. She was
one of the few people who was ours completely. She strove for self-
fulfillment in our movement even before she went on aliya.
Miriam was a school teacher by profession. She brought a real under-
standing of the meaning of education into our movement. She was a madricha
in the true sense of the term. Her primary concern was always the develop-
ment of the individual. The small group discussions, the mahaneh activities,
Camp Kvutza-these she considered as means to an end, their purpose and jus-
tification being to instill values and attitudes within the haverim. She unders-
tood her educational function not as one of directing the group, but as one
guiding the individual. Thus she worked closely with the individual haver;
upon him she centered all her efforts. And she exerted a tremendous amount
of influence upon those with whom she worked.
171
IN MEMORIAM
Her aim was to prepare younger haverim. for the tasks of movement
leadership and self-realization. Wherever she went, she sought out young ha-
verim with devotion, with, understanding, with ability, and worked with them.
And wherever she worked, in Baltimore, in Winnipeg, in New York, she left
her heritage: a corps of responsible haverim.
Miriam was brought up in an Orthodox religious home. Thus, she
came to us with a deep appreciation for Jewish tradition. She continually
championed traditional practices in our movement. Shabbat celebration, a
Third Seder, or Tisha B'Av program in which Miriam had a hand always
made a powerful impression. She was able to put meaning into Jewish tradi-
tion, to synthesize the old and the new. Both in our movement here and later
in the kibbutz in Eretz Yisrael, the lack of traditional observance caused her a
great deal of discontent. Her sense of complete identification with Jewishness
and her acute sensitivity to the tragedies of the Jewish people are a reflection
of her traditional background.
Miriam wrote prolifically and she has left us a rich legacy of her writ-
ten word. The volume of her Shabbat and other program material, of her ar-
ticles in our various publications, indicate to us the creative being whose "life
song" was "suddenly cut off." Her many letters to haverim gave us an insight
into this devoted, sensitive, troubled havera who "before her time ... passed
away.
172
BEN CHERNER
Many of you know Ben Cherner, though you may not know his name
or you may not realize that you know him. Many usages prevailing in the
movement to this day are traditions which had their inception with him. There
is always an aura about the figure of a man who carries the title of "first" but
who we do not remember. The adjective stuck to Ben because he had the fa-
culty of attracting people to himself to carry on. I do not think that Ben went
to college or had much formal training. I am certain that he took no courses in
leadership technique, but he knew how to train people to follow in his foot-
steps so that there was a second and third and fourth.
The outstanding "first" in relation to Ben was that lie was the first or-
ganizer of Habonim. It was in 1934, shortly after Habonim was established,
that we felt that one way of its taking root in America was to send out emissa-
ries. We were very modest. We didn't think of shlihim from Eretz Yisrael. We
wanted organizers to establish our new system of education. It was at that
time that we decided to be heartless toward Ben, as we subsequently have
been to every organizer and shaliah.
By 1934, Ben Cherner had not only served his apprenticeship in the
movement but had already acted as an organizer for the Young Poale Zion
Alliance. By 1934, he was a veteran, and was supposed to receive permission
for aliya. The stories of organizers struggling and living on peanuts refer to
Ben Cherner, who toured the New England region in 1933. By 1934, he had
had his fill of peanuts and of traveling for the movement. He had done his
duty. But the National Executive (four people we were, all told) decided that
he must remain for another year to help in the transition from Young Poale
Zion Alliance to Habonim. His task was to go into a community, get together
the remnants of the YPZA, contact parents and prospective madrichim, and
transform them into a mahaneh of Habonim. .
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IN MEMORIAM
Ben was not much of an orator. He spoke quietly and intimately. He
knew how to sing and he knew how to gather people around him. He set up
several mahanot.
His first stop was Buffalo, his home town. He established a mahaneh
in Buffalo so well that not only did Buffalo become the original stronghold of
Habonim but gave us two organizers in succession. It was a dynasty: from
Ben Cherner to Joey Criden; from Joey to Moshe Goldberg. When Moshe was
called to New York, the Buffalo movement waned.
Then Ben went to Chicago. In Chicago his accomplishment was that
he convinced the haverim of the movement that it was necessary to have a
permanent organizer who would set up the organization. The organizer for
whom Ben paved the way made Chicago the center of our movement for
many years.
There is a "first" in connection with Ben which relates to the Pacific
Coast. We were getting news of a growing community in Los Angeles, of a
Far West in which Folk Shulen graduates knew Hebrew. After negotiations,
we obtained $75 from several Los Angeles haverim. Naturally, we called on
Ben to make the trip. That trip in 1935 was the first link in the chain which
ultimately led to the development of the Los Angeles mahaneh, the summer
Kvutza, the stream of organizers.
To understand the significance of Ben's organizational tours, one
must visualize the years in which these were made. There existed a loose con-
nection between the New York center and the groups. There was not too
much money for printing. The mail was inadequate. The movement was kept
alive by personal contact. The visitor was the warm link representing the
movement. Hence a good deal depended on whom was sent.
Ben was a simple, soft-spoken boy. He went into a city without bene-
fit of publicity notices or mass meetings. He went to private homes and got
174
people around him to sing with him and talk with him. When he left, there
was a nucleus which somehow carried on.
There was one specific job Ben tried to do which ultimately resulted
in failure. He tried to maintain the agricultural training center in Illinois. At
that time, there were training farms in Baltimore, in Minneapolis, and one in
Illinois. They were small, inadequate, poor, unsanitary farms struggling under
extremely difficult conditions. A large percentage of the "halutzim" were
malcontents who could not earn a living. It was into such conditions that Ben
plunged to try to clean up the place, to live in it, and to introduce a new at-
mosphere. The fact that Ben failed is not a reflection on him. It was more than
a one-man job. When Enzo Sereni came, we consolidated all of these farms
into the one at Creamridge, which was paradise by contrast.
Ben's was a permanent influence because he did not talk only of Eretz
Yisrael; he set an example. It was in 1936 that he finally left. We had held
him back two years beyond his time. We felt that we were committing a crime
against Ben by holding him back but there was no alternative. There was no
other candidate who could have done the organizational work. Even his leav-
ing was, in a sense, a useful service. The senior leaders of the Labor Zionist
movement set a disheartening example by not permitting their children to re-
main in Eretz Yisrael. The repercussions of the action of the Detroit group,
who returned from Eretz Yisrael and spread stories to justify themselves, were
serious. American halutzim who could not adjust to the rigors of pioneering
did not help the atmosphere by returning home. For a/person who is normal,
adjusted, and refined, to go to Eretz Yisrael was a feat. That too was a service.
Of Ben's many qualities, his primary one was his humanity, his, ap-
proachability. He loved people. He liked young people. He was young him-
self. Perhaps this accounted for his ability to gather young people around him.
No course in leadership or technical training or knowledge could have made
175
IN MEMORIAM
up for that basic human element. In our relationship to Ben, we appreciated
his enthusiasm. He would not get excited or rush off to his work. He showed
his enthusiasm by explaining his idea and then setting about carrying it out so
well that the job seemed easily done.
His singing possessed an enchanting, quality. He was by no means a
professional singer. Yet when he sat with a group of people around a camp
fire, he held them for hours. They sat and sang without moving or talking. His
singing had a good deal to do with his influence in the movement. Many of
our songs are versions which he taught to the first groups of Habonim. Simi-
larly, some camp fire traditions and some of the stories reprinted by us in Ha-
boneh have their origin in Ben's fertile mind.
Ben had very solid convictions, so solid that perhaps they account for
one of the tragedies of his life. For good or for ill, Ben did not believe in the
concentration of Americans in Eretz Yisrael. In that period, the rest of us did
not believe in it either. We did not want an American landsmanshaft in Eretz
Yisrael. Our attitude was changed by the realities of life, but Ben was stub-
born. Only during the last two years did he begin to waver and to talk of trans-
ferring to Kfar Blum. He had stuck to Naan no matter how strongly he was
urged to join the American kibbutz.
Ben never thought of himself as a leader. He never permitted himself
to think of, or anyone to refer to, himself as a leader. He considered himself a
soldier. When he went to do organizational work, it was in the line of duty;
when he went to Eretz Yisrael, it was realization; when he helped to organize
the Union of Jewish World Combatants, it was in the line of duty. That was
one of the reasons why he did not return to America as a shaliah. He knew
that shlihut carried with it a connotation of leadership which he did not be-
lieve held for himself although he had always been in a position of leadership.
176
If Ben were here and could talk to us, he would talk of simple and
prosaic tasks. He would talk of the needs for another Kvutza and another ma-
haneh and of dogged perseverance in organizational work, of the trials and
tribulations of training and of self-realization in Eretz Yisrael, and he would
finish by saying that, in the long run, this kind of obstinacy would succeed. If
there is meaning in the memory of our haverim and of their services, it is the
realization that they represented a continuation of the Jewish struggle for sur-
vival which began before them, that we carry forward that struggle today, and
that those after us will not falter. That, it seems to me, is the fitting memorial
to Ben Cherner.
Saadia Gelb
Furrows, January, 1947
DANNY GINSBURG
Once again the battlefront has claimed the life of one of our haverim.
The knowledge that Danny Ginsburg has been killed in action on Iwo Jima
has brought sorrow to Habonim from one end of the country to the other. He
had become widely known and loved-he was no longer Danny Ginsburg of
Detroit; he was Danny Ginsburg of Habonim. His role in Habonim for more
than eight years is invaluable; his future was inextricably bound up with the
highest hopes of the movement. The knowledge of his irrevocable loss to us is
difficult to comprehend, impossible to console.
"To understand Danny," wrote one of his friends from the Midwest,
where he made his most specific contributions to the life of Habonim, "one
must see his life in terms of a personality that was unfolding, developing, and
ever expanding ... At first he saw one important objective ahead -that was the
establishment of a real Jewish institution in the heart of the American scene.
177
IN MEMORIAM
This goal was the establishment of a summer Kvutza, Kinneret, near Detroit,
that would be built by and for Habonim.
"Those who saw Danny at work in Kinneret, find it difficult to sepa-
rate the two. There was always a glow about him as he worked. All who came
in contact with him were imbued with his spirit of idealism, sincerity, strong
determination, and above all, of hard work. "
The many members of Habonim throughout the country who remem-
ber him at conventions as chairman at sessions, as a leader in discussions,
who have known him at seminars and other movement gatherings, well re-
member that it was not only physically that he worked hard. He was one of
those exceptional individuals who throws himself into every activity with the
completeness of a passionate spirit. When Danny danced, nothing could stop
him; when he participated in a discussion, it was with the determination born
of his intense sincerity, a determination that held out until he convinced or
was convinced.
Yes, Danny's was truly a constantly developing personality, and his
place and importance within Habonim grew as he did. After his initiation of
the work for a summer Kvutza near Detroit, he became rosh of the Detroit
Habonim, and under his energetic leadership, the movement there flourished
remarkably. His influence was felt as well among the haverim in the neigh-
boring cities. Sometime later, lie arrived at the personal decision to join Kib-
butz Aliya and prepare himself for a true realization of his burning idealism,
through going to Eretz Yisrael. His personal influence over others was so
strong that many who might not have taken the same road followed it upon
his leadership.
When he went into active service more than twenty months ago, Dan-
ny continued to participate in Habonim life. He continued, through the mails,
to contribute to Kibbutz Aliya discussions, to take part in the solution of prob-
178
lems of the local groups he had led as well as those of national Habonim. He
continued to be, in the minds of all of us, one of the leading members of Ha-
bonim, perhaps the leading member of the future.
When Danny learned that he and his men were to take part in the in-
vasion of Iwo Jima, he wrote to his Detroit haverim in these words:
"Naturally, I hope that I'll be able to come back safely and put into
practice those things in which I believe and about which I've written to you
and the others so much. But in case I don't, it's all right too. After all, we're all
only little coos in a machine and if some of us have to fall by the wayside in
order that the machine should continue to run smoothly, it's the machine that
counts, not the little cogs.
"I guess I haven't done much in my short life so far. I haven't learned
very much-just enough to realize that I still have a great deal to learn. But if
I've served as a stimulus to even a few kids to try to reach higher, to bring
some good into the world, then I think my life so far has been worthwhile. I
only hope I'll get a chance to make it more so in the future."
He has not been granted the chance he hoped for, but we who are car-
rying on, through embodying his spirit in our work in Habonim, can prove the
true worth of his short life.
Furrows, May, 1945
179
IN MEMORIAM
NATE KANTER
Every haver in Habonim knew Nate Kanter, even those who had nev-
er met him, because he personified the ideals of our movement. He was a
complete halutz-devoted, unselfish, unassuming, working ceaselessly.
Halutziut came easily for Nate; to him it was the natural way of life.
He was preparing for life in Eretz Yisrael at an age when most haverim are
just beginning to consider halutziut. At sixteen, he left home and began train-
ing at the National Farm School. On his days off, he was a frequent visitor at
the Hehalutz Training Farm at Creamridge, New Jersey. Those haverim now
in Eretz Yisrael will remember the quiet, hard-working boy who became so
close to them.
When he reached eighteen, he entered the Navy and served two and a
half years, largely in the Pacific.
On his return to St. Louis, he threw himself into movement work
more vigorously than ever. One of his first activities was a visit to the training
farm at Creamridge. He came to be one of the most active and respected have-
rim in the machaneh.
He was killed in an automobile accident on his way home from a
meeting of Habonim. At the time of his death he was making plans to leave
for Eretz Yisrael in the spring.
His loss is a tremendous blow for all of us. He has left a gap which
cannot be filled, both in his work in the movement and in his relations with
his haverim. The things he wanted for himself will never be realized-but the
fulfillment of the things he wanted for his haverim and for his people lies in
our hands.
Furrows, February, 1947
180
ARI LASHNER
It happened yesterday between 10:30 and 11:30 in the morning. He
was helping to set up electricity for some of the houses and so strapped him-
self to a pole in the fashion that such work is done. While he was working, a
trigger happy Arab from Salchia shot him in the back.
The entire kibbutz was shocked and stricken by his death. People ga-
thered and stood together in small groups for comfort. No one said anything.
The quietness and stillness were uncanny. And all the time, various pictures
of Ari flashed through my mind, but the one that was the clearest -was that of
Ari standing on a flat stone near the stage of the amphitheater in Killingworth
lecturing at the seminar . . . That picture of Ari, young and vital, will always
remain with me.
I cannot really describe the great feeling of despair that took hold of
us at his going and the manner of his going. It is still incredible. His body was
taken to the Mazkirut building, and from there, carried and driven to the little
cemetery near the garden. The people followed near and behind the coffin.
There was an escort of men with guns to protect us. Only the clump-clump of
hundreds of boots walking through the mud could be heard. Kieve said a few
words before the coffin was lowered into the ground. He spoke about the con-
flict in Ari's nature: How he loved beautiful things a good book, music, art, a
glass of wine-and how he had, on the other hand, the desire to come to Eretz
Yisrael and take part in its upbuilding. Kieve spoke about his years in the
movement, his years at sea, and his work with the ships He spoke simply and
beautifully.
Rose Breslau
Furrows, April, 1948
181
IN MEMORIAM
ARI LASHNER
Ari Lashner has left us. There will never take place that meeting in
Eretz Yisrael to which I looked forward so greatly. He went away many times
before-to distant cities for the movement, to war as a marine, to Europe and to
Eretz Yisrael, bringing in thousands on his Hagana ship. But always before,
there was his smiling, good-humored greeting again, the pleasurable inter-
ludes of gentle conversation, of 'music, of strolling about the city, of drives
into the country. With him went a whole period in the youth of those who
grew up with him, an inexhaustible source of reminiscence and humor, and a
springtime era of the movement.
For he was a central figure, someone on whom we all leaned. A cohe-
sive group that grew up in the movement and had planted firm roots in Eretz
Yisrael feels shattered. We feel more alone in a darker world. He went
through life so unassumingly, but left such deep impressions on all whom he
met. From all parts of the world, diverse individuals have felt impelled to
communicate with others who knew him, to express their sense of loss.
The ignorant Arab sniper's bullet that cut short his life at Kfar Blum
on March 16th caused far more than a personal loss. For Ari exemplified the
best that the combination of Judaism, America, and the movement produced,
and he was destined to contribute in important measure to the Jewish State in
the future. Everyone who knew him would agree to this, for just as he was a
leader of the most complete modesty and honesty - just because of these
qualities - he inspired in others a sincere and warm recognition of his own
capabilities. You would never have guessed from Ari's quiet work-day, un-
changed, and unself-conscious manner during his last weeks in America that
he was recruiting the crew and arranging the sailing of the first Hagana ship
from America, a ship that ran the blockade and then returned to Europe for a
second load. His wife and child had gone to Eretz Yisrael before him. He had
182
not known when or how he would see them again and he wanted to be with
them desperately.
He died in war. Ghandi could not have abhorred violence more than
Ari Lashner, who hated even the raised voice. He was never heard by anyone
to shout in anger, to gossip in malice, or to descend to the vulgar or unseemly
in any way. Not that he was a "gentleman," unless "gentleman" is redefined to
be what he was. He had strong passions, anger, and impatience. And there
was frequent cause for anger and impatience in those years. But he longed for
the day of peace when he could realize himself in some way in the Jewish
Land. He did not enjoy the conscious role of "organizer" or even of halutz.
If a keynote is to be sought in his pervasive influence, which all who
experienced him felt, it is his insistence that the individual search for his own
truth and act in consequence. In this connection, he gave full credence to the
role of the irrational in life, attaching at least as much weight to his feelings as
to his reason, and respecting feeling in others. What he could not tolerate in
himself and others was covering up the problem, tempering the feelings, ex-
cusing oneself, or seeking a way out by processes of rationalization, by the
development of universal theories which solved all problems, yet not your
own. But he never drove others. He assumed you were wrestling honestly
with your problems as he was with his.
Principles divorced from circumstances and action did not exist for
him except as scholastic exercises with which he was -very impatient. Thus he
could not consider the fate of the Jewish people without including himself in
the solution. For a time, this realistic tendency intervened even in his enjoy-
ment of abstract beauty in painting and poetry (never in music, for which he
was too naturally gifted). But in recent years, there was a definite mellowing
in him, and under the pressure of very wide experience, tolerant and receptive
183
IN MEMORIAM
by nature, the enjoyment of beautiful things in many forms became a wel-
come release for him.
He loved honesty and simplicity. While he understood and admired a
Vronsky and an Anna Karenina, his favorite was Levin. He enjoyed greatly
the scene of the “visit to the uncle” in War and Peace. He felt humble and
inferior to the point of discomfort before anyone with special talent, whether
in art or in farming, but without the slightest trace of the envy that stems from
vanity and leads to pretenses and false emulation. He once told of hearing a
musical work on the radio while working on something. The piece went on
interminably. He muttered to himself: "What on earth is this endless hodge-
podge?" It was announced as the Kreutzer Sonata. The man with a "reputa-
tion" as a music lover doesn't tell such stories about himself with detached
enjoyment.
Any account of Ari would be incomplete without mentioning his love
for America. He knew it well to California. His greatest pleasure was to drive
through its countryside. He loved to stop at roadside inns, observe people,
walk in cities, visit galleries, parks, concert balls, stores. From the earliest
days when, after our Young Poale Zion Alliance meetings, we went driving
out on Long Island until dawn, until almost the last full day together, when we
drove into New England, I associate him with trips into the green countryside
and 1 recall his avid appreciation of it.
He saw the evils of America, too, but he weighed things relatively
and he knew the enormous importance of the measure of basic civil liberties
enjoyed here. He was a Socialist, but he would take any capitalism over a So-
cialism that gave a whit less of individual liberty. The very casting of whole
societies, of people, and of complex ways of life, into formal molds with neat
tags was foreign to his mind.
184
The 1930's were a difficult test for radical youth. In the rarefied at-
mosphere of college, Socialists and Communists drove the black and white
stereotypes of doctrinaire radicalism to absolute extremes, and it was difficult
to perceive at what stage this process actually became a form of reduction ad
absurdum. Impossible, actually, without some trustworthy reference point in
reality. Ari Lashner's reference point was his emotional Jewishness and Labor
Zionism to which he attached significant weight. It was the Frederick B. Ro-
binson era at City College, and every week saw demonstrations, expulsions,
and counterdemonstrations. We Labor Zionists participated in all radical ac-
tivities but as a collateral thing. Ari admired the courage and the intellectual
acumen of the radical leaders and even admitted that their panaceas might be
right. But they were a little above him. Their solutions for the whole world
still left him uncomfortable as an individual.
He saw the Jewish people again singled out for persecution and he
felt that concrete' special efforts by Jews themselves were demanded.
He dropped his teacher-training course when it gradually became ap-
parent to him that his future lay with the Jewish people and Eretz Yisrael.
Here, another essential characteristic is illustrated. There never were any dra-
matic announcements or obvious soul struggle. He seemed to be, and thought
uneasily himself that he was, just drifting. He felt like a victim of himself. He
was unaware of the courage it took to drift with the tide of one's being. He
spoke nostalgically about the interesting careers others were following. He
was always ready to admit that the paths others were following were right.
These have been called his "doubts" and his "conflict." But he spoke about the
other things that were nice to do with a certain detachment. The concept of
doubt in the sense of debating one's path by purely mental processes cannot
rightly be used for him. His life was the result of an evolutionary process.
What it was and what had gone into it was flowing irrevocably in a certain
185
IN MEMORIAM
direction and be would have thought it absurd that some sudden idea should
be able to change it. So he followed the path of the halutz, sometimes looking
wistfully back at the green fields of America.
A great deal more will be written by those who worked with him of
Ari's influence in the formation and development of Habonim and in the La-
bor Zionist movement generally. Labor Eretz Yisrael and the ideals of halut-
ziut proudly became the central educational idea of the movement. Camp
Kvutza, the expanded hachshara farms, increased aliya, emphasis on Hebrew,
all these have come about through the vision, courage, and energy of the small
group of which Ari was a central figure. There is a whole generation of young
people who remember how Ari led them in song and dance, how he spoke at
camps and conferences-vital and human, one of us, but the epitome of us, by
virtue of his great truth to himself.
It is futile to try to recreate by words the vital essence of a compli-
cated personality like Ari. It is probably reserved only to those who knew him
to feel the true loss. No hero picture, in the conventional sense, no analogy
with anyone else, is true. And so for every one of those who are dying in
Eretz Yisrael, there are those to whom the loss is a terrible reality. Every one
of those good Hebrew names we read is only a symbol of a face smiling to
someone, of thoughts, desires, and acts known and beloved somewhere. Ari
would not want to be singled out or separated from his comrades. But the Yi-
shuv has always commemorated its dead lovingly. Every soul is precious, as
every individual was in life. I am rendering a faint duty inadequately because
I knew Ari. It is not possible to believe and, for my part, I do not think of Ari
as having died. I merely consider that he has crossed another boundary before
us as he did so often before. And he did it as usual-well, nobly, faithfully,
working.
Harry Levtow,
Furrows, April, 1948
186
HAYIM RAMBAM
On a beautiful evening-it must have been about ten years ago-Rachel
Siegel and I arrived by car at Camp Kvutza. We were met by the advance
crew of a few boys. The camp consisted of a hilltop cluttered with tents which
had obviously seen better days in the army. We also found some boards for
the future kitchen, a few boxes of cups (without handles), and dishes (slightly
cracked), salvaged from Unser Camp for whose guests they were not deemed
worthy. We were most impressed with the big, old farmer's stove, and the old
Ford that we were barely able to purchase for $10. Our status as property
owners was made complete when we obtained from a friendly storekeeper a
prehistoric ice cream container that was to serve as our "refrigerator."
One of the advance crew was Hayim Rambam. For the stormy nature
of this boy, the walls of his home, even in early childhood, and the discipline
of a school, had proved too stifling. He was drawn to the broad, open fields-
the sort of boy that can develop into a hero or an adventurer. He had a leader's
qualities and could influence people either for better or worse. On closer ac-
quaintance, you learned that a few warm friendly words could easily quell the
storm raging in him.
I well remember the delightful evenings and sunsets in the camp
which were so inspiring. Tired after a day of hard work, Hayim could be
found on one of the cots in the tent. We knew then that he was moody and
ready to tell stories of his adventures throughout the United States. He used to
spend many days and nights with hoboes and his stories were remarkable. We
saw a different world, people who were tired of civilization and routine. They
felt free as birds and so did Hayim. He was an adventurer, always seeking
new thrills and experiences. Once he admitted to me that only because of the
deep love for his father, he gave up that kind of life and returned home. And
187
IN MEMORIAM
many a time I thought that perhaps Hayim may turn out to be another Jack
London.
Hayim was the driver of the Ford on which we depended for supplies
from the nearby town and water from the well. He was also our "life saver," to
whom many campers literally owed their lives.
Incidents of that summer keep coming to mind.
Here we are, Hayim and I, riding in the Ford. The Ford that had not
the least desire to climb the smallest hill, that constantly refused to get back to
camp on time, because of whose caprices we always had to bring along a
couple of "footmen" to help push when the inevitable need arose, was an ob-
edient, willing servant in Hayim's skillful hands. I am sure that it was solely to
Hayim's credit that we came away that summer sound in limb.
Towards the end of the summer, a hurricane suddenly pounced upon
us, destroying many houses in the neighborhood and flooding all the valleys.
Our ancient army tents, whose mission in life should long since have ended-in
which we have to cover ourselves with raincoats even during a light down-
pour-bowed meekly before the wrath of the storm and finally surrendered
completely. We all gathered in our one "building," squatting on the tables
with only a roof overhead while the torrent of rain drenched us through the
open sides. We felt that the very foundation of our camp would not survive
that night, so we decided for safety's sake to make our way to a nearby board-
ing house. How well I remember that procession in the thick blackness, with-
out a path to follow, knee-deep in water, lashed by the wind!
It was one of those moments when old and young display all their
shortcomings and weaknesses and, on the other hand, when a person may for-
get about and sacrifice himself for the general welfare. Hayim showed himself
to be the second sort of person.
188
The work in Camp Kvutza became a form of training for Hayim, and
he hoped to obtain a certificate to go to Eretz Yisrael. When he did not re-
ceive a certificate, he went on his own.
I did not see him for a long time after that but heard he was employed
as a tractor driver in Mikveh Yisrael. In the meantime, I also went to Eretz
Yisrael and settled in Jerusalem with my husband. Suddenly, Hayim showed
up in Jerusalem during a holiday. He was much changed-more mature, less
restless, more serious in outlook. It was clear that Eretz Yisrael had had a
marked effect upon him. He dreamed of participating in the defense of the
country . . .
But a month later he was dead. While working in the fields, under the
hot sun, he drank from a spring he did not know was contaminated. It did not
occur to him that tiny microbes would conquer his powerful body and quiet
his stormy nature for eternity.
Leak Brown
Haboneh June, 1942
JOSEPH ROSENBERG
There will be many vacant places in our ranks when this war is over.
The fourth of our haverim is gone. One died flying in this country, a second
was lost in a mission over Germany, a third while performing his duty in the
Near East, and now Joseph Rosenberg is reported missing in action at sea.
I met Joey for the first time when I was sent to Detroit to represent the
Young Poale Zion-Habonim at the National Convention of the Farband. I was
impressed with his youthfulness, his enthusiasm, his devotion, his zeal. I real-
ly learned to appreciate his character at the Leaders' Seminar in Pipersville in
1940. He was about to become rosh mahaneh of Detroit and he spent hours
189
IN MEMORIAM
with me discussing his plans. He showed me his neat notebook; I read his out-
lines, his plans, his ideas; we talked about his doubts and his ambitions.
You may not know- that during the period that he was stationed at
San Diego in training, he spent every spare moment making contacts and
speaking to people; he was certain that he would be able to organize a Habo-
nim group. It is an irreparable loss for the movement here and for Kfar Blum
in Eretz Yisrael...
D. B.
* * * * *
Joey joined Habonim in 1935 at the age of eleven. Those who be-
longed to our group at that time will perhaps not remember him as well as
they do others who talked more at meetings and were generally more asser-
tive. But those who stayed with the group remember that while others were
spouting high-sounding phrases about becoming halutzim. when we grow
older, Joey entered a trade school to prepare himself for the life of a halutz.
We remember that while others were delving into deep discussion about the
problems of labor, Joey joined the local union and made himself heard there.
We remember that when a Kibbutz Aliya was formed in Detroit, Joey
was one of the first to join and carry out its program. We remember that when
Joey came out to camp weekends, he would do more work than others had
done all week. We remember how as rosh mahaneh of Detroit Habonim, he
led us through one of the strongest years of our existence.
He lived his life in search of a better world and gave his life in the
struggle for it.
D. G.
Furrows, June, 1944
190
ENZO SERENI
It is not often that a youth movement has to mourn its founder's death
within the space of eight short years. Yet that is what has occurred to Habo-
nim through the murder of Enzo Sereni in Dachau on November 17-18, 1944.
Together with Ben Zion Ilan of Afikim who was then an Eretz Yisrael dele-
gate to the youth movement, and together with American haverim, it was pri-
marily Enzo Sereni, as Hehalutz delegate, whose energy and imagination
made Habonim possible. Today, through a search conducted by Ben Zion
(now a sergeant in the Jewish Brigade), we are finally beyond any question of
doubt certain that Enzo is dead-dead at the age of thirty-nine, when the best
part of his contribution to Zionism surely lay ahead of him.
A letter from Kieve Skidell tells the following story which ends all
hope that Enzo, missing in action for over a year, might still be alive:
“On the streets of Paris I ran into Sgt. Ben Zion Ilan, one-time halutz
from America, Eretz Yisrael delegate to the American Habonim, and now a
sergeant in the Second Battalion of the Jewish Brigade, and he told me the
story of his search for Enzo Sereni by whose side he had once worked in
America:
“ ‘I was a member of one of the Jewish Brigade's search teams, en-
gaged in the search for prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates in
Germany, about whom relatives in the Allied countries had made inquiries.
Together with another member of the team, I obtained permission from the
British army bureau in charge of these searches to institute a search for Enzo
Sereni. Sereni, as you may know, was dropped by parachute into northern
Italy in the late spring of 1944 in the uniform of a British captain under the
name of Shmuel Barda. His mission was to work with Italian partisans behind
the German lines. The details of his capture are not known, but traces of him,
after his capture by the Germans, led to the concentration camp at Dachau.
191
IN MEMORIAM
We had heard that he was at one time known to have been together with a
Dominican pastor by the name of Roth, who had been in the same block with
him in Dachau. We started to look for the pastor in the monasteries in Co-
logne and Munich and learned that he had gone back to Dachau to help the
inmates there and become the confessor of the SS troopers who are now im-
prisoned there, his own tormentors no doubt among them.
“ ‘When we came to Dachau, we turned immediately to the card in-
dex of all those who had ever been in the place, and there we found a card
with the following information on it:
“ ‘Prisoner No. 113160, Block 23, Born 22 June 1905 at Jerusalem,
Resident at Tel Aviv, V3 (code for member of the British forces). Barda,
Shmuel. Entered 9 October 1944. Taken to Special Punishment Cell for inter-
rogation, 17 November 1944. Died 18 November 1944.
“ ‘One can only surmise from this information that he was brought to
his death by torture. His body was cremated at the local crematorium.
“ ‘We then looked up the pastor. It turned out that he had been the
secretary of the block Sereni was in and he remembered him well. He remem-
bered that he was usually together with one French and two other British of-
ficers, all of whom have disappeared without a trace. Sereni impressed him as
a man of extremely high intellectual acumen, and he couldn't forget how even
in the environment of Dachau, he was bubbling with energy and intellectual
curiosity. He remembered well the long discussions they used to have on phi-
losophical as well as world political and Jewish topics. Of his end he knew
nothing since he had been taken away from Dachau before it came.
" 'Before leaving Dachau, we filled an urn with ashes from the crema-
torium. Those were not his ashes alone but they were sacred. When the pro-
jected memorial to the Gola is erected in Jerusalem, those ashes will be placed
there together with those of our other martyrs.
192
" 'For us the search seemed ended, when a report reached us that Se-
reni had been seen alive in the concentration camp at Mauthausen, Austria,
only a few months ago. We were skeptical because some Brigade boys had
been there around that time and had said nothing about it, but to make sure,
we went out there and got permission from the Russian commandant of near-
by Linz to visit the place. But there is no one there today but a number of
Russian troops who are billeted there, and there was no trace of him what-
soever. There is no longer any doubt.' "
To those who knew Enzo there is no need to define our loss. Every-
where he went, he left an indelible impression. Soon after his earliest appear-
ance in America, it became a current story that Sereni spoke the best broken
English anyone had ever heard. We who worked with him in the office of He-
halutz were consumed with envy and despair at his incredible energy and tire-
lessness. Apparently he never slept except for forty winks occasionally on
buses and on railroad coaches-and every morning when he was in New York,
he, would appear at the office bright and early to greet the first-comers and
shame the others. Even those who lived with him at that famous Bet Hehalutz
on Riverside Drive probably never knew when he awoke. One day, I remem-
ber, I came back from a trip out of town in the wee hours of the morning. I
determined not to go home to clean up but to get the rest of my sleep on a
bench in the office. In this way I hoped to find out when Enzo did come in. I
woke up, as I recall, between 7:30 and 8:00 A.M. to find Sereni sitting oppo-
site me at his desk, going through the Eretz Yisrael press. I never did find out
when he arrived.
Another blow to my own pride was the way he went through the He-
brew press-or any other reading matter, as far as that goes. I had been rather
vain of my speed in reading but Sereni was insufferably superior. Whatever
the language, he would sail through texts like a swift Italian breeze. We all
193
IN MEMORIAM
harbored dark suspicions about how thoroughly he had read; but after a half-
hour with a huge batch of literature, Sereni would be able to deposit it all on
my desk, efficiently marked to indicate the essential items for digesting or
writing up. Then afterwards, in conversation, he always knew something
about the material we had just covered which had escaped our more plodding
attention-and never could we find anything he had missed. I noted in the
comments on Sereni's death, which have recently appeared in the Eretz Yi-
srael press, that the German youth-Enzo had a great share in the creation of
Hehalutz in Hitler Germany during the early years-were equally flabbergasted
at Sereni's mental speed. In fact, the flashing play of his wit and thought, his
paradoxes and rapid-fire patter, even made them rather suspicious. I was a
witness to the same phenomenon here. It was not only the Germans with their
gruendlichkeit who were uneasy at his mental athletics. Sereni was so clever
that slower minds distrusted him. They were inclined to worry about his most
innocent proposal for fear of some ingenious trap.
Sereni was, of course, a fighter in a certain sense. He had a firm
viewpoint, and a strong sense of the direction in which he wished to go. He
threw himself with unlimited devotion-perhaps the proper word is abandon-
into the cause he wished to serve. He never counted costs-one of the things,
perhaps, which set him apart from many comrades was that in certain things,
he had less need than they to count costs. A scion of a rather wealthy, promi-
nent Roman Jewish family, with roots in Italy as far back as 70 A.D. accord-
ing to repute, and with assured status in the academic and professional society
of contemporary Rome, Sereni enjoyed many elements of ultimate security
which enabled him to be not only daring, but one might even say a daredevil,
in all his dangerous missions for the Histadrut. Others smuggled Jewish mon-
ey out of Nazi Germany but I am sure no one ever did it with as much assur-
ance and enjoyment as Sereni.
194
The same lusty combativeness marked his fights for his ideas within
the Histadrut. Opponents often mistook his vehemence for vindictiveness;
never were they more wrong. In the most furious argument, Sereni remained
detached and capable of appreciating an opposing view. This, indeed, gave
him another formidable advantage in debate which only increased the confu-
sion and unfounded suspicions of many opponents. In the utmost heat of con-
tention, Sereni was basically cool. He boiled rapidly but only on the surface.
It is true that he used his opponents' lower resistance to fire deliberately. He
was indeed a man whom an opponent had to know to love.
Rabbi Joachim Prinz tells this story of Sereni, which it seems to me
must represent an unsurpassed peak in Sereniana: Prinz and Sereni one day
were both pulled in by the Gestapo in the course of a routine raid on Hehalutz
quarters. Prinz's wife learned of the affair and tore the town apart trying to
locate the two and obtain their release. After a while she found Prinz and he
was released. In spite of a frantic search they could not find Sereni until mid-
night. At last they discovered the prison where he was kept and were permit-
ted to see him. They found him in the midst of a lively discussion with his
guards, covering the theory and practice of both German Nazism and Italian
fascism, and they could not get him to leave until he had made a few last
points. I can well believe that he sustained an intense mental activity in his
last days at Dachau.
Sereni's fundamental open-mindedness, the product of a scientifical-
ly-trained mind, was almost fantastically reflected in his volatile whims and
witticisms. He was capable of the most astounding self-contradictions and
mental flexibility, because in the most opposing statements he could appre-
ciate the grains of truth. He was also capable of using an argument largely for
its effect.
195
IN MEMORIAM
Shlomo Grodzensky tells this of his first encounter with Enzo: He met
a sturdy little Italian, just off the boat, who at once asked whether it were true
that there was a current vogue for Marxism in America. Reluctantly, Shlomo
admitted that this was the case. Practically rubbing his hands with glee, Sereni
said: "Excellent! You know, I'm a first-rate expert at arguing Zionism from a
Marxist basis." Said Grodzensky: "Do you believe in Marxism, then?" Out-
raged, Enzo shot back: "What do you think I am, a simpleton, to believe in
such vulgar banalities?"
But there are other instances I remember of Enzo's elasticity of ideas
which cast quite a different light on the whole matter. Enzo was always a
strong adherent of the idea of a Jewish-Arab collaboration. But he was an ex-
treme realist as well, and often went to practically fantastic lengths of logic in
this matter. I remember when he was in this country, he used to argue that
only in the framework of the Arab Federation would it be possible to come to
an understanding with the Arab on Eretz Yisrael. He also noted the basic and
obvious fact that one element in Arab-Jewish conflict was the great difference
in the economic level of the two communities. He therefore argued that the
Jewish worker must have the idealism to come down to the Arab level in or-
der to meet him and, of course, raise the standard of living by cooperative me-
thods of consumption and mutual aid. He felt that talking of economic solidar-
ity between the Arab and Jewish worker while keeping the Jewish economic
sector at a price and wage level far higher than the Arab's, on the theory that
the Arab's must be raised to the Jewish level, meant either deferring such soli-
darity to an indefinite future if one took the Mapai view, or simple self-
delusion if one took the Hashomer Hatzair view.
All these, of course, were in reality tentative statements, experimental
hypotheses, so to speak, in Sereni's mind, and we never knew how seriously
to take them. What particularly upset the assurance of some of us was that
196
Sereni delighted in the forceful paradox as a method of presentation and loved
to shock his youthful audiences out of their received doctrines, if only in order
to make them think on their own. But these hypotheses were also formative
elements in his own thoughts, and what he thought, he acted. Even the most
fleeting adherence to an idea, even to a notion of provisional, one might even
say heuristic, value in his life-course, entailed serious consequences in action
for Sereni.
I remember an instance by which I was particularly impressed: In
America, Sereni argued that the disturbances of 1936-38 were a good thing in
the history of Arab-Jewish relations. As a member of a kibbutz which, during
the period of my own stay in Eretz Yisrael (1939), suffered its casualties like
any other rural settlement, Sereni knew very well what the costs were of Arab
terrorism to the Jews. Be he was considering the hypothesis that no basic
change in Arab-Jewish relations was possible until the Arabs were convinced
that the Jews were unalterably bent upon establishing themselves in Eretz Yi-
srael and that their will was a factor to be reckoned with. It was brought up in
discussion that bloodshed between groups had historically tended to implant
mutual hatred that long outlasted the fighting. Sereni had obviously consi-
dered that factor already for he promptly replied that there were also in-
stances, notably the British-Boer case, where peace and mutual forbearance
had ensued between groups after a decisive measuring of strength.
But this was no final stand for Sereni. When I came to Givat Brenner,
I was astonished to hear that Enzo was not allowed to stand his turn at guard
duty because, as I learned, the first few times he had gone out without a rifle.
However, though the kibbutz would not assign him to stand watch, it could
not stop him from breaking the rule against walking through certain officially
designated dangerous areas between Rehovot and Givat Brenner. He would
never wait for a bus to take him home and he scoffed at the danger from Arab
197
IN MEMORIAM
neighbors whom he had known. Later, when I spoke to him, I learned the ba-
sic intellectual reasons for these new meshugassen of Sereni's. He told me that
having had long conversations in America with Hayim Greenberg, he had
swung towards pacifism.
This was the man who, approaching forty, volunteered for sabotage
and underground work behind the lines in Italy.
In a late picture taken in Eretz Yisrael and published in the memorial
issue of Hapoel Hatzair, Sereni presents an altogether different aspect from
what was familiar to us. He always had a childlike look. We saw him as the
"happy warrior" child, if I may abuse a phrase, full of fire and sparkle, taking
delight in the explosive effects of his intellectual gunfire, moving mountains
of apathy and mental torpor with a logical witticism. In the recent picture, ~
he looks like a lost child, bravely but with solemnity, confronting unforeseen
and portentous immensities. Solemnity was a look I often saw in him at Givat
Brenner. There was high seriousness in the devotion with which he cared for
the small group of Italian halutzim whom he had assembled there in 1939.
Products of fascism, deracinated Jews-yet under Sereni's ministrations their
success as kibbutz members was, and I can attest to it, outstanding and phe-
nomenally smooth.
But what was it which put those omens of fear into Sereni's eyes in
his latest pictures? We can only guess. I remember Sereni loved to propound
this question: "Tell me, if you loved a woman, and another claimed her-her
husband, let us say-would you give her up? " If you answered, No, he would
acclaim you a Zionist. Far deeper than his intellectual constructions was a
deep, childlike, romantic strain of love in Sereni. He was completely aware of
it; for this reason he would often mock us by declaring himself nearer a Chris-
tian than a Jew in religious sensibility. But he took his bearings by love.
198
These things he loved: Italy-Italian art, Italian philosophy, even Ital-
ian historiography, and the Italian people; Jews-Eastern European Jews, Ger-
man Jews; the Yiddish language, which he barely knew; the Histadrut; Mapai;
the Kibbutz Hameuhad; his own kibbutz, Givat Brenner; his friends, Lithua-
nians and Germans alike; his own home and family. He used to say that eve-
rywhere he went-to Eretz Yisrael, to Germany, to America-he invested his
money in the Histadrut, and never had he failed to realize what he risked. He
had invested far more than a lifetime of labor; he had invested his love, his
metaphysical moorings.
We know from writings that reach us from Eretz Yisrael how deeply
the split in the Mapai affected Sereni. From his latest picture, we see that it
was able to put a reflection of fear even into those eyes.
Ben Halpern
Furrows, December, 1945
IRV STERNBERG
The early days in the life of a movement, as in the life of an individu-
al, are shaped and influenced by those few who conceive and develop the
ideas which give it birth. As a movement grows up, it must begin to accept the
responsibilities of maturity, to learn to meet the inevitable situations of adult
life, to learn to mourn the death of a comrade, but to take new strength from
the spirit he displayed. Irv Sternberg, who died early in June, was one of those
who contributed to the conception and development of Habonim.
Irv, though only thirty-one when he died, was a veteran in Habonim
and its predecessor, the Young Poale Zion Alliance. One of the first organiz-
ers, a member of the National Executive, and later the Merkaz, he contributed
inestimably to the formulation of the program and policies of Habonim.
199
IN MEMORIAM
A halutz who knew that because of his serious illness he could never
realize life in Eretz Yisrael, Irv nevertheless translated his Socialist Zionism
into his personal life. He combined his deep love for the printed word and the
cooperative way of life in the establishment of a cooperative printing shop for
Habonim in Philadelphia. His exceptional ability in artistic handwork led him
to organize Habonim crafts groups. His knowledge of the essence of the
movement led him to create programs, conceive new ideas, seek new methods
of educating others in it.
At the founding convention of Habonim in Buffalo, those who were
with him will remember Irv's insistence that we not water down the ideas of
the Young Poale Zion Alliance but make them the basis for Habonim and de-
vise the methods by which this new movement of younger people might be
taught the ideas of the Poale Zion: Self-realization as halutzim in their homel-
and and the eventual achievement of Socialism and a more productive Jewish
life throughout the world.
Irv was a haver with diverse and intense interests, and all of these he
applied in his work for Habonim. His love of literature and art, his passion for
the unique, were reflected in those things he wrote, the type of material he
assembled when he served as editor of Haboneh last year, the background that
molded all his discussions of our problems.
In 1939 Irv received some measure of reward for the work he had
done so devotedly for so long, when he was elected on the Poale Zion list as a
delegate to the World Zionist Congress.
Habonim will remember Irv, long regret his untimely loss to us, and
long be grateful for the share he contributed to Habonim.
Furrows, July, 1944
200
JOHANAN TARTAKOWER
"Johanan Tartakower was killed in action in the European Theater of
Operations on September 29th, 1944. He was one of our best haverim."
He was my friend, too-that is why these words are meaningless to me.
I cannot transform and reduce this intangible thing into pitifully inadequate
sentences. I can only wonder at the empty space that is left in my life and try
to fill it with memories of Johanan and of the days we spent at Kvutza, of the
work we did when he was my rosh mahaneh, of the dreams we had together
of Eretz Yisrael and "our" kibbutz.
And I can say with a determination which I have never felt before that we
must not let the chain of halutzim be broken. We must fill the gap. We must
believe in the things Johanan died for and fight for them. Freedom and peace
are meaningless if we are not conscious of their worth and do not accept their
responsibilities-and freedom and peace must prevail lest future Johanans shall
die, lest the Jewish people never find their future.
I shall endeavor to do what my friend Johanan wanted to do-I will try
to realize his dreams. That is the best tribute I can give him, and I call to all
those others who believe as Johanan did to rouse themselves, to accept the
task of the halutz, so that the vision of which Johanan was symbolic shall find
new strength and fervor.
Harry Brumberger
Furrows, November, 1944
201

Adventures in Pioneering

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The Story of 25 Years

© 1957, The CHAY Commission of the Labor Zionist Movement.

Foreword from Original Publication ..............................................................14

HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

Educational Objectives of Habonim

Principles of Camp Program

Staff and Organization

The Common Fund

Rachel Siegal, Golda Meir, Jacob

Campfire, first Kvutza, Highland Mills, N.Y., 1932.

Campers at first Kvutza, Highland Mills, N.Y.,

Visitors at Accord, 1939. Left to

The Camp at Hachshara, 1935.

Parents Day at Kinneret, 1941.

Kvutza truck, Accord.

Outdoor discussion, Accord, 1935.

Campers, Accord, 1935.

Waterfalls, Accord, N.Y.

Individual Development at Kvutza

The Madrich of Kvutza

Freedom with a Pattern

Camp Kvutza and the Movement

Kvutza Is a Living Community

The First Day

Joev Criden and friends, Accord.

"Brocky", at Kendall, New York.

Kieve Skidell, Carl Allentuck working on

Discussion under "tree of

Enzo Sereni and friends ponder a problem, Accord, 1937.

Campers, Accord, 1935.

Tent Area, Accord, N.Y.

Abe Meadow installing

Campers, Kinneret, 1942.

Building the Migdal, Kinneret,

KVUTSA IN THE NEW YORK AREA

CAMP KVUTZA IS BORN

KVUTSA IN THE MIDWEST

KVUTZA, KVUTZA, WHO'S GOT A KVUTZA?

MIDWEST CAMP HABONIM

KVUTZA IN THE WEST

Camp Duration and Composition

Camp Program and Activities

KVUTSA IN THE BALTIMORE-PHILADELPHIA AREA

THE STORY OF "MOSH"

GALIL'S FIRST YEAR

Overnight hike at Montreal, 1957.

Corn for sale at Camp Habonim, 1957.

Dining Room at Tel Yochanan, Amenia,

"B'tayavon", Montreal, 1957. The Lake at Tel Yochanan.

Camp Habonim, Red Hook, N.Y.

Bridging the Creek at Galil,

The Waterfront at Moshava.

Galil Choir performs for Visitors Day, 1957.

Harvesting Corn at Camp

Taking a dip in the enlarged "L"

"Comfort ye, my people". Tisha B’Av, Moshava,

"Chalil and Drum Corps, Moshava, 1957.

KVUTZA IN THE SOUTHWEST

CAMP BONIM, TEXAS

EXPERIMENTS AND TRENDS

THE COMING SEASON

Rita Greenberg, 1937