Dear friends:

Every year at Passover, Jewish families gather around the table to remember the epic story of the downfall of tyrants and the struggle for freedom that gave birth to our people. Every year as we sit around our tables, we are urged to ask again what freedom means in our own generation.

Habonim Dror Alumni at protest in Israel

This year, all our minds and hearts are on the struggles in Israel, where our people and its dreams for a just, progressive and forward-looking future are facing what is
rightly called an existential threat. I imagine many of us will be having difficult and even heated discussions. Many of us will be asking more than just the four questions in the Haggadah; questions like “What if?” and “What’s next?”

Habonim Dror members protesting in New York

But we will not have to ask: “Where is Habonim Dror? “ Because we know that those who have been raised with progressive Zionist and Jewish values in our machanot and on our Israel programs, and those who have made the commitment to live in Israel, are part of this struggle. They are and will continue to be on the streets and engaged in the activism that will chart the future of the vision we share.

In the words of Erica Kushner, mazkirol (secretary-general) of our movement in North America: We have a long history of holding the vision and the reality of Israel side by side. And we will not let the current government stop us from making our demand for an Israel that is democratic, Jewish and just—a place to build the dream into a reality.”

I am making a generous contribution today to the Habonim-Dror Foundation,  whose exclusive purpose is to support the work of Habonim-Dror and to ensure its future.

I hope you will join me.

L’shalom,

Rabbi Tom Gutherz
Chairperson, Habonim Dror Foundation

Canadians can now donate and deduct!
Canadians can donate to the Habonim Dror Foundation Canada Fund.

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Dear Habonim Alumni and Friends,

On a recent trip to Israel, I spent time with Habonim Dror olim at their urban kibbutzim in struggling neighborhoods.

In Petach Tikvah, a city in central Israel, the local “kibbutz” has established a weekly food bank for people, including foreign workers, who suffer from food insecurity in town. Building relationships with local produce merchants, they distribute fresh fruits and vegetables every week to those in need. The personal connections generated by this small initiative are only a piece of a larger network of relationships they have made in the process of living and working in the town, which allows them to be an effective agent for social change.

These Habonim Dror alumni – like so many of their chevrei throughout Israel, the US, and Canada – are leading lives guided by the core values- the pillars – that they first learned at Habonim Dror camps and movement activities.

Will you donate to make sure these values continue to inspire young Jews today and tomorrow?

 

 

 

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