Please help us reach our 2022 Annual Fundraising Goal!

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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The Isaac Merkel Scholarship Fund

Announcing The Isaac Merkel Scholarship Fund

Announcing The Isaac Merkel Scholarship Fund for participants in Habonim Dror Israel programs in honor of Isaac Merkel

Our thanks to Joan Isa Berelowitz for her generous matching grant to establish the Isaac Merkel Scholarship Fund for HDNA participants in Israel Programs and to honor her heroic uncle Isaac's  memory. Your gift will be doubled! 

Use the link below to donate by credit card or visit the Habonim Dror Website donation page for other options.

Learn more about Isaac and this enduring scholarship.



Why I Made Aliyah as a 24-Year-Old American

Picture of Anya Friedman-Hutter

By Anya Friedman-Hutter May 2018

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"Why are you here?”

It was my fourth day in Israel as a new immigrant and my first day on the job as an educator for one of Israel’s largest youth movements—and I was startled to be asked such a direct question.

​I wiped the sweat from the September heat off my forehead and looked at this ninth-grader who managed to take a selfie, smoke a cigarette and talk to me all at the same time. She continued, “You were in America. Things are fun there. Why would you come to this hole?”  Read the full article

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New Study Shows High Israel & Community Engagement Among Habonim Dror Alumni

 

 

 

 

Building Progressive Zionist Activists: Exploring the Impact of Habonim Dror, authored by Prof. Steven M. Cohen and Steven Fink describes evidence of the life-long impact that the Habonim Dror youth movement has had on its participants. The report draws upon a survey of nearly 2,000 alumni of Habonim Dror camps and other programs, ages 20 to 83. Continue reading