The Camp Gilboa Blog

Gilboa Photos - Going on Tiyul and Quidditch with the Madatz

Yom Israel On Yom Israel, chanichimot followed the Pazobersky family through their daily life and struggles in Tel Aviv.  Each member of the family was involved with a social justice cause in Israel, and so the chanichimot were able to learn about multiple social justice issues such as LGBTQ rights, income inequality, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, racism, as well as about the organizations in Israel that are working to improve and resolve these issues. The day started off with the family members presenting their causes. Chanichimot read about each issue and participated in relevant activities such as learning to write their names in Arabic script, playing "candy by identity" game to learn about inequality, and reading and drawing cartoon strips about Arab-Jewish relationships. They then had a peula (discussion based activity) in which they learned and talked about America's relationship with Israel and the role that the American Jewish establishment and community ...

Jewce, a new interactive Shabbat morning program reached a peak with Parshat Balak. In the Parasha, Bilam is riding a donkey on his way to curse the people of Israel, when an angel that Bilam cannot see forces the donkey off the road. Bilam gets mad at the donkey, not knowing that he did that because of the angel. After Bilam curses at the donkey, he becomes able to see the angel and realizes why the donkey was forced off the road. The chanichimot utilized this parasha as a way to think about and learn about the voices that are heard in society, and how voices translate into power. In the parasha, the donkey has no voice, and is not able to speak up to say what is happening to him. Bilam can not see the angel, in the same way that sometimes people in places of privilege cannot see the systems of oppression working against marginalized groups of people, and taking away their voice. As part of the activity, chanichimot were assigned different identities with different limitations, fo...