Machaneh – making lifetime memories

Many of my most beautiful childhood memories are from being at Jewish youth movement camps, machanot. At this time of year, when it’s a short countdown to machaneh and trommels are being secured and clothes bought, I still miss those days. 

The bizarre thing is it was more than a few years ago; it was decades. However, camp will always be part of my December holiday memories. Simple: I gained, learned, grew, empowered myself, and became a leader at camp. It is just a reality for me. 

I totally get that machaneh is not for every child. And there are those who went and hated it. But the overriding experience that most young people have of machaneh – be it Bnei Akiva, Habonim, Netzer, in the old days Betar, or Camp Kesher – is memorable. 

I am biased. I went to many machanot, both Bnei Akiva and Habonim, from an early age. And I loved my experiences. I learned what it was truly like to be a Jewish kid among other Jewish kids. I know I went to King David School, but that was school and I was there not necessarily to have fun with others; it was to get an education. 

At camp, I learned to love singing Birchat Hamazon (grace after meals). I have long since stopped needing to read it because when you sing it often enough with as much gusto as you do at camp, it sticks in your head. I learned leadership and how to stand up in front of people and talk confidently. I learned how to work in a group and brainstorm ideas. I learned to share with people I hardly knew and get to know them, even if they were painfully shy. I learned to formulate and share my opinions, even if they weren’t popular. I also learned to take responsibility for ensuring I had clean clothes, which meant doing my own washing. Sharing a tent, I had to keep my stuff neat so that I didn’t bother others. 

I could probably go on for days about the unique experiences I had on machanot, but I won’t because I simply want to say our community offers machanot to our children and it is the best gift we can give them. 

Having said that, it isn’t the parents and oldies like me who offer the camps. It is young adults themselves who do everything. They have just gone through the ranks of the movement themselves. This model has been working successfully for many decades. 

Our contribution as adults is simply to make it happen for them. 

Now, I appreciate that as parents, we want our children to share our family holidays. Their childhoods speed past and we don’t want to lose a year. I get that, but holidays are long and there is always time after camp to spend with your kids. 

Holidays are awesome and they are what make family memories. However, the gift of machaneh is something no other community has. 

I look at my children, nieces, and nephews and I see their growth from machaneh to machaneh. 

It is not about which youth movement. I repeat: it doesn’t matter whether your children find their home at Bnei Akiva, Habonim, Netzer, or another youth movement. Whichever one suits them is the right one. And if, at first, the youth movement isn’t a fit, they can change. 

The saddest thing for me is that children may not get this experience, and that youth movements that have so much to offer our children close. When I was growing up, Betar was huge. I always said the hottest guys went to Betar. And I still have friends from that youth movement. But Betar is no longer around in South Africa. That makes me sad. 

And this year, there will be no Netzer machaneh unfortunately. I have friends who started their lives and closest friendships at Netzer. Their experiences weren’t that different from mine, only they found themselves in a different youth movement for whatever reason. 

We should never take machaneh for granted. When COVID-19 forced Habonim to cancel its camp in 2020, it was a first. As the SA Jewish Report reported at the time, Habonim leaders described the impact as “devastating”. Yet the appetite is clearly still there. Bnei Akiva is expecting more than 1 000 chanichim (campers) and madrichim (leaders) at its machaneh this December and Habonim is not too far behind. 

Going to Cape Town, Plett, Umhlanga, or Ballito with the family or friends will no doubt be fun. But it is a different experience to machaneh and you can’t get that experience anywhere else. 

I have spoken to parents in the last few years who worry about their children being away from them for so long – three weeks. How will they cope? Will they make friends? Will it be too intense? What if they get homesick? Will there be too much learning when they are on holiday? How safe will they be? 

They will be in probably the safest places in South Africa as the security could not be better there. It has to be, our kinderlach are there. They will cope. In fact, they are more likely to want to go back and keep going back. They may get homesick, but they will get over it fast. 

They will be surrounded by children their own age, wanting to have fun just like them. It is a great leveller and even the shyest kid makes friends. That’s machaneh! 

It is likely to be one of the best experience of their lives and something they will always harp on about, like yours sincerely. 

I know I sound like I am on a sales mission, but I have no reason to be. I am not selling anything, nor am I getting anything out of this. I just know that being able to go to machanot when I was a kid was a gift from my parents and the community. I also know how much my own children and family have benefitted from machaneh. 

If it turns out not to be your child’s thing, I am sure they will have a magnificent time wherever you plan to go. But if it is, you will have given them something they will carry for life. 

Shabbat shalom! 

Peta Krost 

Editor