Shevet Hineni 

Lucy Hecht | New Rochelle

Whether your teachers put you in a group with none of your closest friends, or it is a rainy day in camp where all of the fun peulot are canceled, people always say, “make the best of a bad situation.” And you usually, or at least I, just grunt, sigh, and then trudge on through whatever it is that I’m unhappy with until the bell rings. But recently, I think we all have noticed that our “bad situation” is not something that will disappear anytime soon. We are in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, and no matter how many times we check the graphs or read statistics, it does not seem like the curve is getting any flatter (fingers are still crossed though!). Shevet Hineni acknowledged this unfortunate reality and collectively began to think of ways to enhance our situation. To Shevet Hineni (from Moshava IO), counselors have always been an integral part of our camp experience. And these relationships did not fade away as summers ended.

On Sunday, March 15, a link began circling Whatsapp groups to join the “Hineni Quarantine Zoom” group chat. Started by a bunch of our Machal counselors, the goal of the group chat was to set up a time for everyone to reconnect with one another, shmooze, and of course, learn some Torah. It was a smashing success. Since that Sunday, there have been four shiurim led by our counselors and a fifth shiur led by Rav Jake Vidomlanski (Sgan of Moshava IO), who Zoomed in all the way from Israel. The topics of the various shiurim ranged from “what it really means to be created betzelem elokim”’ to “how we should act as Jews in public vs in private”. The fun did not stop there. After the chaburot ended, we caught up on our lives since camp, recounted hilarious memories, and of course played multiple rounds of Indian Chief. These chaburot have brought joy and happiness to Shevet Hineni’s quarantined lives, and we encourage all to rekindle their past relationships just like we have while immersing ourselves in Torah study.

Eidah Daled 

Eli Seidman, Moshava IO

This past week Eidah Daled went “Virtual”! We kicked off this awesome initiative with a camp-wide Havdalah on Motzei Shabbos led by the one and only David Glazer. It was a huge success with hundreds of people in attendance (on zoom of course:). On Sunday afternoon Eitan Zwebner began his weekly cooking show, and everyone learned how to make delicious wacky mac. We continued the rest of the week having nightly chaburas led by a bunch of the tzevet of Eidah Daled. We plan to have an awesome Erev Shabbos Tisch with the entire Eidah, and can’t wait for everything else that the amazing tzevet has in store.

Zehava Seidman, Bus 5

Bus 5 had an amazing ZOOM reunion! It started off with a girl’s reunion at 1, and the entire bus going at 2. It was truly incredible to have everyone reunite, see each other and catch up! #bus5sthebestway