When I was asked to write about Hadracha Gimmel, the final instalment in my journey towards leadership, I couldn’t say no, I needed to tell the youth and future leaders of LJY-Netzer what they could look forward to!
Hadracha Gimmel: my last experience as a Chanich but the start of something beautiful within LJY-Netzer. The final Hadracha Seminar was a perfect end to my intense training regime to become part of the elite, to become a Madrich.
You never realise up until the start of the leadership seminars that everything you’ve done as a Chanich has not been pointless running around and playing games with free time in between. I feel that growing up, the Madrichim have done so much to give me an opportunity to think for myself and become my own person. They provide a guideline (LJY-Netzer’s ideology) from which I can use to make genuine informed decisions throughout my life. This has motivated me to make sure future Chanichim have the same opportunity to grow an identity within the movement, and learn but also have fun at future LJY events.
However, in order ensure this, the yearly Hadracha seminars are essential as well as of course getting some practice on weekends or even Machaneh Aviv if you’re up for it! (I can’t stress what an amazing experience leading on that first big event was!)
We were all given an opportunity to prepare and then lead a session on the Seminar, which is a fantastic exercise. We worked within a small group of three to produce a Kef, Ma’amad or Educational session. Firstly, it’s great to see how you work within a small group and also how you collectively come up with a simple idea which blossoms through organisation and LJY-Nezter magic to become the infamous LJY session. Secondly, it is awesome to be a Chanich in other peoples’ sessions as you not only have fun participating, but get to give feedback which will help both your friends and yourself to think further about the thought process before creating a session and the execution during.
We also had varying talks concerning welfare, perspective on Israel in the news and of course updates on the LJY-Nezter movement as a whole including recent Veidah motions and new boycotts. I found Hadracha Gimmel particularly important due to participating in these talks, sessions and updates because I need to be clued up in all these areas if I am expected to go on and be part of the Madrichim team.
I could not recommend attending Hadracha Gimmel highly enough; it’s a great way to top off your leadership journey, the bonus is being taught by past Madrichim and being able to do so with your friends and, I guess, future members of the Madrichim elite!
Tomer Tsur