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News | Events | Academic | Arts and Culture | Sport | Clubs and Societies | The School | Past Pupils | Archive | |
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Letter from Vicky Myerson After matriculating from Wynberg Girls High in 1998, I left to spend a year in Israel. I had been involved with a Jewish youth movement called Netzer, (which has branches in Australia, the UK, South America and parts of Europe) which offered this post-matric programme. It lasted ten months, the first four were spent in Jerusalem at a place called Kiryat Moriah –basically a campus open to groups from all over the world on different Israel programmes. Over the four months we had people from the USA, France and South America staying in our building, (our group consisted of 50 South Africans and Australians). During the week, we were given lectures on a range of different subjects, as well as having to choose a place to work in the community –I chose an absorption centre. Our weekends were spent going on trips all around Israel, from riding camels in the Judean hills, to swimming in the Dead Sea. This four month period was followed by an “options” period, where we could chose from a range of options of community work, which we would do for the next three months. I spent one month living with an Arab family in a small rural village, where I taught English to primary school children. This was a fantastic opportunity to learn about the Arab culture, and also added another facet to my understanding of Israel. The following month I worked in an archaeological dig, leading tourist groups. This was a great experience, for not only did I get the chance to meet many tourists, but I was also living in a flat in Jerusalem, so I felt like the average Israeli waking up to go to work, bargaining prices at the food market etc! For my last option month, I worked for a Human Rights Organisation. Whilst I continued living in the flat, my days were spent venturing into the territories and documenting stories of house demolitions and injustices done to Arabs. It was a hard time, as I was simultaneously experiencing the Israeli side of the conflict –having friends in the army and family living in Israel. All in all, it really made me see the situation from both sides, not just from a political standpoint, but a deep-rooted emotional one. Whilst some Arab children are growing up with the understanding of an “Israeli”, as a violent soldier carrying a gun who took their house away, Israeli children see their brothers, father, etc die protecting the land that is meant for them, and understand all Arabs to be terrorists. Whilst the situation in Israel has since plummeted dramatically, I still have hope that people do want peace. The conclusion of the options period marked the beginning of the last phase of our programme, living on a Kibbutz. Since Netzer is a Reform movement, our group lived on a Reform Kibbutz called Lotan, situated down South in the middle of the desert near the Jordanian Border. The four months spent on Kibbutz were magical. I worked in the newborn tourism section cleaning rooms, picked dates for a while and worked in the kitchen a bit. Work started at 4am –2pm, the rest of the day was ours! When the programme came to an end, I travelled through Egypt and Jordan before returning to South Africa. By going on the programme, I had obligated myself to working for the movement back in South Africa for two years. At the end of our annual summer camp, I was elected head of Netzer Cape Town. I began my first year of university studying architecture, and not long afterwards, took on the position of chairperson of the Cape Town Zionist Youth Council. One of my first ideas on returning was to justify living in S.A as opposed to Israel or anywhere else. From my experiences overseas, working within the community seemed like the best reason! The initiative of “Howz’it” was born – a cross-cultural camp for children of all races and religions to spend a few days on camp together! It was a radical project, and by mid July 2001 it went from an idea to becoming a reality. Near end of the year, I was lucky enough to be chosen as a delegate to attend the International Conference on Jewish Informal Education to be held in Israel. I returned, continued with my studies and was head of our national Netzer summer camp. From that moment, things have only snowballed! I was elected head of Netzer South Africa for 2002, flew back to Israel to attend our annual international meeting, and stayed on to attend a conference on beginning a organisation to educate young adults. I returned to begin my second year of architecture, continued as chairperson of the Youth council, and was asked to be a delegate to attend a conference in Washington on Progressive Judaism and informal education. |
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