MammaShop Mia!

The wait is over, because once I got back from Workshop I finally had the time to finish the music video we filmed while on Kibbutz Chadar Ochel. It's set to what became truly the anthem of Workshop 63: Mamma Mia by ABBA. Filmed by Matan, video editing by Max and Harry.

Overshop

Now that Workshop has nearly come to an end, it's time to reflect on the past and look to the future. We are asking ourselves questions like: What did we learn? What did we actually do? Why are there so few picture of Kvutsah 3? Why was such a large portion of our Kupah (cash) spent on Menchies?

As for the future, of course madrichim (parents) and chanichim (children) will inevitably ask us if we would recommend Workshop as a gap year program. So we preemptively made a pro and con table so people can conveniently and objectively weigh the advantages and disadvantages of going on Workshop. (Special thanks to Benjy Friedman for his contributions.)

 As you can see, there is one more pro than con, and since the table was painstakingly designed to apply generally to all kinds of chanichim, clearly going on Workshop is the more advantageous choice. 

Well, we still have the celebratory feast before we each head home with tears in our eyes and five pounds of pork in our stomachs. Then it's back to our families, schools, jobs, and local froyo establishments. But I'll always have a special place in my heart for Kvutsah 3.

THE END


Afterword:
Workshop may be over, but the stories will live forever through the power of internet journalism! Be sure to reread this blog, and share it with your friends, family, and children. On each rereading, you just might learn something about the strength of the Jewish people, and yourself.
- Maxwell Allman    

Workshop gets jobs

That's right folks, our time on the Workshop program is almost out and so is the money in our bank account! To be more precise, our bank account emptied last week, so that's why the Kibbutz elders kindly arranged a job for us at a nearby warehouse, sorting goods into different boxes. Hopefully the money from the warehouse will pull us through till the end, and we won't have to fire our yoga instructor and cancel our deliveries of imported Italian meats. Of course, I snapped a picture of all the hard work and fun! Tevye was complaining about this work not agreeing with our "values", so the Kibbutz elders made him stay back alone to think about his mistake. I guess he doesn't see the "value" in cold hard cash!

    

Workshop Abroad

Workshop 63 recently had the amazing opportunity to travel abroad and visit one of the epicentres of Jewish history and culture. That's right, Southern Florida! In addition to housing a population of hundreds of thousands of Jews, Florida has a long history of supporting Cuba and socialism. No wonder the trip to Florida is such a traditional staple in every Workshop year! Of course, I got some pictures of us soaking up the Northern Hemisphere rays.


Here's us posing under the shade of some Florida palm trees. I'm wearing my iconic Che Guevara hat to blend in with the locals. Not being identified as a tourist (like all my other kvutsah (club) members! Who's dorky now?!)  allowed me to have some wonderfully frank, albeit ideologically heated discussions with the locals, who mistook me as their own.  

We ain't in Israel anymore, so right from the beginning our madrichim (tour guides) stressed the important of affiliating oneself with the right gang. Here you can see Tzeitl and Yentl throwing up their "Bird" gang signs, with Michael in the back, who soon learns the hard way from some nearby youths to not "front in the Bird hood."

After this trip of a lifetime, we all made it back in one piece. Now we're back on the kibbutz, farming and arguing as usual.