NOAM Shabbaton

Nativ is the Conservative Movement’s gap year program.  The Conservative Movement, by this name, exists solely in North America.  What about the rest of the world?  I learned the answer to this question last weekend at a NOAM Shabbaton.

NOAM stands for Noar Masorti, or Masorti Youth.  Masorti is the name of the Conservative Movement outside of North America.  I learned about Masorti in Israel during the Israel Today Seminar, and I guess I understood that there was something like it in other countries, but I had never really thought about it before this weekend.

The bus came to pick us up Friday morning and took us (8 from Kfar, 6 from Karmiel, 1 from Yerucham, and 12 from Jerusalem but originally from Argentina, Brazil, and Chile [all but one spoke English very well]) to a water park in Tiberius.  Here, we N Ams barely talked with the S Ams.  We played some bad ice breakers, ate, and talked.  Some of us went down the water slides and swam, too.  A little before leaving, I started talking with a few of the NOAM people, and Dana, Becca, and I decided we should split up our amazing room to be with them. 

We went to a hotel on the Kineret a little south of Tiberius.  I ended up rooming with Clarice and Daniela from Brazil and Becca.  After settling into our room and preparing for Shabbat (side note: the NOAM Shabbat dress code is much more casual than that of Nativ), we met with everyone again.  Representatives from each country gave a presentation on their youth movements (NOAM, NOAM, NOAM, and USY; it’s also NOAM in the UK, France, Australia, and other countries).  It’s interesting that USY is just for high school and the pre-high school programs are not as popular, and NOAM usually starts around 2^nd grade (age 3 in Chile!).  They use a lot of Hebrew terms in NOAM, my favorite of which is tznif (chapter).  (It’s my favorite especially when paired with “shnat,” as in Shnat NOAM [NOAM year, the gap year program name].  Get it?  Tznif and shnat.  Sniff and snot!  Heehee.)  In 10^th grade, NOAM participants become madrichim (counselors, guides) for the younger kids, and they can do this into their 20s.  The purpose of Shnat NOAM is for participants to come back to their countries and be better NOAM madrichim.  I also found it interesting that democracy is a strong value in NOAM because it is completely taken for granted in USY. 

Then it was Shabbat.  We lit candles and rejoined for services.  2 NOAMers from Argentina led Kab Shab, and 2 NOAMers from Chile led maariv.  Both pairs used tunes new to me, some of which I absolutely loved. 

After dinner, we had an oneg (joy [of]) Shabbat.  In NOAM, this means games!  It was a lot of fun.  As Nativ, we planned on leading a tisch, but this was not the right mood for sitting and singing.

Before going to sleep we hung out together.  I ended spending most of this time talking about Jewish beliefs and Jewish life in my room with Daniela.  I’m amazed at how easy it was to have a conversation about my personal religious beliefs to someone I had known for only a few hours.  Finally, we went to sleep around 2.

I woke up early in the morning and went for a “walk.”  There was nowhere to walk, so I actually spent most of this time just looking out at the water and at the Jordanian mountains on the other side.  Absolutely serene.

Services were not until 10, which is almost a full Shabbat morning service time after when we usually start.  Deena led psukei dzimra (beginning section of morning services).  Then I did something I haven’t done in months…years?...and led shacharit.  I had to use my non-favorite tunes because those are the ones I know best, but I think it went well.  Jacob (Karmiel madrich) led musaf (additional service at the end of Shabbat and holiday morning services).  After lunch and some free time, Maddy led mincha.

We had programming for most of the afternoon.  For the first program, we split into groups of 4 and were given many (maybe 25?) strips of paper with potential ideals/pillars of Jewish youth movements.  In our small groups we had to prioritize 5 ideals for what we think would create the greatest youth movement.  I was grouped with one other Nativer (Elie), an Israeli who works for NOAM, and an Argentinean.  This program was extremely interesting: by arguing over values, we learned the differences between NOAM and youth movements in the US.  My group eventually decided on (top 5 in no particular order) Masorti Judaism (partly because it incorporates halacha [law]), Zionism (something I personally probably would not have chosen, but much easier to accept than another option, “encouraging aliyah”), tikkun olam (repairing the world, refers to community service, social action, etc.), hadracha (guiding, but only for young ages; for high school age we prefer peer leadership), and one other that I cannot remember at the time.  The only pillar that was chosen by each group was tikkun olam. 

In the next program, we looked at pictures of Jewish practices and had to decide whether we thought each was acceptable by Masorti and whether we personally accepted them.  There was a wide range on the conservative-liberal scale: one picture was of a synagogue with a gallery for women, another of a woman reading Torah, another of homosexual men receiving smicha (rabbinical ordination).  It turns out that all of the pictures were from Masorti/Conservative communities, and all are accepted.  It is not that the movement is wishy-washy, but two contradicting practices may both be acceptable if there is a strong argument for a halachic basis.

For the final program, 2 people were given scenarios of modern “hot topics” and had to debate different sides of issues such as women wearing tallitot, using a phone on Shabbat, and intermarriage.  Whoever was not debating could tag in to switch places with a debater.  Probably not surprising, but I did a fair amount of debating.  At the end, one of the coordinators asked if there were other hot topics we’d have liked to discuss.  Responses included ‘the gay issues,’ Kohen-Levi-Yisraeli hierarchy, and religion if only one’s father is Jewish. 

We ate dinner, packed, and met again for maariv and havdallah.  Then, it was time to board the buses (only now, because of locations, we were to be separated by programs.  The Shabbaton was too short, and the final month of Nativ is not enough time to see the NOAM people much more.  How did we become friends so quickly?  Most Nativers honestly felt close with at least a couple NOAM people after just a day.  I didn’t feel close to any Nativers on the 2^nd day of Nativ!  Is it because of the South American culture?  (When we were saying goodbye, I learned they are all great huggers.)  Is it because we’re mamash the same people?  I guess it doesn’t matter why.  We plan on meeting again one night during Nativ’s last week in Jerusalem, and I hope to keep in touch with a few people.  It was an incredible weekend.

Trivia: The most commonly played songs by Nativers for the past couple weeks are “Call Me Maybe” and “Somebody that I Used to Know.”