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ShnUpdate - Tzuf 26.08.21

Shnat Tzuf SA, by Julian Rael Gordon

שלום חבריםות

By the time you’re reading this, it’ll be about a week and a half since we said goodbye to some of our British family. It’s fair to say that the atmosphere isn’t quite the same without them.

We’ve had a unique, chaotic, and amazing time with them over the past 4½ months. From barely knowing them in quarantine to basically becoming besties in the past month, it’s hard to imagine the rest of shnat without them. Each of them brought a special something to the kvutsah that can’t be replaced. It was especially sad on our closing seminar when we were reminiscing about our wildest, funniest and most serious moments on our journey and saying our “see you later”s.

However, we still carry on… slightly emotionally unstable but that’s besides the point.

Currently, we’re on chofesh or “break”. We’re all spread around the country visiting family and family friends and friends and having some much-needed rest.

But what’s happening now? In a few days we will be meeting the Australian shnatties for an orientation seminar in our first home in Israel – Lotan. Then, for the next month and a bit we’ll be embarking on volunteering adventures with Project TEN on a kibbutz in the north. It’ll be an exciting experience.

Until next week!

Julian Rael Gordon, Netzer South Africa


Shnat Tzuf Australia- Georgia Burstin

Last night we sat down for dinner together and one of the shoko boys (I’ll explain later) said : “wow, you guys are always a group. You cook together, eat together, go to sleep together, swim together, clean together, it’s incredible!” There’s nothing we’ve done apart. We’re a small group, only 6 people, 2 rooms, 1 shark and a bunch of energy. Never in my life have I felt so privileged. Everyone told us how lucky we were to be travelling during these times, and I never expected it to be such an amazing, loving-filled adventure.

The plane ride was delicious. The actual plane was pretty barren (as you’d expect) so we had lots of room for activities. We could’ve each had a row to ourselves, but instead, we sat as a group and like I said before, we ate together, slept together and laughed together.

Touching down in Israel was magical, a moment I doubt we will ever forget. We went straight to our Jerusalem hostel to quarantine for 24 hours. We instantly stripped down into bathers and enjoyed the Israeli summer sun, dancing, playing cards and trying on our new Netzer Olami merch. After expressing our expectations for the next 6 months at our orientation seminar run by Lior, we hopped on a bus to Lotan and met our gorgeous group leader Mark. I think he was surprised with how much enthusiasm we had, and how we’ve been able to maintain it.

We’re staying in mud domes, eating vegan food at our eco campus and enjoying our hands on activities in the gardens and classrooms. We’re really loving it here. The temperature shock has been drastic. Going from winter in Australia to summer in Israel, it’s like we’ve entered a whole new world, however, we’re still managing to keep somewhat sane in the south’s 40 degree heat. We’re co living with who we call the shoko boys, they work at the shoko factory and we’ve formed a happy and wholesome extended family with them. We feel so fortunate to already be making new friends here, and I know we will all be sad when we have to leave them.

We’re all super grateful to have this opportunity, and feeling I’m very ecstatic to experience other parts of Israel and it’s culture.

Sending lots of love to everyone,

Georgia xx, Netzer Australia







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