A complete change of policy in the training of American Chalutzim for settlement in Israel was announced here today by Habonim, Labor Zionist youth organization, which has been maintaining Hachshara farms in the United States for many years.
Revealing that approximately $800 per year was expended for the training of each American chalutz on the Habonim farms, and that the number of Chalutzim on these farms has recently dropped considerably, the announcement says that the national executive of the Habonim has now decided to introduce a new system of Hachshara. Instead of maintaining training farms in this country, the organization decided to embark on the following system:
1. American youths wishing to be trained for settlement in Israel will have to join Youth Workshop in Israel for a period of nine months. The primary aim of the Workshop is the crystallization of collective groups. Each participant is required to pay the sum of several hundred dollars during the nine-month course of work and study.
2. After returning from the Workshop to the United States, the participants are to pursue studies, vocational training and active leadership in the Zionist movement. At the end of two or three years they will go to settle in Israel, after undergoing an intensive seminar in America of two or three months. This seminar will concentrate upon Hebrew, the general situation in Israel, adjustment of new settlers, and other subjects of immediate concern.
3. Upon settling in Israel, the American youths will undergo improved training. Traditionally, groups of chalutzim undergo a period of training in agriculture and collective living after they arrive in the Jewish state and before they settle independently. The Habonim organization considers this training inadequate for American chalutzim and will seek ways of improving it.
Anticipating criticism for introducing this radical change in the training of American chalutzim, the Habonim says in its announcement: “Those who would seek to make political capital of Habonim’s decision will hail it as a sign of weakness, as a retreat from ‘true’ chalutziut. They will attempt to label Habonim as defeatists, bowing in the face of circumstance. But those who share with Habonim the desire to create a large and effective chalutz movement in America and an understanding of American Jewish youth, will not be misled or perturbed by such criticism.”
The experience of working and studying in Israel close to a year as part of an organized group, can help decide the choice of a future course, the Habonim statement points out. “If the choice is to settle in the country it is based on a personal knowledge of Israel’s reality, and the young man or woman now has the basis for preparing himself in a way that will enhance his successful adjustment. This will mean that ultimately less American chalutzim will leave Israel. If, on the other hand, he decides, for whatever cause, that Aliya is not for him, he has decided this also on an intelligent basis and, in any event, will certainly have become a better Jew, “the statement declares.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
