A look back at the latter half of 2006

The last two months of 2006 were eventful ones for Ken Afikim, and now that we've rung in a brand new calendar year, we should take a moment to look back at what we've done lately here in Detroit.

In November, Tikkun Olam was center stage, as we discussed the fundamentals of "fixing the world." What is tikkun olam, why do we do it, and how? We shared our collective visions of what makes a 'broken' world, what makes an 'ideal/perfect' world, through a visual collage medium, and then discussed what we can do to move things closer to the latter vision. In the process, we collected cans to donate to Yad Ezra, the Jewish food pantry in town. It was a great peulah, thanks especially to the nachshonim who attended.

We also had a rockin' Chotrim Overnight with the entire Michigan Eizor, at which we had fun peulot, had a medurah and made s'mores, sang kumsitz, watched a movie about establishing unions and challenging the dominant paradigm, and got to spend a lot of time together with our friends from Kalamazoo and Ann Arbor. (We can't wait for the Eizor Michigan Shabbaton to do it all again!)

Then, December brought the eizor Chanukah party, which included paper bag dramatizations of the Chanukah story, sufganiya eating contests, a challenge to make the best chanukah menorah out of playdough, lots of dreidel spinning, chocolate gelt eating, exchanging of gifts, and best of all, partying with our fellow Habo's from all over Michigan! We even collected a very large box of donated children's books to go to Bookstock, a Jewish book sale for the metro-Detroit community.

Nachshonim and Ma'apilim then headed off to Winter Seminar in lovely Mansfield, Ontario, for a week of intensive peulot about the movement and lots of crazy kef with our chaverim from all over North America. The weather outside was not very frightful, but the fires were still delightful, and the company could not have been better! Tzevet Afikim returned inspired, and firmly upon the hagshama path, ready to begin a brand new year!

If you are interested in picking up what we are putting down in D-town, and would like to be on our mailing list, just contact Raya, Rosh Eizor for Detroit, at rosheizordetroit@gmail.com.