Lviv: Connecting Jewish Youth Movements’ Past to Present
November, 2016
Zionist Youth Movements Celebrate their Roots at Limmud FSU Festival Lviv
With 900 strong in attendance, this year’s Limmud FSU conference in the Western Ukraine city of Lviv, was marking a decade of Limmud FSU in Ukraine. To mark the occasion, Limmud FSU welcomed senior representatives of the most important Ukrainian Zionist Youth Movements: Beitar, Bnei-Akiva, Hanoar-Haoved-Ve-Halomed and Hashomer-Hatzair. Hashomer Hatzair and Bnei Akiva have deep roots and an extensive history in Lviv - the main headquarters of Bnei Akiva were first opened in Lviv in 1930, and Hashomer Hatzair was first named in Lviv.
On the last day I went on a tour with Limmud FSU founder Chaim Chesler, Head of Begin center Herzl Makov, Former MK Abu Vilan, and Head of the Settlement Division Gael Grinwald. We followed the steps of the Jewish youth movements that used to be active there, finding their old headquarters. Chaim Chester: “We would like to show the Ukrainians that the Zionist movement started here in Lviv. And what is more zionist than the pioneer Jewish youth movements that started here in Lviv, and that established the Yishuv and Kibbutzim in Israel.”
AJT post Szarvas camp seminar at Lviv
Connecting Jewish youth movements’ past to present: speaking about the origins of Jewish youth movements at AJT Seminar in Lviv
Going to a gathering of a Jewish youth movement from all over the FSU, I couldn’t help of thinking how after years of not having any youth movements active in the FSU, the fact that this gathering is taking place cannot be taken for granted. Only a week before I participated in Limmud FSU in Lviv, the place where many Jewish youth movements were established, marking 103 years to the establishment of HaShomer Hatsair and 90 years to Beni Akiva. Today none of these youth movements is active in Lviv.
What is actually a youth movement? Where and when were the first Jewish youth movements established? What was their purpose? and what was their contribution to the Jewish people throughout history? These are all questions I raised in the session I led in the AJT seminar.
I told the teens about the first Jewish youth movements, some were established more than 100 years ago in Lviv and in places they live in today. I told them about their ideology, about their role in WWII, and about the “beriha” movement. I told them about their role in the establishment of villages and cities in Israel as well as the establishment of political parties that are still active and even in power today in Israel.
In a city where so much of the modern Jewish movements where rising, Haskalah and Zionism on the one hand, and the ultra-Orthodox and Hasidic on the other hand, it’s fascinating to see what the future will hold for these young teens. I wish that all of this made them realise that they are part of something bigger than themselves, and they can dream big and achieve great things together.
Limmud FSU tour following Lviv's Jewish youth movement history
Video of the tour. Credit: Eli Mandelbaum