KIVUNIM 2020-2021
METAMORPHISIS - גלגול The name of our show this year is גלגול - GILGUL, meaning metamorphosis, rebirth. Over the course of this year, we have cycledthrough many stages, slowly coming out of the cocoon that COVID-19 wrapped around us, finally emerging as fully fledged Kivunim students — ending our time together with international travel.
We began our journey together with immediate separation — we arrived in Israel late at night and as soon as we got off the plane we began our fourteen day quarantine with only one or two roommates for company. Bonds formed quickly in each room, but as a group we were still strangers. In a roundabout way, QUARANTINE was the first experience to unite us all.
Emerging out of our rooms, we began our two month stay at GIVAT HAVIVA. Sheltered from the outside world, we were able to connect with one another and transform from pairs and groups of three to a unified cohort. With the help of “together time” activities and one on one chats, our group soon bonded.
In mid-January, with our full group united, we were reborn from the kibbutz into city life — JERUSALEM still beautiful midwinter, in lockdown. Individually and as a group, we began to venture out into the city and see what we could find. At first we could only venture out within one kilometer of our home at Mishkenot, but as we got vaccinated in the early months of 2021, we began to explore everything the holy city had to offer us.
As case numbers went down and the days became longer and sunnier, our cohort traversed the country from top to bottom, eating, swimming, dancing, hiking, finding our way back into a society that was reopening for the first time. We were there as everyone found their way back to one another — and they found us, too. We learned to belong in Eilat, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Tzfat; ISRAEL as a whole became our home.
Despite a hastened end to our time together in the holy land, we reunited for our unique, two month long TRAVEL experience: the final metamorphosis of our group this year. Beginning for some in DUBAI, and for the rest in MOROCCO, we learned about how Jewish communities, new and old, live side by side with Muslims, under an Islamic government. Continuing on to GREECE, we experienced another intersection of new and old, a modern country with an ancient heritage. Meeting Rabbi Gabi Negrin, the young Chief Rabbi of Greece, and attending the ancient Romaniote Sabbath service he led, was certainly a highlight. Travelling on to BERLIN, we were told by the artist Frederic Brenner to find comfort in discomfort, advice that proved valuable as we spent our days discussing the Holocaust, and spending Tisha b’Av, the saddest day of the Jewish Year, in the city. We ended our Kivunim year in the city of PRAGUE, reveling in the richly preserved history of the Jewish community, which continues until today. With the help of our guides we understood that this community has had to undergo many metamorphoses as well, but through it all they have retained their folklore, history, and pride in their Jewish, Czech identities.
ISRAEL
DUBAI
MOROCCO
GREECE
GERMANY
PRAGUE
HALEY SHARP: project manager, curator, photo editor, website editor, graphic designerRAMI BERMAN: website creator and editorMIRYAM GREENWOOD: writerBEATRICE KLEEGER: photo editorMOSHE TAMBOR: photo editorTALIA GNESSIN: videographer, video editorTOBI KHAN: artist in residencephotography by KIVUNIM Students 2020-2021