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Asif Elkayam: "The youth movement saved me" Israel today

2020-07-14T12:12:37.925Z


In the shadow of the youth movements' protest against the cuts in their budgets, the "brother", a former Bnei Akiva student, reveals: "In the movement I learned to talk about emotions" | native


In the shadow of the youth movements' protest against the cuts in their budgets, the writer and "Big Brother", a former trainee in Bnei Akiva, reveals: "I was on the king's road to becoming a punk on the street."

The youth movements that are currently struggling to continue their activities, were strengthened last night by an adult from a particularly famous youth movement: Asif Elkayam. 

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Elkayam, a graduate of the Bnei Akiva movement, decided to go back in time to his days as a trainee and instructor in the veteran youth movement, and yesterday (Sunday) posted a long support post about the movements' struggle: "It will probably not surprise you that I was not the most disciplined child." The brother who raised "the post he uploaded to Instagram and Facebook and was accompanied by a series of photos of him as a trainee in the movement. 

"As the saying goes, Mom and Dad preferred the Yom Kippur fast over parent meetings. I had too rich a 'social life'. I connected with every person I could find. Homeless people, drunken skaters, and stalwarts thrown in the archeological park in Tiberias. "It's in every way. The colorful cockroaches and their criminal bags will testify. I was on the king's road to becoming a punk on the street who lowers breakfast with cheap vodka," Elkayam revealed his days as a teenager. 

"My parents were quite helpless. When they untied the rope they found me jumping with rollerblades between buildings, and when they fastened it they found a letter on the bed, and I slept on a bag on the streets of Jerusalem. But one thing they did not agree to give up: the youth movement. In Bnei Akiva, twice a week we would meet and talk about identity, Zionism and meaning. The broken lottery center on the outskirts of Tiberias was the place where I developed all the most significant personality lines. There I learned to have a discussion, talk about emotions, make moral and value considerations. .

"Eventually," he added, "I myself became a guide at a branch in the south. I instructed the children of the deportees from Gush Katif, the salt of the land who are not willing to wave the Israeli flag because of the trauma of evacuating Gush Katif. This was the task I was given. One of these sweet guys will enlist in the IDF. And in all honesty and without a drop of arrogance - I succeeded.

"We had bitter wars when I would arrive with IDF uniforms from the military boarding school, and I know I was on the edge of the important figures in their young lives just as my instructors were and still are for me," he wrote. The budget of the youth movements is about 50-75 percent (!). This move is a death sentence for all youth movements, because they are all built on the idea that every boy who desires values ​​has a place, even for those whose parents' pockets are not deep enough. 

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"The same movement that turned me from a disturbed child in the streets into a values ​​guide for children - has been doing this for decades for countless boys and girls. So has the Scout movement, the working youth and more. I do not share all the ideals of some movements," he added. They do in the world, and what meaning do they have in the mosaic of Israeli education.I want them to stay here, because I prefer a boy with a different opinion to have a value discussion with me, than a boy who just does not care.As one who for years commanded youth at risk, you will be shocked to find out Boys are now lost in the streets, roaming the darkest places in Israel at a time when their personalities are taking shape. 

"They say that all a child needs is one adult to believe in him, well, sometimes a teenager is motivated and full of values. They need these movements, we as a society need these movements. It is possible and necessary to have a discussion about where it is more important to inject money, but one thing I know for sure: "Whoever saves on education now will pay dearly for it in the future," he concluded the post, which received more than 14,000 likes (including his partner, Maayan Adam).

Elkayam (28) was born into a religious family in Tiberias and is the youngest of three children. At the age of 14 he fled to Jerusalem and found himself in "Zola Shel Hatzroni", a club for religious boys in distress set up by Harel Hatzroni resident. His sister eventually found him and brought him home, but at the age of 15 he entered a religious boarding school where he graduated without a matriculation certificate. 

In the army, Elkayam served as a lieutenant colonel in Gaza and Nablus. Following a knee injury and a drop in combat profile, he moved to the Education Corps where he worked with at-risk youth and mental health problems. "Sunrise" and "The Poetry of Backgammon", entered into a well-publicized relationship with Maayan Adam, conducted successful writing workshops, and also became a graduate of the reality show "Big Brother". 

Source: israelhayom

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