Israel Club Hosts Shabbaton at Beren Campus

This past weekend the YC/SCW Israel Club hosted a Shabbaton at the Beren (Midtown) Campus. In the tradition of the Israel Club, the event centered on a group of speakers whose analytical discourses spawned night long debates. Israel Club Presidents Shaya Lerner and Hindy Poupko kept the discussions going strong and managed to keep all in attendance engrossed through their enthusiasm and nonstop, almost frenetic activity.

The night started off with song and prayer and moved on into a meal replete with discussions of Israeli politics and Zionist ideology. After dinner, Rabbi Binny Freedman, the director of Isralight, gave the keynote address on the role of leadership in shaping a nation's behavior.

Then, the students broke up into three groups, each attending a different workshop. "It was very inspiring to look around the room and see over a hundred YC and Stern students involved in a discussion about the future of the State of Israel," said Poupko.

Featured in the three workshops were Rabbi Freedman, Prof. Stuart Cohen of Bar Ilan University discussing politics in Israel today, and Aharon Hurwitz, the director of Yavneh Olami: North America, speaking about "Aliyah from a Different Perspective." Each workshop was given twice.

Rav Binny led a group discussion inquiring into the roots of and reasons and for religious Zionism, and the reasons why a state is necessary in the first place.

Meanwhile, Mr. Hurwitz, a senior at Columbia University, discussed the different views presented by the multifarious permutations of Zionist thought, from the cultural Zionism of Ahad Haam to the revisionist, political Zionism of Ze'ev Jabotinsky.

The Shabbos ended with a stirring seudat shlishit, which included singing and divrei Torah.

"I thought the Shabbaton was a huge success," Poupko said. "We had a great turn out, and everyone there participated in all the workshops and programs. I think the very fact that the Shabbaton was success, serves as testimony to the dedication and support that the students show toward the State of Israel. The speakers were very impressed with the questions asked and the issues raised by the students."