Habonim was the first Zionist youth movement in Australia to facilitate a Shnat program, which has been running since 1949. The Habonim Dror Shnat program is an intensive 10-month educational and leadership program in Israel. Each year we send roughly forty-five participants who will have a life-changing and eye-opening experience, and return home to be leaders of Habonim Dror and the Jewish community. Shnat plays a significant and central role in the movement, and is our greatest source of strength and inspiration. Each component of our Shnat program is structured in a way that gives each participant the opportunity to educate, question and challenge themselves whilst at the same time living, experiencing and expressing the movement values and ideology.

 

A unique aspect of the Habonim Dror Shnat program is the emphasis placed on the group experience. The participants are placed in small groups, or Kvutzot, with whom they share their day-to-day living with as well as many personal experiences. It is through these Kvutzot that individuals are urged to take responsibility for both themselves and others. Each Kvutzah discusses values and tools to help them live and work together and create their own culture and norms, allowing their individual and collective creativity and identity to be expressed. This intense group experience allows participants to create meaningful and close relationships with each other, lasting for many years to come.

 

Shnat is an unparalleled opportunity to understand, explore and experience both Israel and Socialist-Zionism. Spending 10 months in Israel allows chanichim to experience living in a Jewish society, as they immerse themselves, over the course of the program, in Israeli culture and society.