Swelling with pride

Today, while surfing Haaretz.com, i came across a rather peculiar article.
Peculiar because my cousin Ittai was in it.

Also, more peculiar because they call him Oren (his last name) and say that he's 24 (he just turned 23) so, way to suck at life, Haaretz.com
But I know it's Ittai because
a)He lives in Akko
b)at that apartment
c)two floors below that rooftop and
d)that's his pretty little head on the left
I swell with pride because not only is my family, and therefore my genes, in the news, but also, whenever you see a member of your family in the news spouting Bolshevik-Socialist ideals and propaganda in the 21st century, can you help feel anything but proud?

Of course not. Which is why I immediately called Safta with the news and forwarded the article to my daddy.

Can we discuss how this means that Haaretz, a national newspaper with leftist tendencies, is glorifying the fact that my cousin has put himself into a box with the other "commie-red" crayons and is living in a converted soldier's hostel with minimal water/electricity hook up with other young and virile members of his peer group in the name of "contributing to society"?
And that this is so totally awesome, I can't even put it into words, so it's a good thing that Haaretz.com did it for me?

In conclusion: Communism+the extended Moraff Clan=can't end well, but we'll sure as hell have a blast trying.

Because Haaretz will probably take down the article at some point, here it is in all of it's glory:


It's Acre, not India, for these young idealists
By Eli Ashkenazi
"This is my India," 24 (he's 23, you dumbasses)-year-old Oren (THIS WOULD BE ITTAI) said, comparing his decision to move to the new urban kibbutz in Acre to the trip many young Israelis embark on after military service. Indeed, the lifestyle he has chosen is different than that of most Israelis his age. Oren (ITTAI AGAIN) and 30 other graduates of the leftist Noar Haoved Vehalomed youth movement, aged 23 to 24, have decided to dedicate their lives to making a contribution to society, as they put it.On Monday, they declared the establishment of the "Acre Urban Educators Kibbutz."

"We will develop a rich, independent and cultural social life based on the [socialist] principle `from each according to his means to each according to his needs.' Our lives will be based on equality, mutual responsibility and cooperation. Cooperation with the community [beyond the kibbutz], in the form of educational projects we initiate and implement, will be one of our guiding principles," they said.There are now several educational communes in Israel - some are urban and some are located in kibbutzim founded in the 1980s that failed to expand. According to Ori Metuki, coordinator of the kibbutz in Acre, "There are already hundreds of [kibbutz] members living this way."I have lived in Eshbol, next to Sakhnin, for 10 years and intend to do so for the rest of my life. When I was 22, they told me I was naive. When I was 25, they told me the same thing. Now I am 30 and I still believe in the idea. I have a family now in Eshbol."There are 60 educators living in Eshbol; there is also a group of students in the Eshbol Beit Hanoar boarding school for youth at risk. Eshbol members direct a number of educational projects throughout Israel and they are in daily contact with about 3,000 youngsters. In addition to the boarding school, Eshbol members run a Jewish-Arab coexistence center and a seminar center.According to them, Eshbol members are active in every sector of the population residing in the Western Galilee region - Jews, Arabs, kibbutznikim and Druze.The educational kibbutz, in its urban and rural sites, is only one of a number of experiments aimed at creating a new model of the kibbutz concept. Founded 20 years ago, the urban kibbutzim, including Reshit (founded in the `70s), Beit Yisrael in Jerusalem, Migvan in Sderot and Tamuz in Beit Shemesh, were pioneers in this experiment.The central concept in the urban kibbutz is the establishment of a collaborative, communal framework in the city. As a result, all these kibbutzim share the desire to be involved in the community in which they reside. They also strive to live a communal lifestyle, without production of material goods, while promoting close relations between members. Two new communal groups were established in the Migdal Ha'emek area in 2000 - Bustan and Tishrei - which maintain an "education-based economy," as they define it."The whole idea is not to live in a detached bubble. We are part of the city," Metuki says. According to him, "If the realization of a movement graduate's values was once life on a traditional kibbutz, realization now lies with Israeli society in the field of education, and graduates strive to be part of a pioneering force."Acre mayor Shimon Lankri and his staff welcomed the young adults on Monday and lavished praise on the group that arrived in their city. Arieh Fishbein, head of the Acre branch of the Association for Soldiers in Israel, which contributed the use of its buildings to the project, invoked the National Soccer League standings as another sign of the good things happening to the city. Acre is, of course, in the lead. "Israeli society is a society in crisis looking for a direction. These youngsters are pointing the way," Lankri said.Yoel Marshak, head of the United Kibbutz Movement's Special Assignments Division, said that the common denominator among these 21st Century communes is "a sense of mission and cooperation. Anyone who believes there is no such thing as true cooperation is free to say thank you and good-bye."According to Marshak, skepticism regarding these new kibbutz models is unwarranted. "People always say these kibbutzim have yet to experience a complete life cycle. But Tamuz in Beit Shemesh and Migvan in Sderot have existed for 20 years."Yisrael Ben-Ezra, assistant to the mayor of Acre, compares the new kibbutz members to Israel's founding pioneers. "They work and sing. They came to us with a desire to reside here permanently. They will influence our youth to also remain in the city."