What is Shnat

The Habonim Dror Shnat program is an intensive 9-month educational and leadership program in Israel. Each year we send roughly thirty participants from Aotearoa and Australia. Participants 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 has changed lives and will continue to do so. It gives participants the unique opportunity to explore Israel and their Jewish identity, at the same time as exploring themselves. Spending 9 months in Israel allows participants to immerse themselves in Israeli culture and society, understanding a place that means so much to all of us.

“An unparalleled opportunity, to change your lives”

See you on Shnat!!!!