Hashomer Hatzair

Once a huge movement inside the large Argentinian Jewish Community, Hashomer Hatzair Argentina suffered from decay common to all Zionist youth movements in Argentina during the last decades, as well as several military dictatorships in the country's history that directly or indirectly led to the closure of several of its kenim. Today the movement operates in Tzavta Centro Comunitario (Tzavta Community Center), in the neighborhood of Almagro, City of Buenos Aires. It is one of 9 Zionist Youth Movements in the city. It has around 120 members, running regular Saturday activities and secular Kabalat Shabat service, besides two machanot per year.

The movement in Australia is located in Melbourne and was established in 1953 as a break away from Habonim Dror. There was briefly a ken (branch) in Sydney during the 1960s, but it closed due to a lack of members. Many of the original bogrim (leaders) of Australian Hashomer Hatzair settled in kibbutz Nirim. Its building in Melbourne is known as Beit Anielewicz, located in the suburb of St Kilda East. It runs weekly meetings as well as bi-annual camps which take place in the Australian countryside, during the summer and winter months. Hashomer Hatzair Australia is a member of the Australasian Zionist Youth Council (AZYC).

Currently, there are around 70 members of 'Hashy' Australia. Meetings for chanichim/ot (participants) from school years 3-12 are on Sunday afternoons and evenings. During Year 10 (age: 15–16) chanichim/ot undergo a 'hadracha' (leadership) course. This course is run by current bogrim/ot in the movement and teaches the chanichim/ot leadership skills which are used when they lead members of the Junior movement in Year 11. The current Year 11 madatzim/ot (leaders) are from the kvutzat (group) Elifaz.

Hashomer Hatzair Australia has a strong belief that chanichim/ot should be active in the community, helping whenever they can. Members often go to rallies, actively pursue social justice locally and abroad, and run programs for disadvantaged children.

As with most of the kenim around the world, every year Hashy sends the chanichim/ot who have just completed school on a 10-month Shnat program in Israel. Hashy is an active part of the Hashomer Hatzair World Movement and regularly interacts with other kenim as well as other movements.

The Austrian Hashomer Hatzair traces its roots to the original Hashomer Hatzair founded in the Galicia region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Hashomer were among the earliest members of the Österreichischer Pfadfinderbund in 1914. They also founded the first ken which is located at Desider-Friedmannplatz 1b, 1010 Vienna. It holds around a hundred members, and meets weekly. The ken usually has four active kvutzots and one Bogrim kvutza. The ken has two machanot each year in the winter and summer and a couple of tijulim, every second year the oldest kvutzot the bogrim and the oldest kvutza go to machane Israel in which they attend the Seminar Tzofi or Tzofinodet.

In Belgium, Hashomer Hatzaïr was established in 1920. Today, 250 hanihim come each Saturday to take part in folk dancing (rekudei'am), ludic activities (peoulot), and Shabbat celebrations (oneg shabbat). Four camps are organized throughout the year. The November, Winter, and Easter camps usually take place in the Netherlands, and the Summer camp in France. The shaliah is Tal Eitan and the shirfa madrihim is composed of the kvutzot of Yehiam (2002) and Maanit (2003). Until 2006 there was a ken in Liege, but it closed because it was too small. Hashomer Hatzaïr in Belgium is part of the Brith which is composed of the five Zionist youth groups of Belgium: Hashomer Hatzair, Hanoar Hatzioni, Habonim Dror, Bnei Hakiva and Jeunesse Juive Laïque.

In Brazil, the movement is informally called "Shomer" and has five branches: Rio de Janeiro (2), São Paulo, Florianópolis, and Brasília. Normally, the activities encompass weekly meetings as well as two summer camps (machané) per year. Besides Haflagot, Acantonamentos, Machane de Lag Baomer. In Rio, where the tnuah is bigger, it embodies one of the left-wing Zionist institutions in the local Jewish community, playing a leading role in subjects like the peace process in the Middle East. The educational activities are also aimed at the challenges of Brazilian society, such as social and environmental issues. There are about 300 members in the national movement

In Bulgaria, Hashomer Hatzair has been active for more than 20 years and has two branches - Sofia and Plovdiv. Тhe Bulgarian branch of Hashomer Hatzair was established after WWll but it closed down when the communist regime in Bulgaria began. The Bulgarian branch was reestablished in 1992 and it has been active ever since. Currently, members are ages 11–20. Meetings for chanichim*ot (the peulots) are on Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings. Also, there are two camps organized every year - one during the winter and one scouting camp during the summer.

In the United States and Canada camps last through the school summer vacation. The two summer camps in Liberty, New York, USA and Perth, Ontario, Canada are both called Camp Shomria or "Mosh". In addition, the movement runs activities in cities across the continent throughout the year promoting the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, socialist-Zionism, Hagshama Atzmit (self-actualization), social activism (tikkun olam), and withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza.

Through seminars, camps (winter/summer), worldwide programs, and weekly activities wherein youth lead youth, Hashomer Hatzair aims to create a just world through socialism, equality, and the betterment of Israel and the world.

There are currently kenim in Toronto, northern New Jersey (Tenafly), central New Jersey (East Brunswick), New York City, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia. The United States is currently in the process of recreating kenim in Westchester, NY and Albany, NY.

Hashomer Hatzair has collaborated with Habonim Dror and other left-wing Zionist groups to form the Union of Progressive Zionists campus network.

In October 2011, Hashomer Hatzair participated in Occupy Toronto and built a sukkah at the site of the protest.[7]

The Chilean branch of Hashomer Hatzair was founded more than 60 years ago and it continues educating young Jewish Chileans with the values of social justice, fraternity, Judaism and love for Israel. Currently there are 50–100 members aged 9–22 who meet every Saturday in the Ken located in Santiago. These are young chaverim that self organize and most of them do not belong to any Jewish collectivity or entity, thus most of them will have no link to anything Jewish if it wasn't for the tnua. For further info, visit the up-to-date website in Spanish.

In France, the youth movement spells Hachomer Hatzaïr with a "c". It was founded in Paris in Belleville area, in 1933, by Jews from Poland and Tunisia. The French branch now has about 500 members in two kenim, in Paris and Lyon. The khanikhim (children) (literally, "students") and Bogrim (organizers) (literally, "adults") meet weekly in groups and run 3 makhanot ("Resorts & Leisure") (literally, "camps") in November (or late October), around the end of December, and for 3 weeks in July. The French movement has 3 branches:[8] An educational branch, a political arm, and an "emsheh" branch.

Hashomer Hatzair Germany (German: Hashomer Hatzair Deutschland) is the youth movement in Germany, that is operating Ken Berlin (the activity center). It is legally a non-profit, registered association in Germany. The movement is organising bi-weekly activities in Berlin for kids and youth ages 6-18, as well as an annual Summer Camp. It was re-established in 2012 for the first time since it was prohibited during the Second World War and the Holocaust. In the past, the movement was active in several cities in Germany until 1939. Since its reopening, Hashomer Hatzair Germany has assembled a community of members to bring the youth movement values and passion back to Berlin.[9]

Hashomer Hatzair has been re-established in 1989 in Budapest. Today it's one of the largest Zionist youth movements in Hungary. HH Hungary organizes two camps every year and also offers various programs for Jewish youngsters: bringing charity to Hungarian Holocaust Survivors, cleaning out Jewish cemeteries in the countryside etc. Hashomer Hatzair has approximately 50 members nowadays in Budapest. Hashomer Hatzair was the first Jewish youth movement to be re-established in Hungary after the fall of Communism (1989).

Today, the movement has around 80 kenim all over Israel. A Knesset report in 2010 stated that there were around 7,000 official members, making Hashomer Hatzair the fifth largest youth movement in Israel by members.[10] The main actions of the movement are regular activities for youth ages 9–18, education for the tnua values and social actions.

Every year the movement has a conference for the whole "Gub" (Guf Boger, the guides of each ken, ages 15–18) to discuss a yearly topic related to Israeli society, the kenim, and the movement in general. At the end of the conference the members formulate the results of the discussions and chart the future of the movement. Examples of past topics include Zionism and peace, equality between genders, socialism, Judaism in Hashomer Hatzair, and so forth.

After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party merged with other left wing parties to form Mapam, which became the political party of both the youth movement and the Kibbutz Artzi federation. In Israel it was traditionally aligned with Mapam and later Meretz; however, it is not officially aligned with Meretz. After a recent merger of the Meretz-aligned Kibbutz Artzi Federation with the Labour Party's United Kibbutz Movement, Hashomer Hatzair is officially not aligned with either party, though by tradition, it is close in outlook to Meretz.

Hashomer Hatzair operates four kenim (branches) in Italy—in Rome, Milan, Florence, and Turin. Local members organize two camps per year. The Italian movement can count on about 400 members.

The Mexican branch of Hashomer Hatzair was established in 1940. Since 1983, its "ken" (Hebrew for "nest", i.e., its headquarters), named after Mordechai Anielewicz, is currently located in the Polanco neighbourhood, western part of Mexico City.

Hashomer Hatzair Mexico was founded by Avner Aliphas, a Hebrew professor at the Yiddish school of Mexico and later founder of the "Tarbut" Jewish day school in 1942. Aliphas was born in Kolno, Poland, in 1911, and made aliyah (immigrated to Eretz Israel) in 1936 to join Kibbutz Negba, and in 1938 he helped establish Kibbutz Hanita. In 1939 he returned to Kolno after his mother died and luckily got out before the Nazi invasion to attend a Zionist conference in Paris. When the war broke out and he could not go back to Israel, he traveled to Mexico where he became active in the Zionist movement.

In 1940, supported by the Zionist Organization in Mexico, Aliphas founded Hashomer Hatzair in Mexico, thus giving an option for young people who had been educated towards Zionism at home. This was the first Jewish youth movement that existed in the country; its first Ken was in Tacuba 15, in the city center.

During the next decades, Hashomer Hatzair was one of the places for secular socialization for the Jewish community. As of the present day, the Mexican branch of Hashomer Hatzair comprises approximately fifty members who regularly attend cultural, educational and sporting events as a group.

Hashomer Hatzair has existed in Uruguay since 1946. In its early stages, there were two different kinim but now there is only one in the centre of the city, consisting of two kvutzot of younger children (ages 6 to 7 and 8 to 10) and another two of older kids (11 to 13 and 14 to 16). The ken is called Ken Mordejai Anilevich and is in the capital city of Montevideo in the neightboard of Pocitos

Hashomer Hatzair is active in the Netherlands from the 1950s. Until somewhere in the 1970s there were kenim in Rotterdam and Amsterdam. A ken in Maastricht has been active since around the year 2000. The ken has two kvutzot of older and younger kids (9-12 and 5-8). Ken Maastricht has been part of the World Movement since 2011.

In Switzerland, Ken Yitzhak Rabin in Zürich consists of some 100 hanihim, meeting on Shabbat afternoon and for two or three camps (annually in autumn and winter, bi-annually in summer), next to the Bogrim's bi-annual trips to Israel or Poland. Special events are held for Pessach, Chanuka and the Yitzhak Rabin memorial. The Ken was founded in 1935 and joined World Hashomer in 1938. During the 2nd world war, there were five major Kenim (Zurich, Basel, Berne, Biel, Geneva) plus activities in a few smaller cities and in the refugee centers. Swiss Shomer members having made aliya can be encountered e.g. in Lehavot Habashan and Magen. As of 2009 the Shomer was the largest Jewish youth movement in Switzerland.

Logo de los 60 años del Ken Najshon, fundado en 1955 por Tamar Campo

Hashomer Hatzair in Venezuela was founded in 1954 in Caracas, coming through Tamar Campo, an immigrant girl from Cuba, who began doing educational activities in September 1954 for young Jews of Venezuela, during the Rosh Hashana festivities. The name is Ken Najshon, inspired like the prince of the tribe of Judah, who led the Jewish people out of Egypt across the waters opened by Moses .

Today the Ken Najshon continues educating young's in the Jewish community of Venezuela, every Saturday at the Hebraica club by peulot where they teach about Zionism, socialism and humanistic Judaism and are taught values of equality, social justice and brotherhood through non-formal education.

The Life Movement in the United States and Canada has created three urban communes, one in New York and two in Toronto where members are experimenting with the Israeli model of communot in their home societies. In addition, a new winter trip to Israel for Bogrim called Mifgash takes place yearly.