Why We're Going - by Karen Isaacs and A. Daniel Roth

To our Partners, Families and Friends,

In two weeks we are making the move to Israel. Both of us have been members of Hashomer Hatzair (Shomrim) for most of our lives, and our move to Israel is as Shomrim; as educators and activists.

We are moving there without knowing how long we will be there. We are moving there because it is one of the places that we, as Jewish people and as Shomrim, are connected to and responsible towards. We are moving there because this mission is central to who we are.
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_As Socialist-Zionists it is vital for us to involve ourselves in bettering this collective Jewish project in our people's birthplace. It is essential for us to struggle for Jewish self-determination that is socialist in nature and that is united with Palestinian self-determination, because it is. We aim to work with our partners in Israel and Palestine to create a free society for all peoples who share that place.

With this move to Israel, we aim to further develop the North American movement's relationship with our partners in Israel and around the world. We aim to deepen our knowledge of Hebrew, because it is the language of our people and our culture. Most importantly we aim to join the struggle for a better reality in Israel and beyond. The reality that we envision holds at its core justice for all peoples, peace, truly democratic structures, and a culture of harmonious mutual responsibility.

This year the world has begun to rise up against authoritarian power, economic inequity, and social injustice. This movement is global, and it is becoming more evident every day that we are collectively moving toward large-scale societal shifts.  We are leaving North America as partners in the building of the growing movement, which seeks true democracy and economic and social justice. We are moving to Israel to struggle for the same ingredients of a better world. We are moving there at a time when authoritarianism is on the rise and restrictions on speech, movement, and information are only the beginning of what will become worse if we don’t stand up together.

There are multiple paths for all of us, and we know that new paths, new ideas, new frameworks will continue to be created to actualize our values. We want to be connected to the work that you, our friends and partners, are doing in New York, in Toronto, and all over the world. We are all engaged in a common project - taking different approaches to our missions towards a positive vision of our communities, societies, and world.

Over the past five years we – along with many others in Hashomer Hatzair – have experimented with how to live in this world according to our values, how to be effective at creating alternatives, struggling against the injustices that surround us, and actively moving the real closer to the ideal.

We hope that as we move forward there will be people who find these challenges compelling, and who are committed to living life towards actualizing a positive vision for the world – in Israel and in North America, in collectives and in communities, using frameworks we have built and building new ones.

Five years ago we, along with the other members of Orev (our commune), took an oath that we would fulfill the ideals of Hashomer Hatzair in our lives. We have spent these last five years building our communal lives and our movement. As we get ready to embark on this journey, we do so as members of our movement. We do so as part of our process of actualizing the vision that we have for own lives and the world around us.

Chazak V’Ematz - Strength and Courage,

Karen Isaacs and Daniel Roth

Hashomer Hatzair

November 2011