[HANASHIR:11640] HN '02

[Marc and Kristin Stern <stern...>]

Hello to all you wonderful people,

I can't believe how quiet everyone is being about their HN experiences
this year.  So although I was going to leave this to others, I guess
I'll give a brief rundown of the weekend.  I'll ask now for forgiveness
of any of my transliterations.

Wednesday after arrival, we all broke into SATB groups to learn several
songs in their respective parts.  After dinner, we got together to put
all the pieces together.  As always it was a glorious sound that was
created.  Just being a part of that is so uplifting.

Thursday and Friday were similar in format.  We had 3 different times
when we met in groups to have what was called the core curriculum.  The
faculty rotated among pre arranged groups so that we all had the same
information from this.  These topics ranged from service music to camp
music to Israeli music, both pre and post statehood.  Then each day we
had one session when we chose among six electives, all of which were
repeated except for one, which was a two part and needed attendance both
days.  The shira after meals and many of the services were led by
campers who had volunteered in their homerooms.  Each service I
attended, no matter who led it, was well done.  Each song session was
fun and uplifting.

Because our numbers this year were so large, around 180, someone had
come up with a unique way to mix us.  We had both letter and color
designations on our name tags.  These identified our homeroom and core
curriculum group.  The homeroom is what decided where we ate lunch and
attended worship, and the letter combinations were changed each time we
got together.

Beginning with Kabbalat Shabbat service, the tone of the weekend took a
definite turn to being oh so moving and inspiring.  Shabbat morning's
service was over three hours long, which we all agreed seemed to be less
than half that time.  Whether joining our tallitot to form the tents of
Jacob for Mah Tovu, or again later to be a community being comforted and
healed for Mi Shebeirach, we definitely felt a unity.  The shira before
Havdalah was glorious, with each of the faculty leading us in a song,
followed by campers leading the havdalah service itself, again very
moving and wonderfully done.  I enjoyed being part of a small choir that
sang a special piece for havdalah, learned in one of the electives.

While I didn't attend any of the sharing sessions, I did hear many rave
reviews about fellow campers and their wonderful new music.  I did enjoy
being at the tail end of the open mike sessions.  The talent at camp is
just unbelievable, and I'm grateful and humbled to be able to be a part
of it.

I've purposefully left out mentioning faculty by name because I didn't
want to over do one and not give enough credit to another.  But now I'd
like to say that Debbie, Ellen, Jill, Merri, Craig, Dan, Dan, and Jeff
were all wonderful, approachable, caring teachers who gave so much of
themselves to each of us there.  They seemed to always be "on," helping
and talking with all of us campers.  Above and beyond the call doesn't
begin to touch their commitment.  The staff also did a marvelous job of
keeping us fed, housed, and going in the right direction.

My personal feeling, and I may be wrong, that we're not more bubbly
about the time at HN is that the tone was a bit more subdued this year.
With the events over the past year affecting us all in such profound
ways, this type of intense community is affected as well.  We had our
spiritual highs and our bouncy, long lasting songs, but also many
moments of shared sorrow and mourning.

I hope others will add their experiences to mine, though I just tried to
give a general overview.

Kol hanshama t'hallel yah, Amen

B'shira v'shalom,
Kristin Stern
Music Director
Temple Beth-El, Munster, IN

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