Chaburah Spotlight: Ahuva Motechin

Ahuva Motechin is so excited to be back on Michlelet for her third summer, her second as a madricha. She is from Bergenfield, NJ, and attended Bruriah High School, followed by a year in Michlalah. Ahuva is now going into her senior year at Stern, where she is pursuing a degree in Biochemistry. She is loving every minute of the summer, especially learning with her incredible chaburah!

The fantastic girls in Ahuva’s chaburah are: Neima Inslicht (Queens, NY), Efrat Klammer (Woodmere, NY), Leah Malka Leibowitz (Brooklyn, NY), Miri Porush (Chicago, IL), Leah Rothman (Lawrence, NY), and Emily Turner (Teaneck, NJ). Together they learn about kumsitz songs, in order to hopefully make them more meaningful. Each chaburah focuses on a different song, including its source in Tanach or Midrash, its literal translation, and a larger middah or Hashkafic principle that is embedded in the words. For example, they have learned about anavah from “Anavim,” about ahavat Yisrael and nosei b’ol from “Acheinu,” about zerizut and grabbing opportunities from “Pischi Li,” and about becoming a role model from “V’zakeini.” Through their study together as a chaburah, they hope to grow in their commitment and passion as ovdei Hashem.

What’s your favorite activity on Michlelet and why?
Neima: I love the baking activity for the most obvious reason: you get to eat yummy brownies and chocolate chip cookies! What could be better!
Efrat: My favorite activity on Michlelet is Zumba. I really enjoy this activity because it’s a fun way to get out your energy, get a good workout and spend time with friends and madrichot!!! It doesn’t matter if you are a good dancer or not everyone comes together to have a great time! The madrichot teach dances that everyone can learn and enjoy, and campers sometimes even teach dances they learnt in the past. Its always a great time when you are Zumba-ing on Michlelet!!
Leah Malka: I like art because it’s a fun and relaxing way to express yourself.
Miri: My favorite activity on Michlelet is color war because I find it so amazing how even when your competing against other teams everyone is still unified and works together and helps each other. Even when only one team wins, the other 2 teams are so happy for them. I also love how every girl is able to use her own strengths to help try to win. Whether it’s dancing, singing, or art everyone is able to add something to color war.
Leah: My favorite activity on Michlelet was hair braiding. It was really fun to see how everyone was excited to learn different techniques and styles of how to braid hair and seeing girls actually make the braids on each other.
Emily: My favorite activity was learning how to make potato kugel in cooking. It was my favorite because my mom is from Morocco and my dad is from Egypt so we don’t really eat kugel but it was interesting, fun, and easy to make.