Experience Israel

To touch history is to be empowered

From the inflexible small world of the cheder to the shlepping to and from suburban Hebrew Schools, too few Diaspora Jews chalk up their formal Jewish education as a positive or identity-affirming experience. No matter how engaging and creative Hebrew school has become in the past decades, it suffers from several inherent drawbacks: it imposes on hectic schedules; it is a space-bound, book-based learning environment, encompassing a huge range of topics; experienced teachers are in short supply and, perhaps above all, parents often convey an ambivalence to their offspring who are then unwilling to take the studies seriously. In a Jewish community that needs to raise a generation of leaders and givers, Diaspora leaders and educators recognize these handicaps, and are looking for ways to overcome them.

What had been conjectured informally for many years was finally studied and confirmed - a four-week trip to Israel has a longer and more profound influence on Jewish identity and eventual life choices than years of Hebrew School. Whereas today's Diaspora Jewish community offerings are attractive and diverse, Israel has itself to offer - its history, its geography, its Jewishness. And Israel has spawned, nurtured and inspired legions of Jewish educators crafting multitudinous versions of the "Israel Trip."

Those who enter and leave college with little Jewish education and little sense of connection to the Jewish people seem unlikely to return to the community at a later stage. Attempting to counter this potential loss is a group experience emphasizing community for young adults in a time of transition. Israel offers Jewish "community" in a larger sense - a State , whereas the group structure of any organized excursion offers "community" in a smaller sense. The growing number of young Israelis providing services in camps, communities, schools and campuses around the Jewish world, reiterate the inherent value of Israel as a resource.

Thousands of young Jews have been profoundly and indelibly altered as participants in WUJS, MDA, Kibbutz, youth group programs, Project Otzma, high school programs or any of the other hundreds of Israel experiences . Birthright Israel , a free-of-charge Israel trip for young Jews, is in many ways, a pinnacle of these efforts - a recognition of the bare facts and a declaration that despite the expense and investment, a first-hand Israel experience is crucial to a Jewish future. Birthright was first conceived by then Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, who advocated using educational visits to Israel as the basis for developing a new relationship with Diaspora youth and as an outreach to young people who had not been drawn into existing Jewish frameworks. It was not expected that a single educational experience in Israel would be an end in itself, rather the hope was that an intense experience of Jewish community would lead participants to seek out reinforcing experiences - reading, study, social and spiritual pursuits or volunteer activities on their return home. Initiated by philanthropists Charles Bronfman and Michael Steinhardt, Birthright Israel has received additional funding from the State of Israel, the UJC, the Jewish Agency and other bodies. Studies show that the experience has significantly altered the trajectory of the participants' futures.

Israel is an inextricable part of Jewish education, and now the 'trip to Israel' is recognized as a jewel in the crown of a living, breathing Israel-Diaspora relationship and a linchpin for a flourishing Diaspora community.

Includes excerpts from an article by Ilan Wagner, of the Jewish Agency's Education Department.

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