Alum Spotlight: Alon Friedman
A conversation with Alon Friedman, Founding Executive Director of “ENTER: The Jewish Peoplehood Alliance”, former Young Judaea employee and shaliach.
Q: What’s your connection to Young Judaea?
It’s funny — in the Jewish world, almost everyone seems to have some sort of Young Judaea connection. As an Israeli, it’s harder to “grow up” in Young Judaea, but I ended up working for the movement for nearly ten years, and it completely shaped my career.
My first role was in 1998 in the summer programs department. After the army, I worked summers as a madrich on Israel trips for different organizations. During one training seminar, Moshik Toledano spotted me and said, “I want you to work for Young Judaea.”
A few years later, after finishing my degree at Hebrew University, I called him and said, “Remember that offer? I’m ready now.” Amazingly, he remembered.
That became my first full-time role with Young Judaea, and from there I worked across teen programs, Israel summer programs, post-college programs, and even moved to New York when I served 3 years as the national shaliach for hamagshimim, focused on college campuses in North America.
Q: What impact did Young Judaea have on you personally?
Young Judaea really became the catalyst for everything I’ve done since.
Growing up as a secular Israeli, Jewish peoplehood and Diaspora Jewish life were somewhat of a blind spot. Then suddenly I was meeting Jewish teens and college students from around the world who felt deeply connected to Israel, even if they had never been there before.
Watching participants land in Israel for the first time and immediately feel at home was eye-opening for me as an Israeli. It changed how I understood Jewish identity and connection.
Young Judaea gave me the opportunity to spend years working in Jewish education, Israel engagement, and peoplehood. Later I became the first Executive Director of the WUJS Institute in Arad and made it a YJ department, and from there I moved on to becoming Director of Israel Operations for MASA Israel Journey and then Executive Director of Hillel Israel.
Q: How did the idea for ENTER’s One2One begin?
The seeds were planted when we established ENTER and were thinking about how to strengthen relationships between Israelis and Jews around the world through inter-personal connections.
Then COVID hit, and suddenly online connection became essential.
We approached Israel’s Ministry of Education with a simple idea: Israeli students need conversational English practice, so why not connect them online with English-speaking Jewish teens abroad?
For the Israeli school system, it was a first and foremost a language initiative program, but it was clear to all that we’re creating a platform for Jewish encounters and enhancing Jewish Peoplehood.
Q: What makes the One-to-One program different?
The magic is in the personal relationship.
It’s not a classroom, not a camp bunk, not a big Zoom group. It’s just two teenagers meeting one-on-one. We built a matching algorithm that pairs teens based on shared interests, hobbies, and personalities. Once matched, they meet regularly online and get to know each other naturally.
We created curriculum and conversation prompts, but honestly, sometimes they just end up talking about music, sports, or everyday life, and that’s part of the beauty of it.
Our philosophy is that we should focus a little less on “Israel as a curriculum” and a little more about “Israelis as people.” When teens build real friendships, curiosity grows naturally. That curiosity leads to learning, connection, and eventually commitment.
Q: Why do you think the program has resonated so strongly?
Because it feels real.
An Israeli teen and an American teen might initially join for completely practical reasons — one wants English credit, the other wants voucher points for a summer Israel trip, but then genuine friendships develop.
Over the years, participants have navigated COVID, October 7, rising antisemitism, and everyday teenage life together. We’ve seen friendships continue beyond the program, families connect, and teens visit each other in Israel and abroad.
What started as a pilot with 300 pairs has now grown to more than 15,000 teen participants worldwide.
Q: What’s next for Enter?
When it comes to teens’ encounters, our vision is simple: every Jewish teen in the Diaspora will have a friend is Israel”. Technology allows us to make that possible in a very personal and accessible way.
But, we also realized pretty early on, that what we had built wasn’t just a teen platform, it was a model for meaningful Jewish connections that can fit many other target crowds.
We recently launched a “Mother2Mother” pilot in partnership with Momentum, pairing Israeli and American Jewish mothers for one-on-one conversations. In the next few years, we intend to develop new algorithms and onboard additional audiences such as Jewish educators, Birthright alumni, Hillel students, grandparents etc. We aspire to become the “One Stop Shop for Online Jewish Encounters” for the entre Jewish world. We’ll get there…
Q: Looking back, how do you feel about Young Judaea today?
I honestly don’t think any of this would have happened without Young Judaea.
Young Judaea opened the door for me to understand Jewish peoplehood in a completely different way. It gave me the experiences, relationships, and values that eventually led to creating ENTER.
In many ways, everything I’m doing today started there.
