By Ilan Tauber, Year Course 2022-2023

Reflecting on my year in Israel as it comes to a close, I genuinely think I have witnessed one of the most tumultuous times in Israeli history. The year began in the last leg of the election following the collapse of Naftali Bennett’s coalition. Political posters, banners, and stickers littered the landscape everywhere you look. As I was in Jerusalem during this period, the classes at Kiryat Moriah and the weekly trips led by Rabbi Adam Drucker provided ample space to learn about the election and the major issues driving the race. Bibi formed his coalition right as we moved to Tel Aviv. The evening I moved into Beit Hillel, I was greeted by the horns and shouts of the weekly Saturday protests coming from Kaplan street, literally five minutes away.

The protests in our backyard made it so easy to participate. The peak of the protests against the judicial reforms came the night the Minister of Defense was fired for voicing support for a pause in the legislation. As my friend and I came back from our baseball game in Petah Tikvah, an enormous crowd of people took over the Ayalon highway, the major transportation artery running through Tel Aviv. Holding our baseball bags and still in uniform, we jumped the fence and climbed through the crowd onto the bonfire ridden highway. The anger and passion from the protestors was palpable, a feeling I only recognized from the American protest following the death of George Floyd.

Additionally, my internship with Member of Knesset Gilad Kariv, of the Labor party, gave me a unique perspective on the political fight from the opposition. I was lucky enough to be in the Knesset on one of the days they voted for the judicial reforms. During the vote, the MKs against the reforms all donned Israeli flags in protest, which were subsequently confiscated. A tense first day in the Knesset to say the least.

One of my more unique political experiences came over Yom HaZikaron when I attended the Joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day Ceremony. The ceremony hosts Israelis and Palestinians mourning victims of the conflict, along with Israeli and Palestinian speakers advocating for peace and democracy for all. It was refreshing to hear democracy discussed not just within Israel, but also for millons of Palestinians living in the West Bank. Despite how uplifting the ceremony felt, the group of far right protesters spewing hateful and racist jeers was a reminder of how far away peace truly is. As staunchly pro-settler movements continue to expand their territory and political power within the government, I am afraid Israel is further from peace and democracy than ever before. Nevertheless, the anti-government’s continued strength provides some hope of moving in the right direction.

Overall, I am very lucky to be in Israel during this once in a lifetime political climate, and am grateful Year Course has provided the freedom to participate in the national discourse.

*Young Judaea is a diverse community representing a broad spectrum of perspectives. Chanichim are encouraged to engage in makhloket l’shem shamayim (argument for the sake of heaven). Young Judaea neither condones nor condemns the personal views expressed.

By Adina Frydman, CEO of Young Judaea Global

Dear son,

10 months ago, you left for your gap year in Israel as a boy, but today when you walked through the gates of El Al Terminal 4 at JFK, you emerged as a man. And not in that bar mitzvah kind of boy to man way, but as a man who has started to spread his wings, and to exercise independence and freedom by making his own choices and living with those consequences.

I am sure it is strange for you to be home, (well, not quite home since we moved to a new house while you were away,) but home is where your family is, the friends you grew up with, your community.

I am sure you feel torn as you have started to lay down new roots, with connections of your choosing, and yet these roots of your origin keep pulling you back. I hope that in time you will see these as grounding roots that keep you firmly planted in who you are and let you blossom into who you are becoming, rather than as roots that hold you back.

This year you tried on different skins, all in the name of figuring out who you are. What an exciting time! I hope you realize this is a lifelong pursuit and that you should never feel that you are all set. Keep that curiosity and hunger for learning, experiences, and growth for the rest of your life. Hold on to friends that push you to grow and challenge your assumptions.

And as for Israel, I hope she didn’t disappoint you too much. I know the expectations were high (at least from me) and the reality in some ways exceeds way beyond anything we can imagine, and in other ways lets us down.

I hope you left inspired by the deep commitment of the people. A commitment to never give up on their dream and to never compromise their ideals for the sake of the dream. A complicated juxtaposition. But as Robert Walter says, we are the “connected critics.”

I hope you find yourself somewhere in that narrative as you get ready to step onto the college campus, which nowadays feels like a war zone for labeled Zionists (and whether you accept it or not, having spent a year in Israel, you may need to respond to the assumptions that come with this label.)

Year Course was not an advocacy training program, by design. However, I do hope that having spent a year in Israel exposed to multiple narratives and encountering a real place with real people that you now have a personal perspective to share, and that you have an entire community of Young Judaeans to lean on if and when it gets tough. You are not in this alone.

And while it may be tempting to disengage and ignore the noise because it’s just too complicated, hold your head up and know that you don’t need to be armed with facts and figures to be proud. You also don’t need to defend and be zealous to show your loyalty. You are no less proud or loyal by being a connected critic but find a way to band with others to work towards making it better. To be a Zionist means to dream of the Israel you want to see. Don’t settle for the status quo and don’t give up on her. Embrace an aspirational Zionism and pursue it. In Pirke Avot we learn, “While it is not our job to complete it, neither can we desist from it.”

While your Year Course may be over, you have the rest of your life to pursue it.

Love, Mami

Graduating high school and beginning college is a period of enormous transition and change for any 18-year-old. Graduating high school and moving to a foreign country for a year with perfect strangers? That’s a catapult into adulthood, a thrust into independence and responsibility that requires careful planning to be a success.

After 65 years of running Young Judaea Year Course, we’ve realized that to provide an exceptional year of growth in Israel for a young adult, the mental health and wellbeing of our participants must be put at the forefront of program planning. Our learning has come to bear even more acutely with the generation coming of age during a global pandemic.

Building a sensitive, professional, and sustainable mental health support system on Year Course begins with looking into the needs of our participants. Every year there has been an increase in the number of participants who need mental health support while on the program. Some are already diagnosed and treated by professionals while others need support due to the challenges of learning how to live in a foreign country with individuals they have just met. It is our suspicion that isolation and lockdowns as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic have also contributed to this increase. Perhaps there has been a loss in the ability to enter unfamiliar situations with new people and connect with one another in an open and vulnerable way. This connection is essential for a successful gap year. In addition, we’ve seen a lack of resiliency so that any minor crisis, without a healthy coping mechanism, can quickly spiral out.

One major challenge our participants face is that the mental health support system they are familiar with including family, friends, and professionals is thousands of miles away. Our aim is to assist participants in building a new support system while spending a year in Israel that enables them to be happy and thrive in an environment that demands independence and responsibility.

We have taken three important steps to ensure the wellbeing of all Year Course participants:

Encouraging Openness
Training and Preparation
Partnering with Participants and Families

Encouraging Openness

Imagine 200+ 18-year-olds from all over the world from diverse backgrounds, coming together to live, learn, and explore Israel together. This is the complex reality of a gap year in Israel. While the experience is beautiful and eye-opening for participants, this melding of worlds can be messy if not addressed properly.

The cornerstone of the Year Course mental health system is the understanding that the most dominant influence on the participants’ wellbeing is their ability to create meaningful open interactions with one another that will enhance their sense of belonging to the Year Course community. In other words – their ability to create meaningful and deep friendships while understanding healthy social boundaries. Meaningful relationships allow participants to feel comfortable expressing themselves to peers and staff when things aren’t going well, and to work through the complex feelings that arise when living far away from home. Forging these relationships is key to a happy and successful year and having this skill will have a positive effect on the rest of their lives.

The range of issues that arise range from your typical, “my friends go out without me,” to differences of opinions on the complexities of Israel, frustrations with the language and culture shock, or on occasion, dealing with true crises situations. Many people struggle to communicate how they feel and instead they prefer silent frustration. How can you forge deep bonds when you don’t know how to communicate your feelings?

Maintaining a safe space for everyone is a challenge our staff and participants deal with on a daily basis. Besides keeping people secure, a safe space also allows participants to speak openly and sincerely about the things that are bothering them. In that sense, the creation of a safe space is a key element when it comes to the mental well-being of Year Course participants. Open communication that enables staff to help and support the participants can only exist in a safe space.

Training and Preparation

Months prior to arrival on Year Course, we communicate with parents and mental health providers to understand the specific needs of our participants. Once the participants that need additional support are identified, we connect with them and their family support network upon arrival as well as recurringly throughout the program to help them nurture meaningful relationships in order to deal with complicated social situations.

Having the right professionals on board provides us with the right level of skills, support, and professionalism to ensure not only the wellbeing of our participants, but also of the staff.  We recently created a new position on the leadership team for someone with formal social work training and experience working with youth in distress. This position is embedded in the earliest stages of recruiting to help vet participants for their readiness to succeed in our program.

We can’t expect our counselors and unit heads to function as professional therapists, but we have found a way to provide them with tools, a mental health “first aid kit” so that they know how to react in the most challenging circumstances. These staff members are usually the first ones the participants will speak to during or directly after a mental health crisis and should be able to react appropriately to support the participant, triage the situation, and understand when to refer to an expert for further guidance.

Training covers areas such as signs and symptoms of common and less common diagnoses, initial intervention, dealing with drugs and alcohol related situations, mandatory reporting, preventing the recurrence of similar situations, and understanding when to refer to a professional. Mental first aid in crisis situations is aimed not only at the individual participant in need, but also at their peers, who may also be in distress. When supported, peers can then function as an important support mechanism for each other.

A crucial piece of our staff preparation is to form relationships with participants that are based on trust and a sense of security. Without a safe space for participants to express themselves and share their feelings, they are less likely to consult with staff on important issues. Staff accomplish this by being as accessible as possible and conducting non-judgmental and eye-level conversations with participants whenever possible. Additionally, the Year Course has professionals facilitate group conversations and trainings regarding various topics concerning both safety and acceptance including gender equality, sexual assault, and security. These conversations keep the dialogue open between staff and participants.

We train our staff to listen to the participants, try to understand their perspective, and empower them to have a positive and effective impact on their situation. For every situation, we expect and train our staff to be there for the participants as mediators, supporters, and moderators. We learned that in some acute crisis situations where there is a need to deal with Israeli authorities or medical emergency services where our staff become the mediators between mostly Hebrew speaking caretakers and the participants. This part of mental health support is crucial when it comes to dealing with the aftereffects of some crises.

Partnering with Participants and Families

The last important element of our mental health preparedness is to create a partnership with both participants and families. Sending your 18-year-old off to Israel for a year can feel like a leap of faith. Families must have the ability to trust the participants’ abilities to make good choices when it comes to their wellbeing.

We observe and understand how hard it is for some families to hand over independence to their children with even their everyday functions, let alone a year in Israel. We try to support families by maintaining a high level of communication between them and our staff as this helps them maintain some level of healthy control over their loved ones who are so far away. We also initiate regular emails to update families about the main features of the program and respond to messages within a reasonable amount of time. This level of communication is a key element in fostering a Year Course-family partnership that aims at supporting participants to flourish and grow while on the program.

By taking these three important steps to ensure the wellbeing of all Year Course participants: Encouraging Openness, Training and Preparation, and Partnering with Participants and Parents, we are creating the conditions for our participants to experience growth and development in a healthy and supportive environment. We are actively responding to the mental health and well-being needs of each Year Course participants, with the aim of imparting healthy coping mechanisms and resiliency for success on the program and that they can take into the rest of their lives.

By Mia Mikowski, Year Course 2022-2023

Before Year Course, I thrived in the world of academics. I was a straight A student with a love for STEM but I always struggled socially. In the beginning of the year, leaving formal education was a challenge for me. Some of you may remember the calculus problems I solved on my leg or the online class I took in my spare time. I did these things because I was terrified of spending a whole year without learning. In reality, I’ve learned invaluable lessons this year that academics could’ve never taught me.

One of the key lessons I learned was about friendship. While some of you came on this program with friends you’ve known since kindergarten, I, like many others of you, came in not really knowing anyone. As I met people, it was hard to imagine letting any of them into my life and trusting them the same way I did my sister or mom. Seven months later, I woke up to some especially difficult news. That morning, my MADA roommates put aside their plans of catching up on desperately needed sleep to be my emotional first responders. That day I understood how people call some of their friends their family.

There’s a lot of talk about the independence that we’ve gained this year, but the dependence we learned is just as important. Of course, there have also been many lighthearted moments I’ll miss- moments like karaoke, picnics on the beach, the bottom line is that I’ve never experienced a camaraderie quite like that of this past year.

This year also gave me the chance to fortify my relationship with Israel and revisit why I am a Zionist. Year Course’s open approach enabled us to explore Israel in whatever way felt meaningful to us. We got to visit so many beautiful sites and listen to countless inspiring speakers. We also got to learn firsthand about the various conflicts this country faces and uncover the deep societal divisions you don’t see from an outside perspective. We talked to people on all sides of the political spectrum- some whom I heavily disagreed with, but I think that especially this year, as Israeli society faces such a tumultuous period, all of us had to grapple with our personal relationships with Israel in a much more complex way.

We got to live in Israel during one of its most trying times and see the best and worst of this Jewish democracy. While some of the notions of the judicial overhaul make me fear for the future of this country, getting to join the protests and see people’s vested interest in the state reaffirmed my love for the Israeli people. Of course, there are many issues within this country that I hope will change, but I’m still leaving this year with a deeper connection to Israel, a more complex understanding of its society, and a stronger Zionist identity.

The biggest lesson I learned this year was about letting go, having fun, and living life to the fullest. As I mentioned earlier, I came into this year very high strung, but the Year Course community has encouraged me to say yes to all types of opportunities- even those outside of my comfort zone. My confidence has skyrocketed here, and I’m able to embrace my authentic self, really all thanks to you guys.

Recently, I’ve begun studying for my college math placement test and I’ve found I’ve still got it for the most part- proving to me that once you learn something, it tends to stay with you. This is how I know the personal growth we’ve experienced on Year Course will stay with us for a lifetime.

L’chaim to all of us and to the incredible Year we’ve had! I can’t wait to hear about the things you all accomplish in the future.

Our Legacy

By Talia Bodner, Year Course 2022-2023

 

Dear Son,

It feels like just yesterday we were holding you in our arms in an apartment in Manhattan. Before any of your siblings were born. And long before you became the man you are becoming. It is hard to believe that you, our bachor– first born, are off in Israel for your gap year. Where did the time go? Just yesterday we were telling you bedtime stories about our adventures in Israel and now you are there on your own coming-of-age pilgrimage in the Promised Land.

Amidst this exploration of Jewish life in the Jewish homeland, you are going to Poland to visit a place where many Jews lived, and to the death camps where many Jews died. It can sometimes be overwhelming to come face to face with the experience of evil. We want to give you permission to feel whatever it is that you are feeling, even if your instinct is to not let your guard down because you will likely be playing your usual role of caring for others who are breaking down. You should allow yourself to be in the moment and to process what you are seeing and how it informs your view of yourself, your community, and of humanity.

Aba and I didn’t fully understand the magnitude of 6 million Jews and 5 million additional human beings until we held you as a baby. In our hands was infinite potential. It was only when we understood our responsibility to one life in a real way that we could imagine the real cosmic pain of killing 11 million people. Each of those people also had mothers or fathers who held them. And as you consider the magnitude of such a genocide on humanity, remember that this targeted, systematic, and calculated near-annihilation of a specific group, namely our people, is what makes the Shoah particularly horrific.

In going to Poland, we hope that you come to contemplate a basic human flaw- that we all must contend with the evil in the world and the reality that we are either perpetrating it or not doing nearly enough to stop it. As we learned in Usual Suspects, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist.” We must be witness to the existence of evil to remind ourselves to do everything we can to fight it. 

But still, that is not the whole reason for going. As Jews- we do not go to fetishize death. While our people have been hunted- we are not prey. As Jews we celebrate life; despite or maybe because of all the horrors we have experienced in life we know how to laugh and get the most out of life. We go to Poland to remind ourselves what life is worth living for. The long history of Antisemitism is as old as the day is long.

Open your heart to the pain of others and open your mind to Jewish practice. Living a Jewish life is a whimsical act in being counter cultural. Open your hands to Jewish life and you will take flight, and nothing will get in your way. Our sending you on a pilgrimage to Poland is not because of our desire to imprison you in the shackles of Judaism’s victimhood, but to help you realize this precious tradition you have inherited. You are the keeper of the faith. The future is in your hands.

Let this unspeakable tragedy and manifestation of gross injustice further fuel your commitment to right the wrongs in this world to be a rodef tzedek – pursuer of justice. From the moment we held you in our hands, we realized the infinite potential you have. You will have many choices to make throughout your life and all will be an expression of who you are as an individual, as an inheritor of a deep legacy and tradition, and as a citizen of the world. We hope that your choices are personally meaningful, universally relevant, and distinctively Jewish.

Mami and Aba

זכור ZACHOR

Letter to my dear son on the eve of his departure to Year Course (and on the 125^th Anniversary of the Zionist Congress),

Yesterday, I held a newborn, and tomorrow, I send our bachor, first born, off to Israel for your gap year, on Young Judaea’s Year Course.  Where did the time go? Just yesterday I was telling you bedtime stories about my adventures in Israel and tomorrow I will bid you farewell, as you set off on your own coming-of-age pilgrimage to the Promised Land. But before you leave, I have some parting words.

Today is the 125^th anniversary of the Zionist Congress in Basel. As you and 219 other young people make their way to Israel on Year Course, I wonder what you will make of Herzl’s Zionist dream.

Will it inspire you? Will you be impressed at the ways in which that dream has become a reality?

“The Jews who will it shall achieve their State. We shall live at last as free men on our own soil, and in our own homes peacefully die. The world will be liberated by our freedom, enriched by our wealth, magnified by our greatness. And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind.” (Theodore Herzl)

What we have built in less than 75 years is short of a miracle.  We are a refuge for Jews, a startup nation, democracy in the middle east, and so much more.

But will you be disillusioned? Will you be disappointed at the ways that reality falls short of the dream?

Yes, we are a regular country with crime and corruption, poverty, and discrimination. Yes, we have extremists, on all sides, whose zealotry makes them willing to kill or die for their ideologies.  Yes, we have our own country and are living freely in it, but not all are truly free.  Yes, sometimes it feels like a zero-sum game in which our particularistic values are pegged against our universalistic values. But it need not be that way.  Being a Zionist means not settling for the status quo.  You have always had a deep sense of justice.  Since you were a child carefully kept track to make sure your siblings had the same amount of Shabbat candy as you.  You went out of your way to be friends with the bullied kid on the playground.  Hold fast to that sense of justice and channel it but don’t be pulled into the zero-sum game.  Life is not that simple.  Lean into the “Yes, and” space. Don’t disengage with Israel like a growing number of young adults in North America. I invite you to join me as part of the “troubled, committed,” as Donniel Hartman invites us “to close the gap between Israel as it is and as it should be.”

Will you find the inspiration to become part of the next phase of Zionism? To aspire to bring reality closer to the dream? I dare you to dream your own dream. Because it is you and your fellow Judaean peers, who are the future of Zionism.  It is incumbent on you to dream the dream.  Herzl told us that “if you will it, it is no dream” and he went on to say, “and if you do not will it, a dream it is and a dream it will stay”.  Our forefathers and foremothers lay the groundwork for you and now it is up to you to continue it.  “Lo alecha hamlacha ligmor, v’lo ata ben chorin l’hivatel mimena,” (Pirke Avot 2:16).

I know this may feel daunting, after all, you are only 18 and this is the beginning of the rest of your life.  So, let’s take it one step at a time.

As you set off on your journey, here is some parting advice:

Get lost and then find yourself (without a GPS).
Remember you are young and strong, but you are not invincible.
Make good choices and inspire those around you to become better.
Meet new people.
Figure out who you are and who you want to be.
Become that person.
Speak Hebrew (with an Israeli accent).
Challenge yourself to hear a new point of view.
It’s ok to change your mind.
Experience many kinds of Jews and diverse Jewish expressions, and figure out which one is you.
Make your own covenant, you don’t need to fit neatly into a box.
Encounter Israeli Jew, Muslim, Christian, and Druze to understand how we can share this holy place.
Get connected with friends and family.
The entire country is your extended family.
Discover what you believe in and then commit to fighting for it.

As for Israel…
Let yourself fall in love with her, be challenged by her flaws, and then commit to making her better.

No pressure but you are the future of Zionism, my son.
And finally, I wish you safe travels with the traveler’s prayer, tefilat haderech.

יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְפָנֶיךָ יְ-יָ אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ וֵא-לֹהֵי אֲבוֹתֵינוּ. שֶׁתּוֹלִיכֵנוּ לְשָׁלוֹם. וְתַצְעִידֵנוּ לְשָׁלוֹם. וְתַדְרִיכֵנוּ לְשָׁלוֹם. וְתִסְמְכֵנוּ לְשָׁלוֹם. וְתַגִּיעֵנוּ לִמְחוֹז חֶפְצֵנוּ לְחַיִּים וּלְשִׂמְחָה וּלְשָׁלוֹם וְתַחֲזִירֵנוּ לְשָׁלוֹם

May it be Your will, G-d, that You should lead us in peace and direct our steps in peace, guide us in peace, support us in peace, and cause us to reach our destination in life, joy, and return to us in peace

Love and Nesiyah Tovah,
Mami, aka
Adina H. Frydman
CEO of Young Judaea Global

Written by Dan Greenberg on Behalf of YC 90-91

The Gulf War started for us when the first scud missiles were launched towards Israel in January 1991. When we boarded the plane in September 1990, the last thing we were thinking about was being in sealed rooms with gas masks on. We were veteran chanichim of Sprout Lake, CJ North Carolina, CYJ West, CYJ Midwest and CYJ Texas. We had been in MH together at Tel Yehudah. We were on regional and national Mazkirut. Some of us had known each other through camp since we were 10-years old. In short, we were very excited about spending the best year of our lives together in Israel on Year Course.

Like 1990, 2020 started off just like any other year. We had our kids’ bar mitzvahs to plan, college applications to send, renovations to be done, deals to be made – one might say mundane middle age stuff. It seemed quite ordinary until the first cases of Covid started to trickle into the US at the end of January.

Both of these events, while different in scope, shaped the lives of the participants of Year Course 1990-1991 in significant ways, creating lifelong bonds that last to this day.

When Covid-19 lockdowns started, in March 2020, it seemed like every group held a Zoom reunion or services. There were Zoom calls with friends from elementary school, long lost cousins, high holiday services, and, of course, there had to be a Year Course call too.

We started our Zoom calls one Tuesday night in March 2020. We reconnected. We spoke. We didn’t stop speaking. Sometimes we ‘met’ for three hours or more! And we went on speaking, every week for two years.

Of all the Zoom reunions, this was the only one that lasted. We reminisced about Year Course. We tried to find long lost members of our group. We told stories about shenanigans in Beit Riklis, playing capture the flag in the center of our development town and the crazy times we had on kibbutz.

We remembered how our Year Course was cut short by the Gulf War. We   remembered begging our parents to let us stay in Israel. We remembered when some were forced to leave. We remembered the first siren and running to the sealed room. We remembered playing lots of basketball. We called our team the Arad Masketeers, named after the gas masks we had to wear each time there was an attack. Who could have imagined that 30 years later, when we saw each other in person, we would be forced to wear masks again?

After a while we became just like family again. We shared good news and bad. We discussed the state of American and Israeli politics. We talked. We argued. We razzed each other and we laughed. We laughed a lot. It felt like we were back in Young Judaea again. We joked that sometimes it felt like asepha.

Most importantly, just like during the Gulf War, we supported each other through this crazy pandemic. This is a very special group, very smart, very witty, very different personalities, with lots of alphas but the one thing we share is love for each other. This Zoom call became a huge support system for all of us.

We consider ourselves very lucky to still be friends with some of the finest people. While we are no longer 18-years old, while we all live in different places – spread out across the United States – while we all have our ups and downs, one thing remains true: The bond we have from Young Judaea and Year Course is eternal. 

We all feel very lucky to have these lifelong friendships and are eternally grateful to Young Judaea for bringing us together once again.

This April, a large contingent of Year Course 1990-1991, were lucky enough to organize a trip and got together in Moab, Utah to celebrate this special  friendship and our collective 50th birthdays. Like on Year course, we hiked, we kibitzed, and we laughed. We rafted, we rode UTVs, and we reminisced. We talked about then and now. We created a new chapter for Year Course 1990-1991.

As opposed to the end of Year Course though, there were no tears at the end of the trip, or uncertainty of when we would see each other again. As a few boarded the plane in Moab’s tiny airport, one person yelled from the gate “Don’t forget Tuesday’s zoom. We need to do an official sikkum!”

 

 

Get to know our new Director of Year Course, Ariel Magal!

Reposted from the Times of Israel in response to “Can a year in Israel transform your teen?”

By Rabbi Adam Drucker and Adina Frydman

“I’ve been able to explore and learn so much about myself on Year Course – figuring out how to live and share with other people, discovering a passion for cooking, learning more about Israel’s history…it taught me what it feels like to be part of the broader Jewish family here in Israel” – Recent reflections from participants in Young Judaea’s Gap Year Program

 

We affirm Gil Troy and Natan Sharansky’s strong statements about the importance of a gap year experience and their vision of an expansion into a “universal gap year.” As we at Young Judaea celebrate our 70^th year as one of the largest non-Orthodox gap year providers, we aim to suggest some pragmatic solutions and relevant success stories towards the vision of making a large-scale expansion for the Israel gap year market a reality.

Despite the many challenges of the past two years, we have seen significant growth in the gap year market with Young Judaea’s Year Course’s participation increasing from 110 to 225. With many universities going virtual, incoming students elected instead to spend their tuition on a gap year abroad while things went back to “normal” back home.  And now, as we round the corner of the second year of the pandemic, many families are continuing to choose the gap year path, opting for a year focused on more than academics, but of experiences and travel. This year there are close to 200 participants on Young Judaea’s Year Course and next year’s numbers are pacing ahead of last year. How can we continue to build on this upwards growth trajectory and move to scale?

The article posits that one of the challenges to a universal gap year is the quality or content of the programs in that they lack the “resume building appeal,” rather than acknowledging their value in providing a life changing journey of self-actualization and growth.  The market is looking for value-added programs, not just a college year in Israel. A gap year in Israel provides much more than a resume building opportunity with the chance to develop soft skills.  Participants begin a self-actualizing process by immersing themselves in a diverse community, taking part in experiential education, participating in identity building exercises, all while exposing themselves to a wide range of ideas.  In addition, participants learn to master the seemingly benign but critical life skills of living independently, having to manage a budget for the year, cook an occasional meal, do laundry, and manage social situations. For a young person, the opportunity to spend a self-actualizing year abroad provides an accelerated track of maturity that is incomparable to their peers who go straight to university.   It’s easier to fill gaps in knowledge than to fill gaps in character.

So, how do we create a tipping point towards a “universal leap year”?

A Rite of Passage

For gap years to become universal and culturally normative for all Jewish teens graduating high school, there needs to be a grass roots groundswell. Families that are currently sending teens on a gap year need to become the top promoters of the idea, as do the teens themselves.  There is nothing more powerful than peer-to-peer recruitment.  In addition, past participants of gap year programs, in particular influencers such as rabbis, educators, and podcasters, must tell their story to inspire others. Another possibility is talking about the 13^th year as the true year of graduation, opposed to the 12^th grade year. Gap year ought to be seen as the culmination of one’s schooling and a rite of passage to university.  And finally, exposure to the thousands of non-Orthodox Israelis who are participating in a gap year program in Israel, could further accelerate the normalization of a gap year in North America.

Financial Viability

Culturally normative is not enough. A gap year program could cost anywhere from $20-50k/year.  As future college students and their parents are telegraphing ahead at mounting college debts, there is little appetite for adding another year of costs to that financial obligation.  One suggestion to overcoming this barrier is to lower the cost of participation across the board, regardless of need.  Birthright Israel became culturally normative because it was free.  We have seen the role of incentive funding in the form of vouchers as one successful model to lowering the psychological barrier to participation.  One successful model that was launched last year was JumpSpark in Atlanta.  Funded by the Zalik Foundation and powered by the local Jewish Federation of Atlanta, young adults were awarded between $10-15k in vouchers to attend a gap year program of their choice.  This increased the number of gap year participants coming from Atlanta significantly.  We see a similarly successful model in incentive funding in the camping space with One Happy Camper powered by the Foundation for Jewish camp and funded by various local and national funders.  This has enabled thousands of new campers to come into the system each year.  Most recently, Root One, a project of the Jewish Education Project funded by the Marcus Foundation, provided $3000 vouchers for Jewish teens towards a summer of Israel travel. The program brought thousands of teens to Israel in just their first year.  Of course, for families with financial need, additionally increasing the pool of needs-based scholarships would certainly make an impact as well.

Another solution is to work with universities to more universally accept the credits earned from gap year programs.  Even the accredited programs are not accepted by all universities.  In Young Judaea’s Year Course, you can finish your gap year and begin university with up to 26 college credits, essentially entering as a second semester sophomore! This mitigates the challenge of the cost of an additional year of university and, in the best case, might even save you a semester.

Resume building

Gap years are becoming more acceptable in the secular academic sphere. Beyond academic rigor, all students identify a higher-level of preparedness and maturity compared to their peers who chose not to take a prep-year. While many universities accept and even encourage deferrals for the purpose of gap year programs, a growing number of universities are not allowing deferrals, making it an impractical choice for graduates.  We must work with universities to continue to endorse the gap year experience.

Another possible addition to gap year programs for the purposes of academic benefit, are robust and serious internships.  Although a growing area in post-college Israel programs, it is a bit more challenging for pre-college, because most companies will not hire high school graduates in a foreign country for a serious internship.  Despite this, Young Judaea has successfully partnered with numerous organizations and corporations in Israel to create impressive and exciting internships in a variety of chosen fields to match the interests of the individual participants.  To address the systemic problem identified by Troy and Sharansky, we will have to expand beyond the elites for high-level internships. In addition to academic institutions, the high-tech sector in Israel has much to offer.  If the Israeli government were to provide incentives to companies for offering positions and training to young interns from abroad, companies would be more inclined to develop internship departments and structured programs.

Jewish and Zionist Identity

One of the opportunities made possible by an extended stay in Israel is the chance to engage with the real Israel and to develop an authentic and personal perspective.  True, a year in Israel could be a year of “arming” the next generation with propaganda and pro-Israel rhetoric but what we are seeing, particularly within the non-Orthodox Gen Z and increasingly among the modern Orthodox, is a growing frustration with Israeli politics and policy as dissonant with more progressive values, and this frustration is leading to disengagement and anti-Israel sentiment. Gap year programs ought to be scaffolded in an intentional way to help young adults thoughtfully and carefully engage critically with an authentic Israel. Much has been written about the shock that sometimes comes when young adults encounter alternative narratives about Israel in college.  Gap year programs should not be governmental propaganda, but rather an opportunity to develop a sophisticated, thoughtful, and personal connection to Israel and an opportunity to acquire the tools to encounter narratives other than one’s own.  Of course, the ideal is that a young person is not waiting until their gap year to begin to encounter the complexities, but that is a discussion for another article about how we might scaffold a developmentally appropriate Israel education through the arc of one’s Jewish education.  Since it will be some time before all programs make this shift, gap year programs should be prepared to act as a bridge and to provide the tools to manage the cognitive dissonance and disappointment that no doubt will come when we move from falafel and Israel day parades to encountering contemporary Palestinian narratives and meeting settlers in the West Bank.  Just imagine these gap year alumni becoming the future leaders on campuses and if this becomes a universal gap year, they would no longer be the minority but find solidarity within a critical minority if and when they encounter dissenting views.

A robust marketplace

To move toward a universal gap year, there needs to be a radical expansion of the non-Orthodox gap year marketplace.  Diverse programs that cater to the diversity of participants out there.  One approach to this is to have various providers with differentiated approaches for various audiences.  Another is a small but strong market of providers offering a variety of tracks.  We would want to create opportunities for participants in similar niche programs/tracks to meet with one another, but that could easily be done with cohorts, fellowships, or cross-gap year retreats.   To significantly scale gap year, there will need to be an infusion of resources to develop existing and new programs as well as to grow the recruitment and marketing infrastructure in North America.  Some of this infrastructure could be collective – raising the overall brand and perception of a gap year program in Israel with a regional recruitment model not so dissimilar from those of summer camps, where recruiters are embedded in local communities and provide a concierge referral model to gap year programs.  Additionally, there are opportunities to leverage communal investments by directly marketing to the thousands of teens now making their way to Israel through Root One’s summer Israel programs.  Creating a pipeline from a summer teen Israel experience to a gap year in Israel will deepen and extend the impact of the initial travel experience across various markers of Jewish identity and connection to Israel.

In this article we have proposed various strategies to move towards a universal gap year.  Through a change in in culture, a lowering of barriers, and a strategic infusion of resources, we may create the tipping point that will make the gap year a universal rite for all Jewish teens.

Rabbi Adam Drucker is the Director of Education for Young Judaea Israel and Cantor Adina Frydman is the CEO of Young Judaea Global.