Welcome to WUJS!
by Ricky Eytan, Director of WUJS in Israel
Since joining WUJS Israel in 2008, I have had the good fortune to work with 12 different mahzorim (semesters) of participants as the coordinator and director. Even the 13th time around, I can still feel palpable excitement as I think about how the participants – that I have only known until now by names and email addresses – will soon be supplemented by faces, thoughts, laughs, and feelings each with a life’s worth of stories.
It is always a pleasure to watch them learn new things about this country, and see how they fall in love with it, sometime so much that they decide they want to live here forever – WUJS does that to people!
It allows our participants to see new places, meet interesting people, learn the language, work with Israelis and at the same time it allows an individual growth.
I am fortunate enough to be surrounded by alumni who are willing to talk about the program and help us bring more young people here. Alumni who have had a life changing experience and WUJS will be forever a once in a lifetime experience for them. I am fortunate to be a part of that and that is the most rewarding part in this job.
On September 8th 2014, we opened our fall semester with 33 young adults, from all over the world, who are not intimidated by this summer’s security situation in Israel.
The WUJS Israel staff and I are excited to connect with these new WUJS participants and start another enriching journey!