by barbara kopelman
washington jewish week
“I had the best summer of my life,” said Rockville, Md., resident Hannah Bachman about her five and a half weeks in Israel on Young Judaea’s Nitzanim program last summer.
“The trip was absolutely amazing,” she continued. From the awe-inspiring to the just-plain-fun activities, “it had a big impact on me Jewishly.”
She recalled being led, blindfolded, by her counselors to the Western Wall then having her blindfold removed. “I almost couldn’t believe that I was standing in front of the Kotel,” she said.
And then there was “the coolest birthday I’ve ever had.
“We went snorkeling in the Red Sea that day and spent the night dancing on a disco boat in the Eilat harbor.”
Bachman, a high school senior, “had known for a really long time” that she wanted to spend the summer between 11th and 12th grades on a group tour of Israel.
“Israel had been the focus of so much studying and talk for so much of my life, I knew I had to go there eventually,” she said.
She chose the Young Judaea program because of its “Special Interest Week,” when participants leave their touring group and spend the week with others who have chosen the same interest. Options include activities such as Gadna (spending a week on an Israeli army base doing basic training), social action activities, biking across Israel, studying contemporary art and living on a kibbutz.
“I was able to spend my week learning about Israeli art, which I much preferred” to Gadna, the other option she considered, Bachman said.
Rebecca Yahiel of McLean, Va., also went to Israel last summer. Young Judaea’s Sephardim program was the trip for her. Before going to Israel for four and a half weeks, her group spent a week in Spain.
“My grandfather’s family originated there. It was interesting because I could make a connection to my family and myself,” Yahiel said.
Yahiel, too, spent her birthday in the Jewish state.
“I spent my 17th birthday on the beach in a town near Tel Aviv. We saw the movie ‘Pirates of the Caribbean,’ which was weird because [by then] I had not seen something so American in a long time,” she recalled. “That day was really nice and special. I’ll never forget it.”
Young Judaea, founded in 1909 under the aegis of Hadassah, is the oldest Zionist youth movement in the United States and has been working to develop Jewish identity among American youth for nearly a century.
It offers Israel programming for Americans age 14 to 35, including several different summer programs designed to help high school students connect with the Jewish state firsthand.
All of its programs promise participants that they will “discover Israel from north to south and east to west.” And each has something different to offer, from a week in a European country to Hebrew immersion to leadership training.
The variety of the programming is part of Young Judaea’s effort to tailor its offerings to a diverse audience.
The youth group has created “niche programs” to offer a specialized experience to as many teens as possible, and to those who have been to Israel and don’t want to do as much touring.
Programs are adjusted and new programs are added some years. This summer, for students with only a little time, there is the three-week Nofim program that immerses teenagers in Israeli society and culture. But participants don’t miss out on any of the activities associated with longer trips: The venture includes camel rides, snorkeling in Eilat, hikes, digs and community service.
The new Hebrew language program, Ulpan, offers five weeks of instruction and activities that give participants a chance to practice what they learn.
Nitzanim features a special-interest week plus a nearly five-week itinerary of tours, seminars and outdoor activities at sites throughout Israel.
The European programs include an itinerary in Israel that is similar to Nitzanim’s. But rather than beginning with a special-interest week, these programs start with time in Italy, on the Ma’apilim program; Spain, on the Sephardim program; or Prague, on the Shoreshim program.
There is also a five-and-a-half-week leadership development camp for rising 12th graders, called Machon.
While Yahiel was in Israel, she learned a few unexpected lessons. Her travels were somewhat limited by the outbreak of hostilities in the north.
“But we still had fun,” she said.
“I was not afraid when the war started,” she added. “I felt safe. If the Israelis were not scared, why should I be?”
Yahiel found Israel to be a “totally different country.”
“The trip opened my eyes to a broader and different world that I could not get from just reading newspapers or textbooks. I experienced Israel for myself and was happy I did so because I learned a lot and it broadened my worldview. It also made me want to go back even more.”
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California