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Friday May 23, 2008

Calling all alumni: Young adults who’ve gone on Israel trips have place to meet, reconnect

by stacey palevsky
staff writer

Have you gone on an Israel trip?

Then coordinators for Israel in the Gardens want — you.

For the first time, the festival will round up Bay Area young adults who’ve visited Israel on an organized trip. From 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., a designated area in Yerba Buena Gardens will be set up with snacks and beverages, creating a space where people can reconnect with old friends and perhaps make some new ones.

The goal is to give young adult Jews a platform specifically for themselves, said Lital Carmel, assistant director of the Israel Center.

Carmel is specifically recruiting alumni from Birthright Israel, Shalhevet, Let’s Go Israel, Otzma, Beyond Ben Yehuda, Young Judea or a Masa-sponsored trip.

“There’s a very strong need and desire from alumni to be engaged and to be activated,” said Eli Raber, founder and director of Bay Area Tribe. “They want to show up, they do. The most critical thing is putting something on that will be engaging, interactive and accessible to them.”

Bay Area Tribe works in partnership with Birthright Israel to plan programs throughout the year that engage Birthright alumni upon their return to daily life. Raber said he’s already sent out several emails about Israel in the Gardens to the hundreds of people on his listserv, since the Tribe will also have a booth at the daylong festival.

“Last year we got a small booth and we were overwhelmed,” he recalled.

Since the festival didn’t have anything specifically for young adults, so many people were “hanging out in front of our booth that we had pizzas delivered and had a small picnic. So this year we bought a bigger booth.”

Carmel said the reunions were intentionally planned from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. so that young adults could shmooze before the festival’s headliner — the Idan Raichel Project — performs on the main stage. Immediately following that is the after party, which is specifically for young adults 21 and older.

For some Israel trips, the reunion on June 1 will be nothing new. Let’s Go Israel — a trip for Bay Area teens — has reunions twice a year. Tali Lipschitz, a shlichah (emissary) and Israel trips coordinator with the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay, said gathering alumni is important not only for the individuals, but for the community.

“People go to Israel in the summer and they come back with so much excitement — then they go back to school,” she said. “We want to show them how they can channel their enthusiasm toward something that will be productive for them, the community and for Israel.”

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