This year, 8,000 participants from all over the world will be spending a semester to a year in Israel in more than 150 Masa-affiliated programs -- the largest number of participants ever.

On October 26th, over 2,000 of these participants currently in Israel will celebrate Masa's third year by taking the train from Jerusalem to the port city of Akko (Acre) in northern Israel. 

 

The participants will travel by train, specially chartered by Masa for this celebration trip, accompanied by live entertainment – including, music, dance and performances - and experienced guides who will be on hand to explain the significant sites along the route.  Also on the train will be a display devoted to the recent war with Lebanon and its impact on Israel's northern communities.  Traveling with the participants will be soldiers who fought in the war who will answer questions and share their experiences wih the participants. 

 

Participants will also be receiving Masa welcome kits, including discount coupons, tour map and lexicon, dictionary and a Masa ID card entitling them to additional discounts and entry to special Masa event, all in a special Masa backpack. 

 

Upon arriving in Akko, they will join with other Masa participants making their way to the port city by bus.  Together, they will make their way on foot to Akko's Old City.  They will learn about its history, visit archeological landmarks, and 'lend a hand' by volunteering in a number of projects to help revitalize parts of the Old City that were damaged during the war in Lebanon.  The day's activities will conclude in the evening with a celebration on the walls of the Old City. 

North America counts for 60% of the long-term program participants in any given year. Therefore it was only natural that Masa would have a North American presence.

Now it does.   

 

The new office, located in the Jewish Agency office in Manhattan, will serve the growing marketing and recruitment needs of Masa Israel Journey in North America. 

 

The office is managed by Avi Rubel, who will serve as the Director of North American Operations.  Mr. Rubel was a senior staff member at Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, where he was in charge of all the Hillel activities in the Former Soviet Union.  

 

"This is a decision which we have approached very carefully and I think we have finally reached a point which will be helpful to all the participants," says Elan Ezrachi, Executive Director of Masa. 

 

The office will serve communities in the US and Canada, working closely with Jewish Federations, Hillel and university students to promote Masa and solidify the relationships that Masa has forged with these institutions.  It will also help develop new strategic initiatives for rooting Masa and its aspirations in the American community.

After high school graduation last year, as his friends went off to college, Ari Feinstein headed to Israel. 

He taught English to 10-year-olds in Upper Nazareth, worked on a camel farm near Dimona, studied in Jerusalem and participated in simulated basic training on an Israeli army base.

 

"I don't know any other American kid who went around carrying an M-16 for two months," he said. "Or had as much immersion in Israeli society."

 

Ari, 19, now a freshman at UC Davis, was one of 300 high school graduates participating in Year Course, a nine-month program of Young Judaea, the Zionist Youth Movement of Hadassah that has sent more than 5,000 teenagers to Israel since its founding in 1956.

 

Young people like Ari have been going to Israel for decades, but the numbers are likely to increase substantially with the recent introduction of Masa Israel, a new long-term funding initiative between the Israeli government and the Jewish Agency for Israel and its partner organizations worldwide that is targeted to reach $100 million per year, perhaps as early as 2008.

 

This year $25 million was made available. The program is designed encourage more students to participate in Year Course and other similar post-high school or "gap-year" courses.

 

At a cost of about $13,000 to $18,000 for each student, these programs provide a break between high school and college and can include study, travel, work and community service. They allow students time for reflection, personal growth and often new or renewed religious commitment.

 

Masa, Hebrew for journey, started funding students who qualified on a need-basis in 2004-05, subsidizing more than 100 approved five- to 10-month Israel programs that assist 18- to 30-year-olds in building a solid connection to Israel. This year, Masa is helping to send 7,000 young adults worldwide to Israel, with hopes of sending 20,000 a year by decade's end.

 

According to Masa director Dr. Elan Ezrachi, "Our main goal is to enable young adults from all over the world to have an extended period in Israel and, by doing so, to strengthen Jewish identity, build up a connection to Israel and invest in their future roles as leaders in their home communities. And, from an Israeli perspective, they get a taste of the idea of aliyah."

 

The numbers of students taking advantage of such programs historically have not been large among Reform and Conservative Jews, according to Joseph Blassberg, director of career counseling at Milken Community High School in Los Angeles. He said Milken sends about three or four graduates annually on one-year, post-high school programs and has found that colleges and universities generally approve students' requests to defer admission until the following September.

 

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TEL AVIV (JTA) — Ben Russell helped deliver two babies, taught English to Druse children, worked with Ethiopian immigrants, led coexistence workshops with Arab students and met Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during his “year off” in Israel before college.

"I always felt like I knew bits of Israel, but not well," said Russell, who grew up in London and will study at Cambridge University in the fall."I wanted to spend some real time here and get to know the country."

 

Russell, 19, is one of some 5,600 young Jews from around the world who came to Israel this year for long-term study or volunteer programs. The sense of connection and adventure these extended visits create are seen as a safeguard against climbing intermarriage rates and a drop in Jewish community involvement among young people.

 

Israeli officials believe that longer stays in the country are the best way to cement Jewish identity and commitment to Israel — including an interest in aliyah — among the next generation of Jews. They don’t merely trust that such programs are the way to go; they’re banking on them.

 

On Sunday, the Israeli government and the Jewish Agency for Israel launched an ambitious program called Masa, or Israel Journey, in which they plan eventually to invest $100 million a year to help subsidize semester and yearlong programs for Diaspora youth.

 

Program fees paid by participants are expected to reach another $100 million a year.

 

The goal is to bring 20,000 young Diaspora Jews to Israel each year on long-term visits.

 

Allan Hoffman, director general of JAFI’s Education Department, said the goal of having one in five young Jews from the Diaspora in Israel for a long-term program will have a "transformative impact on Jewish life."

 

"I believe this is one of the few avenues open to us to really build a next generation of Jewish people into the future,"he said.

 

Hoffman said coming to Israel for an extended stay takes the experience to a different level than coming as a tourist.

 

"You can have a wonderful experience as a tourist, but you’re always an outsider looking in,"he said.

 

The gap can be narrowed, he said, "if we can create a generation of young Jews who feel like insiders in their experience with Israel and Israelis."

 

Participants, aged 18-26, have dozens of programs to choose from, ranging from studying at Israeli universities, yeshivas and music conservatories to volunteering on kibbutzim, working with immigrants and underprivileged youths or doing professional internships.

 

During the 2004-2005 school year, Masa’s pilot year, $10 million was invested in the program.

 

On Sunday night, more than 2,000 students who had spent all or part of the year in Israel gathered at an amphitheater at Beit Guvrin National Park south of Jerusalem to celebrate the official launch of Masa with music, dancing and speeches.

 

Sharon met with the young people and encouraged them to continue their connection to Israel, either by making aliyah or becoming community leaders and supporters of Israel back home.

 

“Today, we are taking a giant step toward the time when living in Israel for a period of time will be an inseparable part of the life of every Jewish youngster around the world, just as the Land of Israel is an inseparable part of our identities as Jews,” Sharon said.

 

The program marks the first time the government has allocated such a large sum of money specifically for the Diaspora, Cabinet secretary Yisrael Maimon said.

 

"There is a lot of criticism of the government about the decision at a time when there is poverty and budget cuts,"Maimon said.

 

But citing the rise in intermarriage and the decrease of young Diaspora Jews remaining active in their communities, Maimon said the government decided it was time to act.

 

Masa is the brainchild of Sallai Meridor, the outgoing head of JAFI. Meridor made an emotional speech to the Masa participants.

 

"You, the Jewish youth, you are the future of the Jewish nation. We all have just one country. We will safeguard it forever. The government of Israel and the Jewish Agency are with you in safeguarding the future of the Jewish nation. We will bring together tens of thousands of Jewish youth to Israel," he said.

 

The crowd applauded wildly with Meridor’s final words, "Am Yisrael Chai."

 

Researchers have found that Jews who spend extended stays in Israel when they are young have a higher chance of either making aliyah or becoming active, committed members of their communities back home.

 

According to a study of participants in the Young Judaea Year Course — a program for North American high school graduates who spend a year in Israel before going to college — 91 percent go on to marry Jews.

 

A study of another post-high school program, Machon LeMadrechai Chutz LeAretz — which Russell was on this year — found that 40 percent of graduates have made aliyah.

 

Elan Ezrachi, director of Masa, described birthright israel — the free, 10-day trips to Israel for Diaspora youth — as an "appetizer" for Masa. On Birthright, young Jews often get their first taste of Israel, but longer experiences are needed to cement the connection to the country and their Jewish identities, Ezrachi said.

 

Russell said he was amazed by the range of experiences he had in Israel.

 

He changed locations about every six weeks. Among the places he stayed was the city of Sefad in the Galilee. It was there that he volunteered to teach English to Druse children as part of the United Jewish Israel Appeal’s work in the region. The UJIA, Britain’s largest Jewish philanthropy, invests in Jewish education in the United Kingdom and Israel.

 

Like Russell, Robin Zebrowitz, 23, of Atlanta also had a busy year — teaching swimming and English, hauling plants in an organic greenhouse and living in a center for new immigrants from Ethiopia, France, South Africa and Yemen.

 

"It’s an absolutely phenomenal, invaluable experience," Zebrowitz said of her year in Israel. "The things I have done here, the friends I have made, the connections are something you can only do if you are here for longer."