Magical

Mystery
Tours

Youth travel to Israel is
being touted as the new
cure for assimilation,
but follow-up is critical.

JULIE WIENER

Staff Writer

I

t happened over 16 months ago
— an eternity in the life of a
teen-ager — but 10 Andover
High School students recently
spent their lunch break enthusiastical-
ly sharing memories of the Jewish
Federation's 1996 Teen Mission.
Crowded around a table in the high
school cafeteria, they interrupt each
other with comments like, "It had a
huge impact on my Jewish identity,"
and "I'm definitely going back" and
"It totally changed my connection to
Israel,"
Then Mike Berkowitz speaks up.
"As time passes after the trip, you
start to lose the feeling that you had,"

Making Israel
A Must-See

A new agency is
working to get more
North American teens
to the Jewish homeland

he says. "I know
when it comes to feel-
ing strongly about your
religion, I felt a lot
stronger about it when I was
in Israel and the months after I
got back. I'm ashamed to say this,
but I don't feel as strongly about it
now."
Plans for a second Federation-spon-
sored teen trip to Israel next summer
are already in high gear, and the com-
munity is investing "upwards of half a
million dollars" in mission subsidies
and scholarships and other Israel-relat-
ed youth activities, according to
Federation Executive Vice President
Bob Aronson.
But will the community investment
yield a long-term impact or will this

JULIE WIENER

StaffWriter

or Jewish organizations
throughout the country,
sending teens to Israel is
becoming a greater priority.
The overwhelming majority of
Jewish teens do not travel to Israel,
and numbers have been relatively
stagnant over the past decade:
according to a recent report authored
by Hebrew University professor Barry
Chazan, approximately 14 percent of
Jewish teens in North America have

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1997
8

that Israel trips are linked to increased
Jewish identification, most Jewish edu-
cators stress that the Israel experience
is not a "magic bullet," but is only
effective when combined with other
Jewish educational experiences.
"The Israel Experience is an
extremely powerful program, but
when you do some follow-up, six to
/k. 12 months later, the vast majority
b6 of kids have kind of sunk back
into the woodwork," says
Rabbi Art Vernon, director
of educational develop-
ment at the Jewish
Education Service of
North America
(JESNA).
"At the moment
there's very little sys-
tematic follow-up
that builds on the
enthusiasm that kids
come back with. If it
happens now, it's
largely accidental."
Many in the Detroit
community say that fol-
low-up was one of the
weaker components of the
1996 mission. But others
argue that extensive follow-up
programs would merely have
competed with existing youth
groups and synagogue classes for high
school students.
"It's a dilemma," said Rabbi Danny
Nevins, a leader of both the 1996 mis-
sion and the upcoming one. "If you
do too much programming, you start
taking kids away from USY [United
Synagogue Youth] and BBYO [B'nai
B'rith Youth Organization]. Also, peo-
ple put so many resources into getting
the trip off the ground that it's hard to
keep that steam up when the trip is
over."
Although in 1996 the Agency for

•

year's teens, like Berkowitz, "lose the
feeling?"
Nationally, Israel programs for
young adults are flourishing, and
many Jewish leaders — Aronson
among them — point to these pro-
grams success in engaging teen-agers
in Jewish life.
But while anecdotal evidence and a
new report commissioned by the Israel
Experience, Inc. (see sidebar), suggest

traveled to Israel, and in any given
year, only 2 percent of the Jewish
teen and college-age population
makes the journey.
Boosting those statistics and mak-
ing Israel a must-see for teens is the
central mission of the Israel
Experience Inc., a $1.5 million
agency set up in 1996 by the Charles
Bronftnan Foundation, Council of
Jewish Federations, United Jewish
Appeal, Israel's tourism ministry and
the Jewish Agency.
Based in New York, with field
offices throughout North America,

the Israel Experience Inc. helps mar-
ket Israel programs to youth and
their parents and subsidizes research
about the value of Israel programs.
It commissioned Chazan's report,
"Does The Teen Israel Experience
Make A Difference?," which sifts
through 30 years of research and
concludes that "there is a discernible,
long-term connection between going
to Israel as a teen and increased
Jewish identity and involvement as
an adult."
The report also attributes the
Jewish homeland's educational suc-