Hard Sell

Israel summer teen programs push against perceptions.

JULIE WIENER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

hen Melanie Lubin told
her friends she was
going to Israel last week,
"They said things like,
`I hope you don't die.' "
Lubin, who is a high school senior
from Sharon, Mass., was representing
Young Judaea as one of 21 teens from a
variety of youth groups participating in
a special trip under the auspices of the
Jewish federation system and the North
American Alliance for Jewish Youth.
Lubin, who returned on Monday,
said she had been nervous about going
and felt a bit skittish before a group
dinner at a Tel Aviv restaurant.
But she is convinced that it is safe
for American Jews to travel to Israel
on group tours and she wants to
encourage her friends to do likewise.
Her trip came as the prospects for
summer teen programs in Israel are
grim, with registrations the lowest
they have been in the past generation.
In fact, Lubin's trip concluded just
as a major teen program — the March
of the Living, which brings teen-agers
to Poland and then to the Jewish state
— was announcing the cancellation of
the Israel segment of its trip.
And last week's youth leadership trip
took a substantially smaller group than
the 37 initially slated to go, with many
teens and parents nervous about the wave
of terrorist attacks in the preceding days.
As teens finalize their summer plans,
Israel programs — hit hard last year
by the intifada (Palestinian uprising)
— continue to suffer from concerns
about terrorism.

Heavy Security

Most major providers of Israel pro-
grams — from the Reform movement
to the Jewish Community Centers
Association to the Orthodox National
Conference for Synagogue Youth —
are continuing to run programs this
summer, but amid uncertainty and
very heavy security measures.
Among the security measures:
• All programs organizers inter-
viewed said teens will have virtually no
free time in urban areas and will not

be allowed to travel on their own.
• Programs will consult daily with
government officials and the Jewish
Agency for Israel to ensure that itiner-
aries are safe.
• Programs will be in frequent con-
tact with parents during the trips,
most of them operating 24-hour
phone lines parents can call if they
concerned about anything.
• Many are housing participants
outside Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The
Reform movement, which canceled its
teen trips last summer due to security
concerns, will house teens only in kib-
butz guest houses, which it feels are
safer than other accommodations.
Despite the precautions, registration
numbers are down dramatically from
pre-intifada levels, and in some cases
from last year. Most programs have
been forced to cut staff significantly
and to rely on financial subsidies from
parent organizations.
Among the losses in registration:
• Young Judaea, a Zionist youth
movement under the auspices of
Hadassah: The Women's Zionist
Organization of America, expects to
send 100 teens this summer, compared
to 200 last year, and an average of
1,000 each summer before the intifada.
• The Reform movement's North
American Federation of Temple Youth
hopes to send "a couple hundred" teens
this summer, according to officials, corn-
pared to almost 1,500 in the summer of
2000. Only 80 are signed up so far.
Before the intifada, Young Judaea
and NFTY were the largest providers
of teen travel to Israel, together
accounting for 40 percent of North
American teens on summer trips there.
• The JCC Maccabi Experience

Israel Programs expects to send 70
teens, the same as last year, but down
from pre-intifada levels of 600.
• The Orthodox Union's Israel tour-
ing program for public school students
is hoping for 45 participants, compared
to more than 100 in previous years.
Its study programs for day school stu-
dents expects 140 to 180 participants,
down considerably from pre-intifada
levels but about the same as last year.
• The Conservative movement's
United Synagogue Youth, expects 175,
compared to 285 last year, and
between 450 and 650 in recent pre-
intifada years.
With so many parents reluctant to
send their teens to Israel, many groups
are expanding teen programming out-
side of the Jewish state.
For example, the Orthodox Union,
Reform movement and Conservative
movements are offering European
travel programs, which are full or
almost full.
Enrollment at the Reform move-
ment's teen leadership camp in the
United States is up considerably. For
the first time, the Orthodox Union is
offering a travel program in the
United States.
The Conservative movement is actual-
ly facing lower enrollment for its USY
On Wheels, a cross-United States travel
program, which it attributes to the Sept.
11 attacks. However, the movement is
also offering, for the first time, a pre-col-
lege summer school program, which is
filled to capacity, at the Jewish
Theological Seminary of America in
New York City.
Young Judaea is making a point of
not offering Israel alternatives. "It's
inconsistent with our ideology to set

Detroit Stands With Israel
Via Satellite Telecast

Detroit Jews can participate in "We Stand with Israel," .a
nationwide day of Israel solidarity from 12:30 to 2 p.m.
Sunday, March 24. A program featuring a live satellite tele-
cast from Israel with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon begins at
noon at the Max M. Fisher Federation Building, 6735
Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Township.
Israeli Foreign Minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner
Shimon Peres and author Elie Wiesel also will participate in
the broadcast, which will include live reports from several

up programs that overtly compete
with sending kids to Israel," said
Doron Krakow, national director of
Young Judaea.
"As long as we can run Israel trips
responsibly, with attention to safety,
that's where we're going to urge our
members to go."
But with the situation in Israel
changing daily, the program providers
are clearly uncertain about what is in
store this summer, with most
acknowledging the possibility that
programs may need to be canceled if
the situation in Israel escalates further.
USY's Gutin said, "If at any time
we feel it's not possible, we won't run
the programs."
In the event of cancellation, USY is
developing back-up plans for this
summer's registrants, promising to
place them in North American or
European programs "should the
necessity arise."
Since 1988, the March of the
Living has sent teens to Poland for
Holocaust Remembrance Day, where
they retrace the death march from
Auschwitz to Birkenau. The teens
then go to Israel for Israel's Memorial
Day and Independence Day.
Joseph Breman, chair of the North
American Alliance, criticized the
March of the Living's Israel cancella-
tion, saying it sends a message that "a
Jewish teen is safer in Poland than in
Jerusalem."
No one from the March of Living
was available to comment.
The Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit alternates spon-
sorship in the March and its Detroit
Teen Mission to Israel. Local March
of the Living participants this year
were going through the B'nai B'rith
Youth Organization. Three teens had
signed up for the trip, but two have
dropped out, a Michigan Region offi-
cial said.
The Federation's Teen Mission to
Israel this summer is scheduled for June
30-July 31 and has 11 registrants. ❑

locations in Israel.
The local program, sponsored by the Jewish Community
Council, will include prayers for peace as well as memorial
prayers for recent victims of terror attacks offered by Rabbi
Scott Bolton of Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit.
Bert Schreiber of Southfield, a Jewish Community Council
board member, will read an Israel solidarity statement.
Participants will have the opportunity to write letters in
support of Israel to local members of Congress and to the
media. In addition, pro-Israel advocacy materials and a spe-
cial reading for this year's Passover seder will be distributed.
For information and to RSVP, call the JCCouncil at
(248) 642-5393.

3/22

2002

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