0

O

Melissa
Seligman is
set for her
next trip.

ti

exotic locations and new friends.

JENNIFER LOW

Special to the Jewish News

elissa Seligman is a bit
of a travel junkie. The
31-year-old social
worker from Royal
Oak has a travel itinerary that
includes an Alaskan cruise this
month and a Hawaiian cruise in
December. She's also been to Israel at
least three times and recent summer
travels took her to London and
Norway.
Seligman's preferred method of
trekking is with like-minded travel-
ers on organized excursions. So most
of her traveling is arranged through
organizations that offer Jewish sin-
gles trips.
Although Seligman found one
company she likes to travel with,
there is no shortage of outfitters
offering trips for young Jewish sin-
gles. An Internet search reveals
numerous opportunities for group
travel geared toward Jewish singles.
"I like traveling with a Jewish
group because it allows me to be with
a group of people who share the same
values and the trips always have some
sort of a Jewish component," said
Seligman. "I think it's a great way to

travel and I get to meet people from
all over."
But after going to Israel through the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit's singles mission three or four
times, Seligman wanted to do some-
thing different.
Federation recognized the same
need. Its Young Adult Division (YAD)
recently formed a mission committee
to possibly plan singles trips or pro-
mote existing trips for Jewish singles.
"Israel used to be our biggest travel
opportunity," said YAD Director Lisa
Cutler.
Two years ago, 150 people people
from Detroit went to Israel on the
national singles mission. This month,
15 Detroiters went on the mission.
"Now, there needs to be something
else people can do," Cutler said.
The decrease in participation stems
largely from the political situation in
the Middle East and the fact that
much of YAD's target audience has
already been on the Israel trip.
Travelers and tour operators agree
that the primary purpose of traveling
with other singles is not to meet Mr.
or Ms. Right. Although meeting
someone is in the back of most sin-
gles' minds, the focus, they say, is on
the destination.

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