16 | AUGUST 27 • 2020 

J

acob Ellenbogen has been planning to 
take a gap year after high school since his 
sophomore year, and when he found the 
Kivunim International Gap Year Program, 
he knew he wanted to do it. In a normal 
year, students in the program learn about 
the Jewish diaspora from a 
home base in Israel, with trips 
to different countries every few 
weeks. 
But then the COVID-19 
pandemic struck. 
“There was about a two-
week period where Europe was 
doing worse than the United States” in terms 
of controlling a coronavirus outbreak, said 
Ellenbogen, who recently graduated from 
Groves High School. 
“I was a little, ‘
I’
m not so sure about this.
’
 
And then once the U.S. started doing signifi-
cantly worse than everyone else in the world 
during this pandemic, if I can get out of this 
country … then get me out of this country,
” 
he told the Jewish News. 
Ellenbogen is not the only recent high 
school graduate from Metro Detroit who 
decided to go forward with a gap year in 
Israel as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. 
And while programs will look different this 
year — Kivunim has postponed all its travel 
outside of Israel until the spring, with the 

hopes that a vaccine will then be available — 
they’
re still welcoming American students 
with open arms. 
Those differences will start as soon as stu-
dents walk off the plane — anyone coming 
to Israel from another country currently has 
to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival. Olivia 
Feldman, a recent graduate of 
Frankel Jewish Academy, will 
participate in a gap year pro-
gram called Hevruta this year. 
The program is bringing all 
American participants to Israel 
two weeks earlier than normal 
so quarantine doesn’
t cut into 
their regular programing time, Feldman said. 
“When we get off the plane, they sepa-
rate us into six-people pods,
” Feldman said. 
“Right from there, the people who run the 
program pick you up, you go to your apart-
ment and you just don’
t leave for 14 days.
” 
Micah Eizen, who just finished his senior 
year at Farber Hebrew Day School, is also 
headed to Israel this fall for a year of learning 
at a yeshiva. His program will 
quarantine for two weeks at 
a hotel in Jerusalem. He said 
there will be four to six students 
per hotel room, and he isn’
t 
sure if he’
ll be paired with the 
roommate he’
ll live with for the 

rest of the year. 
The possibility of having to quarantine 
with strangers is “a little nerve-wracking,
” 
Eizen said. But “we all chose this yeshiva out 
of all the other yeshivas that are going, [so] 
we all have similar personality traits. It can be 
a good thing.
” 
While Feldman is excited to move to Israel 
after being in Metro Detroit all summer, she 
said she’
s starting to feel nervous about trav-
eling across the ocean during a pandemic. 
She’
ll have to wear a mask for the entirety of 
her 10-hour flight to Israel. Feldman is also 
bringing her own kitchenware to the apart-
ments in which she’
ll quarantine and then 
live for the rest of the school year. 
“It’
s scary,
” she said. “I don’
t want to get 
sick.
”
Leaving the country during a pandemic 
also has gap-year participants worried about 
what might happen to their relatives back 
home. But Ellenbogen sees the positive side 
of moving far away right now. 
“I’
m worried something will happen to 
my family, but even if I was going to school 
[in America], there’
s still the chance that that 
could happen. And that risk doesn’
t really 
change. In fact, it’
s probably minimized a lit-
tle bit from the fact that I won’
t be interacting 
with my family at all,
” he said.
While Ellenbogen also said he feels safer 
being in a group of exclusively young peo-
ple, who are less likely to experience severe 
symptoms from coronavirus, gap-year pro-
grams have to plan for the chance that par-
ticipants will get sick. Feldman said Hevruta 
has set aside apartments for isolation units in 
case anyone catches the virus after the initial 
14-day quarantine. 
“It’
s the only thing you can really do,
” she 
said. And “if it was a real health concern, 
unfortunately, they would have to be sent 
home. But hopefully it doesn’
t come to that.
” 
Despite the stressors of moving halfway 
across the globe right now, Feldman said 
she’
s confident she’
ll have a great year in 
Israel. 
“It’
s such a unique experience because I’
m 
not going to college right away, and sure, I’
m 
nervous, but I’
m just really excited to get a 
little change of scenery and just a really won-
derful year ahead,
” she said. 
As Eizen put it, “It feels crazy. And it 
would have been crazy even without a pan-
demic.
” 

Jews in the D

Gap Years 
Press On, 
Despite 
Pandemic

Recent high school grads from Metro Detroit are excited 
to spend a year in Israel, even if their programs will look 
different from usual.

MAYA GOLDMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Jacob 
Ellenbogen

Micah Eizen

Olivia
Feldman

PIXABAY

