Not surprisingly, teen travel to Israel has taken a hit this year. The post-10th or 11th-grade visit, once a rite of passage for contemporary Jewish adolescents in recent decades, has been canceled for most Diaspora teens.
“In a normal year, our organization supports between 5,000 and 6,000 teens traveling to Israel. This year, the number is just north of 850,” says Jonathan Fass of RootOne, which provides funding and educational programming for 25 organizations, including BBYO; Jewish Federations; the Union for Reform Judaism; and NCSY, the Orthodox Union’s National Conference of Synagogue Youth.
In past years, Young Judaea has brought more than 100 youngsters. This year, director of services Dafna Laskin’s total is down to 25, which is not even a busload. At least they are still in business.
The conservative movement’s United Synagogue Youth isn’t operating, nor is the Boston-based Y2I trip, which has existed for over fifty years. Ramah, the camping arm of Conservative Judaism, has not canceled an Israel program in over 50 years. This summer, 180 teens participated in our signature summer program, Ramah Israel Seminar. Since October 7, Ramah has run Tichon Ramah Yerushalayim - a 4 month high school program in Jerusalem, numerous adult and family volunteer missions to Israel and three volunteer programs for college age staff.
Within NCSY, there is a sense of pride
“Something magical is happening here. Bringing more than 1,000 teens to Israel is nothing short of miraculous. It blows me away,” says recruitment director Tess Gaon.
Why? What is NCSY’s secret sauce?
STAFFERS POINT to the organization’s Israel-centric agenda.
“As soon as war broke out, our main focus was on engaging our teens by getting them to pray and study Torah for soldiers,” says NCSY staffer Rabbi Jacob Bernstein. That created a mindset, which translated into numbers.
It wasn’t easy, especially since recruitment, which usually begins in the fall, got off to a late start.
“In October and November, everyone was still processing Oct. 7,” says Gaon. “It wasn’t until December/January that high schools even felt comfortable to let us in to talk.”
Because of the war, NCSY reformulated its pitch.
“We changed our slogan from ‘Best Summer Ever’ to ‘Now More than Ever.’ We want to ensure it’s not just a ‘remember when’ summer but an ‘ever since’ that summer,” Gaon says: “We want this summer to stay with these kids for life.”
One key ingredient in the youth group’s success is variety. The organization offers 25 programs, each directed to a different niche. The oldest and best known is the all-male NCSY Kollel, which started in the 1980s and brings roughly 200 young men to Israel for a six-week program that combines travel, sports, and Torah study. There is an equivalent program for girls called Michlelet NCSY.
OTHER PROGRAMS, such as JOLT and LEAD, are built around voluntarism and giving back. JOLT teens operate a summer camp for siblings of children with chronic diseases, while LEAD teens work at an orphanage in Afula.
Another hessed-heavy initiative, the GIVE program – an acronym for Girls Israel Volunteer Experience – combines trips, Torah study, and volunteering. Future EMTs can join the Hatzalah Rescue Program, which offers first responder training with United Hatzalah and full EMT certification. Career-conscious teens have come to Israel with the NextStep internship trip, which provides a range of employment opportunities.
“My daughter is working at a biblical zoo in Beit Shemesh,” says Sally Shatkes, a Brooklyn mother whose daughter Robin is on NextStep.
How did Shatkes feel about sending her daughter here? Good. “I don’t know anyone who isn’t sending to Israel because of what is going on,” she says. In her Modern Orthodox community, coming here in wartime has become the norm. “I feel much safer with the children in Israel than at home,” she says.
Because of the war, the teens prioritize helping out over having fun. “Overall, the feeling is that we are here to support,” Bernstein says. To deepen the connection, each tour bus includes five Israelis.
Security Concerns
SECURITY CONCERNS have curtailed some of the touring.
“We usually go from the tip of the North down to Eilat, but this year is more limited,” says NCSY staffer Reuven Lebovitz. There are also new places to see, such as the Supernova festival site, Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, and the Sderot Police Station, famously captured on Oct. 7.
Even with the war still waging, the teens are enjoying themselves. “The feelings of love and warmth from everyone we meet is incredible. As soon as I stepped off the plane, I was excited,” says Ella Katz, a student at Yeshiva University’s Los Angeles high school.
Katz insists that she’s not afraid. “You can’t plan because Hashem is in charge, and I trust NCSY. I am where I am supposed to be.”
NOT EVERYONE is quite as trusting.
Among NCSY’s less religious students and their parents, there was considerable reluctance to make the trip. “The parents said, ‘Are you serious? Do you want me to bring my teen to Israel during a war?’” Bernstein recalls. Still, a good number of public and community school kids came – 205 instead of 630 last year. The staffers say that these kids are exceptional. “Each of them has the fire of one hundred teens,” Gaon says.
Participating in this group is 16-year-old Hannah Geithner, who attends a French-language arts high school in Ottawa. For her, the trip is a respite from the unrelenting antisemitism she faces at her very woke school, where staff dress in T-shirts emblazoned with the Palestinian flag and the peace sign, and her classmates hold bake sales for Palestine. Since Oct. 7, Geithner has faced an unremitting attack waged on Instagram.
“Day after day, my feed was full of links to donate to Palestine. If I didn’t repost them, that meant that I was a bad person,” she says. Geithner didn’t repost – she is passionately pro-Israel, and she lost many friends as a result. She also quit social media for several months.
Even more disturbing was the physical antisemitism she experienced. “My shul was vandalized, and my mezuzah was torn down. Still, Geithner regards herself as one of the lucky ones: “I know people who have had bullying and death threats.”
Geithner is enjoying her travels. When we spoke, she had been helping a raspberry farmer in the Lower Galilee whose employees had been drafted into the IDF. She’s also thinking about making her future here. “I’d like to do two years of seminary, two years in the IDF, get my degree in Canada, and then make aliyah.”
Rather than worrying about her at home, Geithner’s parents have joined her here.
“They don’t want me to be alone. If, God forbid, something would happen, they wanted to be able to bring me home.”
Antisemitism also prompted 17-year-old Leedor Boblio of Las Vegas to join an NCSY summer program. “At school, kids screamed, ‘Free Palestine’ in the hallways,” she recalls. Her classmates asked her if the bombs hit her relatives – and not out of concern for her relatives. Boblio’s parents are Israeli, and she has a large family here. “They also asked me, ‘How does it feel that your ancestors were stuck in gas chambers?’” Her principal suspended the offenders.
Since Oct. 7, Boblio has leaned into her Judaism, becoming the president of her school’s Jewish club, part of the JSU Jewish Student’s Union network, another NCSY initiative providing a safe space for Jewish public school youth.
Boblio is thrilled to be spending her summer with NCSY in Israel.
“There is nothing better than being with a bunch of people who understand you,” she says.
The writer is a two-time AJPA Rockower winner whose work has appeared in Tablet, Jewish Action, Next Avenue, and Fox News. Follow her at bubbiebio.substack.com