Section archive - Israel Education

Students in Israel’s south have been forced to remain in bomb shelters and safe spaces for days on end during the recent Pillar of Defense Operation. Jewish students in the Diaspora have been feeling their pain and expressing their support via videos, email messages, and social media. The effort is part of the Jewish Agency’s Partnership2Gether’s School Twinning Program, which matches more than 200 schools in Israel.

For one month in the summer of 2013 (June23 – July 21), a select group of students and young professionals from the U.S., Canada and Israel will explore together the Jewish roots of Zionist thought, the founding visions of Zionism, and the history of Israel’s leading statesmen and their decisions that shaped the Israeli State at the Tikvah Institute on Zionist Thought and Statesmanship at the Ein Prat Academy of Leadership outside of Jerusalem.

This study, commissioned by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation —the first of its kind—gathered the views of almost 4,000 young Israel advocates in an effort to gain a better understanding of what compels young people to become involved in Israel advocacy, to become leaders in this area and to maintain their involvement during high school, college and beyond. A group of particular interest in this research was those individuals who have the highest levels of involvement in Israel advocacy, known as the “leader advocates.”

Larry Yudelson writes about the launching in northern New Jersey of iEngage, a program designed by the Jerusalem-based Shalom Hartman Institute to make Israel the topic of conversations about values rather than battles about politics. Eleven iEngage programs will be taking place in the area, most meeting on a weekly basis, and several bringing together rabbis and congregants from many synagogues. A total of 24 local rabbis are taking part. The program is being brought to northern New Jersey under a grant from the Adler Innovation Fund of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey.