Source: Ynetnews
With 11,000 participants this year – up from 3,000 in its inception year in 2004 – Masa Israel Journey has opened a new alumni division, and it has placed regional representatives in cities throughout the United States in partnership with local Federations.
The alumni division's goals, which include a special focus on Birthright alumni, who make up 56% of post-college participants, are to pipeline these Jewish young adults into leadership positions in their communities and empower them to become lifelong advocates and activists for Israel.
To kick off the division's initiatives, Masa Israel recently hosted an alumni leadership summit in New York City, which taught alumni about making their Israel experiences foundations for success in their personal and professional lives.The event featured a panel of professionally accomplished alumni spoke about how their Israel experiences helped them launch careers at diverse companies, including PricewaterhouseCoopers, Teach for America, American Jewish Committee, and the New York Post. The event also included workshops in career development, social justice, and Israel advocacy, a Jewish organization program fair, and a networking reception.
To create leadership opportunities for its alumni, Masa Israel is partnering with Jewish organizations, including Birthright Israel NEXT, the Jewish Federations of North America, PresenTense, American Society for Yad Vashem, 3GNY, and Florence Melton Adult Mini-School.
Masa Israel's regional representatives in partnership with local Federations are in San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Detroit, Cleveland, MetroWest New Jersey, and Minneapolis.