Increased attention toward educational tourism – namely to Israel – calls for reexamining the broader relationship between Israel defined here as the core country of Jewish peoplehood, and the sense of identification with the same Jewish peoplehood. This article reviews some basic concepts and central trends in contemporary Jewish identification, through comparisons between the United States and Israel. It focuses on the process and meaning of Jewish identity formation, and on the tools which participate in consolidating and preserving it. We review internal and external determinants , intervening variables , different dimensions of the target variable (Jewish identification), and its implications.