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Hillel Sends Over 2,500 Students to Israel
December 15, 2003Comments (0) | Add | E-mail this to a friendHillel, the world's largest Jewish campus organization, will send more than 2,500 students to Israel in December and January capping its biggest single-semester campaign to bring students to Israel. Over the past semester, the organization offered three different travel opportunities designed to appeal to unaffiliated Jewish students as well as campus activists.
"It couldn't be more important for students to visit Israel today," said Hillel's Interim President Avraham Infeld. "Students who visit Israel on our trips return with a stronger connection to the Jewish people. These trips are a key element in Hillel's pro-active, pro-Israel agenda."
This year, Hillel is introducing a new "love is real" campaign designed to help students realize that loving Israel includes all aspects of society. In conjunction with this campaign, Hillel is offering a four-track student leadership mission in December. Students on the mission will participate in one of four tracks: Jewish learning and pluralism through Hillel's Joseph Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Learning; Political Advocacy, co-sponsored by AIPAC; tzedek or social justice; or business and technology. In addition to five days of intensive seminars and workshops, the student participants will gather together for a Shabbaton in Northern Israel where they will meet and share their experiences.
The student leadership mission will coincide with an international student summit in Israel sponsored by Hillel, the Government of Israel, the Jewish Agency for Israel, and the World Union of Jewish Students. Mission participants will spend two and a half days at the summit networking, learning and celebrating with peers from around the world.
Hillel is entering its fifth year as the largest North American provider of birthright israel trips, and this year, Hillel is sending its largest delegation in three years with numbers rivaling that of the very first year of the program's existence. Hillel offers Jewish students and young professionals many different ways to enjoy these free, 10-day trips. Students may choose to travel with others from their campus or to participate in one of four specialty trips: Peace and Politics, Outdoor Adventure, Journalism, and Arts and Culture. Graduate students and young professionals can participate in a trip designed especially for their needs or in one of the specialty trips.
"The trip was probably the best experience of my life," said Ori Raphael from Dallas, Texas, "meeting Jewish kids from around America and seeing the country in a different light. It made me proud to be a Jew and a Zionist. There wasn't a single best point of the trip, the entire thing was amazing."
In November, Hillel, with the support of the United Jewish Communities (UJC), sent a student delegation to the annual UJC General Assembly in Jerusalem. This month, nearly 400 student activists will take part in a new four-track student leadership mission to Israel and Hillel will send nearly 2,300 students on the free 10-day birthright israel trip which provides a unique experience for young Jewish adults ages 18-26 who have never before been on a peer group trip to Israel.
Hillel has run a large student program at the annual UJC General Assembly for many years. But with the event taking place in Israel, this year's GA provided students with an opportunity not only to hone their leadership skills, but also to stand in solidarity with the Jewish state. "This whole experience was incredible," wrote GA participant Malki Karkowsky in the University of Maryland Diamondback newspaper. "It was heartening to see so many Jews gathering together to show concern for the future of the Jewish people and to provide support and love for a country that is experiencing such hate and animosity from its neighbors."
The largest Jewish campus organization in the world, Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, is committed to creatively empowering and engaging Jewish students through its network of over 500 campus Foundations, Program Centers and affiliates. Its long-standing dedication to building Jewish identity, while nurturing intellectual and spiritual growth in a pluralistic community, positions Hillel as a leader in building a stronger Jewish people and stronger Jewish future.
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