The number of Jewish students who take a “Gap Year” to pursue volunteer, study, and career-related opportunities in Israel before enrolling in college continues to rise. From 2007 to 2008, the number of participants on non-yeshiva MASA gap-year programs increased by 45% to more than 1,000. “In Orthodox communities, a year after high school spent studying in Israel is a normative experience,” says Avi Rubel, MASA’s North American Director. “Our goal is to make mainstream gap-year programs the normative experience for all Jewish young adults.”
While once considered a luxury for the wealthy, the gap-year, which costs less than a year of private college and is subsidized by MASA grants, is now seen as an economically-wise decision. Students often graduate from high school feeling ‘burnt-out’ and directionless. Top universities like Harvard and Princeton recognize this and urge students to consider the option and defer for the year, before investing in the four-year college. Princeton is currently working to create a program in which a tenth or more of their newly admitted students have the opportunity to pursue a year of service abroad before beginning their studies. Princeton’s president, Shirley Tilghman called it a year of “cleansing the palate of high school, giving [students] a year to regroup.”
William Fitzsimmons, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at Harvard, which explicitly encourages students to pursue a gap year program in their acceptance letters, explains that a gap year allows students to “gain perspective on personal values and goals, or to gain needed life experience in a setting separate from and independent of one’s accustomed pressures and expectations.” (Click here for complete article)
MASA offers young adults an increasingly diverse selection of gap-year programs in Israel, many also offering participants the opportunity to travel and volunteer in other countries while being based in Israel. Many of these programs, which include academic components, allow students to earn up to 27 college credits. Most importantly, these gap-year programs in Israel help individuals mold and reinforce their Jewish identities before forging their own paths in college.
Kivunim: New Directions and Young Judaea Olami Year Course are two programs that have recently attracted a great deal of attention. In an age that emphasizes cultural exchange in order to build world consciousness, Kivunim and Young Judaea Olami, which are both based in Israel, allow their participants to embark on hands-on explorations of Jewish and world history.
On Kivunim, participants travel through India, Morocco, the Ukraine, Turkey, Greece, Spain, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, trekking through the birthplaces of diverse Jewish communities and understanding how their current Jewish populations connect to their religion in their contemporary lives. In order to facilitate participants’ ability to connect to their hosts and to work towards coexistence, they receive Hebrew and Arabic instruction.
On Young Judaea Olami, participants travel to different regions in order to explore the birthplaces of Israel’s many immigrant groups and to understand their past and continued cultural impacts on Israeli society. Divided into five tracks, including “Sephardic Judaism and Zionism” and “Israel, Africa and the Jews” that focus on different parts of the world, participants trace the steps of historical and current events, while connecting them to early and modern-day Israel.
In the spirit of social justice, Young Judaea is launching a Tikun Olam track in 2009-2010 in which participants spend six months volunteering and studying in Israel and three months doing community service in Ghana. “We want to make Israel programs for young Jews and at the same time, stay in touch with the issues that young Jews are interested in by innovating,” says Dan Krakow, Director of Young Judaea, in explanation for why Young Judaea Year Course’s new tracks have been so successful. “There’s a growing trend among young people in America to contribute to the world today, to volunteer and to do some sort of social service.”
Programs like Kivunim and Young Judaea Year Course allow participants to earn college credit, but some young adults prefer to spend their gap year on a program that mirrors the college experience, with Israel as the setting. The Hebrew University “Academic Gap Year” is a quickly-growing program in which students take classes in Jewish, Israel and Middle Eastern studies, as well as general subjects frequently required of first-year students. While living in Israel, students are able to explore the landscape of their studies and need not worry about ‘losing time’ before college.
Different non-orthodox religious affiliations also offer gap-year programs in Israel. Nativ, which is affiliated with the Conservative movement and features academics, volunteering, and tours around Israel, had more than 100 participants last year. Tamarim – The Netzer Year is the Reform movement’s new gap-year program that is beginning to attract young adults all over the world, allowing them a full experience as Reform Jews in Israel.
In a country that is culturally, ethnically, and religiously diverse, Israel has a place for every Jewish young adult in Israel. Part of MASA’s goals consists of finding programs that speak to their individual needs. Recently, MASA introduced a few new programs that allow gap-year participants to improve their individual talents, including Dance Journey and Budokan – Martial Arts and Israeli Leadership Program.
“Gap year experiences are offered in countries across the globe, but the great thing about doing a gap year in Israel for young Jews, is that not only can they volunteer and gain life skills,” says Rubel. “They can also spend time in the one country in the world where they are not a minority, strengthening their Jewish identities and developing connections with other Jews.”