By Bayla Sheva Brenner

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES:

Masa Israel Journey Is Changing the Way Young Jews View Israel

Masa helps students strengthen their Jewish identity and develop a lifelong love of Israel.

hile a good phenomenally successful youth move- by the United Jewish Communities of percentage of ment. NCSY advisors in her region North America and the Orthodox high convinced her that the year in Israel around the world, helps fund students’ school gradu- was something definitely worth her tuition at any one of 200 long-term ates flock to time. Although still wary, she went, programs in Israel, fifty of which are the Holy Land each fall, there are tens thanks to the support she received Orthodox. Its goal in a nutshell: to en- of thousands more who don’t even care from Masa Israel Journey. “I was so sure that Jews all over the world build to go. nervous getting on the plane,” she a lasting relationship with Israel, have Masa Israel Journey is helping to says. “I was like—what am I doing? I a strong Jewish identity, and gain change that. don’t like learning!” After her year at meaningful and beneficial experiences “I didn’t see much value in spend- Machon Maayan, she changed her in Israel. “We were looking to expand ing a year in Israel,” says Sarah Alt, tune. “I just loved seeing the country,” on the ten-day con- eighteen, who attended public high she says. “I gained a great love for cept,” says Avi Rubel, Masa’s director school in Buffalo, New York. “I figured learning, for Israel, for my fellow Jew, of North American operations. “Many it was just a year to hang out.” She and for what it means to be a Jew.” young people would return after hav- planned instead to study music at Buf- Established by the government of ing an extraordinary ‘wake-up mo- falo State University. Alt was involved Israel and the ment’ in Israel, but the impact of a with NCSY, the ’s in 2003, Masa Israel Journey enables longer experience lasts a lifetime.” Jews from all over the world to spend a Esther Tsvaygenbaum is a case in Bayla Sheva Brenner is senior writer in the semester to a year in Israel. Open to point. “I absolutely fell in love with Is- OU Communications and Marketing those ages eighteen to thirty, Masa Is- rael,” says Tsvaygenbaum, eighteen, Department. rael Journey, which is also supported from Albany, New York. A former

60 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5772/2011 rael is almost a tours and Masa Leadership Seminars, rite of passage. among other extra-curricular pro- This was not so in gramming offered to participants the non-Ortho- throughout their stay in Israel. Masa dox world. Until Israel Journey also offers need-based recently. Accord- scholarships, determined by the par- ing to Rubel, the ticipant’s financial need and the length year before the of the program. Those who qualify can program’s receive up to an additional $3,000 in launching in scholarship money. 2003, between Since Masa’s founding, the number 3,000 to 4,000 of participants has nearly tripled. This young people at- past September, 10,400 young people, tended long-term many of whom are NCSYers, partici- Two students learning at one of the Masa-accredited programs in Is- programs in Is- pated in Masa-accredited programs. rael. Masa funds fifty Orthodox-run programs in the Jewish State. rael, 40 percent Many Masa programs also offer col- of whom were lege credits. NCSY’s “Israel Experi- NCSY chapter president, Tsvaygen- young adults attending Orthodox semi- ence” is one such program. Launched baum grew up in a non-observant nary or yeshivah programs. This aca- in 2008 by the OU and Bar-Ilan Univer- home. Her dream after finishing high demic year, the relative proportion of sity, Israel Experience combines uni- school was to learn in Israel, but her Orthodox Israel-goers dropped to 38 versity classes in one of Israel’s top parents were set on her going to Juil- percent. “What is happening is that the universities with an extramural pro- liard. “We really couldn’t afford my numbers in the Orthodox community gram incorporating NCSY-style trips going to Israel for the year,” she says. are staying the same, but the relative and activities. But then she heard about Masa Israel percentage is going down as other parts Rabbi Steven Burg, international di- Journey. “They made it so easy,” says of the community begin to embrace rector of NCSY, considers Masa Israel Tsvaygenbaum. “They really want stu- this idea,” says Rubel. “We are learning Journey to be an invaluable partner. dents to experience the magic and from the Orthodox community and “Our missions are totally aligned—to beauty of what Israel has to offer. making a year in Israel the norm for the get as many adolescents as possible to There’s no question that I’m going to rest of the Jewish world.” study in Israel during their college or be living there; I only want to raise my Masa Israel Journey offers every post-college years,” says Rabbi Burg. children in Israel.” undergraduate student a grant of “They do it through funding and help- Masa-accredited programs include $1,000; post-college participants (ages ing to create new programs. There are Torah institutions for men and women twenty-one and older) receive grants NCSYers who would absolutely not be as well as other initiatives catering to a ranging from $3,000 to $4,500, de- studying in Israel today without variety of interests including sports, ac- pending on the length of their stay. For Masa’s help.” g ademia, volunteer work and the arts. the 2010-2011 academic year, 80 per- Thanks to Masa Israel Journey, the cent of Masa’s $47 million budget went demographic of young Israel-goers is toward participants’ scholarships and rapidly expanding. In the Orthodox grants. The balance covers the student world, spending a year studying in Is-

“There are NCSYers who would absolutely not be studying in Israel today without Masa’s help.”

Masa and NCSY work together to get as many students as possible to study in Israel.

Winter 5772/2011 JEWISH ACTION I 61