Last year on our inaugural trip, we toured the country with eight participants who experienced Israel for the first time. This year five of them are returning as part of this year’s trip. However, this time they will have a much different itinerary. Although they will fly over and back with Susan and I, and the nine first-timers, when we get to the airport in Tel Aviv, we will then part ways. Our group will meet our guide and begin our tour while the "veterans" from last year’s trip will meet their new friends from Congregation Ohr Chadash in Haifa. Through a connection that was cultivated by our congregant Stephanie Block (who recently spent a summer studying in Haifa), we have worked out an exchange program with Ohr Chadash. Our students will stay with families of their congregation who have students their age. Under the supervision of Ohr Chadash’s talented and innovative Rabbi Edgar Nof our students will have the opportunity to live as Israelis for ten days. In addition, they will take daily trips to various parts of the country that they did not see last year and spend quality time in Haifa getting to know their hosts families.

In the future, we hope that each participant who experiences the Israel trip will opt to return for the Haifa exchange. I know that it is going to be a very positive, educational and transformative experience for our students. Last year’s participants returned from Israel with a renewed love for Judaism and a heightened awareness of their own Jewish identity. There is only one place in the world that can create that type of impact – and that is why I keep taking people there!