How do Australian schools offer an Israel education without the trips?

SHARON BERGER: Travel bans have forced schools to think outside the box, including trips to interstate Jewish communities and bringing Israeli-based youth leaders to Australia

WHILE A HANDFUL of Australian teens have travelled to Israel this year on longer-term programs, Covid travel restrictions have meant the vast majority have missed out, for the second year, on what has become a seminal part of their Israel and Jewish education.

For many high schoolers, the multi-week Year 10 trip to Israel has become the highlight of their school experience - travelling overseas with their peers, learning about ancient and modern Israel and strengthening their connection to their Judaism. Needless to say, there are many disappointed Year 10s and 11s.

However, schools and institutions have used this derailment to rethink how to capture the core successful elements of their Israel program. “We can’t recreate Israel here. Instead, we have focused on Jewish identity as something that you take with you, wherever you go geographically and wherever you live,” says Yoel Benn, coordinator of Jewish Experiential Education at Melbourne’s King David School.

Earlier this year the school took its Year 11 students – who missed their 2020 trip to Israel - to Tasmania, to explore the story of Jewish convicts who were transported there from England.

“We are still creating a peak experience for the group and an opportunity for the kids to develop resilience and independence,” Benn says. The students were able to replicate many key elements of the Israel trip including travel, group bonding, nature, hiking and developing Jewish identity.

The school hopes restrictions will be lifted by late November/early December so a planned two-week trip to Tasmania for Year 10 students can go ahead.  There is also hope that this year’s Year 10s will be able to travel on some sort of Israel program next year, which was echoed by most of the schools I contacted.

“A connection with Israel is something that Jews in the diaspora have to try and figure out. How do we remain connected when we don’t live there? This is emphasised more when you can’t go there,” Benn says. He added that the school’s Israel education had continued throughout the disruptions. This was the case for all of the schools contacted.

Talya Wiseman, head of Experiential Jewish Education at Moriah College in Sydney, agrees the travel bans had encouraged the school to think outside the box. “It has allowed us to explore the long-distance relationship we have … to Israel,” she says.

The school brought to Sydney a number of Israeli-based madrichim (who are also Australian citizens) to help bring the Israeli element to campus, and to online learning, including sharing videos and personal stories.

Moriah has also planned a three-week program called Kivun (direction/purpose) for its Year 10 students to help them get excited about the Australian Jewish community. Wiseman says Zionism is a big part of this narrative and Israel has been woven into the domestic program. 

The trip will include stops in NSW, Canberra, Victoria and Queensland, including meeting and learning with local Jewish communities. The students will also meet Indigenous communities and explore their connection to land.

“While we can never replicate the Israel program, we have looked at the outcomes and focused on how we can achieve these outcomes, says Ronnen Grauman, Moriah’s head of Jewish Life.

Bialik College, in Melbourne, and Masada College, in Sydney are also planning interstate trips for their cohorts. Bialik’s trip, called Nefesh (Soul), will take Year 11 students to rural and regional Australia. This trip will include meeting Indigenous Australians and hiking.

Masada is planning a two-week program, called Gesher (Bridge), in which the students will travel from Sydney to Melbourne, with stops at communities along the way. “Gesher aims to create a bridge and build a connection between our Jewish Australian identity and our Zionist identity,” Mira Hasofer, the school’s new principal, says.

“The program will explore the common themes that unify Australia and Israel. Each day of Gesher consists of three focus areas: learning, service and action and the bridge. When camping in the south, for example, our learning focus will be Tikkun Olam, our service focus will be to help rejuvenate the habitats destroyed by the bushfires and our bridge to Israel will be planting trees in Australia with a JNF focus.”

The schools are hopeful their trips will go ahead but have made contingency plans.

Emanuel School in Sydney is bringing in guest speakers, both locally and online from abroad, as well as creating a program to teach the students what they would have learned in Israel. Rabbi Daniel Siegel, head of Emanuel’s Jewish Life, says Zoom sessions have given students the opportunity to hear from people Israel who are working to improve Palestinian-Israeli relations following the recent outbreaks of violence.

“Kobi Bloom, Emanuel’s coordinator of Informal Jewish Life, says: “Israel education doesn't start and end with Chavaya (the school’s Year 10 Israel trip). There is ongoing Jewish studies, informal Jewish life, Israel updates, and connections with community organisations.”

Bloom says that within the Year 11 cohort “there is definitely a hunger to be engaged with Israel and the Jewish community even though they missed out on the Israel trip.”

Siegel adds that Emanuel is holding information sessions with Israel GO to enable students to plan for a true Israel experience as soon as possible.

Emanuel is hopeful that many of those who missed out on the Israel trips will be able to take advantage of the new funding opportunities via the newly launched Israel GO program, aimed at encouraging longer, post high school programs via increased subsidies of $5000-$10,000.

This is also the thinking behind the American Helen Diller Family Foundation’s commitment to offer $US3600  to international fellows who missed out on an Israel trip, which is usually an integral part of its year-long leadership program for teens. In the interim it has gone online.

“Time differences have been our greatest challenge in building meaningful relationships with Israeli teens, but we have shared games, Zooms, song writing and stories of our community and homes to ensure these teens are able to reach out when they are able to touch down in Israel,” Shlomit Weidenfeld, the Melbourne-based Diller Teen Fellows Coordinator, says.

Strong demand for broader Israel trips is expected when the Australian border reopens. “We expect that once borders reopen and Taglit (Birthright) trips from Australia are offered, that we’ll have a high level of demand for places,” Sebastian Inwentarz, the Australian Birthright coordinator, says. In a normal year more 300 young Jewish Australians travel to Israel with Birthright.

One thing everyone can agree on is that while two-weeks mandatory quarantine is required for returning Australians, no one is planning short-term trips. Young Jewish Australians are no doubt hoping that by 2022 they will once again be able to expand their horizons and connect with Israel.

Main photo: Masa Birthright participants including Australians (Courtesy Birthright Australia)