Home at last! Teens return to Israel
THE FIRST Israel tour participants from the UK in three years arrived in Tuesday with four groups of Bnei Akiva members touching down at Ben-Gurion airport.
One of the arrivals, 16-year-old Ella Frankfurt, said it was “incredible to be back in Israel. We all know how lucky we are to be on tour after the past few years and I can’t wait for the amazing month ahead.”
Moriah Feiglin, an Israeli who will be leading one of the tours, said: “It’s so exciting to bring people who have never been here, or even if they have been here before, have never experienced Israel this way.”
His goal was to imbue in participants “a special connection to Israel”.
Around 1,300 teenagers will participate in this summer’s tours, arranged under the auspices of UJIA Israel Experience with 36 groups from 12 youth movements and organisations taking part.
In addition to the programmes for 16 and 17 year olds, UJIA is also supporting immersive educational trips to Israel for older age groups, such as Birthright Israel and a diverse range of gap year and post-university multi-month experiences.
UJIA’s Journey Home campaign has the target of taking 10,000 young British Jews to Israel in the next three years.
Charity chair Louise Jacobs said: “After two years, all of us at UJIA are thrilled to see Israel Tours resume.
“Israel tour is not only a trip of a lifetime for teenagers. It is the start of a journey into Jewish engagement and leadership. I am so excited that we can get back to giving young people this opportunity to connect with Israel and develop as future leaders.
“We did our best during Covid but nothing can beat this experience.”