US College Students Deepen Jewish Identity, Israel Advocacy
Post-Birthright Intensive Study Vacation Ends Sunday
JUNE 2, 2011
Rebecca Abeles, a cognitive science major, challenged the rabbi's claims by quoting a thought from the Tanya, a work of Chasidic philosophy written in the 18th century.
Her point, a mystical interpretation of the Golden Rule, was not something she picked up at lectures in UC Berkeley, but on IsraeLinks, Chabad on Campus's three-week study-tour seminar in Israel which comes to a close on Sunday.
Story Highlights
• Israelinks is a Chabad on Campus International Foundation sponsored three-week study-tour trip to Israel
• Over 200 college students applied for the trip's 38 spots
• Jewish study and discussion are emphasized, students return to college with solid commitments to Jewish life
classes for three hours each day of the trip, Abeles and the 27 college women sitting around the conference tables with her were at ease, contributing and confronting Rabbi Mayer Levinger, a lecturer at Mayanot Institute, as they saw fit.
“I went to Jewish day schools all my life, and I know a lot but I never had it all put together,” said Abeles.
Across Jerusalem in another study hall, 10 men, the remainder of the group, pushed their knowledge of Judaism further in a parallel study session.
Competition for spots on the trip, subsidized by Chabad on Campus International Foundation, was fiercer than ever. More than 200 students applied. A second trip is scheduled for July, and another may be added.
“Each Chabad campus center has a couple of students who really use the resources of Chabad. They attend classes, Shabbat dinners, are involved with advocating for Israel,” said Yossi Witkes, who has directed Israelinks with wife Chaya since the program's initiation five years ago. “Ideally, each one would like to take these students to Israel on their own,” but logistically and financially, one centrally supported trip is more doable.
Almost all students on Israelinks are veterans of Taglit-Birthright Israel trips. Differences between the 10-day Birthright trip and Israelinks are in the pace and emphasis. Israelinks spent a week studying in the spiritual mountain high of Safed in northern Israel. Most Birthright trips cover Safed in a day. Birthright trips offer guides. Israelinks provides a scholar in residence. If Birthright is Israel 101, then Israelinks is a senior seminar.
Rabbi Asi Spiegel, scholar in residence of this Israelinks trip, expects that the applicants will come home with a “commitment to Jewish life and continuity that is solidified one hundredfold.” Each student in his or her own way has taken a leap forward: keeping kosher, observing Shabbat, and a few bounded over to Mayanot's administration, asking for applications to enroll.
Erica Sandrock, a Bostonite studying sculpture and psychology at Washington University in St. Louis, enjoyed the kinetic energy of her Birthright Israel experience. She's finding Israelinks deeper. “We are covering such a breadth of different topics. Everything from straightforward Torah to mystical parts. It's better than I could hope for.”
The courtyard near the study hall is shaded by trees and a neighbor's geraniums spill over the wall. While other Israelinks participants are slurping ice cream Stacy Stern, a business administration major at the University of Buffalo, reflects on the part of Israelinks that has made the greatest impression. Lake Kineret? Golan Heights? The nearby trendy Emek Refaim avenue in Katamon, a neighborhood so of the moment Israel's answer to Friends is filmed there? No.
She likes the classes taught jointly by Rabbi Zalman and Yehudis Bluming, Chabad representatives from Duke University and the University of North Carolina. “They are phenomenal.”
Her answer begs a question. Why not base Israelinks in the U.S. somewhere central -- like Kansas? Cheaper flights. Less jet lag. No language barrier.
Basing the trip in Israel helps the college students, like Abeles, a vocal member of UC Berkeley's Israel Action Committee stand strong.
There's an undeniable magic to Israel. “The holiness does something powerful,” said Mrs. Bluming.
It removes the divide between holy study and fun. No where else can a boat trip evoke the precariousness of Israel's water supply and bring us close to Maimonides' tomb.
Spending three weeks of summer vacation with Israelinks in Israel fleshes out Jewish beliefs and theories. It's the difference, said Sandrock, between looking at the picture of the Western Wall and “touching it with your own hands.”
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Courtesy of: Lubavitch.com
