(Ha'aretz) Judy Maltz - While 10-day Birthright trips to Israel have been suspended due to the coronavirus, longer-term Israel experience programs are experiencing a bonanza. This includes international students enrolled at Israeli universities, yeshivas and seminaries, as well as programs overseen and subsidized by Masa, which brings thousands of diaspora Jews to Israel on educational, volunteer and internship programs. Masa CEO Ofer Gutman said many of the programs supervised by his organization continue to operate, even as they comply with social distancing requirements. He said registration for programs scheduled to open next year has been more than double the usual numbers as Jews in the U.S. consider alternatives to universities back home, given the likelihood that classrooms will remain closed next semester. "In many ways it's similar to what happened in 2008 and 2009, when there were lots of layoffs in America and many young people out of college who couldn't find jobs," Gutman recalls. "I think many post-college Jews from America will use this opportunity to take on internships in Israel that could add a nice line to their CVs." Yossi Garr, director of Nativ, a gap-year program run by the Conservative movement, says: "It's a choice between spending your first year of college at home in your basement on a laptop or studying at Hebrew University, which is a real academic opportunity, along with all the social aspects that come with a program in Israel."
2020-06-05 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive