החווייה הישראלית

The Israel Experience

Michael Soberman and Adam Stewart

Israel education has something about it which most other kinds of education can only dream. It has the real thing—the ability to give learners the opportunity to have an actual experience in Israel.

An Israel experience encompasses: tour buses with Wi-Fi, hotels, dogs and cats that understand Hebrew, walls and hills that tell ancient and contemporary stories, and real people living in a thriving modern Jewish nation.

It is almost inconceivable to imagine Israel education without a direct experience in Israel itself—a visit to the place in which a young person can see, feel, hear, taste, and touch the reality that is the State of Israel. Indeed, if there is one facet of Israel education that has proven itself, it is that the power of an effective Israel experience is unmatched and irreplaceable.

In many ways, what we now call the Israel Experience forms the foundation of Israel education. Until recent decades, Israel was often taught as a far-off land with which we should familiarize ourselves in order to complete our destiny as the Jewish people and religion. With the emergence of actual trips to Israel for young people, Israel emerged as an alive, vibrant, multi-dimensional place, which evoked great electricity within the young. The...

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