Group tours are the staple of Israel trips for teens, but this August, 10 incoming Prozdor juniors will tour Eretz Yisrael with a twist—sharing their experiences, text study and impressions with their counterparts from the Alliance School in Haifa. Funded by Combined Jewish Philanthropies' (CJP) Boston-Haifa Connection, organized by Project Oren, the August 18–28 trip includes key sites that trace both ancient Jewish history and the evolution of the modern Jewish state, from 1948 to the present.

Escorted by Prozdor faculty Edna Lapidot, who is also a CJP staff member, Prozdor and Alliance teens will travel by bus from Jaffa to the Dead Sea, from Jerusalem to the Golan Heights, creating their own written Talmud discussion of daily guiding questions as they go. Topics will range from the mystics of Tsfat to the late Columbia space shuttle astronaut Ilon Ramon.

The trip is designed to engage both American and Israeli teens in a closer look at what it means to be Jewish. "It will heighten Israeli kids' Jewish identity and awareness as well as American kids' identification with Israel," says Marjorie Tarmy Berkowitz, Prozdor Director.

Earlier this summer, 10 Prozdor 12th-graders and 10 other graduating seniors from around the U.S. traveled together on a special Birthright trip designed for Prozdor. Berkowitz says the June 8–18 tour was geared to help these young adults "bring together all the pieces of their Jewish education." Graduating seniors from the Alliance School and several Israeli Defense Forces soldiers from Haifa joined the group, accompanied by Prozdor Middle School Director Ruthie Strosberg (MJEd '03). "They were exploring together what it means to be an 18-year-old in Israel today," says Berkowitz.

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