Next Year in Jerusalem?
Why Wait?

The Jerusalem Fellowships is proud to announce 2 great programs this summer, exclusively for our alumni:

Student Leaders
and
Return and Learn

Dates:
Return and Learn -- Men:
May 17th -- June 17: July 5 - August 8th
Return and Learn -- Women:
May 24th - June 30: July 5th - August 8th

Cost:
Just $500

For more information, please contact the Fellowships office at 1-800 FELLOWS

The Jerusalem Fellowships Alumni Forum proudly announces our new

Message Board
and
Chat Area

Thanks to our friends at Delphi, you can now post messages to your Fellow alumni, locate old friends, or chat with other past participants. Just follow the links....

(First time users will be asked to register)

Jerusalem Follow-up Weekly Archives

Week Ending December 5th
Week Ending December 12th
Week Ending December 19th
Week Ending January 9th, 1999
Week Ending January 16th, 1999
Week Ending January 23rd, 1999
Week Ending February 6th, 1999
Week Ending February 13th, 1999
Week Ending February 20th, 1999
Week Ending February 27th, 1999
Week Ending March 6th, 1999

ALUMNI OF THE MONTH

On June 3rd, Aish HaTorah branches, worldwide, participated in a live Gala Interactive Satellite Event, hosted by Larry King, and including special guests; radio personality, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, movie critic Michael Medved, Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Dore Gold, and Rabbi Avraham Twerski.  Fellowships alumni were featured speakers at three of our events:

Magda Schaler in NY
Nadine Tobin in Toronto
Brian Plotkin in Florida.

Text of the Speech by Magda Schaler - New York

My name is Magda Schaler, and I was a participant on Jerusalem Fellowships this past December, which was my first trip to Israel.  I was looking for a well-crafted program with the perfect balance of religious learning, Jewish intellectual growth and a chance to really see Israel from a multi-faceted viewpoint.  And, as a graduate student, I could not go without financial assistance.  I found all those things in the Fellowships.

I graduated from Brandeis in 1996,  recently finished my Master’s Degree in Public Health at Columbia, and will be starting law school at NYU in the fall.
 
Despite the fact that I attended Hebrew School for eight years, I felt I received an inadequate Jewish education.  Regardless, I felt proud to be a Jew.  One day, I began asking why.  Why was I proud to be Jewish?  What was the bond I felt when I found out someone else was Jewish?  Why did I wear my Magen David and why was it important to marry a Jewish man?  I fumbled for answers, sure it was more than bagels and Seinfeld.  Images came to mind of my great-grandparents calling me by my Hebrew name and speaking in Yiddish.  What was the connection?  L’dor v’dor.  What would I pass on to my children?  My great-grandparents are gone, I don’t know Yiddish and all of my close friends are disenfranchised with Judaism.  I had to come up with something more substantive.

So on December 21st,  I got on an El Al plane and headed off to Jerusalem to find some answers.  Answers are not exactly what I found.  I found ideas, debate, and a million more questions.  The difference for me, then, from before and after the trip was in the substantive depth of the questions.  I feel more connected now to the Jewish part of my identity, as I can look at things about myself, and about others and know what it is that is inherently Jewish.  I found in Israel a powerful historical context through Judaism for the issues I face daily, and the impact of my ancestors on my life.  I found in Israel a path, constructed entirely of questions, of Jewish questions and Jewish answers- all of which were mine to claim.

I returned with those questions, and they stay with me as my friends and tour guides on my path of Jewish learning.  I think about them in services, in the subway, with my friends and family.  I think about them for the memory of my Great-grand parents and the future of my great-grandchildren.  The Jerusalem Fellowships is a program that is broadly appealing, and for that I commend them.  I was able to find all that I was looking for from my first trip to Israel.  Amazingly, those friends of mine from the trip who had been to Israel several times, felt that they too were exposed to an entirely new side of the country and of Judaism.  Some of my favorite experiences there in addition to classes and discussion at the Aish center were Shabbas with families in the Old City, meeting with Shimon Peres at the Knesset and hiking in the Golan.  I look forward to going back to Israel many times during my life, and I thank Aish HaTorah for helping me construct my own path of Jewish learning