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Aish Campus Leadership Trip to Poland and Israel
The Aish Campus Leadership Trip to Poland and Israel is a unique opportunity for University students who want to be Jewish leaders. The Jewish People are currently threatened by two major issues: assimilation and anti-Semitism. Today the majority of Jews in North America do not even identify as being Jews. Most young Jews today lack any sense of Jewish identity, pride or knowledge. Simultaneously, anti-Semitism is at its highest levels since the Holocaust sixty years ago. Islamic terror is gaining momentum and leaders of nations are publicly calling for the destruction of Israel.
In order to combat these dangerous threats, young Jews need to take responsibility to be active for the Jewish People. The Aish Campus Leadership Trip will provide participants with the tools to deal with these issues on campus.
The program will visit Poland for four days, visiting both pre-Holocaust and Holocaust sites. The itinerary includes visiting cities such as Warsaw, Crakow and Lublin, as well as the concentration camps of Majdenek and Aucshwitz-Birkenow. Through learning about the Jewish community in Poland before the Holocaust and then seeing first-hand the eventual destruction, we hope to understand deeply the threats of today.
The program will then be in Israel for two weeks, mainly based in Jerusalem. The Israel itinerary will include:
1) Trips to important locations throughout Israel including Sderot.
2) Discussions and seminars about the major threats facing the Jewish People today including assimilation and anti-Semitism. We will examine why these threats are so serious and why we need to act against them.
3) Discussions on what it means to be an activist and to take responsibility for the Jewish People.
4) Brainstorming and planning practical tools and programs to bring back to campus after the program to pro-actively educate students about these important issues.
5) Discussions and seminars about various Torah subject and individual and small group Torah study.
The Aish Campus Leadership Trip is only open to students who are referred by an Aish Campus staff member. Students must already show a strong commitment to Jewish Activism on campus and must already spend significant time working with an Aish Campus staff member. Every participant commits to organize at least one Jewish or Israel related program or initiative upon returning to campus after the program.
The dates of the program are June 6 - 27, 2010, and the program costs $799. For more information about the Aish Campus Leadership Trip to Poland and Israel, contact Rabbi Elliot Mathias at emathias@aish.com or 646-365-0030.
