Good Monday morning!
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on an event bringing together young American and Israeli leaders at the Tisch Center for Jewish Dialogue in Tel Aviv and feature op-eds from Charlotte Friedman and Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz. We’ll start with a new initiative by Mosaic United to bring teens from around the world to Israel.
Check out “What Remains,” the final part of Jewish Insider‘s series by Gabby Deutch on the unsolved murder of a rabbi in Washington, D.C., in 1984, Who Killed Kesher’s Rabbi?
Mosaic United will expand its operations this summer, bringing hundreds of teens from around the world to Israel as part of a new pilot program, the organization told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross.
Until now, Mosaic United – working with RootOne – has primarily focused on bringing North American teenagers to Israel, subsidizing trips for thousands of them each year. Beginning this summer, the organization will do the same for teenagers from the rest of the world, offering vouchers worth between $3,000 and $6,000 to roughly 300 teenagers from at least 10 countries, Alana Elbin, director of Mosaic United’s Teen Travel Pillar, told eJP.
Elbin stressed that this does not represent a pivot by Mosaic United, but rather that it brings the organization’s operations in line with its stated mission. “Our mandate is all of Diaspora Jewry. We want them to embrace and deepen their Jewish experiences as well,” she said. “The thought behind expanding this to communities outside of North America was always there.”
This summer’s pilot program will be done in partnership with JCC Global and CTeen, Chabad’s teen network. Mosaic is also in talks with NCSY Argentina, though a collaboration has yet to be finalized. It is being run through a fund-matching program, with the Israeli government allocating $1 million toward the initiative. “Mosaic United, through the Diaspora [Affairs] Ministry is providing 50% and the other side is bringing their 50%,” Elbin said.
In order to be eligible for the vouchers, the trips must last at least three weeks, include “formative pre- and post-trip experiences” and include a “meaningful multi-day mifgash [meeting] with Israeli teens,” Elbin said. Staff members must also undergo a 10-hour training session to prepare them to lead the trips, she said. All participants will receive a $3,000 voucher – the same as North American recipients – but with the possibility of receiving up to $3,000 more, based on need and other circumstances. “Some teens are going on these trips for nothing, others are going for about half the cost,” Elbin said.
The trips will run from July to August. They will include participants from South America, Africa and Europe, including displaced Ukrainian refugees, according to a spokesperson for Mosaic United. Next year, the organization plans to triple the number of non-American participants.
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