This year’s senior Poland-Israel trip will start in February, instead of in in May as in past years. According to Facilities Director Mr. Eli Schiff, dates for the trip are Feb. 26 to March 17, 2012.
Head of School Rabbi Ari Segal pressed for the change to encourage students to go to Israel for a gap year by giving them more time to consider it. He also wanted students to be able to bring the energy they would gain from the trip back to school, instead of graduating soon after returning.
“I want the seniors to come back with five months feeling on a high from Israel,” Rabbi Segal said during a press conference with The Boiling Point Aug. 18. In past years, seniors have shared experiences from the trip at the final Town Hall of the year, which last year also included goodbyes to teachers who were not coming back.
The 2012 trip will also be longer — 20 days instead of two weeks. Seniors will thus have time to visit yeshivot, seminaries and Israel gap year programs.
“I strongly encouraged us to move it,” Rabbi Segal. “We were not doing as good a job as we could to move [students] to make that choice.”
Israel gap year attendance has ranged from 10 to 40 percent of Shalhevet graduates in recent years, according to previous Boiling Point surveys. Alumnus Zev Hurwitz ’11, who did a survey as part of his senior project, said last year’s class would send five of 38 graduates — 13 percent — to Israel this fall.
“It’s a culture thing,” said Judaic Studies teacher Mr. Noam Weissman, who is now also Judaic Curriculum Director and in charge of Israel counseling for senior boys.
Mr. Weissman there were many reasons graduates might not go, including financial constraints and thinking they won’t find the right program. But he thought moving the Poland-Israel trip might encourage more.
“Any sort of trip can 100 percent alter someone’s plan,” Mr. Weissman said in an interview. “Because it is earlier in the year, it will help, and solidify those who plan to spend a year in Israel, which will hopefully influence others.”
He said different types of programs in Israel included agriculture, military service, and touring in addition to various kinds of seminaries and yeshivot for Torah study.
“Going to Israel is not for everyone, but it is something that everyone should consider,” Mr. Weissman said.
The earlier trip means that there will be less time for the senior class to raise money for the trip. But Rabbi Segal said that the school would help, with new Development Director Aaron Kiegher leading the initiative.
“We are aware of it,” he said. “We are going to try to help out from the professional side. We just have to ramp up the fundraising, do it earlier, quicker. For the future years, they’ll be fine; it’s once the senior class goes this year, the next group will start fundraising right after that. So the 11th grade will start fundraising for their 12th grade trip the following year.”
Current seniors and parents started fundraising for this year’s trip last year, sparking complaints from the class of 2011 who said it created harmful competition.
