A Long Road to Changing the World (Jewish Week)

Each of the nine times I have been to Israel has been a completely different experience — with my family or at Hebrew U, leading a birthright trip or at a conference. But this time I was part of a mission of over 500 young Jews who had arrived a few weeks ago to make a difference. On this trip, there would be no Kotel visit, no partying in Tel Aviv, no visiting relatives on kibbutzim. This was ten days devoted to social service in communities ravaged by this past summer’s war. There would be painting and reforestation, discussion, networking and ultimately, a feeling that we had a long road ahead of us.

Most of the buses belonged to the Jewish Coalition for Service, and hundreds of Hillel students arrived a week later in a “second wave” of participants. Ours was a group of about 40 mostly twenty-somethings, alumni of Schusterman-sponsored leadership programs like ROI 120 and Kivun, and all imported under the aegis of the sponsoring organization, the new Center for Leadership Initiatives, whose first major project was this effort to help “rebuild the North.”

Want more? Original article is here.