Givat Haviva at Birthright Mega Event
By Lydia Aisenberg
June 11, 2008
In sweltering heat and only a slight breeze to ease the discomfort, staff members of the International Department spent hours mingling with thousands of university students attending a Birthright-Taglit Mega Event recently.
In an enclosure with booths sporting information and advice on innovative and diverse programs offered to overseas students in Israel, as well as organizations offering ‘kool’ computer programs to learn Hebrew or gain a deeper insight into Judaism, Hilit Ben-Zvi, Uri Barel, Lydia Aisenberg and David Mendelsohn spoke to interested students about the Givat Haviva Masa To The East Middle East Studies program, due to start in January 2009.
No less than 7,500 students from a dozen or so countries swooped on the Latrun amphitheater near Jerusalem for yet another gigantic gathering of the successful Birthright-Taglit project, now celebrating nine years since bringing the first group of students seeking a 10-day Israel experience, for free.
The International Department at Givat Haviva has hosted seminars for thousands of Birthright-Taglit students from across the United States, Canada, South America, Britain, Australia, Poland and other eastern European countries as well as from Holland, Germany and Sweden. More groups are being booked for the popular Talk & Tour seminars in the near future and for later on this year.
Many of the Birthright-Taglit groups are accompanied by five or six serving IDF soldiers – placed with the overseas students in order they should get to know better their Israeli peers and the reality of being that age in Israel. The International Department seminars usually score high feedback marks, given both by the students and IDF soldiers alike.
We, the International Department staff, truly believe that we are able to provide an educational experience of a different kind that remains an important part of the Israel experience for Birthright-Taglit participants.
Hundreds of former Birthright-Taglit student participants have returned to Israel for further university studies or joined other long-term programs. Therefore we also truly believe that the 5-month Masa To The Middle East educational journey, offering the ability to learn spoken Arabic, Hebrew and general knowledge about the complex past, present and looking to the future of Israel and the region, will be an attractive offer hard to refuse.