Published in the May 27, 2004 Edition of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle Internet Edition

For the first time since 2000, the graduating eighth-grade class of Community Day School/Solomon Schechter (CDS) will travel to Israel.

Twenty-six students and three teacher-chaperones from the school will leave Pittsburgh on May 30 to spend two weeks in Israel touring the country, visiting historic sites and having fun. Alternate trips to New York City and Baltimore temporarily replaced the Israel trip because of concerns over the situation there, but there was a strong push for the class to return to Israel this year.

CDS Head of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, Tzippy Mazer, said she and four other teachers from the school spent time in Israel last summer and realized that the trip had to be reinstituted. "We discovered that students who spent time in Israel had more affiliation with Jewish organizations after they left school," she said. "It was made clear to us that we had to have the trip again and that we had to start getting kids back there."

In what may be the only school trip to Israel from the Pittsburgh area this summer, Mazer says the tour will include visits to historical and modern sites and time with other students from other trips. "Our program was completely designed for us by Ramah," she said. "We told them some of the things that we wanted to highlight because of our own curriculum and they filled that in."

The Ramah Israel Institute custom builds programs in Israel for schools, synagogues and other community organizations. Each program is designed to fit the needs of the group, based on their previous background, trip goals, knowledge of Israel and the framework with which they are affiliated.

For CDS students, the tour schedule includes time in Jerusalem, Old Jaffa, Masada and the Dead Sea. They will have an opportunity to see their own friends and family who live in Israel and will also get to socialize with kids from a school in Seattle, Wash.

This year's schedule has been adjusted so that more time will be spent in Eilat and the Red Sea than in Jerusalem because of safety concerns. In other years, Mazer said, students had as many as three nights to go out on their own.

On this trip, they will spend more time on the beach and volunteering at a soup kitchen. "The students won't have as much down time," Mazer said.

The eighth-grade class raised money to pay for the trip through several fund-raising events at school. Some students and their families have also participated in the United Jewish Federation's Passport to Israel program where families put money aside on an annual basis that is partially matched by the UJF. "Those parents were quite happy when the final bill for this trip arrived," Mazer said. "We have a 'no child left behind' policy, though. For any child who was interested in going on the trip, we found a way to pay for it." The UJF, she said, was generous with its subsidies for the entire trip this year. Mazer said the students are enthusiastic and "rarin'" to go. "It's a perfect ending for everything they have studied since kindergarten at Community Day School." For more information, contact Marci Barnes: marci_k_barnes@yahoo.com

  Tamuz 5764 - July 2004