Israel advocacy program for teens views funding loss as opportunity to grow

Taylor Edelhart had been to Israel before, as an eighth-grader, with her class from Brandeis Hillel Day School. She did “all the touristy things,” and had a lot of fun. But the trip she took the summer between her junior and senior years of high school was something else entirely.

“There was such a sense of purpose,” remembers the 18-year-old, a San Francisco resident who will attend New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts as a freshman in the fall. “It was completely eye-opening.”

Edelhart is an alumna of Write On For Israel, an intensive year-and-a-half-long program that trains high school students to become advocates for Israel through journalism. The curriculum includes a 10-day trip to Israel to meet and engage with local newsmakers and community members in order to get a more well-rounded view of the country’s challenges, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Until now, WOFI was free of charge for participants. But due to loss of funding from the Avi Chai Foundation, members of the next cohort will pay roughly $1,000 for the former two-year program, including the trip to Israel.

Throughout the school year, WOFI participants hear from a range of speakers, including experts on Israeli history and Zionism, media analysts and educators. Through lessons designed to improve writing, rhetoric, critical thinking and public speaking skills, teens learn to advocate on Israel’s behalf — a toolkit program leaders say serves the students well as they transition into college.

“Any teen who enters this program has to be able to ask good questions, be open-minded and want to learn more,” says Jonathan Carey, the founder and executive director of BlueStar and WOFI in San Francisco. “This isn’t a free trip to ride a camel — these youth really engage with issues, and they’re seeking to better themselves, and they’re getting enmeshed in truly adult issues … What parents tell us is they know the program’s working when their son or daughter has real opinions at the dinner table.

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Israel advocacy program for teens views funding loss as opportunity to grow
Israel advocacy program for teens views funding loss as opportunity to grow

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