Local families traveling to Israel this summer will “meet” the Prophet Isaiah, a priest from the Second Temple and a Palmach fighter from the 1948 War of Independence.
Two months earlier, educators in local Jewish preschools — many of whom are not Jewish — will travel to the Holy Land to enrich their classroom techniques.
The two programs are sponsored by the S.F.-based Bureau of Jewish Education and the Israel Center of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation.
The family trip, called “Kibbutz Family Adventure,” marks a significant departure from previous BJE trips, according to Vicky Kelman, the agency’s director of family education.
The 15-day journey will be a “very intense, shared experience for the family,” she said. “I consider it to be a family pilgrimage.
“For years there have been what were called family missions. They were basically parallel experiences. The parents might be at Masada while the children are at the water slide. This [trip] is shared, interactive.”
Meirav Yaron, the Living Bridge coordinator of the Israel Center, agrees.
The trip will include activities that incorporate the parents and children together, she said, such as “going into the fields to pick wheat and make challah.”
Other activities on the June 20 to July 4 trip, include receiving interactive lessons from historic characters in Jerusalem’s Old City. On their visit to the Zin Valley and the natural spring Ein Avdat, the families will also learn about the desert’s role in the development of Judaism.
After trekking up the Roman ramp to Masada, they’ll participate in a Jewish family commitment ceremony. Families will define the Jewish values central to their own lives.
Because the trip is partly sponsored by the Kibbutz Program Center, families will stay on kibbutzim instead of in hotels.
“You’ll get a better sense of Israel and the land, staying with Israelis, as opposed to going on a trip as a family by yourself,” Yaron said.
The trip, which does not include air fare, costs $1,650 for adults and $1,450 for children.
Jane Kahn, a San Francisco lawyer who is helping organize the trip, is taking her 9- and 12-year-old sons. Though she has taken her family to Israel several times, she hopes this trip will inspire a deeper connection.
“We’d hit historical spots with the kids and our tour books and we’d lose the kids really quickly. They just didn’t have that passion or a deep sense of the place that I wanted them to have,” Kahn said of past trips.
Two years ago, Kahn went to Israel with educators from Brandeis Hillel Day School and Camp Tawonga. It opened her eyes to a new way of exploring Israel.
During a visit to the home of Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, educators offered tips on presenting the experience to a family.
“It was a very active, interactive experience,” Kahn said. “There was a discussion about his move to the home, a little bit about his historical role. They said to look with an eye to what he chose to bring there and what that said about him. We walked through the house with that thought planted in our mind and it was incredible. I was committed to putting a trip together for bringing my own family on.”
During the trip for early childhood educators, the teachers will get to bring greater depth to their classroom instruction, learning to convey the Israel experience to youngsters who haven’t been there.
“Early childhood education is one of the first gateways to Jewish life,” said Debbie Findling, director of school services for the BJE. But, she said, professional development programs often overlook that.
In teaching about such holidays as Tu B’Shevat, for example, teachers who visit Israel develop a deeper understanding of how the holiday relates to Torah and to the Holy Land, Findling said. Participants will also give workshops for their co-workers.
“As all early childhood teachers know, hands-on experience is the greatest teacher,” said Fran Cohen, assistant director of the early childhood department at the Albert L. Schultz Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto.
Cohen is excited about the opportunity to go to Israel with her colleagues.
“Thinking about going to Israel and thinking about what we could bring back to the children is the greatest inspiration. There’s no way that someone can be changed by an experience in Israel and not bring that back,” she said.
The April 11 to 23 trip, which is already full, will be part of a yearlong period of study for the educators, including studying Bible stories, Hebrew and contemporary Israeli political-cultural issues.
The cost is being kept to $300 to make it affordable to preschool teachers, who typically earn low wages.
Five of the 15 participants are not Jewish. This reflects the reality in Jewish preschools, Findling said.
“Over 60 percent of early childhood teachers in our Jewish preschools, are not Jewish. To deny them the opportunity to learn more about how to [teach about Judaism] would be wrong.”
Deborah Crosby, administrative lead teacher and acting director at San Francisco’s Rosenberg Early Childhood Center, was raised Catholic. She will go to Israel for the first time on the educators’ trip. Crosby hopes it will give her a better understanding of Israel that she can bring back to the children.
“I thought about how wonderful it would be to see all the things we teach about and talk about like the Kotel,” she said. “For me to actually see it, to touch it, it would be such a deep experience for me to share.”