Eisendrath International Exchange
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The NFTY EIE High School in Israel is a high school program run by the Union for Reform Judaism. It consists of a four month program of study at a school run by the Union and accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, as well the Ministry of Education in Israel. Students take classes related to their Reform Zionist experience in Israel (Hebrew and a specially developed Jewish History course) in the morning, with their normal, general studies classes in the afternoon. The Jewish History class is specially augmented with "tiyulim"/טיולים -field trips all over the country to study history where it happened.
The trip also allows students to spend about a week in Poland, focusing on the growth of Ashkenazi Jewry and the horrors of the Holocaust. Students visit Auschwitz I + II and other Concentration Camps.
The program has been running continually since 1961, and was named after Rabbi Maurice N. Eisendrath, the president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (now the Union for Reform Judaism or URJ) from 1958 – 1973. The school was originally situated in Beit Shmuel, the hostel operated on the grounds of the Hebrew Union College campus in Jerusalem. Since that time, it has been resituated to be outside of the city of Jerusalem, and is now centered in Kibbutz Tzuba, about 15–20 minutes away from Jerusalem. Tzuba is also the site of the "John the Baptist" Cave[1], discovered by archaeologist Shimon Gibson and Reuven Kalifon, a member of the Kibbutz and one of the current Eisendrath International Exchange (EIE) Jewish History teachers.
Other longer field trips include: An experience in the "Gadna" an introduction to the IDF A survival hike from the Sea of Galilee to the Mediterranean Sea A desert hike in the Negev, with a camel ride, a night in a Bedouin-style tent
Recently the URJ has expanded the program to include what it calls the EIE Summer Semester program. This program takes place alongside the other NFTY in Israel programs, but instead of a tour around the country, participants follow the same Hebrew and Jewish History curriculum, but in an only slightly abbreviated form, and do almost the same programmatic elements of the full semester program, but without general studies courses.
Family members of participants in the program are invited each semester to take part in the "Parent's Pilgrimage," a week long trip centered in the same hotel as the participants, with some overlap so that the parents can get a taste of what their child has been doing during the semester. Also, the URJ's lifelong learning department has plans for an adult version of EIE.
