Summer Camps; on the road and on the up

As part of our ongoing support and work with the youth movements, UJIA Jewish Life Education Centre [JLEC] provides special funding and support for developing new and dynamic initiatives.

We work with the youth movement professionals and volunteers conceiving, developing, and resourcing special projects to upgrade and develop the education and experiences they offer their members.

The Habonim Dror madrichim (youth leaders) you can see collecting food for the homeless were part of a team of 14 on Habonim's first Israel and Social Action road show.

This project involves 4 weeks of living together, planning, and delivering Israel education to 4 different Habonim summer camps around the UK, and a three day community camp in Brighton. As well as delivering high quality education about Israel and Judaism, the group themselves have been enriching their own education and participating in social action projects.

They have visited the Windows for Peace project in Manchester, a project bringing together people of different faiths, with a particular focus on British Jews and Muslims. They spent the day meeting and sharing with local Islamic young people, and realising how much common ground they share.

The campaign they organised outside the Co Op supermarket in Cardiff came after a visit to and talk at a local homeless shelter.

This project is one of the many special projects developed by the youth movements with the support of the professional team at UJIA JLEC, including a portable Beit Midrash (House of Study) with Bnei Akiva, and the Israel 60 musical that was developed and put on in just a week by LJY-Netzer.

UJIA JLEC also supported the youth movements in bringing more than 50 Israeli madrichim and chanichim (participants) to the summer camps, delivering uniquely Israeli education, and assisting the young people in developing meaningful relationships with young Israelis.

Just one example of the partnership between the British Jewish community and Israel that the UJIA is at the heart of.