looking onward: our 8th summer taking shape
As the elections in Israel draw closer and the first blossoms of spring begin to add color to Israel’s beautiful landscape, I wanted to take this opportunity to feature some highlights of our largest ever winter season and to give an advance taste of what we hope will be an equally exciting summer. And I promise to do all of this without getting entangled in anything partisan at all!
A Rainy and Fertile Winter it Was
Israel was blessed this year with a good amount of rain and precipitation- always a valuable commodity here in the Middle East. And Onward Israel was blessed with its largest ever winter cohort- 405 participants in 11 different programs, an increase of over 31% from 2018. Three of those programs- internship programs for North Americans and Latin Americans, and a professional development program for participants from the Former Soviet Union are still in progress. Read More
And the Summer Promises to Be
As we enter the final third of our recruitment season, we continue to be very proud of continued strong recruitment and registration. Overall- registration is up 13% over last year to date and confirmations are up an even stronger almost 20% to date. As I write these words, over 4100 people have applied for this summer’s programs and over 1470 have paid deposits, some 56% of our goal of 2600 participants this summer. Read More
The Internship May Be Just the First Step
One of the most exciting components of this year’s program is the Future IL job and opportunity fair in which Onward Israel is a proud partner. This event, to be held on June 24 at the Tel Aviv Fair Grounds, will focus on engaging thousands of young adults from around the world, particularly those already in Israel now, with hundreds of Israeli companies. Read More
A Lot of Good Stuff Coming Around the Corner
You should definitely not get the impression that the Future IL event is the only exciting innovation of our upcoming summer. We are excited about new Breakout Shabbaton opportunities, the new framework of the Chug Activities module, in which programs will meet together and participants will be able to use from a number of exciting options, increased Hebrew learning opportunities and more. Read More
And One will be Number 10,000
At some point in June, the 10,000 ever Onward Israel participant will arrive in Israel- a milestone event for all of us. The truth is we haven’t yet decided how to commemorate this great achievement, which was hard to imagine when we started eight short years ago. We are open to suggestions and I am happy to crowdsource this opportunity and entertain your best ideas, without causing too much embarrassment to the participant him or herself of course J. Send me any thoughts you have to ilanw@onwardisrael.org- and feel free of course, to be in touch at any time.