Transformative.
That was the description heard most frequently at the recent 50th reunion of what is now named the Joyce Zeff Israel Study Tour.
As the only community trip to Israel still left nationwide, IST has a lot to be celebrating — not least its over 3,000 participants over the years, among them at least 14 married couples who met on the trip, according to JEWISHcolorado President and CEO Rabbi Jay Strear, who also led the trip three times.
For 50 years, beginning in 1971, IST has taken Colorado teens, typically following their junior year, for five weeks to Israel, to explore their Jewish roots, discover the country and connect with each other.
“This doesn’t only connect our community to Israel,” says former Jco board chair Diana Zeff Anderson, whose mother, Joyce Zeff, endowed IST with $3 million in 2015.
“It connects them to each other. You develop a cohort on this trip and then you have friends for life in your community in Colorado.”
That sentiment was echoed by Debbie Foster (’92), who unlike many ISTers, had been to Israel several times before with her family. It was different, she says, being there with friends and with the freedom that such a trip brings. “You make friends that you never thought you would make . . . it was magical to be there.”
Foster’s father, Rabbi Steven Foster of Temple Emanuel, was one of ISTs founders. “Even back then,” daughter Debbie reflects, “we knew that there were some things that helped kids connect to Judaism: summer camp, going to Israel, youth groups.”
Foster references current data that backs this up; there was also plenty anecdotal evidence at the reunion, held May 1 at Infinity Park Events Center.
Amy Leszman (’05), development and grants senior manager at Judaism Your Way, says that without IST, “There’s no way I would be doing the work I’m doing today . . . there’s no way I would have ended up in the Jewish community all.”
Hailing from Highlands Ranch, Leszman was one of the “outsiders.” She was one of the only Jewish kids in her high school and was only marginally involved in Jewish life.
“Going to Poland . . . my grandfather was a Holocaust survivor . . . then going to Israel, landing, being in this place for the first time . . . it was an incredible bonding to the land and the place.”
In Poland (no longer part of IST), Leszman was even able to visit her grandfather’s home town, and in Israel, she met his brother for the first time.
Transformative.
Leszman cites the same evidence as Foster, that going to Israel solidifies Jewish identity. Her anecdotal evidence: Her brother, whose IST trip in 2002 was cancelled due to the Second Intifada, identifies loosely as a cultural Jew, and “here I am working for a Jewish organization.”
She was so inspired, that for nearly a year after returning from IST she and a group of fellow ISTers attended Friday night services every week.
She also solidified a friendship with a fellow Highlands Rancher, Ben Einhorn. IST connected him to Israel so deeply that he has returned 15 times since — and thinks about making aliyah.
Friendships . . . marriages . . . second generations . . . Amy Resnick and Steve Schiff initially met on IST in 1987. They later reconnected at CU Boulder and today are married. Their twins went on IST in ’19 and their daughter is set to go this summer — and is going to her prom with a someone she met at an IST planning meeting.
Natalie (’01) and Adam (’00) Boscoe both went on IST, but not the same year. Natalie’s trip was the summer after the Second Intifada broke out, and trip numbers were halved.
But she doesn’t recall being frightened or uncomfortable. There were a couple nights where “we were up all night because we heard bombings,” and detailed itineraries weren’t provided, but you go “where the bus drops you off.”
Arlen Flax (’79) recalls that the year prior to his trip, the group had been in the Old City when there was a small bombing. But, like Natalie Boscoe, it did not strongly affect his desire or intention to go on IST.
For Flax, it was his first time there. His was the last trip to summit Mt. Sinai, which at the time was still part of Israel. “It had a profound and lasting impact,” Flax shares. “It’s hard to put into words.”
“The purpose,” he said, was instilled and emphasized throughout the trip.
More anecdotal evidence: In his formal remarks, Strear said that at any given Jco event, when he asks who has been on IST, about 50% of the crowd raises their hands. It’s why for Strear, and for everyone involved in IST, it is so valuable that IST remain a community trip, where Colorado Jews connect with each other.
IST, he said, comes at a critical phase in life and is an opportunity for self-discovery.
Especially now, he says, with growing anti-Semitism on college campuses, IST is vital to students developing their Jewish identity and feeling comfortable expressing it. Too many kids on campus, he said, “are in the Jewish closet.”
“This age,” says Zeff Anderson, “is a critical age to connect people. If you want to leave a legacy, you have to choose what you want your legacy to be,” she says, reflecting on her mother endowing the trip.
Such trips at such an age are formative. But the “I” in IST is what makes the trip unique.
IST, says Flax, continues to impact him over time.
“I’ve gone other places with friends and it means as much. But the Israel piece, the Judaic piece, the roots connection — that’s the essence of why we went. That’s part of the fire that was continued to burn brighter inside. Without question it helped solidify and cement my Jewish identity.”
Transformative.
Shana Goldberg may be reached at shana@ijn.com
Copyright © 2022 by the Intermountain Jewish News