LIFE is a nine-month program for
Jewish College graduates from the Jewish world and their Israeli peers. LIFE
begins with a training and learning period of almost two months in
In relation to participants in LIFE, the goals of the program are to offer
them opportunities to:
The long-term goal of LIFE is to involve thousands of young adults in a new
paradigm of Jewish life that:
LIFE is for graduates of college, university or
equivalent studies; Jewish participants from all around the Jewish world, and
Israelis. The age-range is 22-28 with some flexibility. People will join LIFE
for diverse reasons: for career development, for Jewish and personal growth,
for the global social justice dimension, for the intense experience with Jews
from other parts of the Jewish world. We think that all these reasons are fine
and believe that the unique combination of these elements make LIFE a peerless opportunity.
LIFE will be demanding, not only in the
structure of its experiences but in the demands made of group members to do,
learn and grow. For example, two weeks after returning to
We seek people who will not only survive but
thrive personally, inter-personally, culturally, intellectually and practically
in what is a demanding program. Successful candidates will have the following
qualities:
v Strong
commitment to program goals
v Good
inter-personal skills, resilience and hard-working
v A love of
learning
v Diverse
experience in their own lives: in Jewish communal life \ social action \
inter-cultural experience\ etc
v A critical
mind and a constructive attitude
The exceptional individuals who become
participants in LIFE will be poised to play a major role, as they go back to
their communities, in bringing the international Development and Jewish Social
Justice Agendas to the next level and changing the Jewish community’s agenda,
way of seeing itself and way of living. That is the leadership role LIFE seeks
to inspire.
Dates
of travel to and from
v
LIFE starts: Sunday,
5th October, 2008
v
Travel to
v
Return to
v Program
ends: Monday, June 29th,
2009
This initial seven week period is an intense time
of personal and group process, learning and training. It is the only extended
time during which participants will not have work responsibilities.
In the initial week, participants will get
acclimatized to
The next three weeks will include significant
time out of town participating in seminars and trips – including time both in
the desert of the south and in
We will also pay attention also to the inner
self and undergo both some solo time in the desert and start some unique
Israeli training in mind-body connection to develop greater personal and group
resilience.
The last
three weeks of this period will be based in or near
We are at an advanced stage of discussions with
NGOs in
The period in
Subsequently,
group members will transition into their internship positions. These will span
more policy and program-development based positions in the headquarters of organizations
to more program delivery oriented positions in small villages. However, most
positions will include at least elements of each and in order to allow a rich
and diverse experience, participants may not live in the same location for the
whole time there.
Internships will be for the full work week with
occasional breaks for group seminars and Shabbat programs. Ample opportunities
will exist for short trips to become acquainted with other places.
The last week will be an intensive seminar and meetings
with key figures in the social services, social change and government in the
region in which participants have been living and working.
A LIFE staff person will accompany the group
and be in
Policies related to personal safety, cultural issues,
local legal requirements will be covered in the training and preparation period.
LIFE requires participants to confirm to all
laws in the country of the internship and will not be able to assist
participants who break the law, including but not only in relation to use of
illegal drugs. Law breaking is considered self-destructive and damages the
program’s standing in the eyes of local partners and potential future
participants. Irrespective of whether lawbreaking by a participant leads them
to be is caught or charged by local authorities, it is sufficient reason to be
removed from the program.
This
period begins with a two-week re-entry and orientation period. The mornings
will be taken up with an intensive Ulpan (Hebrew study program) and the
afternoons with (first week) unpacking the Indian period and planning for a
community event for program partners and (second week) preparing for the
Israeli internships and starting the ongoing learning program.
From that point, the structure of LIFE is:
Some ongoing Hebrew study will be included. On
some evenings there will be lectures, meetings and participant-programmed
activities. LIFE participants will be involved in the planning of these.
Options:
We do our best to match needs and desires with
the positions. The work done will be based on real needs of local populations;
it will be real work of real value to the local organizations and the
populations they serve. We will not fabricate work or ‘load’ certain kind of
jobs to create an illusory satisfaction. The relatively short period of the
internships and the existence of language barriers necessarily limit what can
be done. When we join new communities to help, we need to do so with modesty
and an ability to rein in pre-conceived notions of what might be required of us.
Participants will be required to show flexibility, seriousness, initiative and
work constructively with local organizations and LIFE staff to craft their
internships. In some cases these may involve a ‘portfolio’ of responsibilities,
some of which are more straight forward and others allowing for more creativity
and independence. Within this context and with these limitations, we are
looking to maximize the gaining of professional experience, skills and
knowledge. High-level supervision and mentoring can be expected by the
participants. For this reason we rarely refer to our work as ‘volunteering’
because that term does not capture the essence of what the position are.
We embrace “service learning”, an approach
developed and thoroughly tested in the States over more than a decade (see, for
example, www.servicelearning.org).
This is why LIFE couples the two rich intern and cultural experiences with
learning, training and reflection. The goal is for the learning to enrich the
work and the work to enrich the learning – such that each is more than it would
be by itself.
The core themes we will cover in each of the
three periods are: