“Students who attend college after a year in Israel have a sophisticated, multidimensional view of Israel”

Students who attend college after a year in Israel have a sophisticated, multidimensional view of Israel. They understand Israel as a living, breathing country, in all its complexity. They are less likely to panic when faced with the politically correct prejudice that targets Israel on many campuses — and in too many Middle East courses. They not only have the seasoning to laugh off the ridiculous caricatures of Israel as racist or practicing South African-style apartheid, which was race-based and not connected to a nationalist conflict, but they also have the tools and motivation to become campus leaders in their Jewish and Zionist communities.

Gil Troy, “Gap-Years In Israel As Rx For Jewish Alienation”, The Jewish Week (28 March 2014), 32.