Bad news for Nintendo, Sony and Parker.
The millions of dollars these companies — and a host of others — make each year selling video games, compact disks and fountain pens as Bar and Bat Mitzvah presents may be in jeopardy if an effort to send tens of thousands of Jewish youths to visit Israel succeeds.
Organizers of the effort would like to see the coming-of-age celebrations become occasions to start planning and financing a trip to Israel, not to collect high-tech toys.
“Kids should be celebrating their Bar or Bat Mitzvah in a meaningful way,” said Rabbi Moshe Krupka, director of national programs for the National Conference of Synagogue Youth. “What better way to do that than a trip to Israel?”
NCSY will be encouraging families to open special accounts to save for an Israel trip and to earmark Bar or Bat Mitzvah gelt to those accounts.
New York’s UJA-Federation is launching a similar program. They are working with the CRB Foundation, which is leading a consortium to promote Israel trips for youth.
The consortium also includes the Council of Jewish Federations, the Jewish Community Centers Association, the Jewish Education Services of North America and the United Jewish Appeal. At the CJF General Assembly in Montreal last month, the foundation unveiled the Gift of Israel Bar/Bat Mitzvah Registry, as the program is called.
It also unveiled a similar program, the Gift of Israel Savings Plan, which promotes regular contributions to the Israel trip account starting when a child is seven.
Banking for both programs will be handled by Bank Leumi Trust Co. of New York.
The plans are designed to help families accumulate several thousand dollars for the Israel trips, which currently cost around $4,000 for a several-week program.
FEDERATIONS OFFERING ‘FREE MONEY’
And to encourage the program, sponsoring federations and synagogues are likely to be making their own contributions to the accounts.
Both NCSY and UJA-Federation will contribute $250 to accounts that are redeemed for an Israel trip.
Federations participating in the savings plan will contribute even more: They will match a $200 annual contribution to the account for nine years.
Similar programs have long been operating in Cleveland and other cities.
“They’re all wonderful programs, but they’re all under-subscribed, even though federations were essentially offering free money,” said Peter Geffen, director of Israel programs for the CRB Foundation.
This new national effort will be different, he said. By centralizing marketing and leaving much of the administrative detail to Bank Leumi, local federations and institutions will be able to focus on education and recruitment.
NCSY and UJA-Federation are at the initial stage of selling the program. UJA-Federation is working with 13 Manhattan synagogues, and NCSY is deciding in which of its regions to start the program.
There is no way for individuals to take part in the program on their own, although that is being considered.
The program is set up for “federations who wish to set up a deepening relationship with synagogues in their community,” Geffen said.
Wendy Jo Zucker, who heads the New York federation’s Israel Program Center, called her work with synagogues in setting up the program “a historical breakthrough” in the relationship between the philanthropy and the congregations.
For Rabbi Laurence Sebert of Manhattan’s Town and Village Synagogue, the idea of an Israel connection was an easy sell.
A trip to Israel he took at age 16 influenced his involvement in Jewish life and ultimately led him to rabbinical school.
His congregation will add $250 to the accounts of synagogue members who participate.
Sebert said that when parents send out material on the program with the invitation to the celebration and when rabbis announce it from the pulpit, a change can be made in the community’s attitude.
“It really has a chance of changing the whole idea of what a rite of passage for American Jewish teen-agers will be: Not just a Bar Mitzvah, but a trip to Israel,” he said.
Organizers of the effort to promote Israel trips do not expect immediate results.
The 12- and 13-year-olds enrolled this year by the pilot congregations are not expected to visit Israel until they are 15 or 16.
And it will take longer for the program to spread and be accepted.
“It requires a lot of education,” said Krupka. “You have to educate parents, you have to educate and excite the kids.
“You don’t want children to feel that this is going to cut in on the benefits of their Bar or Bat Mitzvah,” he said.
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