It’s Tourism Time in Israel

Coming to Israel for the summer seems to be the thing to do this year According to the statistics collected by the American Zionist Youth Foundation. Tourism has increased since last year by approximately 1,500 people, bringing the total of visitors to 7,000 from all over the world.

One of the men behind the scenes, Alec Meyer, director of short-term projects at the World Zionist Organization, said that he attributes the rise in numbers to the improved “reach-out” programs which the youth and hechalutz department of the WZO has implemented this year.

More high schools and college campuses are being contacted and visited. Slide shows have been prepared and released. Introductory and informational programs have been carried out in the United States to inform potential tourists of the options available. In addition, at the close of the summer programs, a video of some of the activities is going to be prepared and disseminated around the world.

An evaluation booklet, to be filled out by each participant, has been prepared as well. In order to facilitate compilation of the results, the responses will be recorded and computerized.

A VARIETY OF OPTIONS

Meyer’s office walls are covered with schedule boards and accounts of the arrival and departures of the 100 groups which are presently here and which will be here during the course of the summer. The charts reveal the variety of options open to the groups. Seminars, including a study of the Holocaust, Arab propaganda, Jewish identity at the Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv, are among the programs offered.

The WZO’s youth and hechalutz department also sponsors and prepares Bat and Bar Mitzvah ceremonies. Participants are trained by yeshiva students who have been hired to prepare them. The ceremonies are held at the Western Wall and a meal is held in honor of their accomplishment. In addition, as a token of rememberance, women are awarded a set of candlesticks, men are given tallit. Both receive a book about Judaism, as well.

Guides who are themselves prepared in seminars accompany the groups. This year’s staff numbers 150 guides. Home-hospitality weekends are organized for the groups in Israeli homes. Attempts are usually made to match the visitor with their family — religiously.

Each program includes a Shabbat in Jerusalem, with praying at the Western Wall, singing Shabbat songs, and an organized meal Friday night and Saturday morning, in an effort to introduce the groups to what Shabbat can be like in Israel.

“We don’t just want groups to come to tour Israel, though that is very important, we want their trip to be an educational experience as well,” remarked Meyer. The programs seem to attempt to raise the consciousness of participants with respect to politics, religion, Judaism, history, and Israel.

According to groups of college students, touring with the AZYF college summer program, ” the itinerary is fantastic, but the trips are often very disorganized. The incompetence of guides, drivers and inaccurate reservations tend to detract from the trip, ” The students all agreed that their experience would have been improved if their guide had been more of a leader.

The experiences which the college group encountered seemed to be the rule and not the exception. Tourists in high school groups walking the streets of Jerusalem also had similar sentiments. They were enthralled with the idea of being in Israel and were very excited to be touring,but they agreed that they spent too much time sitting on buses, waiting for events to start.

One student commented: “I am really interested in listening to the discussions and the speakers we are brought to meet, but after spending so much time on buses, and after waiting so long for people to show up, I’m too exhausted to really pay attention.”

With all the good and bad involved in these trips, the tourists keep coming. They can be found walking the streets of Jerusalem, trying to talk to the soldiers in their broken Hebrew, and adding their own special touch to the atmosphere of the country.