Birthright Israel introduced it; now MASA follows suit.

More than 5,000 participants of the Jewish Agency’s MASA, Israel Journey programs, celebrated the end of their year in Israel at a mega event erev Lag B’Omer. This year, over 8,000 Jewish youth between 18 and 30, from 50 countries, including more than 5,500 from North America, spent a semester or year studying, volunteering or interning in Israel through MASA.

“I have been so inspired during my year here,” said Master of Ceremony Deborah Laks from Costa Rica to the cheering audience. “And in turn I want to return to my community and inspire others to come to Israel with MASA.”

about: MASA was established as a joint project by the Jewish Agency and the Prime Minister’s office under Ariel Sharon in 2004 to enable thousands of Jewish young adults to spend a semester to a year in Israel on over 150 approved programs. Since its inception, MASA has made it possible for 27,000 people to live, work, study and volunteer in Israel; the goal of MASA is to have the number of Jewish youth studying from abroad or working in Israel reach 20,000 per year.

MASA was a featured program in the Tomorrow’s Spaces exhibition at the recent Facing Tomorrow Presidential Conference in Jerusalem.