from The Jewish Week:
Keith Berman, who resigned suddenly from his post as director of Hadassah’s Young Judaea Year Course at the end of December, is in the hot seat for planning another long-term Israel program while still on Hadassah’s payroll.
The Feb. 1 launch of Aardvark Israel, a nine-month program that will take place in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and offers such enticing add-ons as a trek on the Israel Trail, a Kenyan safari and skiing in Bulgaria, shocked professionals involved in Israel programming.
In interviews with the Israeli media and in heated exchanges on the Internet, Berman’s detractors assert that his actions were unethical and possibly illegal.
… Berman’s supporters, in contrast, insist that a high-quality program will bring more Jewish kids to Israel, and that unless his Year Course contract included a non-competition clause, he had every right to pursue other interests.
… “I was disappointed with the direction things were going. I became disillusioned,” Berman said, declining to elaborate. “My first job for Young Judaea was in 1984, and I’ve been working almost straight for them ever since. No one has done more for Young Judaea than I have. I still consider myself a Young Judaean and plan to go to my 25th reunion in June.”
Berman said that he had been “planning to retire” from Young Judaea when a group of private investors approached him about starting a new program.
“I gave my notice on Dec. 31 but [Young Judaea] wanted me to stay a month, which is normal in Israel. I was ready to leave that day, but I helped the people who were taking over for me.”
[You can read Michelle Chabin's complete article in The Jewish Week.]
Sadly making public, issues like these, will only hinder the initial goal, which is to bring young Jewish students to Israel on programs that will provide life lasting experiences.
AS a wise man once said…”some laundry is better done at home, rather then in the eye of the public.”
Of course he is disillusioned. All Hadassah employees are disillusioned and have been over the last 2 years. The future is unclear for this organization.
Imagine going to work every day with winning ideas that no one listens to. The vision is lost at Hadassah. He is lucky he got out before they let him go, which he probably sensed was coming. I don’t think he should be denied the ability to look out for his own future during his hours at Hadassah.
As long as in the long run, Aardvark brings more young people to Israel for a long period of time, the creation of new programs is fine with me. Unfortunately, they are not targeting a new demographic, and in fact are recruiting their same contacts as when they were Young Judaea employees.
Anon i totally agree with you. Bring more people to Israel for an extended period of time. Do not launch a new program with the clear aim of destroying another one that has served the US and wider Jewish population for decades and decades. I don’t care how disillusioned someone is at work, spending working hours on building a competitive program is both immoral and unethical. Numerous new programs have come and gone over the years, so i’m sure parents will be very hesitant to send their kids on this new program without clear guarantees. What happens if less than the minimum amount of kids sign up? What happens if i can’t pay via Paypal as this appears to be the only acceptable payment method? lots of questions to be honest and when spending this amount of money i’ll remind everyone that it’s better the devil you know!
Thank you Scott and I agree. Makes you think that this is one of the reasons why the quality of the Year Course participant experience has decreased over the last several years, because their staff were busy building (read copycatting) a new gap program.
Yes i feel very sorry for current chanichim on Year Course. I’m sure current staff are working incredibly hard to give them an amazing year, but i fear Keith and his merry band of followers have done untold damage. Shame on them for negatively impacting on the once in a live time opportunity of innocent 18 year old kids. I wouldn’t trust my kids with any of the Aardvark staff as a more immoral bunch you won’t find anywhere.
Anon – Aardvark don’t have an office yet and i saw from the website that staff have already dropped off – is this true?