We first wrote about LIFE back in April. LIFE, an innovative Tikun Olam program for Jewish and Israeli young adults from all walks of life, is seeking to inspire and enable; the fellows in this program hope to change the Jewish community and Israel in terms of the agenda, self-perception and way of living.

A nine month long, Israel based service-learning program for University graduates with a four-month stay in India, LIFE will enable the participants to:

• Live with, help and learn from people in India and Israel through two service-learning internships
• Develop a capacity to understand and lead social change
• Grow Jewishly and develop relationships with Israel and Israelis through learning, touring, and connecting with top social activists, intellectuals and leaders

LIFE begins with a seven-week group-building, training and learning period in Israel with renowned international experts. Participants then fly to India for an intensive 4-month posting doing development work with a world-class NGO both in a big city and in an out of the way, tourist-less rural area.

The program concludes with a 4-month period in Israel interning with select Israeli NGOs furthering social change and being immersed in Jewish learning, Israeli culture and social justice, public policy and civil society-government issues. While including hands-on contact with real people, the LIFE internships are not the usual, direct-service volunteering. They offer a rich involvement in program development and delivery. LIFE is a Service-Learning program that weaves into and alongside the internships multiple learning opportunities: workshops, academic-level lectures, meetings with members of Knesset and other public figures, field studies, independent research and more.

Sounds great to me, and there is still space in the first cohort beginning in October.

For more information contact yonatan [at] btzedek.org.il.

LIFE is a joint in initiative of Brit Olam and B’Tzedek.

about Brit Olam: This International-Israeli Jewish Volunteer Movement is a leading Israeli NGO in international relief and humanitarian development projects.

about B’Tzedek: B’Tzedek aims to provide Israel and the Jewish people with a leadership of thoughtful and pro-active citizens from all sectors of society.