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  1. Lovely ideas Benji. However… each trip already has a trained educator aboard – and each trip provider has more experienced educators planning the educational component of each trip, and finally Birthright Israel itself dictates the educational aspects of all the trips with the help of even more experienced educational consultants.

    So now I’ve been a madrich for more trips than I can count and what makes a “great madrich” depends on the makeup of the group and the temprament of the tour guide. Some tour guides are chill and appreciate proactivity from the madrichim. Others insist that they be the center of attention and resent the fuck out of you if they feel the kids relate to you more. Often they are happy if you just keep quiet, keep the kids on time and out of trouble and that’s it.

    Furthermore, you have to keep a certain professional distance from the participants if you need to maintain discipline, like keeping them away from drunkeness, drugs and sun stroke (kovah, mayim, matslemah!). This becomes a problem when the second madrich is just there to have a good time and is that dreaded staff person who is no different than the participants.

    Bottom line is that paying madrichim more money, even madrichim based in Israel, is no guarantee that you’ll get better madrichim. Each madrich needs to be trained and cultivated and even that doesn’t guarantee squat. But I hear what you’re saying and the issue merits further discussion!

  2. MOST Israeli tour guides are really that, more tour guides than Jewish educators by their own admission. Almost every Israeli tour guide I have met is happy to “leave Shabbat to the Americans”, not out of any sense of teamwork/division of responsibility but because they admit that it’s not their thing, to put it nicely. If we have three staff members on each bus, why would we be content to not get the most out of them? Why put these Jewish identities of 40 people in the hands of a staff who are just tagging along or are qualified only to do count-offs?

    And why is it acceptable having a tour guide who can’t share the spotlight or is uncomfortable having staff members who are excellent educators? If they are more concerned with their egos than giving the absolute best experience they can to these 40 people (when we’re spending thousands of dollars on them and again, trying to change the world here), then maybe they aren’t the best guides for this job.

    I agree that paying someone doesn’t necessarily mean he/she will be a better staff member but it does ensure the applicant pool will be better. At that point, it’s up to the tour operator to hire the most qualified person. David, I know you are an excellent madrich and know what you are doing. You are definitely not the average madrich though.