This summer was supposed to mark the start of a comeback for Israel’s summer program ecosystem, with 60,000 program participants set to visit the country — up from 35,000 last year. Instead, the educational tourism field — which was battered by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, experienced a brief recovery in 2022, and then again dipped in 2023 and 2024 in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks and resulting wars in Gaza and Lebanon — is now facing another tough year in light of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran.   

Now, on Day Six of the war, with the country’s airspace closed as a result of missile strikes from Iran and tourists stranded in Israel, the summer travel season is in limbo.

As program providers field questions from parents and funders alike about what’s in store, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim spoke with Anna Langer, vice president for North American Israel strategy at Jewish Federations of North America and acting executive director of the Israel Educational Travel Alliance — the umbrella organization that represents over 140 organizations that directly provide trips to Israel. 

Nira Dayanim: Can you give me a general lay of the land, and a sense of what some of the contingency plans are for Israel travel?

Anna Langer: To the best of our estimates, there are approximately 7,500 participants on Israel educational travel programs in Israel right now, which represents almost 20% of all tourists in Israel currently, according to the Israeli Ministry of Tourism. So we have been working directly since the moment of the announcement of the initial planned attack on Iran to coordinate for our field. That has meant everything from figuring out which groups are on the ground, where they are located, ensuring that they have safe housing, moving them to other locations that might be more secure for them, providing detailed and robust educational content for both participants and for their staff focused on mental health, trauma, resilience and care, as well as opportunities to deepen and enrich their time on the ground by serving their local communities, including volunteer opportunities with Home Front command in communities that have been directly hit in this time of crisis. 

In addition, we have been acting as the liaison with several government of Israel agencies, the Jewish Agency for Israel and Jewish Federations of North America’s Israel-based teams to do the math and find solutions for all available departure options, as well as coordinating directly with [Israeli military’s] Home Front Command to ensure that we are communicating the most up to date information that can keep people safe.

ND: What external organizations are programs coordinating and partnering with to meet additional needs while these participants are on the ground? What do those needs look like?

AL: There absolutely will be, and already there are additional incurred costs for the organizations. From additional transportation, changing locations for buses, flight tickets that we are not sure can be reused or reimbursed and potential upcoming costs for different routes for departure. What I would also call attention to is that there’s an entire field of Israel educational travel providers on the ground in Israel, tour operators and tour educators, who have largely been lacking for work since Oct. 7[, 2023]. This year, this summer, was supposed to represent the return of the Israel educational travel industry at scale, moving from 35,000 participants last year to 60,000 this year. We are very concerned about the sustainability of the travel sector in Israel, and are trying our best to make sure also that those individuals are considered and thought about by governmental agencies and beyond, so that the infrastructure remains for Israel educational travel to continue. 

And interestingly, some of the participants who are on the ground right now, who have been offered to be included in departure options, are saying that they would like to stay there. They see this as an incredibly important time to participate in Israel’s resilience and to strengthen their connection to the Jewish people.

ND: So in terms of the Israeli staff — the tour guides and all of the people that make these trips function— are they still working, staying with the participants? What does that look like?

AL: They are, and they’ve been working 24/7 to provide care and support for their participants, including, of course, our North American-based madrichim. We’re actually working right now with the Jewish Agency for Israel on some options to find additional staffing solutions for them and to offer educators to come and swap out for them for periods of time so that some of them can go home and take care of their families. Some have already needed to switch out because they have been called for miluim [reserve duty], so we are finding alternatives for excellent staffing from qualified and capable Israel educators and former leaders.

ND: For the programs that are planning to take off later in the summer, is there a Plan B?

AL: Yes. Many organizations, of course, are in the very, very complicated position of needing to think about whether or not they are going to continue to send trips to Israel in the days and weeks ahead, and what alternative options are available, if any. Several of the organizations that we partner with have come up with some really fantastic and creative solutions. They’re asking participants to stay calm and to read the situation as it is, over the period of time before their trip is is supposed to depart, and then giving them a date by which they would like participants to decide whether or not they are still committed to coming, as the every day is a new horizon in our understanding of how the events are going to unfold. 

We know that many participants are really desirous of getting to Israel. There’s been a backlog of participant interest in going to Israel since COVID-19 that we never were able to catch up on. The first option and the desire of many is still to go, and that resilience and commitment, I think, is remarkable and deserves serious attention. We applaud those who are trying to support their participants in continuing to meet their aims to arrive in Israel. Additionally, partner organizations are looking into additional travel options in Europe, and we are supporting them in considering what the educational adjustments might be to try to support rich, Israel oriented experiences, if they cannot happen in the land of Israel. 

ND: Many funders and others in the community are grappling with how to help. In this field, do you have any sense of what could be impactful?

AL: This is a moment that we can all offer empathy and support for all of the organizations and personnel who are supporting the field of Israel educational travel. This is a field that has continued to adjust and adapt with lightning speed over the past five years, and they are taking in a ton, a ton of questions right now, all over the place. What is happening with my child? What are departure options? So giving them grace, giving them time and understanding that they are doing the most important thing, which is caring for the well-being and the safety of their participants on the ground. 

The other thing that I would say is that as a community, we’re about to have participants coming back from Israel who have now lived through a historic event. We have the opportunity to welcome these trip participants back into our communities here in North America and support them with mental health resources, with trauma and resilience resources, but also to learn from them about what they learned about Israeli peoplehood, about Jewish peoplehood from these experiences. 

The field of Israel educational travel has continued to show that they are best in class in being able to adapt and react immediately to unprecedented levels of crisis, and this sector needs our support, emotional, financial and the opportunity to be celebrated as true paragons of what it means to lead Jewish community.