Jewish day schools have long understood the importance of Israel education, weaving it into mission statements, curricula, celebrations and school trips. This work has succeeded: It has cultivated generations of students who feel emotionally connected to Israel as the Jewish homeland.

That connection still matters. But for a growing number of students, it’s no longer the ultimate outcome. Across the Jewish world, students are rethinking their identity, their sense of belonging and their role in the Jewish future — and whether that future includes living in Israel, not just visiting or loving it from afar. 

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Hundreds of hours of conversations between day school guidance counselors and staff and members of our organization have revealed that more Jewish students than ever are seriously weighing a future in Israel. Students’ aspirations are evolving, but our religious educational systems have not kept pace. We must define the steps needed to move Israel education from connection to ownership. Until we do, we are missing a critical opportunity.

Based on our work with students, educators, universities and families through The Future Is Calling, we see five critical shifts Jewish schools can make to better prepare students for a life in Israel, adapting to produce graduates with the knowledge, skills and mindset needed to successfully integrate. 

1.) Create academic pathways for students considering Israel

Many Jewish day schools have built academic programs around one primary outcome: preparing students for American higher education. For generations, this made sense when American higher education was truly the barometer of success. Trends in aliyah aside, this is no longer the case for multiple reasons. Parents recognize that the private school-to-American Ivy League education is no longer the best path to a lucrative future; and young adults no longer perceive high salaries as the best holistic measure of overall happiness. 

So while our day schools have developed sophisticated systems to help students navigate the American undergraduate application process successfully, including extracurricular involvement, AP scores, leadership experiences and a well-rounded profile, students pursuing higher education in Israel are often preparing for a different environment. The definition of college readiness must evolve for students interested in Israel. This may include stronger STEM preparation, advanced coursework, partnerships with Israeli universities and greater subject-area specialization than their American counterparts.

The Future is Calling has started missions to Israel specifically for high school guidance counselors in order to familiarize them with the Israeli higher education processes firsthand and to facilitate engagement with American day school alumni who are also Israeli university students and alumni, so that the pathways to success are no longer theoretical and their advice can be shaped by personal experience. 

2.) Cultivate independent, purpose-driven learners

Beyond academic preparation, a successful transition to Israel requires independence.

One of the fundamental differences between American and Israeli educational environments lies in the outcomes they are designed to achieve, as outlined above. Israeli institutions, particularly within the dati-leumi (national-religious) space, prepare students for a broader transition into adulthood where the goal is not only academic success, but the development of young adults ready to take responsibility for themselves and their communities. Pathways such as the IDF, sherut leumi and higher education all prepare them for meaningful participation in national life.

Israeli academic institutions, and society as a whole, expect young adults to advocate for themselves, make decisions, navigate uncertainty and take initiative. Students are expected to problem-solve, seek opportunities and take ownership of their choices.

Most American students are capable of developing these skills, but not enough are given the opportunity to practice them before they get to Israel. In the context of college admissions, students learn to optimize by building the strongest resume, pursuing activities that strengthen an application and making decisions based on what they believe others will value.

Yet while those skills can be valuable, they do not always help students answer deeper questions that shape a meaningful life, such as: Who am I? What do I value? What kind of life do I want to build? Where do I believe I can contribute most meaningfully?

We believe that students who thrive in Israel, meaning they are happy, self-sufficient and genuinely engaged in their community, are often those who have developed a strong internal compass. They make choices based on purpose rather than approval. They are comfortable asking questions, taking initiative and navigating challenges.

Jewish schools should intentionally cultivate these qualities by creating more opportunities for student ownership, reflection, leadership and meaningful decision-making. This can and should include encouraging parents to step back and staff problem-solving with young adult students directly, more calls for students advocating for help or solutions independently, offering options for solutions rather than an expectation for staff to “fix things,” and more. 

Students who understand themselves will be better prepared not only for Israel, but for adulthood itself. Every student will benefit from this type of preparation. 

3.) Make Hebrew a language for living, not just a subject for learning

Perhaps no issue illustrates the gap between intention and outcome more clearly than Hebrew. Too many students graduate from Jewish day schools after 12 years of Hebrew instruction unable to comfortably navigate basic daily interactions once they get to Israel. They may be able to analyze a text or perform well on an assessment. But they struggle to order a coffee, have a conversation with an Israeli peer, participate confidently in a university class or manage everyday interactions to feel truly at home.

We believe that the American public school system hasn’t taught foreign languages with a goal of fluency for many years, so Jewish schools have to stop following the model they are handed. Educators in this space describe some parents as having a complicated relationship with their children speaking Hebrew fluently. When is not a shared means of communication, it triggers fears of distance — literally and figuratively, consciously and not.

The Future is Calling has invested in a pilot optional ulpan within select gap year seminaries and yeshivas for the coming year, as well as additional programmatic opportunities for Hebrew immersion. 

Yet this does not mitigate the necessary changes K-12 in the Diaspora. If Israel is a realistic future for our students, fluency cannot be viewed as an enrichment goal. It must be a core outcome. Schools must prioritize spoken Hebrew alongside textual learning; invest in teacher development; create immersive opportunities; and measure success by ability to communicate in everyday situations.

4.) Move from Israel-programming to an Israel-ecosystem

Israel cannot remain a separate category within Jewish education. It cannot exist only in a class, on a trip or during a celebration or a special program. If Israel is truly central to Jewish identity, it must be integrated into the broader educational experience.

Students often encounter Israel as something external: a place they visit, learn about or discuss at specific moments throughout the year. These experiences matter, but they can unintentionally reinforce the idea that Israel exists apart from their everyday lives. The goal should be to create an ecosystem where Israel feels natural and accessible.

This requires sustained engagement. Schools can build partnerships with Israeli institutions, create opportunities for Israeli and North American students to learn together, integrate Israeli perspectives across disciplines and invest in our educators having meaningful experiences in Israel themselves.

Our new Nelech program, in partnership with Ohr Torah Stone, is one example of a 10th-grade semester abroad that allows students to keep up their core curriculum requirements from home while studying part of the day in an Israeli classroom with Israeli students. The feedback from our pilot year on feelings of integration and the authenticity of an Israeli experience is cause for optimism that this model, and others built by day schools themselves, will have an important impact. 

Teachers are particularly influential; students experience Israel not only through the curriculum but through the attitudes of the adults around them. While employing Shlichim has been a valuable step, the next evolution is to foster authentic, firsthand connections for all educators. By funding travel and immersion experiences, schools can equip teachers with personal familiarity, empowering them to demonstrate by example that Israel is a professional and personal priority.

An Israel ecosystem also recognizes that there are many ways to engage with Israel. For some students, it may be higher education. For others, it may be service, entrepreneurship, technology, culture or community building. The goal is not one predetermined outcome, of course, but that Israel becomes a real possibility.

When Israel is woven into the fabric of Jewish education, students will stop seeing it only as a place they visit. They will see it as a place where they can belong.

5.) Change what we celebrate

Schools communicate their values not only through curricula but through the accomplishments they celebrate. Every college announcement, alumni feature, award ceremony and community conversation sends a message about the futures we consider successful and aspirational.

The question isn’t whether we celebrate success. It’s whether we’ve defined it broadly enough. For years, that message has centered on acceptance into elite American universities. These achievements deserve recognition, but should no longer serve as the default measure of success. 

Students can’t imagine a future they’ve never seen modeled. If we want them to see Israel as a real place to build meaningful, ambitious lives. We need to show them alumni studying medicine and engineering in Israel, serving in competitive IDF units, contributing to Israeli society through sherut leumi (national service), building companies — proof that an Israel-facing path can demand just as much rigor and ambition as the ones we already celebrate. 

Israeli universities should not be positioned as a backup or a second-tier option. Instead, they should be presented as serious, world-class opportunities that require thoughtful preparation. A concerted effort must be made to educate our guidance counselors and ourselves to help students understand the excellent choices available to them. 

Creating this shift requires intentionality: Schools should engage alumni living in Israel by finding opportunities for them to speak to students; guidance counselors should present Israeli institutions alongside American options; and we should recognize Israel-based pathways as milestones worthy of genuine celebration, promoting these opportunities with the same visibility as traditional milestones across all community channels.  

From inspiration to belonging

Taken together, these five shifts represent a movement from exposure to ownership. None requires abandoning existing Israel programming. Instead, all require treating readiness — linguistic, academic and personal — as an explicit, measurable institutional outcome, rather than an assumed byproduct of connection.

There is an important tension in this conversation, one that deserves to be acknowledged. If Jewish schools and communities are successful in helping students see Israel as a place to create meaningful futures, more graduates may ultimately choose to remain in Israel. For Diaspora communities that have spent generations building vibrant Jewish institutions, this possibility raises complex and important questions. But complexity should not be a reason to avoid preparation.

The risk of inaction is a widening gap between what students are increasingly choosing and what their education has prepared them to do. For generations, we have taught our students that Israel is the homeland of the Jewish People. We have taught them to pray for Jerusalem, celebrate Israel’s achievements, understand its history and stand with its people. The next step is to ask whether our educational systems fully reflect the implications of that belief. 

If we truly believe that Israel is our home, then we have the responsibility and the privilege to prepare the next generation not only to love Israel but to build a life there, should they choose to answer its call.

Tamar Krieger Kalev is executive director of the Tzemach David Educational Foundation, where she leads The Future Is Calling, guiding Jewish day school students toward a meaningful future in Israel. A curriculum designer and leadership trainer, she previously served as the director of education innovation at Kohelet Yeshiva High School and director of student activities at SAR High School.