Eisendrath International Exchange
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The Eisendrath International Exchange is a high school program run by the Union for Reform Judaism. It consists of a four month program of study at a school run by the Union and accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, as well the Ministry of Education in Israel. Students take classes related to their Reform Zionist experience in Israel (Hebrew and a specially developed Jewish History course) in the morning, with their normal, secular classes in the afternoon. The Jewish History class is specially augmented with "tiyulim"-field trips all over the country to study history in the place that it happened.
The trip also allows students to spend about a week in Europe, with opportunities for touring and learning in the areas of the Czech Republic and Poland, focusing on the growth of Ashkenazi Jewry and the horrors of the Holocaust. Students visit Terezín and Auschwitz I + II, as well as cities with Jewish communities.
The program has been running continually since 1961, and was named after Rabbi Maurice N. Eisendrath, the president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (now the Union for Reform Judaism or URJ) from 1958 – 1973. The school was originally situated in Beit Shmuel, the hostel operated on the grounds of the Hebrew Union College campus in Jerusalem. Since that time, it has been resituated to be outside of the city of Jerusalem, and is now centered in Kibbutz Tzuba [1], about 15–20 minutes away from Jerusalem. Tzuba is also the site of the "John the Baptist" Cave[2], discovered by archaeologist Shimon Gibson and the one of the current Eisendrath International Exchange (EIE) Jewish History teachers, Reuven Kalifon, a member of the Kibbutz.
Other longer field trips include an experience in the "Gadna": an introduction to the IDF.
