Fellowship Helps Teens Discover Israel Before College

For many high school seniors, the months before graduation are filled with college applications, campus visits, and decisions about what comes next. However, for some Atlanta Jewish teens, the next step isn’t college right away. It’s a year in Israel.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta’s Atlanta Israel Gap Year Fellowship is helping make that option more accessible, offering eligible students up to $10,000 toward a gap-year experience in Israel before beginning college.

The Fellowship is designed to give young adults an opportunity to deepen their Jewish identities, develop leadership skills, and build lasting connections with Israel and their peers. Depending on the program they choose, participants may spend their year studying, volunteering, interning, traveling, or taking part in other immersive experiences.

Since its launch in 2021, the initiative has supported more than 150 Atlanta teens from over 35 high schools, reflecting growing interest in taking a different path between high school and college.

For students, a gap year can provide a chance to become more independent, explore personal interests and gain experiences outside a traditional classroom. For families, however, the decision can raise questions about cost, safety, college plans, and what a year abroad will look like.

The Fellowship helps address some of those concerns through financial assistance, guidance, and opportunities for participants and families to connect with others who have already experienced a gap year in Israel.

One Atlanta family’s experience illustrates just how meaningful, and unpredictable, that year can be.

A Year That Took an Unexpected Turn

For Isadora, who participated in Young Judaea’s Year Course program during 2023-24, the decision to return to Israel came almost immediately after completing a six-week Ramah Seminar summer program. She knew she wanted to spend more time in the country.

Year Course was structured around two semesters. During the first, Isadora lived in a Jerusalem dormitory and attended classes. The second was planned around life in Tel Aviv, where she would share an apartment and complete a professional internship. Her internship with a space experimentation company gave her practical work experience and professional connections. She later returned to work for the company through the Onward program.

But her gap year began just weeks before the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.
On the day of the attacks, Isadora was in Tzfat participating in a program called “Road Trip with a Rabbi.” As the war unfolded, the experience she and her family had anticipated changed dramatically.

Her parents initially wondered whether American teenagers should remain in Israel during such a difficult time, particularly as many of the program’s staff members were called to military reserve duty. Instead, they learned that the students could play a meaningful role in supporting Israeli communities.

Isadora and other participants who chose to remain in Israel relocated to a kibbutz near Eilat. They volunteered on the kibbutz farm, organized food and clothing donations for families displaced from communities near Gaza, and helped in temporary schools established for evacuees.

What began as a year of education, travel, and cultural exploration became something much more personal.

Her family described the volunteer experience as Isadora’s most meaningful education in Hebrew and Israeli life. Through the people she met and the work she did, she witnessed the resilience and generosity of Israelis facing extraordinary circumstances.

Although the program’s schedule and travel plans changed, Isadora eventually experienced much of the original itinerary, including time in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and a trip to Poland.

Despite the uncertainty and disruption, she still considers it the best year of her life. Her parents say she returned with greater independence, adaptability, and a deeper understanding of what it means to be part of a community.

More Than a Year Abroad

Experiences like Isadora’s demonstrate why some families see a gap year as more than a break from academics.

Students can return with new perspectives, stronger connections to Jewish life, and a clearer sense of their interests and goals. Living abroad also requires them to navigate unfamiliar situations, manage responsibilities, and build relationships with people from different backgrounds.

The Atlanta Israel Gap Year Fellowship seeks to make these opportunities available to more local students, including those who might otherwise find the cost prohibitive.

Beyond financial support, the initiative connects fellows through shared experiences and programming intended to strengthen their ties to one another and to Atlanta’s Jewish community.

Participants also benefit from guidance as they explore different programs and determine which experience best matches their interests, whether that means Jewish learning, community service, professional development, or a combination of activities.

The Fellowship works in partnership with Masa Israel Journey, which connects young Jewish adults with immersive educational and experiential programs in Israel.

For students who already have a particular gap-year program in mind, the Fellowship can help make that plan financially possible. Those still exploring their options can receive guidance on available opportunities.

As another high school graduating class begins planning its future, Federation hopes more Atlanta teens will consider what a year in Israel might offer before they head to college.

For Isadora, that decision led to a year that was nothing like what she had expected, but one that helped shape who she is today.

Applications for the Atlanta Israel Gap Year Fellowship are currently open. More information, eligibility requirements and application details are available at jewishatlanta.org/initiative/gap-year-fellowship.