USY International Summer Travel
USY
Grades Served:
9, 10, 11, 12
USY empowers Jewish youth to develop friendships, leadership skills, a sense of belonging to the Jewish people, a deep engagement with and love for Israel, and commitment to inspired Jewish living through meaningful and fun experiences based on the ideology of Conservative Judaism. Experiential travel helps teens understand the Jewish and secular culture, sights, sounds, foods, and so much more of the incredibly unique places we are able to visit. USY offers several international travel trips over the summer. Programs include:
- DREAM USY: Explore the beauty, move to the rhythms, and taste the flavors of the Dominican Republic on this 11-day service trip. 9th-12th graders will volunteer in the community (past projects have included building volleyball courts, painting murals, cleaning cemeteries, and working with children at a local summer camp). Take cooking and dance lessons, relax on beautiful beaches, kayak and paddleboard, and hike in the jungle. Learn about Dominican Jewish history at the Sousa Jewish Museum. Practice valuable Spanish skills.
- Eastern Europe/Israel Pilgrimage: Discover Eastern Europe before embarking on a four-week tour of Israel. On EEIP, Jewish teens in grades 10-12 spend the first week and a half of the journey criss-crossing Eastern Europe to both bear witness to the atrocities of the Holocaust and experience the lasting impact of Jewish culture on large cities like Warsaw, Prague, and Berlin, and small villages in between. Through this experience, we carry on the memory of those we lost, while actively renewing and returning Jewish voices to the communities we visit. Like all USY Pilgrimage experiences, the program is capped with four weeks in Israel to go “home” and continue telling our thriving Jewish story.
- Italy/Israel Pilgrimage: Say hello, Ciao, and Shalom to the most epic summer ever! Italy has a rich history all its own and a fascinating relationship with the Jewish people. 10th-12th graders will spend one week traversing Italy observing the world’s most beautiful art in Florence, learning the history of the Roman Empire, and experiencing Venice, the City of Water. All week long teens will learn of the Jewish history of Italy, while eating the greatest food in the world! Following the Italian exploration, teens will travel to Israel for four weeks.
- Poland/Israel Pilgrimage: In a world in which anti-Semitism seems to be ever-increasing and survivors of the Holocaust are becoming smaller in number, it is more important than ever to learn about our history firsthand so we can truly say, “never again.” On Poland/Israel Pilgrimage, 10th-12th graders will spend one week in Poland bearing witness to the atrocities that took place and carrying on the memory of those lost. This meaningful experience will be followed by four weeks in Israel.