Junior Israel Experience

Gann Academy collaborates with the Alexander Muss Institute for Israel Education (AMIIE) in offering a Junior Year fall trimester program that combines high-level general studies with a rich interdisciplinary program exploring Judaism and Jewish history as it relates to the land and people of Israel. Based in Hod Hasharon, north of Tel Aviv, the students also explore the Negev, Haifa (part of the Boston-Haifa Connection), and the Galilee along with multiple visits to Jerusalem. The three-month program includes a week's tour in Eastern Europe that focuses on Jewish life there – past, present, and future. There's hiking, workshops, community service projects, mifgashim (encounters) with Israeli teens, and an integrated Israel Core Curriculum that combines discussions, seminars, on-site learning, and retreats.

The Israel component of the program combines the following features:

• A residency at the Mosenson Youth Village in Hod Hasharon, a beautiful campus with academic and recreational facilities located just north of Tel Aviv, within walking distance of the center of a typical Israeli city.
• Retreat experiences that bring students to other regions of Israel: the Negev, Galilee, and Judean Desert, along with multiple Shabbatonim and visits to Jerusalem.
• A top-flight program of general studies of the Gann Academy curriculum, supervised by the Principal of AMIIE and the deans of general and Judaic studies, and taught by highly qualified English-speaking professional educators.
• A series of experiences with a diverse group of religious and secular Israeli peers from other high schools, combining community service, workshops, tiyulim (travel experience), social programming, and home hospitality experiences.
• A Core Curriculum integrating formal study and experiential learning, conducted throughout the program, which combines Jewish History, Land of Israel Studies, and study of biblical, rabbinic, medieval, and modern texts. Workshops, Israeli cultural experiences, outdoor adventure, and field trips to sites throughout Israel are integrated as part of the curriculum.
• A range of coordinated home hospitality experiences in Israeli homes in the Hod Hasharon area and Haifa, as well as opportunities to spend holidays and/or Shabbat with Israeli friends and family.
• A home hospitality exchange program with students of Ironi Hey High School in Haifa.
• Celebration of three major Jewish holidays in Jerusalem, in close proximity to the vast range of religious, social, and cultural experiences which Jerusalem has to offer.
• A journey to Prague and Poland exploring the rich and vibrant life of Eastern European Jewry, as well as bear witness to the Shoah. Students also see the post-Holocaust, post-Communist Jewish communities of Prague and Poland.