What Is It?

JQuest is a 5-Week Trip tentatively in July-August 2011
(3 weeks in Netanya and 2 weeks at Camp Szarvas in Hungary)
Plus a key exchange component! Israeli friends travel to Cincinnati tentatively in October 2011

The Jewish Federation of Cincinnati offers a fabulous Partnership 2000 program for high school students from Cincinnati and from Netanya, Israel.  Students from both communities will travel throughout Israel for 3 weeks, experiencing the country from north to south, while also bonding with newly-made Cincinnati and Israeli friends. Following this experience, they will then travel to Hungary where for two weeks they will meet Jewish teens from around the world at Camp Szarvas, an international Jewish overnight camp where many Eastern European and Former Soviet Union Teens come each summer for two week sessions to enhance Jewish identity and to meet other Jewish teens from around the world. Every summer, over 2,000 Jewish campers from over 25 countries attend Camp Szarvas in Hungary.

This program may have a strong appeal to those students in Cincinnati who are interested in learning about their heritage, exploring the future of global Jewish peoplehood, while fostering Israel connections and new friendships with other students from Cincinnati.  There will be a focus on leadership opportunities, exploration of the global Jewish community, Jewish identity, and social action.  

The Cincinnati delegation will travel with teens from Netanya, Israel, both in Israel and in Hungary. During their visit to Hungary they also will tour Budapest and see the Jewish and non-Jewish sites, understanding what a Jewish community is like in post-holocaust Europe.

While in Israel, the US teens will be hosted for a period of time in the Netanya homes of their travel friends.  This is a unique component because it allows our US teens to experience “real life” in Israel and form bonds with the families and their Israeli teen delegates 

While in Hungary, teens will spend most time at Camp Szarvas meeting young Jewish people from over 25 Eastern European countries, including Russia. This trip is not only about partnership with Israel, it is about Jewish Peoplehood. It is about other cultures, how Jews live today in Europe, our common heritage, and how we are all one people. 

A key element of this NEW trip is the cultural exchange between Cincinnati and sister city, Netanya Israel.  The Israeli friends the teens travel and live with in Netanya will come to Cincinnati a couple months after your trip, tentatively in October 2011!  Participants in JQuest have the opportunity to be hosts to their Israeli friends with whom they traveled in Israel and Hungary, when the Israeli delegates come to Cincinnati for the second part of the cultural exchange.  The Israeli delegates will come to Cincinnati for about 10 days to live with their US teen host’s family, learn about Cincinnati, Jewish life in the USA, and continue the bonds created during the summer trip.

This new trip enhances Jewish identity, partnership, and Jewish peoplehood particularly among young Jewish people from Eastern Europe and Russia, Israel, America and all across the globe.

For More Details..