The Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) and AVI CHAI believe that enticing Israeli counselors to return for a second summer in camp enable them to be more effective, especially in promoting Israel/Zionism. The Achva program offers a $1,000 salary supplement to Israeli counselors returning to work for a second, third or fourth summer in camp and participating in an intensive training course in Israel to better prepare them for their roles. Returning shlichim report highly positive experiences, as they become more integral to their camp’s Israel education mission and that their effectiveness as emissaries from Israel improves considerably. Over 50 camps are participating in the program, including those affiliated with Ramah, URJ (the Reform Movement), JCCA, Young Judaea, Bnai Brith and others.
Since the program began in 2003, about 150 Israeli counselors have returned to work in their camps each summer after participating in the Achva intensive training program. The program shifts the responsibility for the stipend over a four-year period to the camps, and almost all of camps are now paying the full stipend to the returning shlchim.
In another JAFI program, AVI CHAI funded a “delegation head” for two years, mostly at Reform and JCC camps with large contingents of shlichim, to help ease the adjustment of the shlichim and oversee their programs during the summer. By participating in this grant, the camps committed to maintaining the delegation head position permanently. As a result of the program, 17 additional camps now permanently staff a delegation head. All of these camps have now assumed the cost for this additional position, which had been paid by AVI CHAI for the first two years of the program.
In 2008 AVI CHAI approved a series of new programs that would help JAFI to train camp staff to support the camps’ Israel education programming in addition to the shlichim, for whom that is a core mission. These include:
- the B’Yachad program for counselors who are studying for a year in Israel and attend intensive training seminars through formal classes, Shabbatonim, and mifgashim with returning shlichim. Introduced in Fall 2008, B’Yachad attracted 42 staff from Ramah camps and 13 from three other camps. In its second year the program has attracted back Ramah staff as well as students on educational programs sponsored by Young Judaea, Kivunim and JESNA.
- Chazon is an 18-month intensive training program for assistant camp directors who wish to become more actively involved in their camps’ Israel education programming. The program began in Fall 2009 with a dozen assistant directors, directors and Jewish educators who are learning to develop and implement Israel education programs at their camps.
- The Shutafim project has completed its third summer, blending the work of the Cornerstone Fellows with the Israeli shlichim in an attempt to decompartmentalize the work of the two groups. A growing number of camps have participated each year, reaching 12 for summer 2009. There have been notable successes in some camps with the Fellows taking on some of the Israel educational programming responsibilities typically relegated to the shlichim. There was less success, however, for some Israelis who, because of their weaker Judaic knowledge and lack of training towards this goal, feel less equipped as well-rounded Jewish educators in their camp settings.