Frequently Asked Questions
Judaism, Israelis, and Hebrew
Shabbat is also a great time to rest for the participants from the busy week of activities and traveling, therefore we use the opportunity to slow down and eat big meals together, singing songs, and have group discussions about what was experienced throughout the week.
If you are open to the experience of exploring Israel with other types of Jewish teens, it will be an incredible experience of sharing various observances of Judaism.
Nesiya is a great opportunity to start learning Hebrew or practice the Hebrew that you already have. The Israeli teens would be more than happy to have a lively conversation in Hebrew!
If you’re rambunctious you might even learn a word or two of Arabic or Amharic!
Safety and Security
Nesiya works closely with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) “Situation Room,” where they go over our itineraries day-by-day and advise on adjustments they feel must be made.
Finances
Nesiya can offer special scholarships for teens from the Boston and Cleveland areas.
There are also merit scholarships for participants who have attended the following programs: Brandeis summer programs, BIMA, Etgar 36, Panim, Bronfman Youth Fellowship Israel.
A special scholarship is awarded to those participants who have applied to the Bronfman Youth Fellowship Israel.
Need-based Financial Aid is available. Parents of the participant must fill out and return the Financial Aid Form in full [this can be requested from a Nesiya staff member at info@nesiya.org].
Nesiya encourages you to apply for any and all local funding and grants to include in your tuition for Nesiya. Usually communities have Jewish Federations, synagogues, Rabbis’ discretionary funds, programs such as Passport to Israel, Gift of Israel, etc. that help assist teens and their families to save, match, or grant money for travel to Israel.
There are resources out there for teens looking to travel to Israel, you just have to start looking for them!
The sooner one gets started on ‘fundraising’ money from different organizations, the better!
Speak with us! It never hurts to ask us, here at the Nesiya office, about whether there is scholarship money available. Whether there is local funding or our own scholarship funds available, we want to try to help you come on Nesiya – so send us an email and we’ll start the process.
General
We are different from other Israel programs in the following three categories:
Diversity – Nesiya is made up of a diverse group of teen peers because we are not affiliated with a specific movement of Judaism. Nesiya participants come from all different walks of life – geographically, religiously, culturally, and socioeconomically.
Israeli participants – We are one of the only programs that has fully-participating Israeli teen peers on the program with the North American teens for all five weeks of the program
Arts workshops, Community Service, Israeli-Arab/Palestinian dialogue – Nesiya includes a couple of elements that are unique to the Nesiya program. The arts (music, movement, writing, and visual arts) are used to express the journey through Israel for 3-4 different workshop days, along with a final project. A two-day community service project is also included, as well as a dialogue with Israeli-Arabs/Palestinians in order to get to the know the real Israeli culture and society.
Check out the sample itinerary!
…recent alumni are from: Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Durham, Ann Arbor, Chicago, Providence, Dominican Republic, Silver Spring, Albany, Cincinnati, Cleveland…
…and all over Israel: Tel Aviv, Merom Golan, Zichron Yaakov, Ashdod, Bn’ai Darom, Elkana, Mitzpe Netofa, and Jerusalem


