Yesterday, seventy-six North American high schoolers landed at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv to begin the Spring 2019 semester of URJ Heller High.
Some fast facts about the class:
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They represent 15 different states, D.C., and Ontario, Canada
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They come from 40 different URJ Congregations. Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick, NJ has the most students in this class (six!)
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11 of the URJ Camps are represented, and over 55% of the students are URJ Camp alumni
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Nearly two-thirds of the class are active NFTY-ites
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Over one-third of the Spring ’19 students hold local or regional youth group board positions
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This is one of the first classes where the sophomores outnumber the juniors
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A record-breaking 17 students are siblings of URJ Heller High/NFTY-EIE alumni!
Over the next four months, these students will travel across the land of Israel and explore thousands of years of Jewish History. They will strengthen their identities as Jewish young adults, gain independence, maturity, and perspective. The community that they build together will stay with them for life. And they will do all of this while earning a semester of high school credit from our fully accredited program.
Follow along with their adventures this semester on Facebook and Instagram, and here on the Heller High blog!