The Premier Jewish Gap Year Program
Travel the world. Experience new cultures. Engage in open dialogue.
Our goal is to develop global citizens who are conscientious, capable, and committed to building a more just and peaceful world. Our international travels deepen and enrich a sense of “world-consciousness” while enhancing our students’ individual Jewish identity.
A B O U T
Kivunim Gap Year is an immersive experience that explores the expansive range of Israeli society and culture. Our students enrich and deepen their own Jewish identity, expand their engagement with cultures from across the world, and build personal friendships that will last a lifetime.
Our students are excited to live in Israel for the year and travel around the world. They come eager to study and experience new cultures. Both our studies and our travels take us to places the typical tourist will never see.
We study and experience different spiritual, political, and ideological models, explore the land of Israel and its people, and develop a special appreciation of the vast Jewish Diaspora. Our goal is to support, guide, mentor, and strengthen our students’ ideas and conclusions, with the hope that they will eventually lead us all into a brighter, more peaceful future.
O U R P R O G R A M
Students receive a transformative experience of focused international travel, serious academic study and cross-cultural dialogue—traveling in up to 12 countries with our home base in the heart of Jerusalem.
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Cultivate a Lifelong Relationship With Israel
We explore Israel's magnificent archeology and meet Israeli artists, journalists, writers, musicians, politicians, religious leaders, scholars and philosophers. Through integrated classroom discourse and cultural immersion, students gain a deeper appreciation for Jewish history and the State of Israel, and claim their Jewish identity with a sense of pride, personalization and purpose.
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Explore up to 12 Different Countries
Kivunim is on and off the beaten path. Of course we see the major sites wherever we go, but study about and visit places the typical tourist will never see. Our fully accredited academic courses build cultural awareness and literacy by exploring world religions, art and musical cultures, histories and traditions, together with the Jewish experience within all of them. We meet some of the most distinguished thinkers, writers, artists, musicians, political & religious leaders both in Israel and in the countries of our annual travels.
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Volunteer Work in Israel
Through our Social Responsibility program we dedicate a significant portion of each week in Israel to giving back and making a difference. We study about and see first-hand the challenges to many in Israeli society and consider how our contribution can make a difference. Our program builds character and fosters a commitment to bring more kindness and compassion to the world.
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Make meaningful connections.
We approach our studies and experiences with an optimistic and hopeful worldview. Throughout the year, we explore issues that unite and divide. We emphasize the bright spots in both our past and present, to remind us of our collective humanity. At each stage of our year-long journey, our students are encouraged to find points of commonality, engage in open dialogue and build bridges with other countries and cultures.
S T U D E N T T E S T I M O N I A L S
“Not only did Kivunim help me expand my knowledge, but also provided personal growth and discovery. I would not be where I am anchored today, or the person I am today, without Kivunim.”
I still consider my gap-year on Kivunim one of the most formative experiences of my life. It shaped my identity and enhanced my personal development…I consider myself a braver, more curious, and more confident citizen of the world.”
O U R A P P R O A C H
What does a Jewish student need in order to build bridges instead of putting up walls?
They need to know the story of the Jewish people across the world. They need to know of the historic positive relationship between Jews and Muslims in Medieval Spain and in contemporary Morocco. They need to know that with all the current criticism of Israel coming from Turkey, the Ottoman Empire preserved and protected the exiled Jews from Christian Spain (1492) to such an extent that there are Synagogue Bimahs (reading platforms often in the middle of Turkish Synagogues) that are built in the shape of merchant ships as a commemoration of the Ottoman boats that were sent out to sea to save them! Of course, we also have a history of tragedy. Our connection to the majority of the cultures with whom our people have lived over millennia is the support of the bridges Kivunim has been building across the world for the past 20+ years.
If we are to help end the senseless repetition of the horrors of the past we must study history, both intellectually and experientially, with a spirit of optimism tempered by reality.
Peter Geffen
Founder, Kivunim
T H E E X P E R I E N C E O F A L I F E T I M E