Please note that we are finalizing what our trips will look like for the 2022-2023 school year.
Our trips give teens the opportunity to live our Jewish values, pray with their feet, and talk about the role of the Jewish community and the impact of individuals who can and should make a difference in the world today. They are also incredible bonding opportunities, with friendships forming that span grades. The trips are staffed by members of the Department of Lifelong Learning and community service hours are available for all of our trips.
8th-9th Grade: New Orleans
Tour Guide/Organization: Institute for Southern Jewish Life
Save the Date: January 13-16, 2023
8th and 9th graders will travel together with teens from Stephen Wise Free Synagogue to New Orleans to explore southern Jewish life and climate change. We will explore the complex and diverse history of this city, from its Spanish and French roots to its contemporary role as a culturally-rich American metropolis famous for Mardi Gras. We will taste the unique culinary traditions of this city at places like “Kosher Cajun” and the French Quarter, and unpack the complex narratives of the local Jewish community. And we will take time to talk about how the Mississippi Delta continues to disappear as a result of rising sea levels and increasingly severe and frequent hurricanes. The trip will depart in the early morning of Friday, January 13 and return in the early evening of Monday, January 16.
10th-12th Grade: Prague
Tour Guide/Organization: Jonathan Goldstein of Cicerone Travel
Save the Date: February 16-21, 2023
10th-12th graders will travel together with teens from Stephen Wise Free Synagogue to Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic and hub of Bohemian culture. One of the few cities in Europe that escaped major damage in World War II, we will explore the synagogues and sites that represent the complex but rich history of Jewish life and culture that existed here for nearly 1,000 years. Of course, it’s impossible to ignore the devastation that the Holocaust brought to Prague’s Jews, so we will visit the city of Terezin and the Theresienstadt concentration camp – the Nazis’ model camp that was propagandized to sell the Red Cross on the ethical treatment of prisoners. We will conclude our trip with a look at the era of Communism that followed the war and the rebirth of Western culture and Jewish life of the last 30 years. The trip will depart in the mid-afternoon of Thursday, February 16 and return in the early evening of Tuesday, February 21.
10th-12th Grade: Washington, DC
Tour Guide/Organization: Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
Save the Date: January 27-30, 2023
10th-12th graders can also attend the L’Taken (Hebrew for “to change”) Seminar in Washington, DC. Working in partnership with the Religious Action Center, the Reform movement’s advocacy arm in our nation’s capitol, teens will learn about the complex and nuanced nature lobbying and how it plays a role in today’s political system. Participants will also unpack current issues which are being debated in Congress, ultimately picking one of their own and creating a speech about it which they will deliver on Capitol Hill! Time will also be allocated for visits to the US Holocaust Museum, the MLK memorial, and the Smithsonian museums on the National Mall. The trip will depart in the on the morning of January 27 and return in the evening of January 30. Limited space is available, and priority registration will be given to those teens who cannot join us in Prague.
