Off the Derekh: Exploring the Experience of American Jewish Gap Year Students in Israel

• In Event: Upheaval in Israel

Abstract

The gap year in Israel is extremely widespread among contemporary modern and centrist Orthodox American Jews, and has been for at least a generation. While much less widespread, it is also a familiar phenomenon among non-Orthodox but highly affiliated American Jews. Interestingly, the gap year in Israel is situated between two other educational experiences, namely, high school and college, that are aligned in terms of their core values and expectations. But the gap year, inserted into this trajectory, is different—and potentially disruptive.

In order to understand how the gap year is or may be disruptive, this project interviewed current students in February 2024. (Of n=14, 6 identified as men, 7 as women, and one as non-binary; 10 were participating in Orthodox yeshiva and seminary programs and 4 were participating in a pluralistic co-ed program.) The data reveal that some students resist the idea that the gap year is disruptive; they embrace “growth” but not “change.” Students also share the experience of “adulting,” both in its general manifestation (managing a budget, doing one’s own laundry, cooking for oneself) and in specifically Jewish versions (choosing which synagogue to attend or whether to attend at all). Other students, however, provide windows into the way that the gap year, in some circumstances, challenges their assumptions about an upper middle class American Jewish culture of academic achievement and material success. Some students articulate a sense of distance from American liberal values. In addition, students also provide insight into their evolving thinking about Israel, and their own relationship to the collective and to the Zionist project of nation-building (albeit under the extraordinary circumstances of the Israel-Gaza war).

Author

• Jon Levisohn, Brandeis University