Where can a high school student and a mom from California study 4,000 years of Jewish and Israeli history using the land as their classroom? In partnership with Jewish National Fund-USA, Alexander Muss American High School in Israel (AMHSI) offers this unique opportunity for young people to experience living history in Israel. The trip for Muss families affords these opportunities to parents as well.
Students stay in college-like dorms on a campus near bustling Tel Aviv and travel around the country learning about historical events right where they
took place, all while completing their fully-accredited academic studies, gaining greater independence, enjoying new experiences, and preparing for college.
Betsy Rosenthal, from California, shares how her son benefitted from AMHSI. “Our son Joel brought home a brochure from religious school about this study program in Israel. Having already entered his senior year, he assumed we wouldn’t go for it. But we recognized that he needed an educational challenge and a change in environment,” Betsy explained. Joel finished up his last year of high school at Muss. The Muss administrators even arranged for him to take AP tests and complete his AP classes while in Israel.
Betsy credits AMHSI for her entrée into Jewish National Fund-USA. She described how the Muss Family Trip to Israel gave her and her husband a first-hand look at this extraordinary program. “We accompanied the students and their teachers on field trips, which included a lesson atop a captured Syrian tank in the north and another with a view of the trees planted in Syria at the suggestion of Israeli spy Eli Cohen to identify targets for Israeli attacks.”
“One of the highlights for me,” Betsy added, “was when we heard from one of the paratroopers featured in the famous picture of the three soldiers at the Western Wall, sharing his personal experience liberating Jerusalem during the Six-day War.” Betsy added that perhaps the most moving part of Joel’s semester-long experience was when his class had reached the period of WWII in their studies and traveled to Poland to visit a former shtetl, Schindler’s factory, and a concentration camp. “When I watched the video of my son bowing the theme music to Schindler’s List on his violin on the grounds of Auschwitz, draped in an Israeli flag, I couldn’t help but tear up,” Betsy said.
A guided tour of Jewish National Fund-USA-funded projects was also on the itinerary. “As most American Jews, we thought JNF-USA did nothing but tree-planting,” Betsy noted. “But we visited the Sderot indoor playground, the newly built Amphitheater and River Park in Be’er Sheva, and a Water Reclamation Plant.” This introduction to the far-reaching work of Jewish National Fund-USA spurred Betsy and her husband David to engage actively with the organization and to become major donors. Betsy is a former L.A. Chai Society co-chair, and David co-founded the JNF-USA L.A. Real Estate division.
Another Muss mom, Karen Rappaport, who had initially recruited Betsy’s son and other Southern California high schoolers when she worked for AMHSI, eventually sent all three of her children on the eight-week program. Karen had the opportunity to participate in the Living Classroom in Israel, learning along with the students for ten days. “The trip was amazing,” she said. “I was particularly moved when they held their class at a biblical site, where I closed my eyes and listened to the echoes of ancient Israel.” Karen said her son returned from Muss “with a new resolve to perform better in school after expanding his world.” And according to Karen, the lasting friendships with classmates from across the U.S. was one of the most important takeaways for her son.
Karen’s mother, Goldie Wetcher, became so enthusiastic about AMHSI and the impact it had on her grandchildren that she now sits on the National Board of AMHSI and is a staunch Jewish National Fund-USA supporter in Florida. Goldie stressed that, unlike her generation, “this generation has been spared the experience of a war like World War II and the tragedy of the Holocaust. Consequently, it’s vitally important for our children to understand what it means to be a Jew today, to learn our history, and to appreciate the importance of Israel to our survival as a people.” Goldie went on to say, “And what better way to see and live what they’ve been studying about in religious school than by having boots on the ground in Israel?”
Stacy Palestrant is not a Muss mom yet, but is a very proud alum, as are her younger brother and sister. During the pandemic, the three siblings thought reconnecting with classmates from AMHSI would be joyful during that challenging time. They held a successful reunion via Zoom and have become close again with their fellow AMHSI alumni. It was during that reunion that Stacy learned that AMHSI is part of Jewish National Fund-USA, which it has been for nearly ten years, and she fully appreciates how beneficial that relationship is for both organizations.
Stacy was so inspired by what she had learned that she and her friend Lori Miller, whose son has recently attended an AMHSI program, and their families decided to start the AMHSI Arizona Fellowship, which encourages Arizona teens to study in Israel, thereby expanding their sense of Jewish identity and laying the foundation to become community leaders. They recently had a launch party for the Fellowship, and it is off to a robust start toward their goal of raising $1,000,000 for an endowed fund. When asked if she’ll send her children to AMHSI programs, Stacy could not have said “Yes, absolutely” more quickly.
Over 1500 students participated in AMHSI last year in the full semester academic programs, the mini-mester - an eight-week condensed immersion into history, culture, language, and geography; six-week summer programs (both academic and non-academic) focusing on history and culture, a Roots four-week summer program focused on Tikkun Olam, travel, the environment and community, and a 5-week Entrepreneurship program offering teens the opportunity to discover Israel as “A Start-Up Nation.”
To accommodate the growing demand, Jewish National Fund-USA is building a brand-new second campus in Be’er Sheva as part of the World Zionist Village, which is the centerpiece of JNF-USA’s strategic vision to ensure a prosperous future for the people of Israel.
As you can see, there are many reasons AMHSI alumni call it the Muss Magic!
To find an AMHSI program that fits your family’s
needs, CLICK HERE.
Written by Betsy R. Rosenthal, Los Angeles WFI Steering Committee, with Jayne Rosenberg, Long Island WFI Steering Committee, and Lynette Feit Buzen, Long Island Regional Board President and Vice Chair of the WFI Newsletter