Because Israel Tour Has Never Been Just a Summer Trip

By the time this is published, more than 600 FZY chanichim will be waking up in Israel. Sixteen buses. The largest Israel Tour in FZY’s history. Even writing those words feels surreal. Just a few months ago, I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to write them.

There were moments over the past few months when this summer looked impossible. Commercial airlines had largely suspended their services. The war with Iran transformed daily life across Israel. Missiles became part of the news cycle and, for those of us living here, part of everyday life. Every few days seemed to bring another question that had no easy answer. Would airlines be flying? Would insurance be available? Would the security situation allow educational programmes to continue? Would families still have the confidence to send their children?

There were times when it would have been easier to stop planning. To press pause. To wait until there was certainty. But leadership rarely has the luxury of certainty. It requires something else. It requires values.

From the outset, we committed ourselves to a small number of clear principles. We would only run Israel Tour if it was safe to do so, based on the professional security advice we rely upon. If those conditions were not met, we would not come. But equally, if they were met, we would not allow fear alone to become the deciding factor. That distinction mattered.

Because Israel Tour has never simply been a summer trip.

For generations, it has been one of the defining experiences of Jewish and Zionist life in the UK. It is where friendships are formed, identities are strengthened, difficult conversations are had, and lifelong connections with Israel begin, or deepen. If we believe those things matter during easy times, then surely they matter even more during difficult ones.

Over the past few months, I have often been asked whether planning Israel Tour has been stressful. The answer is obvious: of course it has. But alongside the stress has been something else: an overwhelming sense of pride. Pride in FZY’s Board and membership, who never lost sight of the movement’s values, even when the easiest option would have been to stop. Pride in a staff team that never stopped working. Pride in dozens of madrichim who committed themselves despite the uncertainty. Pride in parents who asked thoughtful questions and placed extraordinary trust in us. Pride in our partners across the UK and Israel who continued preparing for our arrival. And above all, pride in more than 600 young people who decided that uncertainty would not define their relationship with Israel.

That decision belongs to them.

This summer, across all UK youth movement Israel Tour programmes, more than 1,000 young people will experience Israel. More than 600 of them will do so with FZY. Only weeks ago, many people questioned whether Israel Tour would happen at all. Today, those young people are here. That is a testament not only to the resilience of our community, but to the enduring belief that Israel remains central to Jewish identity and education.

There is a temptation, when looking back on moments like this, to remember only the outcome. The buses. The photos. The excitement. But leadership is not built in those moments. It is built in the weeks beforehand: in the difficult meetings, the contingency plans, the uncomfortable decisions, and the days when nobody knew what the next headline would bring.

Leadership is choosing to continue preparing for success while simultaneously preparing for disappointment. It is refusing to confuse uncertainty with impossibility.

Over the coming weeks, our chanichim will travel the length and breadth of Israel. They will laugh together, learn together, challenge one another, and experience Israel not through headlines, but through people. They will meet Israelis, wrestle with difficult questions, celebrate, volunteer, hike, sing, and build friendships that I have no doubt will last a lifetime.

That has always been the purpose of Israel Tour. Not to present Israel as perfect, but to present it as real. To help young people build a relationship that is informed by experience rather than assumption, by encounter rather than rhetoric.

As Executive Director of FZY, I could not be prouder. Not simply because this is our biggest Israel Tour ever, but because of how we got here.

That these record-breaking numbers have come just weeks after a direct war with Iran, and only days after Israeli society marked 1,000 days since the atrocities of 7 October, is remarkable. It speaks to something much deeper than successful recruitment. It speaks to the resilience of a generation, the trust of a community, and the enduring strength of Zionist education.

Leadership is often judged by what happens when everything goes according to plan. I think its true measure is whether you continue to lead when nothing does.

This summer, more than 600 FZY chanichim will experience Israel for themselves. I couldn’t be prouder, not simply because this is our biggest Israel Tour ever, but because of the values, resilience, and leadership that made it possible.

The greatest measure of our success won’t be the number of buses we sent. It will be the generation that returns home because of them.