Counterpoint Israel (CPI) is a CJF summer program which brings motivated students to Israel to create a summer day camp for Israeli high schoolers in developing towns in Israel. The goal of the camp is to empower the Israeli teens by discussing with them important and relevant issues pertinent to their daily lives, like substance abuse and peer pressure, while teaching them English so they can develop those crucial language skills. The program runs from July 26th to August 23rd 2009.
Visit the Counterpoint Israel 2008 blog >>
View the 2007 Counterpoint Israel Video >>
The Program is built of three key elements: Activism, Learning and Interaction.
Activism:
The activism segment consists of camps run for Israeli teens in development towns. In the years 2006 and 2007 YU CJF ran a camp in Yerucham. Summer 2008 introduces a camp in Dimona, in addition to Yerucham Camp.
Learning:
While the students are involved in running the camps, they are also engaged in workshops and shiurim that relate directly to the work that they are doing. These learning opportunities take a full day form in seminars that are run in the weeks prior to the camp, and in the week following.
Interaction:
The element that rounds off the activism and learning elements of CPI, is the joint work with Israeli college students. While this interaction enhances the actual work that the students are doing together, it completely changes the dynamic of the learning experience. Each of the group comes from a different background, and with a completely different outlook on life, and so each side challenges and completes the other. In turn, the group dynamic that is created has a powerful affect on the activism element, as the work that the students are doing gains a fresh perspective and new meaning to it.