Aardvark Israel

As parents, when you send your 18-year-old thousands of miles away for a 9-month program—in a war zone—you are placing a great deal of trust in the leadership of that program. After several disappointing experiences, we lost that trust in Aardvark’s leadership and, together with our daughter, made the incredibly difficult decision to bring her home early.
While she had a positive and enriching first semester in Tel Aviv, the second semester in Jerusalem was a profoundly disappointing and distressing experience.
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A Bit of Background
Our daughter is a shy and reserved young woman, but she has never had issues making or maintaining friendships. She’s a well-rounded teen with a close-knit group of friends from school and summer camp. Socially, she’s always managed to find her place—until the Jerusalem semester.
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Participant Makeup
Aardvark participants often come with built-in support networks: friends from home, or family (grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles) living in Israel. Many of the American participants are dual citizens or Israeli-Americans. Because of this, social circles and cliques are often pre-established. Those arriving solo, without family nearby, can be at a significant disadvantage from a social and support system perspective. Other students weren’t very willing to include my daughter, despite her efforts to reach out.
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Program Structure
Aardvark gives participants a lot of independence. In Tel Aviv, students live in apartments scattered across the neighborhood, while in Jerusalem they are housed in the same apartment building. Students are expected to manage their own cooking, cleaning, internships, and coursework, all while following behavioral rules regarding alcohol, drugs, and conduct.
One major issue we observed is the lack of structure over Shabbat. Apart from the first weekend, there are no scheduled activities. This can be especially isolating for non-observant participants or those without established social groups. In Jerusalem, the city essentially shuts down. There is one madricha “on call” during Shabbat and many participants either travel to Tel Aviv or stay with family and friends—leaving others behind with little support. With no friends or activities to do in the city, my daughter found herself left alone every weekend sitting in her apartment.
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Supervision and Leadership
There is approximately one madricha per 15 participants and there is one community manager dedicated to each city, reporting through the Program Director. There is also a Parent Liaison, a licensed social worker, who also reports to the director. The madrichim are very young—typically in their early twenties—and appear to lack the experience and authority to enforce rules or handle serious issues.
Warnings are issued when rules are broken, but repercussions are rare, and enforcement is inconsistent. The staff is stretched thin and ill-equipped to manage complex social dynamics or emotional distress. Many of the students break rules regarding alcohol/drug use or skipping internships/classes and have no consequences.
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The Jerusalem Semester
Our daughter’s Jerusalem experience could best be described as “Real World: Jerusalem”—a small group (approximately 30 participants) full of drama. Sadly, she was socially bullied and ostracized by someone who had previously thought of as a close friend during the first semester in Tel Aviv. This individual intentionally excluded my daughter and spread rumors.
Despite her efforts to resolve the issue directly, her attempts were rebuffed. When she turned to staff for support, she was told to “try harder” and “give it time”—neither of which was helpful to a teen who was increasingly isolated and emotionally struggling.
As the situation worsened, we were in regular contact with the parent liaison. Eventually, I flew to Israel to support our daughter. During my visit, I witnessed the group dynamics and cliques firsthand. I met with the parent liaison, madricha, and community manager who confirmed that what our daughter was experiencing was social bullying.
I left Israel hoping for change, but unfortunately, the situation continued to deteriorate. Ultimately, we made the painful decision to bring her home early.
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Leadership Response
We were deeply disappointed in how the program handled this situation. The participant who had bullied our daughter remained in the program without consequences. When we escalated our concerns to the Program Director, the response was dismissive, defensive, and lacking in empathy.
Even more troubling was our attempt to reach the Executive Director, Debbie Goldsmith. Her contact information is notably absent from the Aardvark website. After multiple requests through the parent liaison, we were told to fill out a form online to request a call—a step that felt deliberately bureaucratic and impersonal. In light of our experience, we expected the Executive Director to reach out to us proactively. When we finally spoke with her, her defensiveness and lack of responsibility only reinforced our concerns about the culture of leadership at Aardvark.
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Final Thoughts and Recommendations
There are many gap year programs to choose from. Aardvark has an excellent outreach and marketing strategy—but before committing, make sure you trust the leadership behind the scenes. The tone and culture of the program come from the top, and in our case, that leadership fell far short when our daughter needed support the most.

Aardvark has been a disappointment. This year of course has been very difficult, but the basic things have not been addresses. The apartment was a mess- filthy dirty, holes in the walls, broken appliances, broken air conditioning etc. The internship was also exactly what I feared - just free labor even when my daughter tried very hard and professionally to speak with them, they were missed meeting, unmet texts etc. They seem to offer a lot of support but mostly the answer is no. When we had an emergency - stolen phone, cancelled flight etc. no one helped. Even when the parents reached out, the answer was always no.
Left early just was no reason to stay anymore.

My daughter was disappointed when she didn’t manage to find an internship in the first five weeks of the program. I did most of the work of finding her options (including her final position) myself. I know there were others with similar issues on this trip. Maybe if you are joining Magen David or one of the existing options of Aardvark it would have been different.

Regarding the sleeping arrangements - there are 4-5 buildings in one area and a single building in Rothschild area. While it’s a lovely area- if your child ends up there they will have a more limited experience in terms of connecting with other students. My daughter was in a building with 11 girls while the rest of the program was a 10-15 minute walk away which hindered her ability to spend time with them regularly.
Overall this program feels like camp for children from outside of Israel, which may suit some but not al.

This program is absolutely fantastic for people who want a year of fun, personal growth, development and especially independence. I did the fall semester in Jerusalem and it was fantastic! I have learnt so much about living on my own and with roommates and it's a once in a life time experience. If you have the opportunity to come on Aardvark, do it! I loved it so much I wish I could have stayed longer!

The location of the apartments is right in the centre of town making it easy and accessible to acquire essentials and also go out to have fun (e.g. food, shopping etc...). The two apartment buildings are seconds away from each other making it easy to visit your friends apartments.

I did two internships - Lady Morgana (Jewellery store) and Kli-Che (sun printing art studio) which were absolutely wonderful and I loved them so much that I've kept in touch and have gone back to visit many times after the program had finished. I really enjoyed the Tiyul Tuesdays where the whole community were together as we explored Israel. We travelled to many parts of Israel where we hiked and viewed important historical sights. We had an overnight trip in Kibbutz Keturah, a kibbutz located close to Eilat, and it was a fascinating experience where we learnt about kibbutz life and were able to immerse ourselves in Israeli culture!

I did Aardvark Spring/Summer 2021 in Tel Aviv. I was there from the start of April through the end of July (it was delayed a bit due to COVID). As I reflect on my time in Israel five months later, it still makes me emotional.
My time in Aardvark was truly the most impactful of my life. For the first half of the program, I lived on Allenby Street with all 70 other Aardvark kids in the same building. The location truly could not have been better and it was so fun with everyone sharing the building. The second half, we moved to Florentin, a slightly quieter area. My apartment was on the top floor and we had a large balcony (like the size of a basketball court) with a beautiful city view. My roomates and I would often have a huge group of friends come to the balcony for Shabbat dinners or to socialize before going out. I interned at a local NGO that was right next to the beach. I loved my coworkers and it felt impactful without being stressful. I felt super duper safe, I would often walk home alone at night and did not feel nervous at all (something I miss now being back in the US).
Here was my average schedule: wake up, take the bus to my internship, have lunch w my coworkers on the beach paviliaon, walk home a couple miles and find a cute spot to journal along the way, go for a run to Jaffa, go grocery shopping, cook dinner, meet up with my friends, go to a bar or club, go for a nighttime swim, then walk home along the beach. So so so fun.
The highlight, however, was the weekend adventures. My friends and I would plan mini-trips all over the country. Once we rented a cheap Airbnb and all squeezed in, other times we would stay at hostels. I met the coolest people and learned SO much. I learned new perspectives on everything Israel-related and became so much more independent. As a testament to this newfound independence, I finished my gap year by backpacking solo around Eastern Europe for 10 days.
My advice to everyone on Aardvark is to say yes to every opportunity and journal so you remember these incredible experiences a few years down the road. Not everything will be perfect, but if you roll with the punches, you will end up with some amazing memories. Some people might think that these types of programs try to "brainwash" you into being blindly zionist. However, I encourage you to seek out authentic experiences, and you too can understand and appreciate the complexities of the country. While I was nervous about anti-Israel sentiments occurring at my college, I actually found that I was extremely prepared to discuss the issue maturely with others, mostly due to my experiences in Israel. I plan to make Aliyah after college, something I never considered before Aardvark. Ultimately, I left Israel feeling more confident about who I am and where I am going than ever before in my life.