OTZMA: Live and Volunteer in Israel

We all grow up with the thought of "next year in Israel", this program makes that a reality. I absolutely loved my experience on Otzma. I learned Hebrew, met some of my best friends, and volunteered in several different capacities. I got a chance to tutor Ethiopian kids, untangle parachutes on an army base, work in a community garden, bake alongside troubled youth at a local bakery, and even work as a hotel maid on an eco-kibbutz. Most of the program centers around volunteering, but there is also an educational component, as well as a chance to tour the country. Never would I have been able to experience anything like the opportunities Otzma introduced to me.

Went on Otzma 2004-2005 and had a great time. Was a life changing year! Great way to better understand Israel and feel a part of the country rather than a visitor. Made life long friends both in and out of Israel too.

Otzma was a life-changing, life-affirming program. The program not only provides an opportunity to live in Israel for a year, but allows for enough independence that you can actually taste and experience Israeli life.

Each several months provides you with a different experience, both in work conditions and in living situation. Throughout the year, there is structure, free-time, play-time, travelling, learning, and ample opportunity for self-exploration and learning. Support is present, close by, very present but not smothering.

To this day, many of my closest friends are those that I made during my year on Otzma. Together we played, cried, worked, and explored our Judiac and Zionist ideals and newfound adulthood.

I would highly higly recommend this program.

OTZMA is an incredible way to really experience life in Israel as it allows participants to truly interact with Israelis from all walks of life and make a real difference in their lives. I had the incredible opportunity to help teach English to kids and teens, assist those less fortunate in different communities and intern at organizations helping promote Israel and Zionism. Aside from volunteering, participants also learn all about the country's history, culture, people and politics through an excellent education program. Additionally, regular tours and excursions plus plenty of free time allow participants to explore the country on their own. Overall, OTZMA was a life-changing experience which I would highly recommend to anyone interested in spending time in Israel and giving back to the community.

Otzma is one of those experiences that will never leave you. The people, the place, the ups, the downs, are all a mumbled conglomerate of awesome. I was able to achieve things through this program that I never thought were possible. I was able to experience Israel in all of its capacities. I was able to give back to a country that had/has given so much to me. Otzma is the best decision I have made thus far in my life. It challenged me to really look inside myself and learn.

OTZMA was the best decision I ever made in my life. In the summer of 2008 I was feeling lost and without direction. I was about to enter into my final year at Michigan State University and I had NO idea what I wanted to do with my life. I knew that I didn't want to be a speech pathologist even though I had already spent 4 years studying to do so. That summer I took a job working with Young Judaea as a staff member on their summer trip to Israel for High School students. While in Israel I ran into someone I sort of knew from Michigan State and asked him what he was doing in Israel. He started telling me all about this incredible year he had just spent on OTZMA. As soon as he started telling me about this program I knew I wanted to be a part of it. When I came home that summer my mind was made up I was doing OTZMA.

I was so excited when I was finally accepted into the program but I had no idea how much it would change my life. I had spent a lot of time visiting Israel and doing all the touristy things but I had no idea what it meant to live in Israel. Through my time in Israel I experienced many life changing moments, from tutoring High School students, in English to spending time with my adoptive family and really feeling part of the family. Through my volunteering and amazing educational opportunities on OTZMA I came to the realization that I wanted to work in the Jewish community. A few months after my return from Israel and I was doing just that working at the Jewish Federations of North America.

My year on OTZMA I learned things about myself and Israel that I would never learn anywhere else. I am proud to say that OTZMA gave me direction in life and I am forever grateful.

OTZMA was and is an amazing experience. Having traveled to Israel with Taglit-birthright and later attending Hebrew University my Junior Year abroad I felt like I never connected with Israel. The majority of my time over that year I felt like a tourist, hopping from city to city on buses, representing Rothberg and not meeting Israelis. Toward the end of the semester I knew I needed to come back to Israel to really have experience where I felt apart of the country and not an outsider.

I learned about OTZMA from friends and after researched realized it was the PERFECT program. OTZMA places you in situations where you are learning and experiencing the country through its people and not the windows of a bus. Living in an Absorption Center, learning Hebrew with new Olim (immigrants), volunteering with the locals I began to forge relationships with not only the members of my group, but those I worked with and learned Hebrew with. Following my three months in the Absorption Center, I was placed in Chicago's partnership city of Kiryat Gat. When you ask anyone in Israel where's Kiryat Gat, you get two answers. 1. The INTEL Factory is there and 2. OH!!! My Birthright bus stopped there on the way back from Eilat at the mall. My goal was to leave K-gat with more knowledge of it and the surrounding cities and the people who lived there. Working in an adult care, with children in after school programs and with immigrants on learning how to use computers (setting up email, online banking...even understanding how to "double click" to open an application,) I felt I was able to give back to a small city and leave with so much more. The last part of my journey on OTZMA was living and interning in Jerusalem. Being back in Jerusalem for the first time since Hebrew University, I really wanted to be a part of the city, the culture and day to day life that happened.

During both part 1 and part 2 of my time in Israel with OTZMA I was able to travel to all the different cities my co-OTZMAnikim were living in and meet their friends, work with them in their placements and experience Israel in a broader sense. I traveled from the North to the South and East to West and when I left Israel to return to the States, I knew I was leaving one home to return my old home.

OTZMA gave me the opportunity to fall in love again with the Israel I first new and leave loving the country, its people and the land so much more. Living, working and hiking among Israelis and my fellow participants has made my bond with Israel stronger.

OTZMA will give you a chance to be a part of something bigger than yourself. Educational days, speakers, hikes and the volunteering will change your life for the better. You will leave feeling a better version of yourself than when you arrived 10 months earlier.

My year on OTZMA was a formative and life changing experience unlike anything else I've ever known. I spent 10 months as a volunteer living and learning in the country that I had only ever read about in Sunday school. Suddenly all that I had heard and learned as a child came alive. I was living in the desert and learning Hebrew; I was teaching English in the North next to the Lebanese border; I was grocery shopping in the Jerusalem shuk each day after working at my internship. I made Israeli friends and learned the language that they spoke. This was not a tourist experience; it was a REAL experience.

OTZMA is wonderful for many reasons, but for me, the main reason was the opportunity to live in the periphery. I came to Israel for 10 months and experienced more of the country than most Israeli's have ever experienced. It's unique and special. Even more than living in the periphery is the engaging education program which OTZMA offers. We hiked, visited historical sites, learned about current issues in Israeli society, and heard all sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

I highly recommend this program to anyone who is considering a year in Israel after college.