Don’t waste your time. Good idea but horrible execution.

I was reading some of the reviews and realized these reviews are made by people who were favored by the staff. When someone who wasn’t tried to write one, Aardvark threatened the person and made them take it down. Also you can see that when aardvark responds to bad comments they blame the child and not their own program.

My first week there I wore a bathing suit to a water hike. When I got out of the water I was told to “put on a shirt so that the rabbi wouldn’t feel uncomfortable because of my body”. I was shocked.

When I went to another country I slipped on some stairs and was literally left behind by a program director in the middle of Spain.

There is too much structure. The trips were completely planned to the second and when we tried to give feedback on the trip’s structure, the staff said they couldn’t do anything about it because the directors wouldn’t change it even if we asked. Most of the trips were boring. At one point we went to an amazing kibbutz but we stayed on the kibbutz and made candles for an hour. Everyone complained about the trips except for the “favorites” and nothing was done.

Most of the Madrichim were amazing and really helpful. They listened to us, took in our concerns, and helped us through our issues. The program directors were rude, overbearing, and didn’t care about us. I went to a doctor and they told me I needed 3 weeks bed rest for a twisted ankle, but the directors said that’s too much and told me I only have 2 weeks to “get my shit together”. I was kicked off the program because I took longer than 2 weeks to heal.

The internship choices suck. Honestly I hated what I was doing in my first internship and when I told them they told me to stay in it until they find me another one. I was in my internship until the last few weeks of the program, sanding wood every day for 4 hours. I didn’t learn anything or gain anything from it. I sat there and sanded wood and they didn’t do anything when I told them. Several people don’t like their internships and decided that if they weren’t going to make an effort to find us a new one then they wouldn’t go. And they didn’t and they were punished for not going. I was punished by being placed on 2 weeks of “house arrest”. I was not allowed to go anywhere after classes and had to stay home on weekends. I was not allowed to drink even though it’s my choice since I am of legal age and never ever had an issue with drinking because I don’t normally party. Others didn’t get punished at all and got a small slap on the wrist.

Classes had no variety and there were only 3 choices that we could take. One of the teachers was terrible and even when everyone transferred tried to tell them and transfer out of the class, they told us to suck it up and let this teacher ramble about his personal life and how amazing his career is in a graded class.

My apartment had black mold growing in it and nothing was done.

We had a rule that you couldn’t bring alcohol into the apartments, but even when we asked for them to sit down with all of us and discuss the rule they refused. We tried to tell them that it was much safer to drink at home sometimes than go out to a bar and drink there. Especially if we were drinking alone. Some nights I wanted a glass of wine with my Shabbat dinner or to drink a beer while jamming out on the balcony with my friends. I wasn’t a big drinker at all but they told us that other kids would abuse the privilege so no one was allowed. I asked why they wouldn’t have just let people who proved that they were responsible have the privilege, but take away that privilege from some people who weren’t being responsible and using the privilege correctly. They wouldn’t listen. I wanted to buy white cooking wine to make grilled veggies in a white wine and Alfredo reduction sauce but when I asked if I could buy cooking wine for a recipe they said I could but I couldn’t bring it anywhere near the apartment. We weren’t even allowed to drink near the apartment. We weren’t allowed to stand across the street and drink. There were kids who spoke their mind and tried to talk to the directors about changing some aspects of the program and those people were kicked off. When we moved to Jerusalem, 16 out of 20 of the kids were on probation because they were found drinking a beer or having a bottle of alcohol in their apartment. It was ludicrous because all of the people who were caught were put on probation immediately. One night I went out with some friends to a club and had one drink. We didn’t want to drink that much but we couldn’t bring a glass of wine home. After drinking one glass of wine I began to feel really out of it and realized that someone must have drugged my drink! My friends helped me back to the apartment and made sure we were all safe, but if we had stayed home and had a glass of wine on the couch while talking none of that would have happened. It was scary.

The only reason I enjoyed my year is because of the amazing people I met, places I travelled, and memories I made. Most of my fondest memories were made by things me and my friends decided to do and not things the program made us do. Because of the memories I made and the connection that I myself had do foster with Israel, I will be moving there and going to the army, but don’t think that aardvark has any reason to take credit for that. Aardvark only cares about the money they make off of your children. They DO NOT actually care about them at all.