The two youth groups within the Movement for Progressive Judaism (MPJ) – RSY-Netzer and LJY-Netzer – will take students finishing Year 11 to Israel this summer, for the first time since 2024.
Security concerns regarding Israel’s war with Hamas and Iran’s other proxy groups, as well as the subsequent war with Iran itself, led to the amendment of RSY and LJY tours in the summers of 2025 and 2026.
The two youth movements took students on cultural tours of Europe instead, visiting locations including Prague, Vienna, and Budapest.
MPJ director of youth Becca Fetterman told the JC that they are “thrilled” to once again be able to offer full Israel tours.
“This is our first full Israel tour for two years, as for the previous two, we followed FCDO advice,” she explained. “Instead, we spent those summers in eastern Europe learning about Jewish history and the foundations of Zionism.
“We are really excited that we will be back in Israel this year,” she continued. “As Progressive youth movements, we offer a unique tour, [where we] hear from a really wide section of Israeli society and really grapple with the difficult topics, whilst forming really special egalitarian communities and having the most fun.”
Overseen by UJIA and the Jewish Agency for Israel, students are taken on comprehensive tours of the Jewish state, from visiting holy sites in Jerusalem to exploring Tel Aviv’s vibrant city life, and hiking up Masada, floating in the Dead Sea, and sleeping under the stars in the desert.
They will also meet communities from all of Israel’s diverse communities, including Christian Arabs, Druze, Bedouins, kibbutz communities, Palestinians and Ethiopian Jews.
MPJ emphasised that their tours often act as a stepping stone to future leadership within their movements and beyond, with many of their Israel tour participants going on to take part in other programmes or lead Israel tour themselves, and take on roles in their synagogues and communities as adults.
The provisional tour dates are July 4 to 25, 2027. Both movements’ programmes cost £4,900, or £4,750 for members of a Reform or Liberal synagogue.
They also offer financial assistance to applicants who have had “limited engagement with Israel, Jewish life and/or communal structures”, with criteria including whether the applicant attends a Jewish school, has significant involvement in Jewish life, or has often visited Israel.
Both groups are running taster afternoons in central London this weekend – LJY on November 14 and RSY on November 15. They are an opportunity to experience what one day of Israel tour would be like, and are free of charge, with dinner served, and no future commitment required.
Tour signup for both groups open online at 9am on November 16.
To sign up for the taster afternoons or for tour itself – or to read more information about the application, activities and schedule, or pricing and subsidies – click here for RSY-Netzer or here for LJY-Netzer.
To get more from community, click here to sign up for our free community newsletter.