US Jewish Gap Year

Tivnu

The Tivnu Gap Year Program is a 9-month residential experience for high school graduates, ages 17-20, from across North America and beyond. Participants work, study, and live together in Portland, Oregon, building homes, creating community, and exploring the connections between Judaism and social justice. Go here for more information.

AVODAH

AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps strengthens the Jewish community's fight against the causes and effects of poverty in the United States. We do this by engaging participants in service and community building that inspire them to become lifelong leaders for social change whose work for justice is rooted in and nourished by Jewish values. Participants in our service Corps program live out and deepen their commitments to social change and Jewish life through a year of full-time work at anti-poverty organizations in Chicago, New Orleans, New York, and Washington, DC. This work partners Corps members with service providers and residents in low income communities and equips our Corps members and alumni to emerge as lifelong agents for social change, whose work for justice is rooted in and nourished by Jewish values. After participants complete this intensive year-long program, our extensive alumni network provides a broad platform for long-term leadership in social change and Jewish life. 

Each year, AVODAH recruits people in their 20s from across North America and from the full spectrum of Jewish life to spend a year working on urban poverty issues as full-time employees in local non-profit organizations in Chicago, New Orleans, New York, and Washington, DC. During their year of service, participants live and study together, forming an intense and diverse community of people making a connection between social activism and Jewish life. This work partners Corps members with service providers and residents in low income communities and equips our Corps members and alumni to emerge as lifelong agents for social change, whose work for justice is rooted in and nourished by Jewish values. Corps members help bring housing, education and other basic services to thousands of people each year, and save each organization we partner with an average of $18,000 dollars in staffing costs, since Corps members live on a basic stipend during their year of service. After participants complete this intensive year-long program, our extensive alumni network provides a broad platform for long-term leadership in social change and Jewish life. Go here for more information.