The Baltimore Zionist District has been taking teens on trips to Israel for many years during the summer as part of its mission to connect Baltimore with Israel, but over the past year, it has expanded its teen engagement work with a yearlong program called BMore Israeli.

The program is targeted toward teens in 10th and 11th grade and offers monthly meetings with a cohort of up to 20 teens, interactive experiences, content delivered by the current BZD shlicha, a certificate of completion and a three-week trip to Israel to cap off the program.

According to Ido, the BZD shlicha, building a more immersive program was something that BZD had been thinking about doing for a long time.

“We thought that maybe to create an annual program will make the [Israel] trip even more meaningful for the teens, because then they will get the chance to go as a group with their friends that they [got to] know for the whole year in the program, and then spend a three-week trip there together,” Ido said.

She added that making a more immersive experience for the teens became especially important after Oct. 7 and everything that has happened with Israel since then.

Ido said that BZD began having serious talks about doing this program in July 2024 and quickly got everything together to be ready by September 2024, when 16 interested teens formed the first BMore Israeli cohort.

The group began its meetings shortly after and learned about life in Israel, Jewish traditions and more in lessons taught by Ido. Members also volunteered in the community and made interpersonal connections.

“We did have a lot of fun together, and I got really close with a lot of members of our group. We hung out together, even outside of the designated meetings. We would go to people’s houses, just talking, hanging out. And aside from a great way to learn about Israeli culture and how to advocate for Israel, we also just became good friends,” said Shaya Miller, one of the teen participants.

Outside of working in the community and attending their monthly meetings, the teens were given peer partners in Israel to connect with during the year through the Maccabi Tzair program.

The teens were supposed to meet with their partners during the trip to Israel during the summer, but it was canceled due to the conflict between Israel and Iran in June, when the group had planned to go.

The trip was supposed to be a three-week experience travelling across the country outside of unsafe areas in the north, attending the Maccabiah Games and joining a program where teens can get a taste of being in the IDF.

The cancellation was disappointing to BZD and the teens, but Miller said that she looked past that disappointment and worked on using those three weeks to be productive locally.
She added that the trip wasn’t the only part of the program she had been looking forward to, and reflected on the unique experience of living through historic moments.

“I know that we were able to experience Israel in a way that many generations before us and after us are not going to be able to experience it. We’re really living in a historic time when Israel’s resilience inspires us to keep being advocates for Israel and to keep voicing our opinions and to keep wanting to learn more,” Miller said.

Caren Leven, executive director of BZD, said that this program is unique in Baltimore because of the tight connection to Israel it fosters through Ido’s leadership.

“She [Ido] works with the teens at every capacity, and at the end of the day, the teens are her students, she is their mentor, she is their friend, and she is the person that they rely on, for everything,” Leven said. “We want the teens to really connect with Israeli life, Israeli culture, Israeli identity, and really feel that connection to Israel through our shlicha.”

Leven added that the teens were also able to get an insight into the lives of their peers in Israel through the connections they made with their partners.

BZD is now gearing up for the second cohort, and is hoping to expand the program in terms of making the programming schedule and collaborating with community partners, along with being able to attend the Israel trip next summer.

Miller said that she recommends teens consider the program, as it was a learning experience for her and brought her closer to other teens and strengthened her values.

“In the end, we all really came out understanding at least something new, another reason to want to advocate for Israel, another reason to want to keep embracing our identities, whether we’re just Jews or Israelis or Israeli-Americans,” Miller said.

bhamelin@midatlanticmedia.com