Israel tours hit by conflict

MORIAH College’s 52 Israel Study Tour (IST) students will fly to Israel this week despite the current crisis with Hamas.

Another group of students, from Bialik College in Melbourne and Masada College in Sydney, were set to depart for a five-week tour of Israel on Wednesday, but were informed on Monday morning that their long-awaited journey would be postponed.

And Melbourne’s Mount Scopus Memorial College and The King David School will make decisions regarding their students, who are due to leave within the next three weeks, as the situation changes in Israel.

But Moriah was in a different situation because students were already in Poland. They were due to fly to Israel on Monday, but the school decided not to move them.

The AJN understands that on Tuesday night, after receiving more information, the school decided to send students to Israel, where they will immediately go to the north.

The tough decisions by the schools comes as Hamas and Israel trade fire and fears mount that a ground campaign could escalate the conflict further.

Australia’s Jewish schools are consulting with each other, senior Jewish leaders in Australia, the Jewish Agency in Israel and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Bialik and Masada have delayed the departures to allow them to take stock of the situation. Bialik is sending its entire year 10 level – 69 students – and Massada is sending six students along with them.

Bialik’s director of Jewish life, Dan Sztrajt, said no parents have pulled their children from the program.

“Had we chosen to depart on our original date, there may have been some parents who would have chosen not to send their children to Israel,” Sztrajt told The AJN.

Mount Scopus will make a decision next week on its program, which has a record number of 91 participants due to leave on December 3.

The school’s director of Jewish studies and Ivrit, Avi Cohen, is hopeful, but said if Jerusalem and Tel Aviv continue to be targets by terrorists, the program will be scrapped.

Melbourne’s The King David School principal Michele Bernshaw said it would be premature to make a decision for the school’s 13 students due to travel on December 12.

The Australasian Zionist Youth Council, which oversees 150 shnatties on youth movement programs, said the organisation is working to ensure the young adults are out of danger.

JOSHUA LEVI AND TIMNA JACKS

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