The Israel Experience program brings groups of Jewish youth from around the world to Israel as part of an educational program with the goal of enhancing Jewish identity and a connection to Israel. A decade-long international study of the Israel Experience educational tour program has found that over 90% of the tens of thousands of participants surveyed were satisfied with the tour. These are roughly evenly divided between those who were “satisfied” with the tour and those who were “very satisfied” (Cohen and Cohen, 2000). Therefore, evaluation has not focused on how to please the few who disliked the program, but rather on addressing the concerns of those who were merely “satisfied” so that as many participants as possible will be “very satisfied”.
Using the Israel Experience as a case study, I will explore directions for fine-tuning an already successful educational tour.
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Write by Erik H. Cohen, 2006
