For more than six months, the world has been living in the shadow of the coronavirus. The restrictions put in place, such as quarantine, have hit many industries, but one of the hardest hit is the international educational travel sector, where Taglit-Birthright Israel is a world leader. For the first time since its founding 20 years ago, all planned trips to Israel have been canceled.
But the pandemic turned out to be not only a problem, but also a platform for new ideas and projects. Taglit quickly adapted to the challenges and created a virtual tour of Israel, thereby allowing thousands to visit the land of their dreams without putting themselves at the slightest risk.
Young and daring
Taglit’s successful educational project is over 20 years old, but it continues to embody the spirit of youth and adventure. It is a free 10-day educational trip to Israel for young people of Jewish origin from all over the world. Through Taglit, more than 750,000 people discovered this wonderful country! And more than 20,000 of them are from Ukraine.
This is not just a 10-day tourist trip — it is an opportunity to immerse yourself in the atmosphere and culture of the country, see and feel it from the inside. The plans for 2020 were very ambitious — approximately 50,000 participants from 68 countries! But the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic brought the trips to a halt. However, this does not mean that Taglit will stop introducing you to Jewish culture and modern Israel. His team has created a complete online country tour!
Online tour as a new travel format
Why is this tour so unique? Firstly, you will have a personal guide named Nave! A real connoisseur of Israel, its culture and history. But this is not a banal set of videos or photos with small inserts of the guide’s words. You can decide for yourself where to go, which city you want to visit or which cultural activity to run into. All is in your hands!
Secondly, you don’t only see the sites, you also see the road to them. After all, everyone remembers the atmosphere when you go on an excursion bus and look at the scenery outside the window… You can see the houses people live in, the nature that surrounds them and, in general, many other important little things that characterize a real trip.
Here you will learn not only about interesting historical places, but also about traditional Jewish cuisine, exquisite and unsurpassed. Unfortunately, you can’t taste the food online, but you can plan a menu for your next trip!
Finally, you can not only watch the tour, but act in it! For example, you can leave a note with a prayer or a request in the Western Wall. Or serve a glass of water to the guide who decided to try a spicy dish instead of you. And, of course, you don’t have to worry about your passport 😉
IT conference in Kyiv
As we have already mentioned, over 20 years of Taglit’s work, about 20,000 participants from Ukraine have visited Israel. Many of them keep in touch with each other and with the project after the trip. And in the feedback letters with wishes and initiatives, the most popular question for two years now is: “Is it possible to get an internship or work in any Israeli IT company?”
Taglit always listens to the opinions of the participants. And last year, the idea of developing this direction was presented to the leaders of IT companies at the innovation center in Tel Aviv. Impressed by the number of applicants, many of them gladly agreed to take part in such a project.
The first step will be an IT conference in Kyiv, which was postponed due to COVID-19. But not the process of preparing for it. As soon as the borders are opened, we await you at this significant event.
