Flipping out? : [electronic resource] myth or fact? : the impact of the "Year in Israel" / Shalom Z. Berger, Daniel Jacobson, Chaim I. Waxman ; with an introduction by Richard M. Joel

SIP2022

E-book

Since the 1980s, it has become the norm in the Modern Orthodox community for high-school graduates to spend a year studying in yeshivas in Israel. More than 1,000 American 18-year-olds each year, including up to 90% of the graduates of Modern Orthodox schools in New York, immerse themselves in Jewish law, custom and thought, away from the influence of their families, at a critical stage in their lives. Yet until now, there has been no full account of the programs — including who runs them, how they operate and what is really taught in them — and barely any hard data measuring their impact. How do the students change? How long does the change last? And is this responsible change or, as some parents fear, too much, too fast?
“Flipping Out” — named after a term for yeshiva students who return from Israel significantly more Orthodox and, as a result, reject their parents’ values and lifestyle — is billed as the beginning of a communal discussion on the year-in-Israel phenomenon.