Ramah Israel Institute
Bnei Mitzvah Family Israel Adventure
Celebrate this milestone occasion with a fun and spiritually enriching family trip in the ruach (spirit) of Ramah.
Ramah Israel has decades of experience in family travel. Our trip is hands-on, experiential, and educational. It is designed for families (and grandparents too!) from across North America with a child, aged 11-13, who wishes to celebrate a Bar or Bat Mitzvah in Israel.
Join us for a magical tour of Israel.
Connect with family and make new friends!
This exciting trip focuses on family and connecting to circles of life: me, my family, my kehilla (community), and my Judaism.
With the Ramah Bnei Mitzvah Family Israel Adventure, you join with other like-minded families to celebrate, create community and form enduring friendships. Our Rabbi/Educator accompanies your child on this journey even before you set foot in Israel, meeting with each child remotely to learn a Hebrew reading.
Dates & Prices
December 23, 2024 – Jan 1, 2025
Price TBD – coming soon!
Price Includes
Accommodations for nine nights
Daily breakfast
Five lunches and seven dinners, including all Shabbat meals
Transportation on a private coach bus
Entrance fees to all sites on the itinerary
Ten days with a private, English-speaking, Ramah tour guide and educator
Ramah Madrich/a (counselor)
Ramah Israel Institute sourcebook/map
Price Does Not Include
Flights to and from Israel
Accommodations before or after the trip
Travel and health insurance
Gratuities for staff
Itinerary
*This itinerary is subject to change based on dates and availability.
Our Trip Leader / Educator
Rabbi Ed Snitkoff is originally from Brooklyn, New York, and now lives in Jerusalem. He graduated from Columbia University and The Jewish Theological Seminary. Over the past 40 years, he has served as a congregational rabbi, teacher, religious school principal, camp educator, camp director, and Israel tour guide. In the years before moving to Israel, he served for six years as Rabbi and Religious School Principal of Chisuk Emuna Congregation in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
In 1992, Rabbi Ed made aliyah and settled on Kibbutz Lavi. As a kibbutz member, he established an education center for groups of all faiths and backgrounds.
After moving to Jerusalem, Rabbi Ed served as the Educational Director of Young Judaea Year Course and Educational Coordinator for North America at the Jewish Agency for Israel. Over the years, Rabbi Ed trained hundreds of tour guides as a teacher in the Israeli Ministry of Tourism’s Tour Guide Course.
Rabbi Ed served twelve years as Director of Ramah Israel Seminar. We are lucky to have Rabbi Ed continue to work with us at Ramah as an educator and senior consultant.
Rabbi Ed is married to Minda, and they are blessed with four grown children and five wonderful grandchildren, all living in Israel.
Testimonial
This trip was a unique chance to see my kids experience Eretz Yisrael, with all its facets, in a joyful, age-appropriate way and – this is a miracle to say – also to be moved beyond measure personally.
We loved the opportunity to meet all the other like-minded families and make friends with people from around the country. Critically, our kids not only made new friends their age and had people to hang out with – that would not have happened had it just been us – but they now have friends all over the U.S. and Canada! And, of course, doing this with other families made what would have been a cost-prohibitive experience possible for us. The much-needed built-in hands-on experience, plus having everything planned for us so that we did not need to plan on our own, lifted so much of the pressure off us. Thank you!
The classic Ramah aspects, including the combination of religious, ancient. modern, and secular sites, were a perfect balance. We enjoyed how things were put in a perspective of not just here and now but the universe and how the message was never just as Jews as a nation but also as individuals in the real world.
The Ramah Israel Family Bar Mitzvah Adventure was an amazing trip, so professional and well done. We could not ask for a better program and staff. They did a fantastic job dealing with kids with short attention spans, and the team showed kindness and patience. Thank you!
Parent Participant, 2019