“The opportunity to work closely in an environment that aspires to intellectual challenge and professional excellence… remains a central experience in my ongoing growth.”

Scott Copeland
Graduate of Cohort 19, Mandel Jerusalem Fellows
Director of Israel Travel Education for ‘Makom’, Israel Engagement Network

Over the summer of 2007, Scott Copeland left his position as Dean of Fellows at the Mandel Leadership Institute to take a new position as the Director of Israel Travel Education for ‘Makom’ ( www.makomisrael.net) at the Education Department of the Jewish Agency.

‘Makom’ is a unique collaborative project involving the Jewish Agency Education Department, approximately 15 major North American Jewish communities and several national organizations, aimed at repositioning a new vision for the place of Israel in American Jewish life. Their work centers on several activity arenas – Israeli arts and culture, education, and Israel travel.

Copeland’s position revolves around content development, training, and developing communal and organizational capacity towards transforming Jewish tourism to Israel into Israel travel education.

“My aspiration,” he says, “is to bring more people to Israel, more often, and with a richness of educational programming before, during, and after the Israel experience that can help maximize the potentially transformative power of experiential education and travel.”

Scott, unusually, came to Mandel Jerusalem Fellows as an Israeli; his work for many years has focused on the place of Israel in Jewish education; mainly in training contexts for Israel travel education. When he was preparing to finish the program, the possibility was raised of his joining the faculty at Mandel.

“From 2002-2007, I had the pleasure of working with fellows and faculty on a wide variety of projects. For me the opportunity to work closely in an environment that aspires to intellectual challenge and professional excellence - both as a fellow and as a faculty member – remains a central experience in my ongoing growth.”

“Especially when I consider the cadre of fellows that I studied with between 2000 and 2002, I draw tremendous inspiration from their ongoing friendship and advice,” he added.