Sponsored by Minneapolis Jewish Federation
By the time this group boarded a plane to Israel, they’d already spent almost two years learning together.
That may be what makes the Minneapolis Mifgash different from almost any other Israel experience.
The Hebrew word “mifgash” means “encounter,” and that idea shaped the experience from the very beginning. Rather than organizing a traditional educational trip, Minneapolis Jewish Federation set out to create something more lasting: a cohort of Jewish communal professionals who would learn alongside one another before traveling, experience Israel together, and then return home with a shared responsibility to bring those experiences back into the communities they serve.
The Minneapolis Mifgash at the Anu Museum in Tel Aviv.
The idea grew directly out of Federation’s 2024 strategic planning process, which identified professional development and the creation of a Community Israel Engagement Strategist position as a community priority. After stepping into the new role, Kara Rosenwald partnered with the iCenter to make Minneapolis the first North American community to create a Mifgash specifically for professionals across its local Jewish organizations. Together, they secured funding and developed an Israel experience centered on building relationships among local professionals and their Israeli counterparts.
Instead of sending individuals to join a national cohort, Minneapolis proposed something different.
Could an entire community participate together?
The answer was yes.
The inaugural cohort included professionals representing 11 Jewish organizations* across the Twin Cities. The trip was originally scheduled for the summer of 2025 but was postponed because of the Israel-Iran conflict. A year later, the group was finally able to make the journey.
But the trip itself was never the whole point.
Throughout the months leading up to the departure, participants met regularly to study, build relationships, and wrestle with questions about Israel, Jewish peoplehood, and the role Israel plays in the work they each do every day. Those conversations created a foundation that allowed the experience in Israel to begin at a much deeper level.
Just as importantly, the cohort wasn’t made up only of Minnesotans.
Three Israeli communal professionals from Rehovot joined the journey: outgoing Partnership Chair Sharon Yaron, Director of the Holocaust Center, incoming Chair Dudi Alon, high school teacher and art therapist, and Katzir Middle School Principal Marcelle Shmueli. Their participation reflected the longstanding Partnership2Gether relationship between Minneapolis and Rehovot and reminded participants that this was never intended to be a one-way learning experience.
That spirit of partnership appeared throughout the week.
The opening day took place at Katzir Middle School, the Rehovot school partnered with Smith Jewish Academy, where educators shared how they continue to nurture students while navigating the realities of life after October 7. Later, at the Weizmann Institute, the group was guided by a scientist who is herself connected to Minneapolis through the synagogue partnership between Berman Shul in Rehovot and Darchei Noam in St. Louis Park.
Brenda Ganot welcomes the Minneapolis Mifgash to the Katzir School in Rehovot, Israel.
Throughout the week, participants encountered many different sides of Israeli society. They visited organizations in Haifa bringing together Jewish, Arab, and Druze communities through arts and education. They listened to the CEO of Kibbutz Re’im describe both the trauma of October 7 and the painstaking work of rebuilding their community. They toured Jerusalem, explored questions of history and identity, and ended the journey with a storytelling workshop that challenged them to reflect on their own experiences after spending days listening to the stories of others.
What emerged wasn’t a single narrative about Israel. It was a collection of conversations, relationships, questions, and perspectives that will continue long after the trip itself.
In many ways, that is where the real work begins.
The Mifgash was intentionally designed as a three-part experience: learning before the trip, learning during the trip, and applying those lessons after returning home. Each participant committed to finding ways to bring Israel back into their own organization and community space, whether through educational programming, cultural experiences, visual storytelling, or entirely new approaches to Israel engagement. Kara Rosenwald will continue working with participants over the coming months as those individual projects take shape and the cohort continues learning together.
That ongoing commitment may be the Mifgash’s most distinctive feature.
Instead of measuring success by what happened over a week in Israel, it will be measured by what happens over the months and years that follow: the conversations that continue, the partnerships that deepen, and the new opportunities for Twin Cities Jews to engage with Israel in thoughtful, personal, and meaningful ways.
The trip may have ended at the airport, but the Mifgash was always meant to be the beginning. When asked ‘Now that the group has returned to Minneapolis, what comes next?”
Kara Rosenwald replied, “Now that we’re back in Minneapolis, the real work begins. The question becomes: How will the learning from Israel and the relationships built during our time together translate into bringing Israel home to our organizations? I’m excited to see what comes next. Our cohort will be meeting very soon to officially begin that work, and I can’t wait to see the ideas and collaborations that emerge.”
Participants return home carrying stories they couldn’t have heard any other way. Those stories will soon make their way into synagogue conversations, classrooms, coffee shops, family dinners, and community organizations. They become part of how our community understands Israel – not as an abstraction or a headline, but as a place filled with real people whose lives are now connected to ours.
In Jewish tradition, we’re often reminded that we inherit our stories from those who came before us. The Mifgash offers something else, too: the chance to become part of one another’s stories while they’re still being written.
*Participating organizations included Adath Jeshurun Synagogue, Gan Shelanu Preschool, Bet Shalom Congregation, Beth El Synagogue, Beth El Aleph Preschool, Jewfolk, Inc., Minneapolis Jewish Federation, Minnesota Hillel, Minnesota JCC, Smith Jewish Academy, Talmud Torah of Minneapolis, and the Harry Kay Center for Leadership Excellence.