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College in Israel, Made Clearer: How “The Future Is Calling” Helps American Jewish Students Find Their Place
A Different College Search
For many American Jewish families, the college search is no longer just about rankings and dorm tours. It’s about values, identity, belonging — and whether a campus will feel like a place where a Jewish student can actually breathe.
Just as important, families want to know students won’t have to trade academic rigor for that sense of belonging. Israel’s universities offer globally respected, academically serious programs — including English-taught and transitional pathways — so students can pursue excellence while feeling supported.
At the same time, there’s a practical reality: tuition in the U.S. has climbed to a level that can feel surreal, even for middle- and upper-middle-income families. More parents are asking the question out loud: is there another path that’s academically serious, globally respected, and financially sane?
“The Future Is Calling,” a campaign supported by the Tzemach David Foundation, exists to make one answer easier to explore: college in Israel — not as a vague idea, but as a concrete, navigable option with real programs, real support, and real student experiences.
A Campaign Built for Clarity
“We saw real informational gaps that exist… A lot of things are translated into English, but aren’t translated into American,” says Tamar Krieger Kalev, Executive Director at Tzemach David / The Future Is Calling.
In the months around October 7, Tamar says she watched interest accelerate — and saw how hard it still was for American families to understand Israeli higher education. Philanthropic funding toward Israeli universities helped expand transitional tracks for international students; it also surfaced how many obstacles families face simply trying to figure out what’s possible. The result is a campaign that aims to translate, clarify, and support — so families can move from interest to confidence without doing forty hours of scattered research.
Translating Between Systems
One reason families stall is that Israeli higher education doesn’t work like the American system — and the differences show up quickly in admissions, degree structure, and program language.
“You don’t apply to a university… you apply to a certain program in the university, and every program has their own requirements,” Tamar explains. That one distinction alone can change how a student searches, compares, and applies — especially if they’re used to thinking in terms of a single application leading to an entire campus experience.
The Future Is Calling exists to make those differences legible, early — and to help families ask better questions from the start.
The Future Is Calling, organized around four pillars.
Four Pillars, One Promise
Tamar describes four pillars that guide the initiative: Personal Growth and Transformation; Academic Excellence and Innovation; Value and Accessibility; and Community and Tradition. Together, they form a simple promise: Israel can be a place of high-level learning and real-world opportunity — while also offering a supportive environment for Jewish life, identity, and belonging.
An option hiding in plain sight
Israel’s universities are deeply familiar to Israelis and olim — but for many American families, they can still feel distant, hard to compare, or difficult to understand. That’s the gap TheFutureIsCalling.org is designed to close.
Instead of asking families to start from scratch, the site offers a structured entry point:
- A view of major Israeli universities and what each is known for
- Program discovery (including English-taught options)
- Parent-facing answers about support systems, adjustment, and logistics
- Resource pathways — so families can move from “interest” to “next step” without guesswork
“The idea is to have… a one stop shop for people to be able to get all the information,” Tamar says.
And unlike a single-institution pitch, the campaign is designed to help families compare across multiple schools. “We don’t represent one university or one college. We represent several,” she adds — a detail that matters if your real goal is fit.
Academic Excellence and Innovation: world-class universities in the heart of a global ecosystem
For American families used to a familiar narrative — “the best education must be in the U.S.” — this is often the most surprising part: Israeli programs are competitive, serious, and connected to real-world opportunity.
Israel’s universities are not “alternative” in the sense of lesser — they are globally recognized institutions with deep strengths in STEM, medicine, research, and innovation. The campaign spotlights multiple universities offering English-taught degrees and support for international students, including Technion (Israel Institute of Technology), Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Bar-Ilan University, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and Jerusalem College of Technology (JCT).
Tamar also points to the advantages of studying inside an innovation ecosystem that’s physically close. Students can access internships and training opportunities with global companies that have a strong presence in Israel — alongside the startup culture Israel is known for — and carry those experiences into the next chapter, whether in Israel or back in the U.S.
“Real students, real stories”
The most convincing part of the campaign is also the simplest: the student voices.
Asher Dayanim, an American student at Tel Aviv University, puts it plainly: “This past year has been the most amazing in my life.” He describes Tel Aviv as a place where learning doesn’t end when class does — where the city itself becomes part of the education, full of conversations, cultures, and ideas that keep widening the frame.
And for Ava Schwartz, a U.S. student who chose Tel Aviv University’s Liberal Arts program, it was the academic flexibility that made the decision click. “The liberal arts program at TAU is the only one like it in Israel… it allows me to explore everything from psychology to Jewish Studies while living in the city I fell in love with,” she says — capturing something many students are seeking right now: rigor, range, and an environment that feels alive.
The questions parents actually ask
In any family considering a serious move, “Is it inspiring?” is rarely the first question. The first questions are usually more basic — and more human: Is it safe? Will the degree translate back home? What about language? Can we afford it?
On cost, Tamar notes that tuition can look dramatically different depending on program and institution — and that for families thinking about immigration, there can be additional support: “If the student has made Aliyah… the government will pay for their first degree,” she says. And she adds a line that lands for parents immediately: “You can have your kid come home several times… and you’ll still save a lot of money, even though you’re paying for flights.” The point isn’t that every student should go to Israel. It’s that families deserve a clear look at the option — without needing to already be insiders.
A campaign that acts like a guide
At its best, The Future Is Calling functions less like a brochure and more like a guide — a place to gather momentum and get oriented.
“Usually it’s a phone call where they have a huge amount of questions…” Tamar says. For families that feel overwhelmed, that human layer matters: a real person who can translate between systems, clarify what a program actually is, and help a student find a starting point.
And then, the site becomes the hub. “The idea is to have… a one stop shop for people to be able to get all the information,” Tamar explains — a place to compare institutions, understand pathways, and begin narrowing toward fit.
For some students, the pull is academic: specific programs, labs, or a particular university culture. For others, it’s the integration of Jewish life into the calendar of everyday life — not as an extracurricular, but as an atmosphere. And for many, it’s the combination: a high-level education in a place that offers a different kind of grounding, community, and continuity — with clearer access to opportunity on the other side.
Answering the call
There’s a phrase that appears often across the campaign: “the future is calling.” It’s a tagline, yes — but it’s also a real description of where many families find themselves: on the edge of a decision that will shape not just four years, but a life.
The campaign’s invitation is simple: let Israeli universities be part of your consideration set — not as a niche choice, but as a real option with academic strength, clearer economics, and a supportive Jewish environment.
To explore programs, student stories, and parent resources, visit TheFutureIsCalling.org.
The post College in Israel, Made Clearer: How “The Future Is Calling” Helps American Jewish Students Find Their Place appeared first on The Forward.
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A Jewish farmer broke ground on a synagogue in an Illinois cornfield. His neighbors showed up to help.
STERLING, ILLINOIS — On Wednesday, Nik Jakobs was planting corn. On Thursday, the 41-year-old Illinois cattle farmer stood in a two-acre cornfield preparing to plant something else: a synagogue.
Around 75 people gathered on the edge of the field this week in Sterling, Illinois, a two-hour drive west of Chicago, where Jakobs and his family broke ground on a new home for Temple Sholom, the small congregation that has anchored Jewish life here for more than a century, and where his family has prayed since the 1950s.
The planned 4,000-square-foot building will also house a Holocaust museum inspired by the story of Jakobs’ grandparents, Edith and Norbert, who survived the war after Christian families in the Netherlands hid them in their homes for years. Jakobs described the future museum as a place devoted not only to Jewish history, but to teaching the dangers of hatred and division. “If you have the choice to be right or kind,” he said, repeating advice from his grandmother, “choose kind.”
A 60-foot blue ribbon — chosen by Jakobs’ wife, Katie, to match the color of the Israeli flag — stretched across the future building site. His four daughters held it alongside his parents, brothers and friends. Then Jakobs lifted oversized gold scissors and cut the ribbon as pastors, farmers, city officials and members of neighboring churches applauded.
I’m writing a book about a young Jewish farmer who is building a synagogue in a two-acre cornfield in rural Illinois using sacred objects (ark, Torah, stained glass windows) donated by closing congregations across America. Today, they held the groundbreaking. 🧑🌾 🌽🕍 pic.twitter.com/90TynBMWHC
— Benyamin Cohen (@benyamincohen) May 8, 2026
The synagogue rising from this Illinois cornfield will house pieces of the past.
A nearby storage area holds Jewish objects Jakobs rescued from shuttered synagogues across the country: stained-glass windows, Torah arks, rabbi’s chairs, memorial plaques and wooden tablets engraved with the tribes of Israel. Many came from Temple B’nai Israel, a 113-year-old synagogue that closed down in 2025. It served generations of Jews in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, now a ghost town since the steel mills closed. Its remaining congregants donated sacred objects to Jakobs so their story could live on rather than disappear.
The day before the groundbreaking, the Jakobs family began opening some of the crates for the first time since they were packed away nearly a year ago. Nik’s father, Dave Jakobs, pried open one box with a hammer and crowbar while Nik loosened screws with an electric drill, the family gathered around like archaeologists opening a tomb.
Inside was a stained-glass window with images of a tallit and shofar bursting in jewel tones of blue, yellow and red. Jakobs’ mother, Margo, lifted Annie, the youngest of Nik’s daughters, so the 4-year-old could peer inside. The bright red glass matched the bow in her hair.
Nearby sat the massive wooden ark salvaged from Pennsylvania, topped with twin Lions of Judah whose carved paws once overlooked generations of worshippers.
Faith on the farmland
Temple Sholom — founded in 1910 — was once the center of Jewish life in Sterling, a town of 14,500 surrounded by flat farmland and tall grain silos. Its Jewish community once included a pharmacist, the manager of Kline’s department store and the owner of a local McDonald’s franchise.
Over time, membership dwindled. The roof sagged. The pews emptied.
Last year, the congregation sold its aging building and relocated High Holiday services to a tent on the Jakobs’ farm, where prayers mingled with the smell of manure and cattle lowing nearby.
At a moment when many small-town synagogues are closing, Temple Sholom is doing something increasingly rare: building a bigger new sanctuary from scratch. The synagogue will sit prominently along one of Sterling’s main roads — a highly visible expression of Jewish life in a region where Jews are few.
Thursday’s groundbreaking took place on the National Day of Prayer, the annual observance formalized under President Ronald Reagan, who grew up a few miles away in Dixon, Illinois. Earlier that morning, attendees gathered inside New Life Lutheran Church for a breakfast sponsored by Temple Sholom.
“I was so happy to see bagels, lox and cream cheese,” said Rev. James Keenan, a Catholic priest originally from Brooklyn. “It reminded me of home.”
Inside the church sanctuary, a large wooden cross glowed amber and blue above the dais while two giant screens displayed the National Day of Prayer logo. Jakobs, wearing cowboy boots, jeans and a powder-blue blazer, addressed the crowd.
“Tolerance is not weakness,” he said. “It is strength.”
The new synagogue will sit beside New Life Lutheran Church on land sold to Temple Sholom by farmer Dan Koster, 71, who has known the Jakobs family for three generations.
“We need more religious presence in the community,” Koster said.
For Drew Williams, New Life’s 38-year-old lead pastor, the synagogue and museum represent more than neighboring buildings. His church already hosts food-packing drives, summer meal programs and community events. He imagines future partnerships with Temple Sholom.
“I don’t think there’s any community that is immune to hate,” Williams said. “That just means it’s on us” to be on the other side “spreading peace.”
Sterling Mayor Diana Merdian, who is 41 and grew up in town with Jakobs, said the project reflects a broader desire among younger generations to preserve local history and identity. “If we don’t carry those stories, we lose them,” she said. “Once you lose that, you can’t get it back.”
During the ceremony in the cornfield, Temple Sholom’s longtime cantor, Lori Schwaber, asked those gathered to remember the congregation’s founding members and recite the Mourner’s Kaddish together. Jews and Christians stood side by side in the prairie wind as Hebrew prayers drifted across the open farmland.
Lester Weinstine, a 90-year-old congregant who was the first bar mitzvah at Temple Sholom when the shul was still housed out of a Pepsi bottling plant, looked out across the field in disbelief. “I never thought I would see this,” he said.
For Jakobs, the synagogue project has become inseparable from the lessons his grandparents’ survival taught him. “You sometimes feel on an island as a Jew, especially in rural America,” he said. “But this community — that’s not what I’ve experienced here.”
If construction stays on schedule, the synagogue will open in fall 2027. Its first major service will not be a dedication ceremony, but the bat mitzvah of Jakobs’ oldest daughter, Taylor.
Members of the Pennsylvania congregation are planning a bus trip to Illinois for the occasion, after donating many of their sacred objects to help build Jakob’s synagogue. Their former rabbi has offered to officiate.
“If a farmer can build a synagogue in a cornfield,” Jakobs said, “anybody can do it anywhere.”
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Is this Apple TV thriller hasbara — or societal critique?
AppleTV+’s new thriller Unconditional has the trappings of so much streaming content.
A young woman disappears into hostile territory. Her mother, already juggling a family health crisis, does her own sleuthing to get her daughter back. People die, twisty alliances emerge. It’s all part of the suspense boiler plate, and it sizzles just enough to keep your interest. What makes the show, airing May 8, different from every other show is the early response.
Sight almost entirely unseen, the internet was in an uproar. The show is Israeli, and the announcement trailer showed the character Gali (Ronn Talia Lynne) in her IDF uniform. Pro-Palestine accounts were quick to shout “hasbara” or “overt ziopropaganda” for a show whose premise is ostensibly a sympathetic story of an Israeli taken prisoner by the evil, Putin-era Russian state. (The trailer makes no mention of Palestinians or a war in Gaza. The show doesn’t either.)
The online response alone proves the challenging optics for anything Israeli, but the show actually has quite a bit to say about the Jewish state’s propaganda apparatus — within the country and without.
On a layover in the Moscow Airport, Gali and her mother, Orna (Liraz Chamami), are taken in for questioning. Security claims to have found drugs in Gali’s backpack — an echo of the Naama Issacher affair from 2019 — and she’s summarily sentenced to seven years in a Russian jail.
Orna returns to Israel and hires a PR handler to plead Gali’s case. Together they curate a specific image to sell to the state media.
Gali is a “happy, good-hearted girl. She served in the army, like everyone” and even extended her service, Orna says in radio and television interviews. The file photo for news segments is exactly what so many outside of Israel would object to: Gali in uniform. In Israel it tugs heart strings. Abroad, it makes the abductee a war criminal who had it coming.
It’s probably not giving much away, given that the hands behind this show are the creators of Hatufim, which became a hit in the U.S. as the antihero-forward War on Terror commentary Homeland, that Gali is not a perfect victim. This is a strange sort of hasbara, if one Israel often produces, the kind that’s peopled by problematic characters operating in the society’s gray zones. (See streaming hit Fauda, following a morally-dubious undercover unit made up of trigger-happy adulterers exploiting their Palestinian contacts.)
What’s surprising, given the premise, is how much time the show spends not in Russia or Israel, but in India, where Gali and Orna were touring before their fateful missed connection in Moscow. It’s here we’re given entree into the Ugly Israeli abroad, a stereotype that is growing increasingly common thanks to reports of poor behavior — stealing money from temples, creating chaos in hospitals and restaurants — in the global East. (On the flip side, many Israelis, like a couple at a noodle shop in Vietnam, are being harassed by other tourists for no reason other than their country of origin and some feel the need to hide their identity while traveling.)
Gali sings the praises of an Indian gastropub that will give you dysentery. “We are so lucky because for the last three months the kitchen has been condemned by the health department,” she smirks. “But yesterday some truck driver hit a wild boar, so they gave them an exemption. So it won’t be a waste.”
In a later episode, one of Gali’s companions wisecrack about the pestilential heat and jibe that prisons in India are particularly atrocious. (This must ring alarm bells for those aware of Israel’s carceral system for Palestinians.)
Russia is equally backward. Unlike in Israel, “not everyone here is happy to work with a woman,” a Russian arms dealer weighs in. If you didn’t get it, these countries are backward. Israel has its problems, but at least it has women in power!
Watching, I was reminded of social media posts by Indians complaining about racism and drug use from IDF veterans on the so-called “Hummus trail.” One post by AJ+ said the soldiers come there to “detox” from “carrying out a genocide in Gaza.”
Unconditional is under no illusions that Israelis can be a disruptive presence. If anything, it pushes the concept to new places. These Sabras ruin mindfulness workshops and start shoot-outs in hotel lobbies. It’s not great for the brand.
But then again, we live in a climate where simply acknowledging the existence of Israelis — as seen in a recent ballyhoo surrounding author R.F. Kuang — can prove controversial or politically-loaded, no matter how neutral the depiction.
Why Apple would give their imprimatur to an Israeli project today, when public opinion of the Jewish state has fallen off a demographic cliff, is a valid question likely explained by the positive reception of another Israeli import on the streamer, the show Tehran, about an IDF hacker stuck in Iran. From within the silos it’s hard to tell if audiences will cancel their subscriptions, as some have threatened.
Maybe, like Gali’s uniform, the show is a Rorschach. BDS types may boycott, yet the show seems to echo many of their talking points about Israel’s overzealous campaign in Gaza after Oct. 7 — at least by way of metaphor.
In a late episode, Orna tells her government companion Rita (Evgenia Dodina) about a time a classmate broke Gali’s arm, and the teacher excused his actions because his mother was in the hospital.
“You’re exactly like the teacher,” Rita tells Orna. “You give me a thousand excuses for Gali. ‘It’s because of me. It’s not her fault. Poor thing.’ It doesn’t matter she didn’t understand what she was getting into, and it doesn’t matter she didn’t mean to.”
Orna says it’s different with Gali — because it’s her daughter. One can overlook a lot when it’s your family, or, for that matter, your country.
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Israeli man indicted in attack on Catholic nun in Jerusalem’s Old City
(JTA) — An Israeli man was indicted on Thursday in connection to the violent assault of a Catholic nun in Jerusalem last month, after prosecutors said he targeted her over her Christian identity.
Yona Schreiber, 36, from the West Bank settlement of Peduel, was arrested last week and has since been indicted on charges of “assault causing actual injury motivated by hostility toward the public on the grounds of religion, as well as simple assault,” the state attorney’s office said in a statement.
According to the indictment, Schreiber, who is Jewish, attacked the nun just outside of the Old City in Jerusalem because he identified her as a Catholic nun. Schreiber allegedly pushed and then kicked the nun as she was lying on the ground and also attacked a passerby who attempted to intervene.
תקיפת הנזירה אתמול באזור קבר דוד בירושלים – שוטרי מרחב דוד איתרו את החשוד (36) ועצרו אותו בחשד לתקיפה ממניע גזעני >>> pic.twitter.com/agRpznR84X
— משטרת ישראל (@IL_police) April 30, 2026
The nun, a researcher at the French School of Biblical and Archeological Research, suffered bruises on her face and leg due to the attack, the state attorney’s office said.
The attack, which drew condemnation from Catholic leaders as well as faculty at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, comes amid mounting concern over hostility toward Christian clergy and holy sites in Israel.
Cases of Jews harassing Christians have risen sharply in recent years. Last month, the IDF punished a soldier who was filmed bludgeoning a statue of Jesus in southern Lebanon. This week, the IDF also announced that it would discipline a different soldier who was seen placing a cigarette into the mouth of a statue of the Virgin Mary in a photo posted on social media.
Israel’s attorney general asked the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, where the indictment was filed, to hold Schreiber in detention for the duration of the legal proceeding.
The assault carries a maximum prison sentence of three years, which could increase to six years if prosecutors prove the attack was motivated by religious bias.
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