2015-2016 Goal:
In 2016 C.H.I.P will take a pilot group of 30 middle-school students from Whitwell, Tennessee, Middle School on an expedition to Israel. By end of 2016 C.H.I.P will release the documentary film, produced as a result of this pilot, inaugural tour, and hold several showings around the United States and Canada. C.H.I.P’s plan is to bring 2-3 groups of middle-school-aged children on a tour of Israel thereafter. In the third year and onward, taking into account spring and/or summer break opportunities, C.H.I.P will bring 3-5 groups to tour Israel each year.
C.H.I.P’s educational tours will establish relationships between middle school students, who are of an impressionable age, and the state of Israel, reaching them before they encounter the prevalent deception about the state of their western heritage and the nation state of the Jewish people, Israel. C.H.I.P Educational Tours Project will help non-Jews and Israeli-Jews form a basic humane bonding coalition, built on first-hand interaction. This Project will capture students’ experiences for the purpose of countering negative messages and impressions that have become prevalent among higher learning institutions worldwide.
Almost 68 years ago, the modern State of Israel was born while the ashes of the Holocaust were cooling and the world has never been the same. The miracle of modern Israel and what the Jewish people have built and accomplished, despite the horrors of the past and the challenges that remain, offers a moving experience for those eager to be inspired. The C.H.I.P Program will teach young generations how Holocaust survivors and their descendants have rebuilt their lives, their nation and homeland, while creating lasting impressions and building relationships that bond hearts, minds, and souls.
Strategies/ Program Description
Western Civilization Heritage Israel Program (Acronym C.H.I.P) was inspired by the Paper Clips documentary film that followed the journey of Whitwell middle school students seeking to understand the horrors of the Holocaust, while questioning their concerns about tolerance and discrimination, in general and the treatment of Jews in particular. Whitwell middle school Paperclips story was followed by millions around the world and has left lasting impression on students their age, educators, and ordinary folks.
In the first year, C.H.I.P will take the Whitwell middle school students to Israel and produce an educational documentary film by following the students’ experiences which will be shared with the world over. This publicity will extend their learning to others and inspire many of their age peers to follow in their footsteps and to apply to partake in subsequent tours being offered by C.H.I.P. Those who are accepted by the program will be expected to contribute towards their trip through their own means or fundraising efforts.
C.H.I.P educational tours of Israel will conducted by a professional staff that includes educators, tour-guides, and security. Students will tour the Dead Sea in the South, Tel-Aviv in the center of the country, the Capital Jerusalem, the Lake of Galilee, and the Golan Heights, up north, and much more. They will visit many historical sites as well as Yad Va’shem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, an archeological dig, and at least one start-up company incubator. Time permitting, they will also meet with government officials, members of the IDF, and enjoy exciting social activities with Israeli youth their age.
The C.H.I.P Project’s participants will come to learn the truth of modern day Israel, thus providing the best tools for them to become friends and future advocates for Israel, based on strong western values.
In the immediate term, the C.H.I.P Project will impact its participants, their parents, teachers, and their peers with whom they interact. The documentary film that will arise from C.H.I.P‘s pilot trip will expand the impact to young students across the United States and Canada, as a starter, and move to a globe impact.
Israel needs friends and she needs to cultivate them on a regular basis.
In the long-term, the C.H.I.P Project will inspire a more accurate understanding of Israel and expand support and friendships for the Jewish state, meaning, meeting western values goals of tolerance and non-discriminatory behavior. When these students return home to their school, they will be better equipped to respond to the misinformation and negative messages they hear and see about the Jewish state. When they grow up and take their place in society they will have special ties and insights to become goodwill ambassadors for Israel. Should they choose any kind of educating and leadership role in society, their knowledge of the truth about the State of Israel will empower them to show meaningful support for the state, rather than fall prey to propaganda or peer pressure to show rejection and/or opposition to the place where Western Heritage began, that is the Jewish Homeland.