Major Israel-experience initiative finds a home in Connecticut

By Cindy Mindell

SHELTON – What will $65,000 purchase in the American education marketplace? One year at an elite university, two years at a state school.

Shlomo “Momo” Lifshitz has a third option: a BA, a six-month internship, and two MBAs, one each from an Israeli university and an American university.

This is only one program offered by Lirom Global Education, Lifshitz’s newest vision to restore the “wow” in Israel experiences. (The company’s tagline is “Amazing Programs in Amazing Israel.”) Lifshitz chose Shelton as his stateside base for Study in Israel, LLC, the U.S. entity of parent company Lirom Global Education.

Lifshitz, 57, who serves as Lirom’s CEO, is a veteran of such endeavors. For two decades, he ran Oranim Educational Initiatives, a tour company he co-founded in the mid-1980s, which became one of the largest providers for Taglit-Birthright Israel trips. In Shelton, Lifshitz will use office space provided by Traveland, a travel agency specializing in trips to Israel. Lifshitz and Traveland founder Eitan Battat go back to the ‘80s, when Battat arranged the Oranim Taglit-Birthright flights and itineraries for U.S. participants.

A retired lieutenant colonel in the IDF, Lifshitz is a licensed high school educator who never taught in a classroom, instead finding a platform with the 50,000 Birthright participants and nearly 100,000 others whom he brought to Israel.

“I used to stand in the airport in the welcome area when people arrived, I shook each hand and said, ‘Welcome home,’” he says. “I gave each group two sessions at the opening of the trip and at the end. I gave them a vision: the role of maintaining the Jewish people, of not cutting the chain.”

In 2009, Lifshitz cut the chain with Birthright. “I told them, ‘I do not want to work with you anymore,’ because I was speaking to the kids about marrying Jewish and making aliyah. Birthright said, ‘Don’t tell them what to do. Just let everybody discover Israel for themselves.’”

Shlomo “Momo” Lifshitz

He continued to run his own trips for two years until “I got the offer that you cannot refuse,” Lifshitz says, and sold Oranim to Egged Tours, a subsidiary of leading public-transportation operator Egged Cooperative.

After a year or so in retirement, Lifshitz decided to realize his biggest dream – making Israel a center for global education. “Study abroad is extremely common all over the world now and unfortunately, people are bypassing Israel,” he says. “I want to bring people – Jews and non-Jews of all ages – to come and get knowledge in Israel.”

Participation in programs Israel programs for young people from America is declining significantly, in part because of assimilation and in part because the programs themselves are stagnating, he notes. “In order to bring people to Israel, you need to bring to the world things that are fresh, new, attractive, interesting, and appealing to people in many ways, as well as cost-effective. We have to start giving people what they want to buy,” he says.

To that end, Lifshitz is launching three new ways for teens and adults to take advantage of the Startup Nation. Israel4Teens summer tracks include entrepreneurship and innovation, fashion and styling, Hebrew-language study and volunteering, and Magen Zion self-defense training. Internationally accredited academic programs include BA and graduate tracks (in English) at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the new Technion Tel Aviv campus, as well as language-immersion programs in Hebrew, Arabic, and Farsi.

Lirom is designed in part to fill a growing need for access to affordable education, especially in a climate where a college degree doesn’t guarantee a job.

“I know the U.S. economy is not recovering as expected; the cost of school is going higher, more families have problems funding education; a BA takes too much time,” Lifshitz says. “Israel can help with this. I’m shortening the process and making it cheaper and more accessible.”

At the same time, the program is valuable to Israel. “If someone comes for one year it helps the economy in Israel a lot,” says Lifshitz, who is recruiting participants from around the globe.

More than that, attracting non-Jews to Israel will help with what Lifshitz calls Israel’s “huge PR problem.”

“When I tell someone that Israel is safe and great, they don’t believe me – mostly because I’m Israeli, or because I’m old and losing my hair,” he says. “When a Jew comes back from Israel and says, ‘Israel is great and the people are great,’ it’s expected. But if a non-Jew comes back and says, ‘I met Israelis, it’s a great place, all the rumors are not correct,’ that can make an even bigger difference. We have a young man from Mexico, not a Jew, enrolled in the MBA program starting in October. The way he speaks about Israel now and is broadcasting about it with social media and his blog – that’s helping Israel more than every ambassador we’ve had in Mexico City.”

Lifshitz still wants Jews to find Jewish mates and keep the ‘tribe’ strong. But he also sees the potential of Israel as a global center. His programs are designed for Israelis living in Israel and American Jews, as well as anyone who can benefit from what the Jewish homeland has to offer.

“I want Israel to be the place that broadcasts knowledge, wisdom, and love,” he says. “I’m trying to change the path of history and to give people what they want and need. I think I’m doing something very good for the state of Israel, as well as for America. It’s a win-win.”

For more information: Magen Zion: magenzion.com; Israel4Teens israel4teens.com; Lirom Global Education: universityinisrael.com.

Comments? email cindym@jewishledger.com.