Bribing students into fundiedom through internships

[artschooldropout]

Through a Jewish group at my university, I was directed to a website called http://jinternshipdotcom/, which claims to provide students with competitive summer internships in Israel, and includes meals, accommodation, trips around the country and classes about Judaism at the institution of your choice, all for $1,500. Sounds like a good deal, right? So I looked into it, and several things struck me as a little odd. Firstly, the internship seems to make up a tiny percentage of the program itself, and begins only after you complete the learning program (almost as a 'reward' of sorts). Secondly, the internship listing does not give much information about the companies or organizations where the internships take place, most of them are not even named in the listing, and are referred to in generic terms. Thirdly, there is no mention of who is running the program(links to MASA, the Jewish Agency, or other organizations that would usually run this a legitimate program of this kind are notoriously absent).

Most interestingly, if we look at the learning component, we can see that sepparate programs are run for men and women, and that the learning institutions (yeshivot and seminaries) that partner with Jinternship are very few, and are all quite fundie-leaning charedi institutions located in charedi areas of Jerusalem. Which leads me to wonder, what is the real aim of this program?

Am I the only one who is a little disturbed by the way in which these fundies are using the prospect of (maybe fake) internships to lure students into charedi yeshivot ?

[OnceModestTwiceShy]

Looks like a pretty standard internship under Orthodox auspices.

[Queen Of Hearts]

Looks like a pretty standard internship under Orthodox auspices.

I agree. I am not so sure if I would call this fundy as much as just religious.

[Itsnotaclowncar]

Eh I think the schools are dead giveaways for what type of internship you are looking at. That said, I know at least 15 people who were made super uncomfortable by the content of their Birthright trips, all different types, all different levels of observance.

[OnceModestTwiceShy]

Eh I think the schools are dead giveaways for what type of internship you are looking at. That said, I know at least 15 people who were made super uncomfortable by the content of their Birthright trips, all different types, all different levels of observance.

Birthright is for Zionist propaganda. Some are more moderate in their propaganda than others, but that is what Birthright is for. I really am surprised at how many people don't realize this going in, but even if your Birthright trip is under Reform auspices and is run by tallit-wearing lesbians, IT IS STILL ZIONIST PROPAGANDA. That is why it's a free trip. The end goal is ideally getting you to make aliyah (move to Israel), or at least make sure you vote along Zionist lines in the US and donate to Zionist causes. Yes, increasing your observance is also important, but the main thing is getting you to make an unbreakable bond with Israel so that Israel always comes first to you./Just my observations from years of involvement in a myriad of Jewish movements, groups, orgs, service corps, etc.

[Itsnotaclowncar]

Yep that was basically everyone's issue, 2 of the guys said something about it to their group leader and got creepily canned answers about how smart they were for noticing that.

[defrauding]

Jinternship appears to be a legitimate program in that MASA recognizes it and allows you to apply for funding. That said, Ohr Somayach[*] definitely runs the program hoping that the participants become more religiously observant -- ideally, very much more so.

For what it's worth, I classify Ohr Somyach as a "fundie" organization because of its Haredi affiliation. It may be more open than other Haredi insitutions -- as one would expect from an institution that focuses on Jews with little or no knowledge of Judaism -- but its beliefs are still well to the right of modern Orthodoxy.

[*] The organization's name sounds sinister when translated to English as "Happy Light," I must say.

[artschooldropout]

Also, the program seems to be co-sponsored by Aish, who tend to be quite fundie (ie: they believe in young-earth creationism, etc), and who certainly have some non-mainstream beliefs(Bible codes, faith healers) so I would harldy consider it a mainstream Orthodox program (since AFAIK, most Orthodox Jews, and even most charedim have no issue with science/evolution)

[longskirts]

Charedim are all young-earth creationists, and some also have problems with astronomy (stuff like the earth orbiting the sun, whether the moon exists as a physical place, etc.). Accepting science is a modern orthodox thing.

What bothers me are the charedi programs in the US that pay college students just for attending religious classes.