By Danny Wicentowski, ICB reporter 
Erez Cohen can't wait for winter break. But it's not skiing or the "cold tundra" (as he describes it) of Illinois that excites the Israel Fellow at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Last year UIUC set a personal record for number of students going to Israel during the winter, and he thinks their success will lead to even greater numbers this year.
In the coming months, Hillels and pro-Israel groups across the country will recruit students to participate in winter programming in Israel. While the initial challenge of creating a core of dedicated students can be steep, successful schools like UIUC rely on an existing pro-Israel base, last year’s momentum, and collaboration to maintain their level of success.
Cohen singled out the high rate of Birthright participation by Greek houses on campus as one of the most important factors in UIUC’s success.
"We started reaching out to the Greek houses two years ago, and by last year it was already self sustaining," he said. "[They] created a critical mass of students who are regularly going to Israel every [winter] break."
Adam Teitelbaum, Lorber Director of Jewish and Philanthropy Programming at AEPi, said the process of getting fraternity brothers on programs is "essentially two-fold."
"We bring in as many Birthright providers and opportunities as possible. Introduce [brothers] to Hillel, Israel Outdoors, Israel Adventures, Mayanot ... all these trip providers," Teitelbaum said. “The second step is... we push, [saying] 'go on Birthright, go on these trips, go to Israel.' We highly encourage them to go."
Teitelbaum recently attended the Hillel Community Partner Fair at the national Hillel Institute in St. Louis, where he met with Hillel professionals, executive directors, and engagement fellows from all over the country. He described it as a "meeting of the minds" of those who wanted to get more brothers on trips.
AEPi's cooperation with Hillel creates diverse opportunities throughout the year, helping alleviate problems of scheduling, said Teitelbaum.
"If they're going with their local Hillel or somewhere in the school community, then their dates are going to be much more useful to the students," he said. "It becomes increasingly difficult with [seemingly] random dates or if they're on random trips with Birthright."
At UIUC, creating a range of options for students to choose from will be one of Cohen’s focuses this year. Having multiple types of programs for students to choose from can go a long way to increasing registration, he said. While many students enjoy "traditional" programs like Birthright, others may desire volunteering or advocacy-focused programming.
The best part, said Cohen, is that success really begets success when it comes to winter programming in Israel.
"If an organization knows that a certain university is growing in its affinity for Israel, they want to keep this trend going," he said, explaining that an organization may, after observing higher participation from a particular university, increase the number of openings on its programs for students from that school. "They want to see this becoming a movement on campus," he said.
But how do organizations define a "movement?" Daniel Cohen, Midwest regional director for Hasbara Fellowships, used UIUC as an example of the feedback loop between students and Hasbara Fellowships.
"Nationally, as an organization, 80% of the students who go on Hasbara programs report back being significantly more involved on their campus," he said. "I think it's especially true at Illinois where we have such an active Israel community already set up for them; they're walking into open arms."
Daniel Cohen himself can attest to this dynamic. The recent UIUC graduate joined Israel Illini, which was founded and run by students with connections to Hasbara Fellowships, and led him to eventually acquire his current staff position at Hasbara.
Echoing Teitelbaum, Cohen said that this process can be traced back to students’ connection with Israel, usually through participation in Birthright.
"Birthright is really good for students developing a connection to Israel, there's no substitute," he explained. "It lights the flame of passion in students, and it makes them want to go on programs like Hasbara."
Birthright holds an important place in organizations that promote winter Israel programs. The University of Maryland, like UIUC, sends one of the largest groups of students every year.
Nearly 300 Maryland students participated in Israel programs last winter, and three buses of students on Birthright were sent during January alone, said Danny Weiss, assistant director at Maryland’s Hillel. In fact, Weiss said that they have so many interested students that many are left on the U.S. side of the Atlantic come winter.
“We're feeling a little tension about Birthright, because we were able to recruit a lot more students than we could actually send," said Weiss.
Many schools would enjoy having the "tension" of so many interested students. For students and professionals at schools where the demand is not yet so high, Eric Schorr, president of LionPAC at Columbia University, recommends that Hillels and student groups concentrate on developing interest
among students, and spreading personal stories of these programs by word of mouth.
"You can read about Israel in literature, you can see Israel in videos, but the most important thing in my mind is the personal story," Schorr said. "It's the transmission of experience, how their eyes light up when they talk about kabbalat Shabbat at the Kotel, or being in the Negev or seeing Tel Aviv. Those are things that really engage students and get them to be interested in going to Israel."
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