On July 21, 2008, AMIIE welcomed its first group from Lithuania.

In one of the prayers on Jewish holidays we say "Zeh Hyom Asa Hashem Nagilah Venismecha Bo – “This is the day which God has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it" (Psalm ch. 118 and in the Hallel prayer). The day of which we dreamed and planned for many months has finally arrived. This week, we welcomed our first group from Lithuania!

This special 2-week trip, which will see the students studying the history of Israel using the country as a living classroom, was made possible through a joint venture with the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and a generous donation by Mrs. Sandra Muss.

The group is comprised of 17 students, most of them from the city of Vilna, Lithuania. The students' ages range between 16-18 years. Many of them go to a Jewish day school in Vilna, but not all of them. On the first day on campus, during orientation, the students shared with staff their excitement at being in Israel. Only 5 out of the whole group have been to Israel before. One student, Grisha, was particularly excited to be in Israel and to learn about his heritage and his roots, as he will be meeting his father for the first time here.

The group's teacher is Tuvia Aronson. The language spoken is English, however, the group arrived with an accompanying madricha (counselor) who can easily communicate to the students in Lithuanian. AMIIE also provides our own madricha, who is fluent in Russian, Hebrew and English.

This group is the second "international" group in recent times which AMIIE has welcomed on board. Last year we welcomed 12 students from Sydney, Australia, and are planning a second Australian program for the end of this year, another stepping stone in our plans to extend further beyond North American communities.