From May 11 to May 17, Repair the World and Yahel Israel brought 18 young Jewish leaders to Israel for a weeklong session that combined service, learning and community building.

While the highlight may appear to be a trip to Israel, for some of the attendees, the best part is knowing that they’re better equipped to come back home and do an even better job helping Jews in Baltimore.

Andrea Hendler is a Baltimorean who serves as director of Jewish communal engagement and learning for OLAM, an organization that unites Jewish groups to work on behalf of global service, international development, and humanitarian aid. She said that, after a week in Israel with a special group, she feels ready to hit the ground running again here at home.

“I returned home energized and inspired by what I experienced. The people we met, the partnerships we witnessed, and the impact of even simple acts of service reinforced the importance of creating meaningful opportunities for people to engage through service,” Hendler said.

The group was made up of young adults from around the United States. They were tasked with planting lavender at a farm that helps use nature and agriculture for those with PTSD, building furniture for a lone soldier’s home, working at a center for the blind and visually impaired, helping Bedouin students practice their English, assembling food aid packages with at-risk youth and more.

Not only is that kind of work special when done in the Jewish homeland, it directly translates to work that Baltimore community leaders do at home, too.

“For my work at OLAM, the trip provided valuable insight into how service experiences can be designed to foster not only impact, but also learning, reflection and community-building.

Experiencing that firsthand helped me think more concretely about how we can strengthen the broader Jewish service movement,” Hendler said.

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This article was originally published in the Baltimore Jewish Times on June 5, 2026.