Study abroad program in Israel to become reborn again?

However, I do recommend choosing the particular group to do Birthright with carefully. My impression, as someone who is non-religious and very liberal politically, was that the atmosphere of my Birthright trip was rather conservative. At times, I found this inconvenient or distasteful. (I went with an otherwise unaffiliated group of Philadelphia area college students.) Ditto, and this is a total crapshoot. I went with a group that's known for being fairly liberal (Israel Outdoors). Friends and relatives who traveled with the same group at different times and with different tour leaders had different experiences. I discussed my experiences http://ask.metafilter.com/102260/Should-I-take-a-chance-on-my-last-chance#1483868. (They weren't good.) I agree that he should be the one to decide this. There are many, many opportunities for someone like him to travel abroad--for example, in a foreign-teaching program like JET--in situations that don't depend on being indoctrinated into any particular religious or national group. Of course, I say all of this as a committed agnostijew, but I think that experiencing different cultures can be just as valuable, if not moreso, than a vague sort of "rediscover one's roots" kind of thing. Be aware that in Israel, most Jews are either very secular or fairly Orthodox when compared to Jews in diaspora, particularly the US. If he wants to study his religion further, that's great--but it would make sense to get a firm grounding of his religion as exists at home, within his family first, because the Judaism that he encounters in Israel may be quite different. And if this is something that you guys, as his friends are pushing him to do--and I say this because the language used in the question is redolent of what you'd find in a fairly religious Christian context ("study in a seminary [so] he can come back born again")--he might not be so happy with the choice.

I'm not sure going to Israel necessarily means "discovering [one's] roots. I think it's way more complicated than that. He could just as easily stay stateside and join the http://www.avodah.net/. (Think Jewish AmeriCorps.) But in Israel he could study at http://www.pardes.org.il/programs/.

If he's less than 26, tell him to check out http://www.birthrightisrael.com/site/PageServer?pagename=about_main. He can go for free.

This seems like the kind of thing he might be best off coming to himself. But that said, one option might be to do http://www.birthrightisrael.com/site/PageServer -- a friend of mine did the trip and enjoyed it -- and that way see if he wants to spend more time there.

I was also coming by to mention Pardes.

The more evangelical types might snap him up. They can smell wayward Jews.

We've http://ask.metafilter.com/102260/Should-I-take-a-chance-on-my-last-chance, too.

I did an Ulpan (immersion language) program on a Kibbutz after high school, and it blew my mind. Sponsored by the Govt to help transition new immigrants, 75% in the program were recent immigrants to Israel from Turkey, Argentina, France, Turkey, etc, who needed to learn Hebrew to survive. The other 25% were Americans/Canadians taking a gap year - wide range of backgrounds, but we all got along - and since I was on a leftist Kibbutz, no religious proselytizing, though YMMV (and @clockzero is right on the money). Classes for a few hours and then field work for the rest of the day, and evenings in the bar/disco. Time to travel on the weekends and after work, but nothing too structured. And pretty cheap at ~$1k a month with classes, room and board (remember, you are working to subsidize part of it). 13 years later, I still keep in touch with many of my fellow Ulpanistim. Info here: http://www.kibbutzprogramcenter.org/node/1

I think it would help to know more about your friend, his background, and what you/he mean by "discovering" his roots. It seems like some people are leaning religious (Pardes), but depending on who he is and what he wants, Pardes might not be the best option--perhaps he needs a more religious (or less religious) environment. Non-religiously, he should look into http://www.otzma.org/index.aspx?page=1.