An American Jew goes postal in Eilat: Who’s to blame for William Hershkowitz?

My experience in Israel on a subsidized summer program was that 90% of participants were completely "normal" American college students but at least 10%, were disturbed. This included one guy who claimed he was a prophet and that god has told him the messiah coming, one guy who was likely the reason for a rash of vanishing wallets, and others who dropped out of college and were later shown to be mentally ill. This is the blessing and curse of a free program, they can attract drifter types.

There was a guy on my program who already did one other program before mine (the same Eilat internship program Herskhovitz was on), and was actually kicked out due to alcohol abuse, aggression and disfunctional behavior. He got accepted back into that program, however, after his parents paid the entrance fee (he did not qualify for the Oranim grant) again. He was then also allowed into a second program, the one I was in. In the end he was finally sent home after some failed suicide attempts. Fact is, he should not have been allowed back into the program, let alone into a SECOND program after having been kicked out the first time. But they need money, so this is what happens.

What exactly is a "touch of racism in his zionism"? and is this to be tolerated, we are to assume? (it is in fact, of course, in these programs and public discourse.) I think though, we should all check our attitude to " a touch of racism" we all would not like to hear about "a touch of antisemitism " or similar

Because there's always gonna be a nutjob, out there.

Pre-screening MAY rule out some dangerously unstable participants, but without specific threats, predictions of violence are unreliable. However there appears to have been bizarre behavior and threats that peers witnessed and reported: behavior such as this prior to the killing should never be tolerated. If it is true that supervisors in the program were informed of Hershkowitz's behavior and didn't act immediately, this makes them complicit in the disaster that followed. Such programs would be wise to have psychological backup immediately accessible, including crisis hospitalization. My heart goes out to the family of the murdered chef, Abed Armando Shukhallah..

His shakey mental state should have been picked up before he was allowed to participate. I assume they had mental evaluations before hand. Who evaluated him? That is the person that needs to be checked out .

Oranim is known for seeking out "the lowest common denominator" on most of their programs. For example, the program that Hershkowitz appears to have been on, bills itself as "free" on their website (once you factor in MASA grants and "private donors" for a certain age group). As far as I could tell, they have no real application process than just the basic MASA work-up, and their programs are large and therefore it is very difficult to monitor participants well being etc. They are also known for being dogmatic and right-wing. All these factors together, in my mind, make it breeding ground for unhealthy thoughts and immature young people--it is no surprise that eventually one of those young people turns dangerous. My husband works for another, smaller MASA program. His program has its own application process where potential participants have to write full-on essays in response to numerous questions (including what their coping skills are in difficult situations). He also conducts phone interviews/info sessions for, generally, no less than 30 minutes and sometimes they go over an hour during which he can get a decent sense of the young adult. When in question, he calls references which are required. Problems have arisen with participants not doing well or even having mental health issues and needing to go home, however, the counselors are ALWAYS on top of what is going on with the participants and check in very often. I hope that Oranim is doing some serious self-reflection after this incident.