Alternative Spring Break Trips (ASBs) combine Judaism and social justice in a week-long service trip. Penn Hillel runs a different Alternative Break program every year.
For spring break 2023, Penn Hillel partnered with Germany Close Up – North American Jews Meet Modern Germany, to provide Jewish students at Penn with an opportunity to learn about the Shoah, and to experience modern Germany firsthand – a country that has done an exceptional job at grappling with its own history, with an eye to the future as well.
Students spent six days in Berlin exploring a former concentration camp, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the Jewish Museum in Berlin, and other key historical sites and cultural venues.