Lost Tribe began 2024 with an impactful and emotional trip to Israel. While the goal was to create engaging and relatable social content for Jewish teens around the world, the trip meant much more than that to the Lost Tribe members who interacted with Israeli teens and took part in a variety of volunteer activities.
The trip was a collaboration with — and funded by — a partnership with RootOne, an ambitious initiative seeded by the Marcus Foundation and powered by Jewish Education Project to maximize the number of North American Jewish teens who experience Israel first-hand.
Lost Tribe’s Director of Communications, Spencer Solomon, Director of Influencer Marketing Jake “Offy” Offenheim, and Content Creator Noa Solomon flew to Israel for a week full of volunteering and content creation. This included joining Jewish high school students in harvesting veggies for farmers who had to leave for the war, marching with Israeli celebrities and the families of hostages to learn more about their struggles during the war, and filming content at meaningful spots all around Israel. They also met up with Israeli Lost Tribers, made friends with local teens, ate incredible food, and saw heartbreaking reminders of the attack throughout the country.
But this wasn’t just a meaningful experience for Lost Tribe’s cast and crew. The journey to Israel was largely for Jewish teens around the world, including ones in Israel — thanks to social media shared with our nearly 90,000 followers. Since October, Lost Tribe has made a huge impact on Jewish teens thanks to our focus on relatable, positive Instagram and TikTok content that shows what life is really like in Israel — and has allowed kids to laugh who have otherwise felt ostracized and scared.
Spencer said that hundreds of Israeli teens leave comments on Lost Tribe social media posts, asking Lost Tribe to come to their schools and town, clearly connecting with the content and wanting to share their experiences and life with other Jews around the world.
“It was an incredibly meaningful trip,” Spencer said. “To me, seeing that we are well-known amongst Israeli teens felt like Lost Tribe fulfilling its mission in the truest form. We are offering a shared Jewish experience online for Jewish teens all around the world. Teens in Israel are engaging and loving our content at the same time and in the same ways Jewish American teens are. We’re creating a shared sense of Judaism for the next generation in a space that has always lacked central Jewish experiences and community.”
Reflected Offy: “We learned a lot about the current situation and feelings on the ground. It was a really special trip for me because it felt so different from the nine other times I had been there. There was an air of somber feelings but also feelings of unity, resilience, and optimism.”
He noted a lot of advertisements at otherwise mundane spots like bus stops that read things like: “There’s no left, there’s no right. There is just one nation.” It felt like the entire country was coming together as one no matter their culture, differences, backgrounds, religion, or views.
With vibrant videos of food tastings at shuks in Tel Aviv to lighthearted trivia with Jewish high schoolers to putting powerful messages into the Kotel, you can expect more positive and relatable Jewish content from Lost Tribe in the near future. These videos show teens all around the world that Israeli high schoolers are just like them, while also shedding light on interesting cultural differences and the richness of Israeli life.
It’s just one of the ways Lost Tribe is working toward a more vibrant and connected Jewish future.