Past Alternative Breaks
Buenos Aires, Argentina (Spring Break 2011): UW Hillel and American Jewish Joint Distribution Commitee (JDC) lead an trip an ASB trip to Argentina. With a community of 225,000, Argentina is home to Latin America’s largest Jewish population. When the economy collapsed in 2001, Argentina’s relatively prosperous Jewish community was left reeling, with many of its members losing jobs, businesses, homes, and savings.
Through several service projects including painting a mural and volunteering at a Jewish retirement center, tours, discussions and meeting Argentinian peers, UW students will got the opportunity to learn hands on about the history and culture of the Jewish community in beautiful Argentina. Check out this groups blog to learn more about their Argentina experience.
Rwanda (Spring Break 2011): Twenty student from UW participated in UW Hillel's 2011 ASB trip to The Agahozo Shalom Youth Village (ASYV) in Rwanda. ASYV aims to create a safe and structured residential community for children orphaned by the 1994 Genocide. The village is a place of hope, where traumatized youth can "dry their tears" (Agahozo) and "live in peace" (Shalom).
During the 10 days that the students lived in the village they built a recreational area, tutored village youth, visited Genocide memorials and reflected on their experience through dialouge with Village teachers and students. Check out the UW Hillel Does Rwanda blog to learn more about this trip.
New Orleans (Spring Break 2008): Eight students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Hillel headed down south over spring break, unsure of what was to come. The phrase “Katrina relief” is one frequently heard but it is nearly always left undefined. While many people were laying on a beach somewhere close to the equator, this group lived in hastily built shelters, sleeping on wood planks with thin mattresses, and helping rebuild a community. New Orleans Katrina Roz Koff article
Nicaragua (Spring Break 2008): Through AJWS Alternative Breaks, UW Hillel students experienced grassroots sustainable development and focused on the connection of social justice, service and Judaism. In collaboration with a local grassroots non-governmental organization, students built a facility for local farmers to store their crops. This storage space allowed the community security, so that in the event of the price of crops suddenly drops, they will have a location to store crops until the price returns to a sustainable income.
Prague (Spring Break 2007): Some of the highlights of this trip included: Interactive tours of Prague’s famous Jewish Quarter, the Prague Castle and 
Old, Town, a visit to the former concentration camp site of Terezin, Shabbat with the Prague Jewish Community, social gatherings with the Czech Union of Jewish Youth, an evening at the Philharmonic, guided excursion to the National Gallery’s Museum of Modern Art, educational talks from a Czech Jewish WWII hero and from CET Jewish, studies faculty members, community service opportunities to give back to the Czech Jewish Community.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Spring Break 2006): Alt Break Rio included: Teaching orphaned children about dental hygiene, playing with underprivileged children from the slums of Rio, visiting with the elderly in shelters, community beautification/restoration projects, helping to collect and distribute medicine donated by doctors from the community, working with the students at Hillel Rio on ongoing social justice projects
New Y
ork (Spring Break 2005): The students on this trip spent time assisting Met Council with various projects by working in their clothing warehouse, food pantry, and more. The evenings were spent learning about Jewish service projects in New York City and enjoying many the many sites that the city has to offer.
Alternative Breaks are sponsored by Kibbutz Langdon