Jobless Long Island graduates find work in Israel

EMPLOYMENT

David Kleinstein of Plainview graduated Brandeis University in May 2008 and knew that, as far as getting a job went, he had a problem: Friends who graduated a year before were still out of work.

"I decided I wasn't ready to face the rejection of the working world," said Kleinstein, 23. Instead, he became one of a growing number of young Long Islanders who went to Israel, enrolling in a program called Masa Israel, which provides internships and scholarships to people 18 to 30 who want to work in Israel for between five months and a year. Masa, meaning journey in Hebrew, is supported by the Israeli government. Masa officials in Manhattan said the program has about 1,486 participants, 67 percent more than last year.

On Long Island, 52 people are participating, up from 31 a year ago.

Jaclyn Mishal, Masa's director of recruitment, said the miserable economy is a driving force for many participants.

"We're finding a lot of young adults are having money and job issues," Mishal said. The Israeli economy, she said, has done well in recent years, the result of research and development in technology companies.

Kleinstein, an economics major at Brandeis who wants to work in radio, spent his first three months in Israel studying Hebrew. His last three months were at Kol Israel English Language News, a major Israeli radio station. He returned to the United States in mid-July and now works for Worldview Software in Hicksville, a seller of social studies software to middle and high schools nationwide.

Jesse Zryb, 24, formerly of Merrick and now of Manhattan, is working for Pink Inc., a Manhattan event design company. Zryb graduated from Tulane University in May 2008, got a job with a Manhattan architectural firm and lost it when the firm merged with another. He spent five months in Isreal, until February 2009, working at an architectural company in Tel Aviv.

"It was definitely nice to keep active in a recession," Zryb said.

Rose Askinazi, 22, of Setauket, is now in graduate school at Binghamton University, after spending five months in Tel Aviv.

"Everything was in shambles," Askinazi said of the U.S. economy. "As people became more concerned about the economy, it became a more attractive option to go abroad." Askinazi worked for a Tel Aviv telecommunications company.