The 6 boys and 5 girls, ages 15 to 18, are students at the Bedford-Stuyvesant Street Academy, an alternative high school in one of New York City's toughest neighborhoods. Led by their Jewish teacher Stewart Bialer, the teenagers, full of misgivings ("Taking black kids to Israel?"), leave impoverished lives to spend 3 months as working kibbutzniks.

On the 1,500 acre kibbutz, the students, many of whom had never been outside of New York City, rise at 6 a.m. to tend cattle, turkeys, fish, and fruit orchards. As they work side by side with Israelis, the wariness felt by both groups about the other ("We stared at them, they stared at us.") breaks down. A young Israeli who thought "stealing, selling drugs" was the students' way of life decides "without them it will be terrible here. There will be no life." When the 3 months have passed, the Israelis are deeply attached to their guests. The American teenagers do not want to go home.

BLACK TO THE PROMISED LAND challenges myths and stereotypes. It is a fascinating study of the value of alternative education on disadvantaged youth, and a powerful portrayal of the importance of cross-cultural exchanges.