- A 10 day trip to Israel with flights, food,
and a ton of instagrammable moments, all for free?
You may have heard of Birthright Israel,
the all expense paid adventure to the holy land.
Seems too good to be true, right?
There has to be a catch.
But, there isn't one.
You're not going to be roped into long,
boring religious seminars or be told what to think about
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
However, there is a goal.
I mean, this isn't Oprah...
the organization behind the trips does have donors
who want a return on their investment.
So what is the goal of Birthright Israel?
In the 1990s, polls in America and throughout the West
confirmed what most Jews could see for themselves:
many young Jews were drifting away from Jewish life.
They weren't excited about being Jewish
or building Jewish lives.
Jewish leaders called this the "continuity crisis".
While pondering this "crisis",
these leaders noticed that when they traveled
with their families to Israel,
their kids seemed far more excited about being Jewish.
Recognizing how their own kids connected to their heritage
in Israel but yawned in synagogue,
they wondered if visiting Israel
would have the same positive impact on others.
That got them thinking,
could they make trips to Israel more accessible?
In the '90s, most young Jews had never visited Israel.
Especially not those living in North America,
where he 11-hour-plus plane-ride didn't come cheap.
The polling at the time predicted
that barely one in five American Jews would visit Israel
at any point during their lifetimes.
Two philanthropists took this all very seriously,
and brought other thinkers and leaders together
to wrestle with the issue.
They came up with kind of a crazy proposal:
"Could we give every young Jew born
outside of Israel the gift of a trip to Israel?"
That premise would eventually become the most unprecedented,
experimental, and ambitious educational project
Judaism had ever seen.
But in those early days, there was a lot to sort out:
How long should the trip be?
Should it be free for everyone?
Should they just hand out free plane tickets
and let Jewish backpackers invade?
Though the debates could have continued forever,
these forward-thinkers took the plunge
and launched the program in December of 1999.
They landed on offering free 10-day trips
for 18 to 26 year olds no matter how much money they had
or how observant they were.
If you were Jewish, this trip was your birthright.
The "catch" for this free trip, was simple:
create new links in the chain of Jewish continuity.
The program was committed to four guiding principles.
First, show, don't tell.
Participants are there to experience Israel,
not hear about it.
Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, the Negev desert,
and Tel Aviv would all be on the itinerary.
Second, make it fun.
The trip couldn't be all lectures, museums,
and historical ruins.
Hikes, experiencing Israeli nightlife,
floating in the Dead Sea and camel rides
were other ways young Jews could enjoy the culture as much,
if not more so than history lessons alone.
Third, no strings attached.
This could only inspire connection
if nothing else was asked in return.
This was an actual gift.
No alumni donation calls, no expectation to push it
on your friends, no paybacks.
And finally, invite every participant to be the captain
of their own Jewish journey.
Now this last one was a little tricky.
The trip would need to be set within certain parameters.
Also, there would still need to be some sort
of teaching aspect and a goal to foster connection.
The experience would introduce them to the history
and heritage of the Jewish people, the story of Zionism,
the meaning of Jewish identity.
But once teed up, each young Jew could follow through
as they wished.
Their solution was guided tours with 40 participants
exploring the country together.
In the past, group tours of Israel had been run
by political organizations or religious groups
with specific agendas.
So Birthright Israel committed to offering non-partisan,
non-ideological, general introductory tours,
using an approach tailor-made to fit this new generation.
As they continued to grow the program and fine-tune it,
"themed trips" were created to best fit each participant.
These focused around interests such as food,
and outdoor activities, or ones that cater
to specific communities like trips for Orthodox
or LGBTQ+ participants, which foster a deeper connection
to personal identity within the group.
And after the 10 days are up,
participants have the option to extend their return flight
to have whatever experiences they choose.
In the earliest days of the trip,
the impact was immediate and apparent.
Participants quickly learned that being in Israel
meant Judaism was much more than just going to synagogue,
observing Jewish holidays, or keeping kosher.
Judaism wasn't some distant or abstract idea
you learned about in Hebrew school - it was something real,
something tangible.
Wandering around the streets in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv,
they had a feeling of belonging
to a big, diverse, worldwide Jewish family.
As one first-time visitor to Israel remarked:
"even when cab drivers say 'good morning'
or 'shabbat shalom' to you,
you don't feel it's just coming out of politeness.
You feel that they care about you".
In addition to their shared heritage,
traveling in groups created an instant-community
resulting in lasting, life-long friendships.
Countless romances from the trips have blossomed
into serious relationships and even marriages.
Every trip builds on the Jewish people's
long-standing involvement and fascination with Israel.
A mere 10 days fully immersed in the Jewish state,
where a Jew can feel proud to be Jewish, is life changing.
And there are statistics to prove it.
Since Birthright Israel began,
over 750,000 Jews from 68 countries have taken the trip -
85% of alumni feel that the Birthright Israel trip
was a "life-changing experience",
84% of them are raising their children Jewish,
and 93% of participants are likely to be "very much"
connected to Israel.
And Birthright Israel programs have contributed upwards
of 1.5 billion dollars to the Israeli economy.
Few organizations, foundations,
or even commercial brands can report such success rates.
Birthright Israel's unique and immersive
experiential education was the first of its kind.
Since then, other diaspora communities and heritage groups
seeking to connect their younger generations
have taken note, hoping to root their own young people
in their heritage.
It all may seem too good to be true that donors,
philanthropists, and the Government of Israel
are willing to 100% foot the bill,
so you can take a vacation.
But there's something about this experience
that simply can't be replicated.
There's so much more to Judaism than Hebrew school,
High Holidays, and Manischewitz.
If the only catch is the chance, not the expectation,
that you'll learn a little about Jewish history
and possibly form a connection to your heritage,
then maybe it's a chance worth taking.