Edited by: TJVNews.com
About 2,000 Birthright Israel participants from 45 states and provinces in North America will land in Israel in February and March for the first trips of 2022. The flights, which begin this weekend, mark Birthright Israel’s joyful return after a series of suspensions since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“After a long hiatus, we are excited and honored to bring back so many participants from North America on these important and exciting tours to Israel,” said Birthright Israel CEO Gidi Mark.
Taglit-Birthright Israel offers a free, life-changing trip to Israel for young Jewish adults between the ages of 18 and 32 and, in doing so, transforms the Jewish future. Its mission is to give every Jewish young adult around the world, especially the less connected, the opportunity to visit Israel on an educational trip. Today, Birthright Israel is the largest educational tourism organization in the world that has given over 750,000 journeys to the state of Israel.
The following list represents the number of Birthright Israel participants arriving in February and March from each state or province in North America (in alphabetical order): Alabama: 1; Alaska: 3; Arizona: 1; California: 54; Colorado: 19; Connecticut: 13; Delaware: 1; DC: 10; Florida: 42; Georgia: 1; Hawaii: 1; Illinois: 18; Indiana: 2; Iowa: 2; Kansas: 1; Kentucky: 2; Louisiana: 2; Maine: 1; Manitoba: 1; Maryland: 17; Massachusetts: 33; Michigan: 8; Minnesota: 1; Mississippi: 1; Missouri: 3; Montana: 2; Nevada: 4; New Hampshire: 5; New Jersey: 28; New Mexico: 1; NY: 100; N. Dakota: 12; Ohio: 20; Ontario: 2; Oregon: 3; Pennsylvania: 30; Rhode Island: 7; S. Carolina: 3; Tennessee: 3; Texas: 16; Vermont: 3; Virginia: 8; Washington:7; Wisconsin: 7.
“I am so excited to go on my Birthright Israel trip next month,” said Kayla Dinsfriend, a chef and culinary educator from Sitka, Alaska. “I have been looking forward to this for so long, it almost doesn’t seem real! I can’t wait to step into the life and culture of Israel and eat all I can along the way.”
The 2020 outbreak of COVID led to a break that ended in May 2021, before the Delta variant grounded the trips again. This was followed by a suspension due to Omicron in December, when the program was forced to cancel despite 3,000 excited young people from North America having registered.
Now, Birthright Israel organizers are optimistic about the future as they greet the February and March participants and look forward to the summer, when they will welcome an additional 15,000 North American young people along with others from around the world. The summer season, which launches in May, will be the last opportunity for young adults aged 27-32 to participate in a Birthright Israel trip. Starting in Winter 2023, the trips will be restricted to those aged 18-26.
“We expect to bring about 3,000 young adults from around the world in the next two months, and during the summer we expect about 15,000 from North America and nearly 20,000 worldwide,” said Mark. “Our summer trips are filling up quickly and we are excited and optimistic that we will now be able to accommodate the 100,000 North American young adults that signed up for a trip over the last two years and couldn’t travel due to Covid.”
Participants must be fully vaccinated, and Birthright Israel continues to work closely with Israel’s Ministry of Health to ensure a comprehensive and dynamic Covid protocol, taking care of all participants’ needs while in Israel.
According to Noa Bauer, the VP of International Marketing for Taglit-Birthright, in addition to the 2000 participants coming from North America, there will also be another 2000 from all over Europe in February and March.
“We are organizing smaller groups, in lieu of the Covid virus and we have all the logistics in place to ensure a very safe and enjoyable trip for all Birthright participants. We are very optimistic about the future of Birthright and the number of people requesting a spot on our future trips is absolutely incredible.”
In June of 2020, the Israeli publication Calcalist reported that because of the Covid crisis, Israel expected to lose two-thirds of the $300 million annual income brought in by its heritage tourism industry. This sum excluded revenue from flights.
Calcalist reported that the heritage tourism industry, which includes organizations such as Birthright Israel, also known as Taglit, and the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Masa Israel Journey, brings some 80,000 Jewish teens and young adults from around the world to Israel every year, for trips, internships, and volunteer work.
Together with philanthropic organizations, the Israeli government funds many of the organizations and programs offering these trips, as it sees them as a means to strengthen its message among global Jewish populations, according to the Calcalist report.
In light of the current crisis, trips for some 60,000 Jewish youths scheduled for the spring and summer of 2020 were canceled. Those included programs by Birthright, Masa, and Jewish schools and youth movements.
Calcalist also reported that the Israel Experience – Educational Tourism Services Ltd., responsible for organizing many of the heritage trips to Israel, counting Taglit and Masa among its clients, lost $40 million in revenue in the first half of 2020, according to Director General Amos Hermon.
Since the beginning of the crisis in early 2020. the Israel Experience put 75 percent of its employees on unpaid leave, Hermon told Calcalist, adding that without government intervention, the industry might collapse and fail to get itself ready in time for the winter season.
One of the largest donors to Taglit Birthright were internationally recognized philanthropist Sheldon Adelson, of blessed memory, along with his widow, Dr. Miriam Adelson, who continues her late husband’s legacy of giving to charitable causes.
In an interview conducted by the Makor Rishon publication prior to Mr. Adelson’s passing in January 2021, the Adelsons spoke of their strong connection to Taglit Birthright.
When asked how they became involved in Taglit-Birthright, Dr. Miriam Adelson said: “We were looking to invest in projects that are meaningful for the Jewish people.” She added that several years after the launch of Birthright, they met with Charles Bronfman, a businessman and co-founder of Birthright, who asked them to donate.
“He wanted a small amount of money. I remember Sheldon told him, ‘Of course, we will give,’ but when Bronfman left, Sheldon told me, ‘I don’t know why he hadn’t asked for more. I would have given him more!’
We later heard from one of the founders, Michael Steinhardt, that every year, there are 10,000 young Jewish adults on the waiting list and cannot go to Israel because there isn’t enough money. We felt it was inconceivable that a young Jewish adult would not be able to go to Israel, so we decided to fund the entire waiting list. The waiting list then became 20,000 people, so we subsidized them, too.”
Makor Rishon asked Mr. Adelson to tell them about his father, who never made it to Israel.
“My father had always dreamed of going to Israel but never realized his dream. He was born in Lithuania, where he suffered very much for being Jewish. He always thought there ought to be a place in the world where Jews can live without being beaten, whipped or shot at, but as regular citizens.”
Sheldon’s father, Arthur, was a taxi driver. He could not afford to fly to Israel.
“Years later, when the State of Israel was established, no one thought of Israel as a vacation destination,” recounted Mr. Adelson. “Israel was perceived as a place where people live in tents. By the time I had enough money and wanted to send my father to Israel, he said he was too old and sick to go. It frustrated me. I wanted to make sure all the people on Birthright’s waiting list will not end up like my father, old and regretful they never went to Israel. I wanted Miri and me to help them and send anyone who wanted on a visit to Israel. The waiting lists were growing long, but it only made us happy. Everyone who came back from Israel told about it to their friends, with more and more young people wanting to go.”
The Adelsons have two sons, both of whom participated in Birthright.
Dr. Miriam Adelson said: “Our sons visited Israel numerous times. We took them to Israel already when they were several months old. But even though they have been to Israel so many times, my son, Adam, called me when he was on Birthright to say, ‘Mommy, it’s a life-changing visit.’ I asked him how come, because he had been in Israel dozens of times and we often hired Birthright’s guides to take us on tours and have been to all the places Adam went to with Birthright. He told me that the revelation came upon him on Mount Herzl, when they visited the grave of a soldier who was killed at their age, 18 years old. The whole group cried together. Later, they went to Yad Vashem. He told me that he and his friends realized that they are Israel’s soldiers around the world. This had changed his life.”
She continued by saying “We feel like partners in a family. I love my family members, which means any Jew, whether from the right or the left. At the same time, I would like to protect my private family. I would like my grandchildren and great-grandchildren to remain Jews. Research shows that if you participated in Birthright, your chances of marrying a Jew are 76 percent, and the figure goes down to 42 percent if you are on the waiting list. I did not make up these figures. Brandeis University in the U.S. conducted this research.”
(Additional reporting by Fern Sidman)
