Kudos to you for asking what I think is a key question. I want to add a bit of a correction here — Birthright Israel NEXT is targeting adults in the 25 – 30 age bracket and is reaching them in record numbers. In our largest program, NEXT Shabbat, which has reached over 50,000 young adults, 64% of our over 3,000 hosts are age 25 and above.

Most of the participants in this program and in Birthright Israel NEXT programs in general are not alumni — our programs are about 40% alumni and 60% friends of alumni who did not go on the trip. (You have to keep in mind that 90% of 25 -30 year olds did not go on a Taglit trip!)

What we are learning is that Taglit alumni are an amazing network of people who can inspire the vast majority of their Jewish peers (who are not Taglit alumni) to get more involved in Jewish life. At our current level of activity, we will see over 70,000 young adults be invited to peer led events in the coming year through the actions of 5,000 Taglit alumni.

It is by seeing this bigger picture that we can truly measure the impact of what Len Saxe has termed the “Birthright Generation.”

Rabbi Daniel S. Brenner
Birthright Israel NEXT