Bringing Taglit Birthright Israel to Smaller Communities by Evan Levitt When I was growing up in the suburbs of Baltimore, my parents had picture of a bicycle and a motorcycle on a wall in our basement. The caption read “You can tell the men from the boys, by the price of their toys.” I was always attracted to this picture, most likely because it was hanging near the table where I completed my homework assignments. Twenty years later, I found myself talking to a Major Donor and Board member from the Monmouth County Jewish community. He and I were sharing stories about my recent experience leading a Taglit Birthright Israel trip, and his grandson’s experience on a Taglit Birthright Israel trip. And then he pops the question, which sounded something like this ... “I know that large … Continue Reading
Creating a Community of Peers
by Yoni Sarason I want to thank Joel Frankel, whose recent article, Can Birthright Israel Alone Reverse Young Adults’ Declining Support of Local Jewish Communities?, has reignited the conversation around Taglit-Birthright Israel, follow up, and local models of engagement. When I graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, I didn’t feel that I had an outlet or a source for the type of Jewish community or relationships I wanted to be a part of, but I knew it was important to me. Co-founding the St. Louis Moishe House, and later Next Dor STL gave me an opportunity to start building those relationships, hosting Shabbat and holiday celebrations, and creating experiences that were meaningful to me, and to the friends and community I found. Not everyone graduates college with the same … Continue Reading
Can Birthright Israel Alone Reverse Young Adults’ Declining Support of Local Jewish Communities?
by Joel Frankel In my experience, it is rare to hear someone say something negative about Taglit-Birthright Israel (“Birthright”). How could they? It is an amazing program that sends hundreds of thousands of Jewish young adults to Israel each year for free. More importantly, beyond just physically sending people to visit Israel, the trips they fund have a significant psychological impact on the participants. Studies have found that almost 75% of all Birthright participants call their trip a life changing experience!(1) Around for just over a decade, Birthright is shaping an entire generation’s relationship with the State of Israel. Our parents’ generation has an inherently emotional connection to the State of Israel. After our grandparents witnessed the creation of a Jewish state as a … Continue Reading
Birthright Israel Participants Experience the Start-Up Nation
Following a successful pilot program last year, this month Taglit-Birthright Israel launched its first special “Start-Up Nation” niche-trip. Named for the popular book, Start-Up Nation: The story of Israel’s economic miracle, the program included a presentation by Saul Singer, one of the book’s authors, visits to various Israeli hi-tech start-ups in Herzliya and Tel Aviv, meetings with Israeli venture capitalists and a trip to IDC Herzliya to sit with students and lecturers in the university’s specialized entrepreneurship program. During the 10 days, the participants were divided into smaller groups and given the task of brainstorming their own start-up ideas and presenting them to venture capitalists. The participants are all either business, entrepreneurial or high tech students, or … Continue Reading
A Different World, Yet So Similar
by Daniel Adler Israeli culture is different from American culture. Obviously. Israel is about the size of New Jersey. It has a population of seven million. And yet it produces more start-ups per capita than anywhere else in the world. The Taglit-Birthright trip I'm on is modeled on a book called Start-Up Nation. The book outlines reasons for the current Israeli paradigm. Young Americans often approach its author, Saul Singer, and thank him for writing such an informative introduction to Israel. He laughs. That wasn't his intention - rather he and his co-author, Dan Senor, wanted to explain why Israeli culture is so conducive to tech start-ups. The book has been translated into countless languages and is so successful that one Israeli hi-tech company I became familiar with, Intigua, offers it to … Continue Reading
Teacher Trek Israel Returns
Last summer, the Teacher Trek journey began ... and it continues this upcoming summer. Twenty-eight American complementary Jewish educators participated in Taglit-Birthright Israel Teacher Trek. The group, which represented educators from a variety of Jewish education settings - congregational, non-congregational, JCCs, Chabads and community schools - developed personal attachments to Israel and participated in professional development opportunities. Taglit-Birthright Israel awarded the first-ever Teacher Trek with “Best Implementation of a Niche Bus.” This summer, PELIE, the Partnership for Effective learning and innovative education, will again sponsor Teacher Trek and is excited that Taglit-Birthright Israel has again expanded the age limit to include participants between the ages of … Continue Reading
24 Birthright Israel Groups Arrived Yesterday
Around 1,200 participants from three countries and 24 different Taglit-Birthright Israel groups descended on Israel yesterday. This is a record number of groups arriving on a single day during the organization’s winter season. Two of the groups were from Brazil and Argentina while the rest are from the US. Approximately 400 participants arrived at Ben Gurion Airport over a two-hour period during the afternoon. 34,000 young adults participated in Taglit-Birthright Israel programs during 2011 and 42,000 participants are expected during 2012. image: Ofer Shimoni … Continue Reading
The Largest Gifts in 2011: Missing Jewish Support
by Robert I. Evans and Avrum D. Lapin Jewish philanthropists were well represented in a recent listing of last year’s top charitable gifts. According to 'America’s Top Donors', just released by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 513 gifts of at least $1 million or more were made by individuals to charitable institutions in 2011. This was a significant change from the 348 gifts of $1 million plus made in 2010. Our review of the listing told us that among last year’s largest and most generous donors, nearly 15% were Jewish, either by birth or affiliation. Prominent Jewish donors included Ronald Perelman, Robert Kraft, Maury Povich, Sanford Weill, Jonathan Tisch, Sheldon Adelson and Norman Braman. Our calculations indicate that this circle of Jewish donors collectively represented more than … Continue Reading
Pass it Forward: Taglit’s January Mega Event
The main auditorium at Binyanei Hauma was overflowing last night, as Taglit Birthright-Israel kicked off its Bar Mitvah year. The volume was high and punctuated by the continuing, always-enjoyable rivalry between the Argentinian and Brazilian participants. And, while the South Americans were clearly the life of the party, the American attendees succeeded in drowning out all. The greatest applause though, which erupted several times during the evening, was in support of the Israel Defense Forces - both the participating individual soldiers, and the IDF in general. The Prime Minister came to show his support. And so did several of Birthright's original philanthropist funders, including Lynn Schusterman, Michael and Judy Steinhardt and Marlene Post. The theme of the evening, It starts with you … Continue Reading
State Legislator – And Hindu Jew – Visits Israel on Birthright Trip
by Abigail Pickus For the Hindus, she’s Hindu. And for the Jews, she’s Jewish. So where does that leave Kesha Ram, the daughter of a Jewish mother and a Hindu father? “That’s like asking me, who do I love more, my mother or my father?” asked the 25-year- old Ram, who also happens to be Vermont’s youngest state legislator - not to mention the youngest state legislator in the entire nation. Ram recently delved deeper into her Jewish heritage on her first trip to Israel as part of a Taglit-Birthright tour. “It’s been incredibly powerful,” said Ram during a break from the ten-day tour. Sitting in an outside courtyard in the Jewish quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, Ram reviewed some of the highlights of her tour she shared with forty 20-somethings from across the … Continue Reading
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