This morning, Taglit-Birthright Israel celebrated 10 years – and its fingerprint on Jewish history.

Following the landing of a special plane at Ben Gurion airport, 400 Taglit-Birthright participants joined Diaspora Minister Yuli Edelstein, major donors Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, founding philanthropist Charles Bronfman and others.

A Birthright Israel ‘Star of David’ fingerprint flag was inaugurated at the ceremony, entering the Guinness Book of Records for the world’s largest collective work of art. This special flag was designed with 28,267 fingerprints from Taglit participants.

Taglit-Birthright Israel alumni from a host of countries joined the Program’s alumni who live in Israel for a tour in the “Decade Bus” – to reconstruct for them the special experiences that have transformed their lives, Jewish identity and their sentiments towards the State of Israel.

Taglit is one of the most successful Zionist projects in the Jewish world. In addition to making an enormous contribution to Israel from national-strategic and economic perspectives, Taglit has fundamentally transformed the relations between Israel and its strategic Diaspora home front, which many skeptics have said could no longer be revived. During the past decade, Taglit has bought 265,000 youngsters to Israel for free 10-day trips.

“May you learn, eat, dance, cry, and sing with us during your short visit here.” said Diaspora Minister Yuli Edelstein, “And in the years to come, may you continue to seek out ways to strengthen yourselves and your connection to Israel and the Jewish people.”

image: Olga Dargonsky