The Birthright Israel Foundation’s Board of Directors has approved a post-trip engagement plan that focuses on the creation of a seamless communications platform featuring curated content for participants following their Taglit-Birthright Israel trip. The platform’s “heart” will feature a marketplace of ongoing connections and opportunities.

The Platform will serve as an online portal of programs and organizations where Taglit-Birthright Israel alumni can continue their exploration of Jewish identity, peoplehood, and the connections to Israel they focused on during their Taglit-Birthright Israel trip.

The plan works in layers. Taglit-Birthright Israel and the Birthright Israel Foundation will provide a bridge to recent participants between Israel and their re-entry to home, campus and community.

From there, it enables the American Jewish community, through national, local, and virtual offerings, to deliver what is on the other side of the bridge in order to leverage and maximize the effect of the Taglit-Birthright Israel trip experience.

The Platform design will be guided by the desire to meet the following goals:

• Connect Taglit-Birthright Israel alumni to Jewish living, community and on ongoing connection to the land and people of Israel in a way that is personal and meaningful.
• Connect Taglit-Birthright Israel alumni to opportunities that are consistent with the Taglit Educational Platform.
• Maximize the role of the Taglit Fellows upon return to their community by developing and providing resources for them to ‘feed’ alumni.
• The platform will include a robust chat function so that participants can keep in touch with their buses.

The Foundation’s goal is to beta test the platform during the winter 2015-16 round of Taglit-Birthright Israel trips and launch in the summer round of 2016.