1,500 Birthright participants were stranded in Israel. Now they’re on a cruise to Cypress as Iran-Israel conflict unfolds
With air travel completely halted in Israel amid the conflict with Iran, some tourists have turned to the sea for escape
Approximately 1500 Birthright Israel participants board a cruise ship in Ashdod, Israel headed for Larnaca, Cyrpus. (Erez Uzir/Birthright Israel)
(JTA) — It was early Tuesday morning when young adults on Birthright Israel boarded a fleet of buses, But their destination was not for a desert hike or a history tour, but a planned escape — on a cruise ship headed to Cyprus.
The beginning of Israel’s war on Iran early Friday brought all air travel to a halt, stranding visitors in Israel and Israelis abroad. Despite official government warnings, some visitors have turned to travel by land and sea to neighboring nations as potential escape routes.
But the tugboats and skipper ships that others have boarded could not accommodate the thousands of young people visiting Israel through organized programs. When the war began, Birthright had 2,800 participants in Israel, out of 20,000 who had planned to take the free trips this summer.
At first, the organization focused on keeping the young adults safe where they were, then on consolidating them in multiple locations where they could experience some programming despite the crisis. But soon, the organization began plotting a daring escape by sea, with the help of both the Israeli government and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
On Tuesday, 1,500 Birthright participants set sail for Cyprus.
“Today we witnessed the true spirit of Birthright Israel — not only as an educational journey, but as a global family committed to the safety and well-being of every participant,” the organization’s CEO, Gidi Mark, said in a statement. “This was a complex and emotional operation, carried out under immense pressure, and we are proud to have brought 1,500 young adults safely to Cyprus. Our team continues to work around the clock to secure solutions for the remaining participants still in Israel.”
Noa Bauer, the vice president of global marketing at Birthright Israel, said in an interview that the logistics were more complex than anything the organization had faced before.
“We’ve been in past operations when we needed to get people out, and usually the skies were an option. There were also options through maybe Jordan,” Bauer said. “But … we have a lot of people, and we wanted to get them in the safest way out, and after close deliberation with Israeli authorities and Home Front Command, in cooperation with Mano Sapanut, which is the cruise ship company, we decided to take that path.”
For security reasons, Birthright participants were instructed to keep the voyage a secret by their group leaders. That meant keeping the lid on a surprise rescue operation not only for thousands of young adults but also their anxious parents, many of whom had turned to Facebook groups to solicit ideas about how to bring their children home.
“We’re trying to be nervous and cautious at the same time trying to prioritize safety. And I think less is known as better,” said Bauer. “There’s a lot of people involved. There’s a lot of circles around the operation, and we basically wanted them to be out in the sea before any of the information is out.”
The ship transporting the participants, the Crown Iris, is a luxury Israeli cruise ship operated by Mano Maritime. The 11-story ship set sail at 2 p.m. from Ashdod Port, and is set to arrive in Larnaca, Cyprus, after a 13-hour voyage. The cruise ship was escorted by the Israeli Navy to ensure its safety.
Upon arrival in Cyprus, the American participants will be flown to Tampa, Florida, in four wide-bodied planes chartered by DeSantis.
“I think it was important for him to get Americans back in the U.S., and then, you know, we happily took it in,” said Bauer. Beyond the assistance from DeSantis, Birthright Israel is covering the costs of the other boats, flights and accommodations, according to Bauer.
The evacuation leaves about 1,300 Birthright participants still in Israel who are still in Israel, according to Bauer. (Another 4,000 participants who had not yet departed have had their trips canceled or postponed, and a June 23 “mega-event” to mark the organization’s 25th anniversary was scrapped.)
“We’re looking at all the options right now, still looking throughout the sea and the sky, then we’re going to get everyone out of here in the next few days,” Bauer said. Some Israeli carriers announced that they would tentatively begin repatriation flights for Israelis stranded abroad, but Bauer said that the remaining participants would most likely leave by boat.
Samantha Phillips said she had been told that a boat could be part of the plan to get her home from Israel where she had been interning at an American school in Tel Aviv through Birthright’s brand-new Onward program. The internship program, which had enrolled 4,400 young adults for its first summer, was canceled entirely after the war began.
“We’re very, obviously, very disappointed,” said Phillips, who is from the Chicago area and is a student at Elon University. “I kind of feel a little guilty for feeling disappointed, just because obviously people are losing their homes, like, dying so close to us, but … we just finally had gotten the routine of living in Tel Aviv and having that ripped away really fast was a lot to process.”
Phillips and Shani Weisenberg, who are both 21, were evacuated from the apartment they shared in Tel Aviv to Eilat, a city in southern Israel, on Friday.
Weisenberg, a student at the University of Vermont who had been working for an organization that provides heart surgery for poor children, said she had been terrified but also had mixed feelings about heading home.
She said she was “feeling really anxious at night, wanting to go home, and just feeling really scared for everything that’s happening … especially [since] we just left Tel Aviv, like, feeling guilty that people can’t leave Tel Aviv and they live there, at the same time, like, anxious that we’re going to die.”
Anna Langer, vice president of Jewish Federations North American-Israel Strategy and acting executive director of the Israel Educational Travel Alliance, a collective that represents 170 Israel travel organizations and programs, said her organization was advising travelers to hold tight for now.
“There are no aircrafts in Israel as of now, though we are working directly with government agencies, our Jewish Agency for Israel partners, as well as Jewish Federations of North America’s Israel-based team, to look into departure options of all kinds and get priority access to those options, including land, sea, plane and anything else that comes about,” said Langer. “Our recommendation, which is following, again, the advice of Home Front Command, is for groups to shelter in place.”
Elon University student Luca Sever, in Israel for what was supposed to be a month-long program learning to advocate for the country, was getting ready for bed early Friday morning when she first heard the sirens warning Israelis of an impending counter strike from Iran.
“We were by ourselves in Tel Aviv, and we had no idea what was going on, so we ran downstairs to the shelter in our building,” said Sever, who is 18 and from Maryland. “We didn’t see anyone there. We were very, very scared.”
For smaller groups like Sever’s — she is participating in the Hasbara Fellowship, operated by a nonprofit but founded in part by the Israeli government — Birthright’s rescue cruise could be charting a path out of the country.
Bauer said that once a plan to evacuate the remainder of the Birthright participants is complete, Birthright would offer remaining room on the ship to other organizations with tourists stranded in Israel.
“We’re going to help everyone we can,” she said. “And I think the next step, if we’ll have more spots on the ship, we’re going to offer it to other organizations.”
