Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Taglit-Birthright Israel, a free 10-day trip to Israel for young adults with Jewish heritage.
Birthright
The Latest
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Opinion The One Weird Thing That Birthright And JVP Have In Common
When you get down to it, Jewish Voice for Peace, the pro-Palestinian gadfly, probably doesn’t get enough credit from the mainstream Jewish community. The activist group does more than just about any other presence on the American scene to get young Jews passionately engaged with Israel. It’s not necessarily the sort of Israel engagement that…
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Fast Forward Jewish Voice For Peace Tells Teens Not To Go On Birthright
(JTA) — The pro-Palestinian group Jewish Voice for Peace is calling on young Jewish adults to eschew the free trip to the Jewish state offered by Birthright Israel. The organization calls on the young Jews to reject Birthright Israel using the slogan #ReturnTheBirthright. A manifesto on the organization’s website reads: “(T)oday, we must acknowledge that…
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Community The Legacy And The Importance Of Birthright Israel
In early 2005, I went on a journey that will forever hold a place in my heart. Joining other young Jews, I visited Israel for ten days through Birthright Israel. Before that, I visited Israel ten years before on a Bat mitzvah trip with my family. It’s one thing to travel with your family as…
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Community After Birthright, Jewish Millennials More Likely To Embrace Zionism And Their Faith
The 2013 Pew Forum “A Portrait of Jewish Americans” posed the question, “What does being Jewish mean in America today?” On the final day of a free, 10-day Birthright trip to Israel, 39 Jewish Americans participants (ages 21-27) were asked the same question. Six young Jewish Israelis, who also participated in the entire trip and…
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Community Sorry, Pundits: Non-Orthodox American Jews Are Here to Stay.
Recently I was waiting to chow down on some beef stew at a Jerusalem restaurant in the city’s iconic Mahane Yehuda market, often called “the shuk.” That’s when I saw them. Hordes of Americans in the their early 20s. The best new winter jackets. Young, robust, happy. They were chatting about how “cool” Jerusalem was….
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Community How My Birthright Experience Turned Into A Fulfilling Career
Spring semester of my senior year of college was coming to a close and I was having the “crisis” everyone else was having: What did I want to be when I grow up? For some reason, mainly as an amalgam of my interest in leadership and the Jewish community, I thought to myself – “I…
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Opinion It’s Not Just Israel — These 6 Other Countries Offer Birthright Trips, Too
Birthright isn’t just for Jews anymore. Following the same model, a number of cultural organizations and governments have created programs to connect diasporic communities in North America with their ancestral cultures. 1) Heritage Greece Founded by the National Hellenic Society, Heritage Greece offers Greek-American undergraduate students between the ages of 18 and 26 a two-week…
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Community Dustin “The White Tiger” Fleischer has Second Bar Mitzvah on Masada
I chose to be bar mitzvahed again in the land of my people on top of the historical landmark of Masada, a mountain that was originally used as a fortress by King Herod the Great. Herod built a palace on the mountain as an escape for any possible revolt that may occur in the country….
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Fast Forward Why neo-Nazis marched in Ohio this weekend, and almost every weekend in the US
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Opinion The group behind Project 2025 has a plan to protect Jews. It will do the opposite.
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Opinion Just about every interpretation of Trump’s narrow election victory is wrong
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News Texas schools want to add Queen Esther to the curriculum. Here’s why Jews (and many Christians) are opposed.
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward Rep. Ritchie Torres, outspoken pro-Israel advocate, is dropping hints that he could run for NY governor
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Fast Forward Ursula Haverbeck, infamous German Holocaust denier known as ‘Nazi grandma,’ dies at 96
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Fast Forward A Jewish museum in Tulsa held a funeral for remains of Holocaust victims it kept for years
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Sports Texas A&M’s Sam Salz cherishes his first taste of DI college football — and the opportunity to inspire fellow Orthodox Jews
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