This is 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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Community Birthright’s Move To Exclude Arab-Israelis From Its Narrative Is A Crisis — And Here’s How We Fix It.
Birthright Israel’s education department recently announced that all providers of its signature 10-day trip to Israel for young Jews must stop including meetings with Israeli Arabs in their programming. The move has hit a nerve. It has brought out the raw feelings surrounding the funders of the program, those who safeguard the educational content and…
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Opinion Why Doesn’t Birthright Believe In Israeli Democracy?
So they will never know Wadeea. This was the thought that came to me as I read the disappointing news that Birthright has chosen to end meetings with Arab citizens of Israel, who make up one-fifth of Israel’s population. Birthright’s official statement explained that “there is a need for further analysis” of such meetings before…
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Community Why I Refuse To Go On Birthright — And You Should, Too.
Earlier this month, registration for Birthright Israel’s winter programs opened, inviting thousands of Jewish young people to accept a gift that seems too good to be true: a completely free trip to Israel. Many of these young people will be excited to experience firsthand the country that they have been taught to consider their own…
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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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