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 Playing Politics With Birthright? That’s Like Stealing A Free Trip To Israel.
Are Jewish 20-somethings entitled to a free trip to Israel? For decades, the donors behind Birthright Israel have gifted thousands of young Jews from around the world with 10-day immersive experiences in the Holy Land. The heritage and culture trips sometimes center around a particular theme, like Israeli food, Russian culture, or Israel’s LGBTQ commuity….
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Opinion Walking Out On Birthright Was The Right Thing To Do
Last week, five participants of Birthright walked out on the program and straight onto a tour of the segregated city of Hebron with IDF veterans from Breaking the Silence, where they saw what Birthright desperately tried to hide. They saw the checkpoints, the streets Palestinians aren’t allowed to walk on and the caged windows that…
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Opinion Have Your Say: Is It Ok To Walk Off Of A Birthright Trip?
Have Your Say is your chance to tell us what you think. Comment below or on Facebook and let us know what you think about the question posed in the headline. In recent weeks, Birthright participants affiliated with both IfNotNow and Peace Now have staged walkouts from their trips, in protest of Birthright’s policy of…
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Fast Forward Another Group Leaves Birthright To Visit Palestinians
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A group of American Jews visiting Israel on a free Birthright trip walked off the tour during a visit to the City of David in Jerusalem to visit a Palestinian family who is facing eviction from their eastern Jerusalem home. Six of the young people came from one Birthright tour and two…
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Fast Forward U.K. Jewish Group Gives Info About Occupation To Birthright Groups At Airport
The debate over how Birthright Israel trips talk (or don’t talk) about Palestinians has gone global, with the latest action taking place in London. A new British Jewish group called Na’amod: British Jews Against Occupation traveled to Luton Airport on Sunday to hand out informational materials about the occupation to departing Birthright participants. The group…
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Community Birthright Has An Agenda — And That’s Perfectly Okay
This summer, for the first time, I staffed a Birthright trip — and it was incredible. Ten action-packed days without more than a minute to breathe. But it wasn’t the itinerary that made the trip so amazing; it was the people. My bus was filled with forty young professionals with very little prior knowledge of…
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News Young Evangelicals Feel The Complexity Of Conflict After Traveling To Israel
One of Ryan Mills’ most powerful memories of his recent trip to Israel was the moment he gazed over a barrier wall at the Israel-Gaza border and saw what seemed like a Hamas lookout post. “It was kind of eerie,” Mills said about traveling so close to the heart of the long-simmering conflict less than…
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Opinion I Teach At Birthright. IfNotNow Is Wrong.
The very public walkout of IfNotNow members on a Birthright tour last week has generated much angst in Israel and amongst American Jewry. As a Birthright lecturer who has met with thousands of Birthright participants to discuss Israel’s geopolitics, I can’t help but regard IfNotNow’s media stunt with bewilderment. Quite simply, the charges levelled against…
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