Chabad to Enhance Birthright Experience

JERUSALEM, Israel — It is estimated that one in three young American Jews will go on a Taglit-birthright israel trip, according to Rabbi Hershey Novack of Chabad on Campus. With a $10,000 grant from a private philanthropic foundation, Novack will establish post-birthright israel programs, with the mission of empowering, “birthright israel participants to advance their engagement with Israel and Judaism upon their return to campus.”

Birthright trips run throughout the year, often timed for University break, and come in dozens of variations; several campus organizations lead birthright trips including Chabad on Campus and Hillel.

Participants can choose between everything from hiking to meeting Israeli soldiers. All trips include visits to historical sites and extensive touring of the country.

“Having been to Israel, I do feel I can relate a bit more when I read about it in the news,” said senior Zachary Steinert-Threkeld. “I was at the Golan Heights, drove through the West Bank, went to the Western Wall [and] went to the Holocaust Museum.”

But to Rabbi Novack, there’s a catch in the organization of the program.

“The great flaw of the trip is inherent to its being a trip,” said Novack. “When participants come back to America, the question is, what does the American-Jewish enterprise provide to allow these young adults to express their sense of Jewish identity and ongoing Israel involvement?”

Taglit-birthright israel aims to strengthen worldwide Jewish solidarity, and Novack said he thinks it should not stop once students return to campus.

“I don’t believe the American-Jewish community has fully reaped the benefits of the sense of heightened Jewish identity and Jewish awareness that students gain from the trip,” said Novack.

The project that Chabad on Campus is undertaking is not the first of its kind nationally, but it will be the first follow up program available at the University.

“I think it would be a great opportunity to continue the questions and dialogue about what is going on in the State of Israel and the Middle East because those issues have been opened up from visiting Israel,” said senior Laelle Busch.

Busch added that because the question is by definition an open-ended dialogue, there are no easy clear-cut answers, and there should be no conclusion to the conversation.

Novack has yet to design his post-birthright program, but he knows its general shape. Upon return from Israel, fellow Jewish students will greet birthright israel participants and help participants translate their experiences to the United States.
In the upcoming weeks, Rabbi Novack plans to hire University students who understand and support the mission of birthright israel as Peer Fellows.

According to its Web site, trips through Taglit-birthright israel intend to “diminish the growing division between Israel and Jewish communities around the world; to strengthen the sense of solidarity among world Jewry; and to strengthen participants’ personal Jewish identity and connection to the Jewish people.”

In less than a decade, the birthright israel Foundation and partners have sent over 120,000 young Jews from around the world for a 10-day trip to Israel, all expenses paid.

The only requirements are that individuals must be Jewish, between the ages of 18 and 26 and have never lived in or visited the country with a peer-group since age 12.