Birthright Project: We are Broke

JERUSALEM, Israel — “Every dollar we received, we spent in order to connect another Jew with his roots. Our budget was on an enormous upward trend, but it will be smaller next year, partly because of the huge campaign we led in honor of the state’s 60th anniversary,” said Gideon Mark, the CEO of Birthright, at a conference held in Jerusalem’s International Convention Center last Thursday.

Birthright, known as Taglit in Hebrew, provides educational trips to Israel for young Jewish adults aged 18-26.

“In terms of funding, from today on it is a question mark,” said Mark. “Birthright is a success story of the Jewish nation, but to our regret we have not succeeded in guaranteeing the funding for even another two years. We have to struggle every year,” he said. Mark expects the contributions of 2009 to drop 38% compared with 2008.

Birthright organizes 10-day tours of Israel for young Jews from all over the world, in groups including Israeli students and soldiers. Thursday’s assembly was in honor of the 200,000 participants who have come on Birthright programs in the last nine years.

Even though philanthropists Charles Bronfman, Michael Steinhardt and Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Dr. Miriam Adelson, were in attendance, doubts were expressed publicly as to the future of the Birthright project, in light of the world economic crisis.

In 2006 the organization succeeded in raising only $34 million from outside donors, while in 2007, due to a $30 million contribution from the Adelsons, Birthright raised $63 million.

In 2008, the Adelsons gave $37 million in honor of Israel’s 60th birthday, and the total donations hit $88 million. However, estimates for 2009 are in the $55 million range.

Birthright says the trips are “a gift in order 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.”

So far, the Adelsons have given a total of $67 million. The couple also confirmed Thursday that they would keep their promise for $20 million in 2009, adding that they would provide another $10 million in 2010.

Former MK Yossi Beilin, one of the founders of Birthright, called the project a “Zionist success story, and I am keeping my fingers crossed all the time since it depends on donations and government funding. I hope the government’s contribution is guaranteed, but the donations from the philanthropists depend on the economic situation. For now we are sure about next year, but all the same we are asking ourselves what will happen the year after. We have a problem with some of the contributors, and some of them were hurt by the economic crisis,” said Beilin.

The media reported last month that Adelson lost over $10 billion (on paper) from the crisis, as shares in his Las Vegas Sands casino lost half their value on Wall Street.

Steinhardt, initially the main philanthropist behind the project, admitted a few days ago that he lost $2 million in the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme. Steinhardt refused to comment on the matter, but he explained that he had invested money with Ezra Merkin, who had then invested it with Madoff.

The former CEO of Birthright, Shimshon Shoshani, is still optimistic. He feels that the donors will keep their promises and the funds will arrive. “Despite the economic situation, which significantly affected the donors, they view it as a project that must continue,” said Shoshani.

“In the short term, it is possible to say that all the project’s donors have kept their commitments. Whoever promised a million dollars will give it, and the same holds true for someone who promised $20 million,” said Shoshani.