Taglit-Birthright Israel gaining popularity

The number of Jewish students reconnecting to their homeland is on the rise.

Every year, Penn’s Lubavitch House coordinates trips to Israel for Penn students through Taglit-Birthright Israel. Registration for this summer’s trips officially closes this morning.

This year, Lubavitch House commissioned two providers to accommodate the increasing demand of Penn students wanting to go on the trip. It is also offering two different trips, with departure dates scheduled tentatively for May 9 and 20.

Between 800 and 900 Penn students have participated in the trips since Birthright’s inception over a decade ago, according to Lubavitch House’s Campus Rabbi Levi Haskelevich.

For some participants and their families, the relative safety of the region plays into their decision to apply.

College sophomore Andrew Meyers said when he was applying for the trip last year, his mother was very worried about the region’s safety and stability, but her apprehension had been “more of a concern in the back of her mind than an overwhelming fear.”

“No one’s willing to deprive their child of that experience unless there were a positively dangerous situation,” he said.

Still, many Jewish students choose to partake in the 10-day Israeli experience despite concerns about the region’s safety.

The trip providers — Israel Free Spirit and Mayanot — adhere to clearly outlined safety and security precautions, Haskelevich said.

“As far as safety is concerned, there have been no incidents in the last ten years that I have gone,” he added.

All trips will be postponed if Birthright “cannot ensure the safety of participants and an enjoyable trip,” according to a “Safety and Security” presentation on the organization’s website.

For College sophomore Ryan Daniels, safety and security was not an inhibitive concern when he went to Israel with Birthright last summer.

“Your perception can get skewed,” he said, “but Israel is not at all what you see in the news.”

Haskelevich said if a person’s “only exposure [to Israel] is watching CNN, the image you take away isn’t very convincing” of the region’s safety.

He added that the tour groups never travel to more unstable areas in the country such as West Bank or Gaza, and that participants are strictly prohibited from traveling outside the group.

Birthright was founded in 2000 as a partnership between the national government of Israel, the Jewish Federation of North America and several other international Jewish groups. The program offers Jewish young adults free, ten-day educational trips to Israel. The trips are funded by private donations to Birthright.

Through local Jewish groups like Lubavitch House, Birthright puts these young adults in contact with trip providers who coordinate the travel arrangements and itineraries for the trips.

Popular destinations in the past have included famous religious sites, the homes of rural Israeli families, air force bases and the Knesset — the Israeli national parliament in Jerusalem.

Birthright doesn’t claim to have explicit political or social agenda, nor does it put participants through any sort of “religious indoctrination process,” Daniels said.

“I think there is an underlying wish with Birthright to forge a connection between students and the people of Israel,” he added. It is also for Jewish students to learn to “associate a lot of things you learn about growing up with what you see in Israel, with being Jews and going to a Jewish country.”

“Everything has a meaning behind it, and a discussion of what it means to us,” said College and Wharton junior Tatyana Pazhitnykh who went on Birthright last year. Like Daniels, she believes that many of the trip’s activities, such as meeting young Israeli soldiers, offer Jewish young adults “a different angle” of the country from what they learned about it growing up.

Both Pazhitnykh and Daniels had traveled previously to Israel with their families.

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