Birthright Israel Foundation Blog

January 29, 2026

Birthright Israel Made Me Ask: How Can I Be a Better Jew?

I’m from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and I’m a sophomore at Drexel University in Philadelphia, studying marketing. I’m interested in social media and branding, and I also play basketball. I went to Hebrew school until about age thirteen and had my bar mitzvah, but after that, there was a gap. Then the pandemic hit, everything got chaotic, and before I knew...

January 29, 2026

Birthright Israel: "Don't Wait"

For most of my life, Israel was something I was supposed to wait for. When I was growing up in a Chabad Chasidic community, the answer was seminary. When COVID-19 shut that door, the answer became “next year.” When my health collapsed, the answer became “when you can walk again.”Once COVID restrictions were lifted, and I had time off from...

January 28, 2026

“Our Story”: How Birthright Israel Helped Me Claim Mine

I’m from Westchester, New York. I studied cinematography at Ithaca College and graduated in 2023. Now I’m getting an MFA in photography through Savannah College of Art and Design. I’m going through my photos from Birthright Israel and writing about my experiences, hoping to eventually compile them into a book.My dad is Jewish, and my mom is Catholic. My sister...

January 27, 2026

Judaism Felt Outdated Until Birthright Israel 

I grew up in Michigan with a Reform Jewish identity. But if I’m honest, I felt the least Jewish of my siblings. I’m one of six kids, and I was the most secular one. I just didn’t see the relevance. Judaism felt outdated, like the traditions were disconnected from modern life. Then October 7 happened, and it fundamentally changed me. I...

January 26, 2026

What Birthright Israel Made Impossible to Ignore

For many Jewish young adults, Judaism doesn’t disappear. It just gets deprioritized. Not out of rejection, but out of momentum. Careers accelerate. Cities change. Communities become harder to hold onto. You don’t stop being Jewish; you just stop structuring your life around it. That’s what happened to me.I live in the San Francisco Bay area now, where I am an...

December 23, 2025

Watch Our New Birthright Israel "One Trip Changes Everything" Video!

November 13, 2025

Bringing Judaism to Life on a Birthright Israel Accessibility and Inclusion Trip

Krissie Sharman, a young woman from Buffalo, New York, has built her life around kindness and community. “I like helping out people who are in need and having a hard time,” she said. Krissie volunteers at a local food pantry and with an animal rescue, caring for cats, dogs, and the occasional rabbit. She is close to her sister, Kristin,...

November 3, 2025

How Birthright Israel Onward Changed My Life Forever

I was born and raised in a suburb of Toronto. Growing up, I didn’t have a conscious sense of Jewish identity. It was just part of my DNA. I had a bar mitzvah, but in high school, I veered off the traditional Jewish path. I didn’t feel deeply connected to being Jewish or to Israel. In my late twenties, though,...

October 22, 2025

Birthright Israel Helps the Jewish Family Find Each Other Again

I grew up in Seattle and live in D.C. now. I’m a legal assistant who’s interested in world history and birdwatching. When I was younger, my family wasn’t terribly observant. We'd observe Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah, have a Seder, and light a Chanukiah, but not much more than that. When I was fifteen, my parents got divorced, and my...

October 16, 2025

Birthright Israel Brought My Jewish Story Full Circle 

I’m from Utah—a fourth-generation Shapiro born and raised in Salt Lake City. Being Jewish in Utah means standing out, but it’s made my pride that much stronger. My great-grandpa emigrated to the U.S. from the Ukraine–Lithuania area around 1900 and made it to Salt Lake City about a decade later, where he met and married my great-grandmother—a well-educated Jewish woman...