June 11, 2019
And here's how the answers have impacted my life. Israel has always held a place of intrigue in my life. It is the place of the patriarchs and matriarchs of Judaism; it has also been a place of significant debate for millennia. Regardless, I consider it to be my second home today. I could list off all the reasons I...
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June 4, 2019
Tens of thousands of Israel supporters gathered in Manhattan on Sunday for the 55th annual Celebrate Israel Parade – the largest celebration of Israel in the world. Beginning on Fifth Avenue and 57th Street and making their way up to 75th Street, marchers embraced this year’s theme of “Only in Israel” from the 1970s Hebrew classic “Rak B’Yisrael.” The parade,...
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June 4, 2019
I went on my first Birthright Israel trip in the summer of 2010, along with many friends through the Chabad Center at the University of Pennsylvania. After an amazing whirlwind experience and 4-day extension on the beach in Tel Aviv, I knew I had to return in the years to come. After this initial experience with Birthright Israel, there is...
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May 28, 2019
When I was in college, a new program started that would allow Jewish young adults who had never visited Israel to go on a free trip as their birthright. Growing up in a very Zionist household, I had already been to Israel several times, and so did not qualify for this new-found opportunity. As I saw the program develop and...
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May 14, 2019
The alarm yells at me at 4:30am. I wipe the few hours of sleep away from my eyes. I sluggishly make my way into clothing and sneakers and join the team of sleepy walkers to the front door. We take a stroll to a small pathway that opens up to a bigger dirt road. And as I look up -...
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May 7, 2019
This Mother's Day, I've been thinking a lot about what it means to be a mom, and about the ways that my experience on Birthright Israel changed how I parent. My son Jake was 18-months old when my husband, David, and I went on a journey with Birthright Israel. We were the only parents on the trip, but this was...
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May 6, 2019
Isn't it amazing how when you're young, your life is built around the idea of community? We have community at school with our classmates, community with sports and in my case community with fellow tennis players on my high school tennis team or the dancers, I danced with in college. There are a lot of opportunities to be part of...
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May 1, 2019
In March 2019 I had the opportunity of a lifetime to travel to Israel with Birthright Israel and visit Yad VaShem. After experiencing Israel firsthand through this trip, I know how rare opportunities like this must be. However, I’m writing now not to focus so much on my Birthright Israel trip but about what I learned during our visit to...
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April 30, 2019
My husband, Danny and I went on Birthright Israel in 2001 during our last year of undergrad. We immediately became good friends and maintained contact well after the trip was over. At the time we were both in relationships, but deep down we knew there was something special. Nearly two years later we had moved on from those relationships and...
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April 23, 2019
Amanda Flaxman is a winter 2019 Birthright Israel alumna from Highland Park, IL. She currently works as a Data Scientist and the biggest takeaway from her Birthright Israel trip was the authenticity she felt from everyone. What was the major factor that drove you to sign up for Birthright Israel? My trip was leaving from Chicago and just happened to...
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