March 12, 2020
As a Birthright Israel Madrich, volunteer, and Mifgash, you could say that my journey began six years ago when I was asked to go on a five-day paid military vacation. Little did I know, this trip would turn out to be one of the most impactful moments of my life. Growing up, I lived in the small suburban town of...
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March 6, 2020
My grandmother, who survived World War II hiding in Italy, has the mentality that nothing in this world should be taken for granted. She has a zero-waste policy - she is the type who brings the bread and butter home from a restaurant. So, when she heard about the gift of Birthright Israel, she insisted that I take advantage of...
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February 27, 2020
The two weeks I spent in Israel were nothing short of transformative and to show you how much it changed my life; I need to go back a little bit. I went to high school in Boca Raton, FL, where my mom and stepfather still live. As many people already know, Boca Raton is a very Jewish community. In the...
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February 26, 2020
This winter, thousands of young Jews are arriving in Israel and will be shocked at how much they can learn in 10 days on a Birthright Israel trip. By not only visiting sites but gaining insights from their tour educators and Israeli peers, these moments here and there turn into lessons they’ll appreciate for a lifetime. Below are just four...
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February 24, 2020
The idea of going on Birthright Israel had been in my head long before I turned 18, but it always seemed like a hypothetical, not something I would actually do. This was due mostly in part to my upbringing in a town of very few Jewish people. No one talked about going to Israel and I couldn’t name a single...
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February 20, 2020
“In Israel, in order to be a realist,” Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion said, “you must believe in miracles,” and for centuries in the diaspora, Jews under the oppressive arm of an undying anti-Semitism prayed for such a miracle to come into fruition –– to return to Eretz Yisrael. My ancestors of Romanian and Lithuanian descent immigrated to another land said...
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February 13, 2020
Assimilation. A word we hear so often in the Jewish world. It's a tragedy not quite as obvious as the many others that have plagued the Jewish people before. If you grew up Jewish, unlike me, you have likely not felt the sting of assimilation or been able to comprehend what that entails fully. Who would you be if you...
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February 9, 2020
We often hear that some Jewish young adults feel apprehensive when they first learn about Birthright Israel, but we promise this trip to the Jewish homeland isn’t too good to be true. The reason the trip costs nothing to participants is because it is a gift that keeps on giving. Every single Jewish young adult who claims their birthright helps...
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February 4, 2020
Before I left for Birthright Israel in May of 2019, I was scared. I wasn't nervous about the security situation, or sad about being far from my family— I was scared that I wouldn't make the absolute most of this opportunity to make a difference. I'm glad I was scared because, as a madricha (trip staff), I had the responsibility...
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January 30, 2020
I wandered for twenty years until Birthright Israel found me. This is how happened. Growing up in Memphis, Tennessee, the most Jewish thing we did at my house was on Christmas, when we'd leave rugelach out for Santa. And to make things even more ironic, my last name is Pope. My mom's parents are Jewish but did not raise her...
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