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Free Israel Tours Bolster Ties with Young U.S. Jews
(Boston Globe) Lisa Wangsness - Michael Silverman, a 21-year-old Northeastern University student, had not thought about Israel much before this spring. An electrical engineering major, he was not interested in the political situation there, and he had not regularly attended synagogue through most of his adolescence. When he got the chance to travel there for free, he signed up; it sounded like fun. But he never anticipated that the trip would transform him into someone who cares deeply about Israel. "Before the trip, I didn't feel anything; I just knew this was a place where Jewish people lived," he said. "Since going there, I feel connected to the people that live there. It felt like family." Over the last decade, Taglit-Birthright Israel has given more than a quarter-million young Jews 18 to 26 years old the opportunity to experience Israel first-hand in a 10-day educational tour funded by Jewish philanthropists and the Israeli government. "A generation we thought was going to be so distant now has the opportunity to feel closer to Israel, closer to their heritage, and closer to being Jewish, and that is the miracle of the Birthright program," said Barry Shrage, president of Combined Jewish Philanthropies, which has raised millions for Birthright. A Brandeis study which surveyed more than 1,200 U.S. Jews found that American Jews' sense of connection to Israel remains strong - 63% felt either very much or somewhat connected to Israel, and 75% saw caring about Israel as an important part of their Jewish identity. The study also found that travel to Israel is highly correlated with Jews' sense of attachment to the country and that younger Jews were more likely to have traveled to Israel than their middle-aged counterparts.