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April 2, 2009
Birthright Israel recently “graduated” the 200,000th young person to take part in its 10-day Israel rite of passage for college and graduate students. At its inception, Birthright Israel commissioned the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University to evaluate the program. The center has released a number of studies demonstrating that Birthright Israel has significantly heightened the Jewish consciousness of participants and their connections to the State of Israel and to other Jews throughout the world. Most participants of Birthright Israel have had minimal Jewish experiences and have never been to Israel before. For these young people, Birthright serves as an alluring appetizer.
Our United Jewish Appeal Campaign has provided financial support for Birthright since its inauguration. Through our Israel Program Center, MetroWest has run its own Birthright trips. To date we have enrolled over 100 participants and anticipate an additional 40 in June. Members of the IPC staff lead the group in Israel and point them toward relevant resources in our own Jewish community and relevant campus Hillels after they return.
As a result, we have recruited a number of Birthright Israel alumni as volunteers at our English-speaking camps in Ofakim-Merchavim, Israel; Cherkassy, Ukraine; and elsewhere. Our approach is to maximize the experience of participants in Israel but also ensure that it serve as a gateway toward their involvement after their return.
Working in concert with Birthright Israel NEXT — a continental initiative to engage program alumni in the Jewish community — we have sponsored a number of events, including Shabbat dinners, for alumni as well as for their parents. We will continue to do even more to help mainstream Birthright alumni into our Jewish communal fold.
However well we do in MetroWest, however, we will never reach a large number of Birthright alumni. Most migrate toward metropolitan areas after graduation. And experience to date shows that we have much work ahead of us.
Eager alumni
Another follow-up study done by Brandeis University of Birthright alumni college graduates in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Toronto found that most of them, upon their return, were behaving as “tourists” in the Jewish communal world, stopping briefly to “sight-see” programs designed for young adults. They struggle with how to translate their newly stirred feelings of Jewishness resulting from Birthright into meaningful and sustained connections to the Jewish community. The challenge is not unique to the Jewish community in that the adult years are often devoted to further graduate study and career advancement, with little time for religious or communal involvement.
The research shows, however, that there is an eagerness by the alumni to move beyond “sightseeing” to a more active exploration of Jewish life. The role of the Jewish community is to engage with them as they seek programs, venues, and networks where they will comfortably take on more active roles, not as tourists but as fully participating citizens of the Jewish community. Birthright Israel alumni are especially interested in small-scale programs that foster enduring friendships, are peer-initiated, and have a grass-roots feel.
The research team, led by social psychologist Leonard Saxe, concluded, “Our best hope to one day bring young adults back inside is to shift our emphasis. Instead of expecting young Jews to immediately take on the responsibilities of Jewish communal citizenship, we must first empower them to embark on their explorations of Jewish identity, life, and community.”
Birthright Israel has played a critical role in opening up the door of Israel and Jewish community for hundreds of thousands of young adults. Our job is to welcome them in a communal setting that will be comfortable for them and help them continue their journey toward Jewish citizenship.
Max Kleinman is executive vice president of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ. Orli Dudaie is executive shliha of the UJC Legow Family Israel Program Center.
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