Birthright+The Benefits of Travel
Gary Rosenblatt at the Jewish Week weighs in on Birthright Israel, talking to a variety of young people from interfaith marriages who have taken the opportunity for a free trip to Israel. He mentions high tech birthright programs, and green birthright programs and the wide range of specialty programs (though he doesn’t mention the newly formed queer birthright programs, but I guess their longevity remains to be seen).
I was skeptical of this program for a long time, but, having watched a lot of these groups passing through Jerusalem, I’m fairly certain it’s a good thing, not necessarily because it’s “good for the Jews” or good for Israel, but because travel can only broaden a person, and cross cultural exchanges are vital to our interconnected planet.
I like Birthright for the same reason I like Encounter, which “is an educational organization dedicated to providing Jewish Diaspora leaders from across the religious and political spectrum with exposure to Palestinian life.”It’s the same reason I like the Congress-Bundestag program I did in High School, which sends German students to America and American Students to Germany. These sorts of exchanges of young people are invaluable. I only hope that more of them occur across more cultures. As the Birthright Israel program proves, there are no certain outcomes from travel and education–some students become passionate Zionists after their trip, some students slip into the West Bank and volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement–but there are countless intangible benefits and countless stories between these extremes. Everyone who has ever traveled beyond a kitschy tourist trap vacation knows that magic of encounter that cannot help but expand the possibilities of our world.
Also, traveling is a lot of fun. Wish there were more free trips for my age group…
