Sitting in a circle in coastal northern Israel, listening to a group of 46 American and Israeli Jews share their coming-out stories — stories of anxiety and relief, shame and pride, heartbreak and celebration — I realized that this trip was going to be different.
When Eden Bennun — who had to give up on plans to attend a Birthright Israel trip this summer because of a job — heard about a new trip aimed specifically at Israeli-Americans, she thought: “It must be fate.”
At first, the idea of going on a Birthright trip seemed silly, at best. I’d already been to Israel, twice – once on a family trip when I was 15 and first exposed to lax drinking laws and Jewish college boys, and again before my senior year of high school, on a Write on Fellowship trip.
Sagi Alkobi almost didn’t go on the Taglit-Birthright Israel trip.
Israel made a smashing debut at the 2014 World Lacrosse Championship in Denver this month, finishing seventh out of 38 teams, just three years after the first game was ever played in the country.
Is Birthright Israel to blame for the death of Max Steinberg, one of two American Israeli soldiers killed in the war in Gaza?
Three days before he was killed fighting for Israel in Gaza, American Nissim Sean Carmeli sprained his ankle, and a doctor asked the Texan if he wanted to heal before going into action.
Before my Birthright trip, when I pictured Israel, I saw myself riding camels, visiting the Western Wall, hiking Masada, floating on the Dead Sea.
As the sun dipped below the horizon on the evening of May 6, nearly 100 local supporters of Birthright Israel gathered under a massive tent in the backyard of the Encino estate of philanthropists Adam and Gila Milstein.
I was raised in a suburban, particularly Jewish area of the San Fernando Valley, where everyone knew everyone’s friend.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.