Post Birthright Reflections

It's a beautiful afternoon in Jerusalem, and I'm sitting with my wife in a very peaceful courtyard cafe in the Baka neighborhood of Jerusalem.  A few days ago we finished staffing the San Diego community Birthright trip.  We spent ten days touring around the country with thirty-nine young Jewish adults ages 22-26 from San Diego.  We saw all the major sites--the Kotel, Yad VaShem, Har Herzl, Masada, Independence Hall, etc,.--and we got to experience some more day-to-day Israeli realities like the visit to the new high school in Sha'ar HaNegev that is completely rocket proof.  (Because of its proximity to the Gaza Strip, this region has been plagued by rocket fire the last several years.  Sha'ar HaNegev is the San Diego Jewish community's sister region in Israel.)  

Before the trip, I was a bit of a Birthright agnositic.  As I understand it, Birthright's main goal is to connect young Jews to their Jewish identities, using a free trip to Israel as the vehicle.  I was always skeptical because, as one who has spent a lot of time in Israel, I felt that ten days was not long enough, and that the participants are already too old.  It's better to send teens and grab them early.

I think I have been convinced that I am am wrong about Birthright.  While I wish that every American Jew would spend long trips in Israel, I did see a real community form in these short ten days.  People who have not thought seriously about their Jewish identity since they were a kid, or ever, were engaging in true questions of meaning like: What does it mean to be a Jew?  What is my connection to Israelis?  Do I have a responsibility to live as a Jew?  

I was also wrong about the age thing.  Teenagers are not great with "meaning" questions, but young adults are trying to figure these things out, and we as a Jewish community have not helped them find Jewish answers.  This past Shabbat afternoon, six of our participants chose to make questions like the aforementioned into their lives in serious ways by choosing to become "b'nei mitzvah."  I put this in quotes because according to Jewish tradtion, one is automatically a Jewish adult at the age of thirteen, but our six never had the opportunity to affirm this.  They were raised with little or no Judaism in the home, but they decided to stand up in the small synagogue in a small hotel in Tiberius and commit themselves to a Jewish life.  They were looking for community, for meaning, for connection.  Israel brought this out of them.

I have been moved many times by many things in Israel, but this was the most exceptional.