The journey home
College students connect to their Jewish birthright in Israel
By Judie Jacobson

July 8, 2005 - When Emily Adler heard that her roommate was going on a free 10-day trip to Israel, she couldn't wait to sign up.  Truth was, she could take or leave Israel n but a free trip to a foreign country was simply too good an opportunity to pass up. 
The night before her flight, the UConn sophomore was out with a few old friends in her native New York.  
"Are you excited?" they asked her.
"I don't know," she shrugged.
Why would she be excited?  
Growing up in Rye nas she describes it, Westchester County's least Jewish town,n Adler graduated from a high school whose Jewish student population could be "counted on one hand."
Being Jewish, she says, "just wasn't part of my life.  I never really cared."  If anything, she rarely even acknowledged being Jewish.
As a result, says Adler, "I never thought anything was going to come of this trip.  I went in without any expectations."
Then Adler arrived in Israel at the end of May, with 14 other UConn students taking part in an international birthright israel trip organized and sponsored by Hillel, the national campus organization for Jewish college students. 
"The trip changed my life," she reflects.
For Adler, the trip's pivotal moment came when the group walked through the Old City of Jerusalem…and stepped out onto the promenade, where, for the first time, she found herself staring up at the epic, awe-inspiring Western Wall n in Hebrew, the Kotel.
"It was overwhelming," she recalls, referring not only to the Wall itself, but to the myriad of Jews gathered before it.
"It's hard to put into words, but having no real connection to being Jewish…and then seeing all those people -- different types of people -- and thinking that they are all Jewish…and so am I…it was very intense and very moving."
To be sure, says Adler, though her experience at the Wall proved to be transformative in terms of her outlook on Jewish life, it wasn't the only highlight of her trip.
"The trip gave me a whole new perspective on being Jewish," she says. "It made me realize that Judaism is not just a religion…it is a heritage.  We met Israeli soldiers who traveled with us for several days.  I was amazed because they weren't religious…but here they were, living in the most Jewish place in the entire world and they took such pride in the fact that they're Jewish and that they're living in Israel. I have much more pride in being Jewish now."

Making Judaism come alive

And that, says Pam Newman, director of UConn's Hillel organization, is the point of birthright israel n a program initiated six years ago by a group of philanthropists to bring Jewish youth ages 18-26 to Israel for the first time as part of a peer group trip. UConn and the University of Hartford each send two groups of students to Israel twice a year n in January and June n on birthright trips that are organized and sponsored by the international Hillel organization. 
"Birthright israel is not so much about connecting to Israel," says Newman, "as it is about connecting to Judaism."
And what better way to connect to Judaism than "in the most perfect backdrop of Jewish life n Israel."
Sarah Laub, director of Hillel at the University of Hartford, believes that the birthright program accomplishes something that is otherwise very difficult to do.
"It gives students a place in Jewish history and culture and turns them on to Judaism.  It's the best thing I can do for them, because Israel is the most alive and tangible aspect of Judaism that we can present to students.  They can feel it and see it…and suddenly being Jewish isn't some weird little subculture in America n it's that handsome dark soldier, that overweight bus driver… It suddenly comes alive.  It brings them closer to their Jewish heritage and their Jewish identity."
It's a strategy that seems to be working.
"There was something about being there," says Cara Platt, a sophomore at UConn from Cheshire who took part in the June trip.
"Just walking down the street and knowing that everyone was Jewish n some secular, some wearing kippot n you felt some sort of connection just by being there."

 Partnerships

Colleges like UConn and the University of Hartford who do not have enough students on their trips to fill a bus, are partnered with other colleges. This past June, for example, UConn was partnered with Penn State and the University of Kansas.  
Once in Israel, the group is linked for certain activities with several other Hillel birthright groups on three other busses. Finally, all the Hillel birthright groups join together for an extravaganza that is billed as a "mega event," featuring Israeli performing artists and highlighted by lots of spirited student-generated camaraderie.  
"The mega event," says Newman of the happening that this past June brought together 5,500 students from around the world, "really gives students a sense of the worldwide importance, as well as the beauty and excitement of Judaism."  
In addition, she notes, the Hillel trip itinerary provides students not only with an opportunity to see Israel, but also to digest what they see.
"We include time for what we call ‘conversations,'" she says. "The trip is very fast-paced n so we stop several times and take time to reflect on the experiences that they are having.  We don't talk at them n but we provoke them to think about what's happening.  We want them to understand that what they are experiencing is more than the sum of its parts." 
Taking the experience home

Interestingly, many, if not most, of the students who sign up for the trip are neither connected to Hillel nor to their Jewish heritage. Regardless of what inspired them to sign upn and no one doubts that the trip's price ticket, or lack thereof, might have something to do with it n both Laub and Newman note that many trip participants become more actively involved in Jewish life once they are back on campus. 
"It's amazing," says Laub, "a lot of kids who said they would never step foot into Hillel now come every Friday night for services…kids who would never have been caught dead wearing a Jewish star around their neck are now proud to wear it… Things like that make it worth it."
Like Laub, Newman is brimming with stories about birthright "graduates" who are now committed to being more involved in Hillel n including one student who returned from the June trip committed to creating a Jewish a cappella group on campus.
As such, says Newman, birthright presents a great opportunity for Hillel to reach out to Jewish students on its campus.
"Birthright is a great way for us to meet Jewish students who have no connection…and to deepen that connection among those who do.  Because college life is stressful and there are lots of options out there that students can avail themselves of…not all good.  Birthright is the best tool we have to keep the next generation strong in their Jewishness."

Slipping through the cracks

"Birthright is a phenomenal program," agrees Lisa Kassow, director of the Trinity College Hillel.
Unfortunately, while Trinity did manage to send six students on a Hillel birthright trip last summer, they were not able to send any this year.
"Small schools like Trinity don't have the critical mass to put together a busload of students. So for us, every time a student goes it's a great victory."
According to Kassow, owing to the size of its Jewish student body, individual Trinity students interested in a Hillel birthright trip must piggyback on another Hillel trip.  If a spot is available.
Sometimes that works…and sometimes it doesn't.
One student who Kassow did manage to link with another trip "had the time of his life.  It made a real Zionist out of him and was a life-altering experience."
On the other hand, she laments, "We strongly recruited for the winter birthright trip and the result were we had two students saying they really wanted to go…and then we couldn't get them on a trip. We got them excited…and then they were disappointed."
Kassow, however, is hopeful that the recently-formed Hillel Consortium of Connecticut, which has already expressed an interest in tackling the issue, will come up with a viable solution that might include forming a birthright group trip by consolidating several Connecticut Hillel groups.
"The consortium is a good forum to discuss potential opportunities to work together," she says.  "I think it might be a great idea to put together a joint group."

Those who make it possible

The birthright israel program, which includes many other peer group trips to Israel in addition to those sponsored by the Hillel organization, is made possible through a $210 million partnership that includes several prominent philanthropists, local Jewish Federations, the people of Israel through their government, Keren Hayesod and, and The Jewish Agency for Israel.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, which helps fund the Hillels at the University of Hartford, UConn and Trinity College, also allocates $35,000 to birthright israel, which in turn funds the local college campus birthright delegations. 

For further information about birthright trips, visit www.birthrightisrael.com