Israel Trips For Jewish Youths Expand, Including For Disabled Teens

By Nicole Neroulias
Religion News Service

(RNS) Jewish organizations are aiming to send more North American teens and young adults than ever to Israel this year, focusing on increasing current numbers and reaching out to new groups.

Taglit-Birthright Israel, which takes 18- to 26-year-olds on its 10-day heritage tours, has been awarded a $100 million matching grant from the Israeli government for the next three years. The commitment will allow the organization to grow from 30,000 applications to 50,000 in 2011. Since 2000, the program has provided free trips to Israel for
more than 260,000 young Jews from 52 countries.

Wish at the Wall, a 10-day tour that has taken 150 teenaged cancer survivors to Israel since 2000, is offering its first trip for disabled and chronically ill Jewish youths this month.

The participants are clients of CHAI Lifeline, an international children's health support organization that also takes young cancer patients to Disney World, and is funded by grants and private donations.

Thirteen 15- to 19-year-olds, with diagnoses including spina bifida, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy and cystic fibrosis, will leave from New York City on Wednesday (Jan. 26), each accompanied by a parent. Eleven of the adolescents use wheelchairs, but organizers say medical staff, ramps and other modifications will allow the group to experience all the usual tourist activities -- including swimming in the Dead Sea and climbing Masada, the remains of King Herod's hilltop fortress.

"We want to provide a group tour experience for teens whose medical conditions lock them out of peer travel," explained Melanie Kwestel, a spokeswoman for CHAI Lifeline.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who announced his government's gift to Birthright Israel earlier this month, said he supports such free trips because "a strong Jewish international identity is vital for our national rebirth."

In his Jan. 6 address to Birthright participants, he said, "What I want to do is to have young Jews from everywhere, who want to come to Israel, come to Israel because I think this can dramatically help us strengthen Jewish identity, and strengthening Jewish identity is critical for our common future."

Comments

[ninetailedfox]

07:02 PM on 01/26/2011

I remember I had a book called ten things I learned wrong from a conservative church. Pat Robertson and Jerry Fallwell did tours to Isreal. I guess you can say that is proof (maybe not 100%) that christians own Isreal.

[pynecastle]

03:22 PM on 01/26/2011

So which is it. A country totally safe to send your kids to on vacation or a country under constant attack living in fear?

[squat6971]

11:00 AM on 01/25/2011

I've heard quite a few nasty stories from people who've gone -- about getting hit on by Israeli hotties, and then getting a big push to emigrate. If you go, beware.

[Vlady]

01:32 PM on 01/25/2011

>>...getting hit on by Israeli hotties, and then getting a big push

So did you like the push?

[JerryLevy]

01:45 PM on 01/25/2011

"Quite a few," huh? Sounds like you are well connected to this program.

[MarcEdward]

09:28 AM on 01/25/2011

Seems like a nice thing to do.
How can anybody find anything "wrong" with giving a trip to disabled people?

[GraphicMatt]

10:59 AM on 01/25/2011

Trust me, seems a couple have already found a way.

[black series]

06:56 AM on 01/25/2011

That's what they're doing to expand the population of Israel. So-called trips where some tourist will stay behind and live their forever. Then the President will say, how can we move at some legal place there're so many of us established here. Even if we're wrong we can't go because we like to steal other people's land.

[Andrew Reiser]

07:55 AM on 01/25/2011

Um...have you been on the trip? I have. Not everything is about Zionism.

[GraphicMatt]

10:29 AM on 01/25/2011

Wow, hateful much?

[pinkibus]

12:37 AM on 01/25/2011

Gotta indocrinate them while they are young and impressionable. The tours are run by Jews for Jews and the purpose is to get them firmly entrenched in the idea that the only history in the Holy Land is the history of the Jews and they have a historical right to the land as well as a god given right.

[planetjeffy]

04:06 AM on 01/25/2011

you sound like a fun person

[pinkibus]

05:36 AM on 01/25/2011

planetjeffy - flattery will get you anywhere.

[Andrew Reiser]

07:56 AM on 01/25/2011

I was on the trip. We did things like hiking, socializing, touring and eating. Sorry to disappoint. No indoctrination.

[GraphicMatt]

10:32 AM on 01/25/2011

My niece and two cousins are doing the trip. I've heard wonderful things about it.

[pinkibus]

01:53 AM on 01/27/2011

The hiking - did you go to the towns built over Palestinian villages. Probably but I guess they didn't tell you - this wasa Palestinian village and we razed it and drove the occupants away and rebuilt and renamed it and now Jews live there? the touring - did you see the wall and the Jews harrassing Palestinians like say at check points or while they are trying to work? Probaby not. But then you have to ask hwat did you see and why were you there? So what you saw was a lively place with people enjoying life in a land that was called Palestine til It was taken from the Palestinians by terrorist tactics. If only they had told you about the illegal arrests of Palestinians who number in the thousands in jails waiting for the day when they will be charged with something and tried in an open court. You might have gone to see their famous "secret" jail. And I am sure you were never told about torture either.

[Talossa]

12:33 AM on 01/25/2011

My wife and I ran into several "Birthright" kids at Masada during our trip to Israel a few years ago. It was wonderful to see them experiencing their own history like that. They were excited and fascinated by it all. I wish my parents had been active enough in the Swedish-American community to send me on a trip to Sweden, the land of my ancestors, when I was that age!

[cbzd]

03:45 PM on 01/25/2011

I am hoping that my two kids will make it this summer with another friend. What a treat to see where 'it' all began.