BootsnAll Travel Community

this is a free trip to israel for anyone who is jewish (or wants to lie about it like a friend of mine did.)

the website is israelexpress.org

all you need is
1- a 250 dollar deposite that you get back after the trip
2- to be jewish
3- 18-26 years old
4- and not currently studying the religion in any sort of institution.
5- I had to get from chicago to new york (only 200 bucks)

the trip is 10 days and everything (food and housing (which is primo)) is alll freeee!!!! you gotta go!
i'm going to go on the 30th of june, I'M SOO EXCITED!!
dont let this oppertuninty pass you by!

Oh man, that's awesome. I would a feel a little bad lying about my heritage... but not nearly bad enough to miss a free trip to Israel. Thanks for the link, I'm going to keep this one in mind.

EDIT: http://www.birthrightisrael.com/ is a similar deal I just found browsing around.

there are a lot of places that do this...Oranim is the most popular...you also have to not have gone on a previous organized trip to israel

it's called the birthright trip and the founder feels that as Jews it is your "birth right" to go to israel so he set up a foundation and that's what you are speaking of.

It leaves from New York, Miami, and Los Angeles...sometimes from Chicago i think but not sure...check jewishadventures.com or israelfree.com

Also shorashim.org. I'm going on their trip on Monday, June 27. There are a bunch of groups offering these trips, they vary mostly by their religious affiliation, I believe. I mean, by how religious they are. For example, shorashim is not very religious, I believe. Or, if it is, I'll be in for a surprise.

well I have Jewish heritage...2 cousins and thier daughters are Jewish. But I would think you should research a little before you go. I don't know a whole lot about the Jewish faith or the prayers or anything and I would think if you go to a synogoge that would be a dead give away that your an imposter.
Intresting though, I'll have to look into it.

I went to Israel through the Birthright program. Yes, you can lie about it, but wouldn't you think there would be some bad karma associated with lying to go on a religiously-slanted program?

It was a pretty cool experience and I'm encouraging my siblings to go...I would love to do it again!

This is a joke, right? I have some friends who sent their kids on this, and they loved it. One key element: THEY ARE JEWISH!

Jesus, people, snap out of it! Lying to travel--LYING TO TRAVEL!!--especially in a religous program like this is utter, unredeemed vermin behavior! Amandaj, Prisa, Dylan: what in the BLOODY HELL are you thinking?

Bad karma? How about the compost pile that would comprise your conscience? Disgraceful beyond words.....

I should also add that Birthright Israel DOES send people with Jewish heritage in special instances, esp if it's through the mother's side. In my case, my grandfather's parents (who were from Germany) lied about their religion, and we only learned of it about 15 years ago (long story). Anyway, I was raised Catholic and made no qualms about that on my application with Birthright Israel, but stressed why it was so important for me to go to a country my family had, for whatever reason, tried to distance themselves from, long after escaping Germany.

Israel is an incredible country and I encourage everyone - no matter what religion - to see it.

quote:

I don't know a whole lot about the Jewish faith or the prayers or anything and I would think if you go to a synogoge that would be a dead give away that your an imposter.

I'd disagree with this. I am 100% Jewish, born in Israel, lived there til I was 7, then moved to the US. And if you put me in a synagogue, I wouldn't know a thing, recognize a single prayer, know where to look... I'd have to constantly look over someone's shoulder to find what page in the book we're readin from.

Which is not to say - re: salmo99's comments - that I'm suggesting you go ahead and lie, saying you're just totally secular... I'm not sure you'd go to Hell for it... but then, I'm not sure Judaism believes in Hell. So, maybe you're in the clear.

Hey all. In case any of you are interested, I put up the photos from my Birthright trip:

http://www.danbrauer.us/2005/07/lazy-gallery-of-israel-is-up.html

That's a link to the blog post that links to the gallery, my not so subtle hint that I die for comments.

It's funny reading my previous comment. I actually did end up in a syngagogue and did have to look at someone else's book to figure out what page we were on. Not that it helped, cos I couldn't really follow or read along. So I just closed it and listened, and then there was the dancing and the clapping and the hooting and jumping. That was fun.

Also, re: Court's comments above, there were people on the trip who only had one Jewish parent, not necessarily the mother. People who hadn't really considered themselves Jewish, and I think one who had been raised mostly Catholic. So they're pretty open, yeah, about who they'll let take the trip.

Lastly, the trip provider I took, shorashim.org seems to be the only one that includes regular Israelis on the bus for the entire trip. They're not hired, they just sign up like you would. It's cool cos they act as secondary guides, filling in things the real guide does not mention, or things you are curious about.

So if you can take one of these trips, definitely do. It's a fast packed 10 days, but a lot of fun.

I'll just throw in a plug for anyone who can do this: Israel ROCKS. We found incredibly AFFORDABLE (yep, backpacker-budget affordable), really decent hotels RIGHT ON the beach in Tel Aviv--as in, sand in the front lobby/right on the beach. Plenty of cool stuff to do there too. The "old city" of Jersualem is a people watching experince like none other. Had some awesome fresh fish at a cool little place along the Sea of Galilee. Some of the lush areas along the Jordan River are beutiful. If you're on the fence on this one and can do it (I'd agree with the earlier posts re: not lying to "be" Jewish), I'd say go for it!!

is the purpose of the trips generally to reacquaint people with their faith? do they tend to be for people who are not really actively observing the religion, in hopes that they will? is it about introducing people to the country of israel as it is today? or about helping people take pride in their culture? what tends to be the "mission statement" of these organizations?



(btw, dont make me get out my street cred. here: i've got it.)
zopa

Zopa - the purpose of the "birthright" tours is all of the ideas you mentioned and more... and what dahno1 said is also right - much depends on which organizer you use (Oranim, Shorashim, etc. etc. etc. - there are many companies from which to choose).

The statistics are not encouraging - something like 70+% of American Jews, for instance, have NEVER even visited Israel... so you can imagine that the children of these families probably don't feel any attachment to the Jewish homeland, even if they pray about it every day!

Much like many Christians who want to visit the "Holy Land" and then when they come here, they find it's not a "theme park" (except for Mini Israel, of course) but a real place that doesn't have that "Biblical" look like the photo in the backs of their Bibles! In fact, I've heard that there's a new organization planning to provide tours for Christians similar to "birthright" in order to introduce the real Israel to Christian pilgrims who heretofore have not visited.

Meanwhile - as with travel to any place, you get out of it what you 1) put into it and 2) expect within yourself! So, anyone who has NOT yet visited Israel, I hope you will come... with birthright or on a Christian pilgrimage or just for a fresh view of a very ancient and very modern place!

suzanne

thank you for the answer, suz!
i got as far as cyprus once and my boyfriend's parents would not "let me" go on from there...
one day.

peace,
zopa

quote:

Originally posted by salmo99:
This is a joke, right? I have some friends who sent their kids on this, and they loved it. One key element: THEY ARE JEWISH!

Jesus, people, snap out of it! Lying to travel--LYING TO TRAVEL!!--especially in a religous program like this is utter, unredeemed vermin behavior! Amandaj, Prisa, Dylan: what in the BLOODY HELL are you thinking?

Bad karma? How about the compost pile that would comprise your conscience? Disgraceful beyond words.....

Calm down, it's okay, I have Jewish on my mother's side (which is the side it's passed down through anyway)...sure I'm not practicing...but most Jews wouldn't consider themselves practicing anyway. Not to mention, my Jewish friend Laura's father (who is a serious no holds barred Jew) told me he thought I ought to go, as did her entire Jewish family. But thank you for the Mr. Morality policeman. I appriciate it.

quote:

is the purpose of the trips generally to reacquaint people with their faith? do they tend to be for people who are not really actively observing the religion, in hopes that they will? is it about introducing people to the country of israel as it is today? or about helping people take pride in their culture? what tends to be the "mission statement" of these organizations?

I am of course going to answer this question without actually looking at any birthright site, which I'm sure has their mission statement.

The point of the trips, as far as I could gather, was primarily to introduce people to Israel as it is today, and to try and foster an understanding of why it's important, that it exists, for Jewish folk. Just that understanding, I think, is something many may lack, and is really important. After that, the trips have a lot of other objectives, I'm sure - but it's that general introduction to and understanding of Israel that I think is aimed for.

There's something like 15 trip providers - some are for very relgious folk, some cater to Russian-speakers, some cater to hikers/bikers/trekker-types, some are pretty explicitly secular. But even if the people are very religious, it doesn't mean they know anything about Israel, or have ever been there. So your religiosity is secondary to the Birthright mission, though not necessarily secondary to your individual trip.

My trip/trip provider, like I think I said above somewhere, very secular, with a lot of hiking and talk of history. There were discussions of religion but more from a historical and intellectual perspective. For example, on Saturday morning the tour guide went over that week's Torah portion, explained what they would say about it in synagogue, then related its idea to philosophy, to something Plato wrote in his Republic. Another day we were on a hill where King David did his thing with Goliath (how they know this I don't remember, but they explained it and I nodded and thought "gee that's cool"), and so the guide read that part from the bible, describing how descriptions in the story related to the geography around us, and then filling in a bit about the history of the time.

So it's stuff like that.

I'm was born in Israel so I didn't need much reconnection with the land and the history... but I gathered, from the other people on the trip, that the trip really 'explained' Israel for them, or helped them get why they should care about, and believe in the need for, its existence, be they blindly supportive or harshly critical.

Ok that's a long enough answer, me thinks.

--d

I have a friend who went on a birthright trip last summer. She said it was one of the best times of her life, and Israel was amazing. However, I can't say it sounded like the most religious trip for the group she was with, from what she told me it was like one big orgy.

So I can't say that lying about being Jewish is too much worse than having an orgy on a religious trip ;-)

Just to clarify, from what I was told when I went on Birthright, you need to have at least one fully Jewish parent to go on the trip.

I dont know if everyone follows this, though I hope they would.

typo- I meant one fully Jewish grandparent

ok ok ok...First of all I will be hopefully going on birthright this coming winter. Let me just clarify a few things. For the most part, there are exceptions this trip is not religious. The purpose is to bring people to Israel to show them the beautiful country. The trip is free because the organizers and taglit birthright has a tremendous amounts of grants for these trips. They take you to the highlights of the country like masada, the dead sea, the boeduin camps, etc...Of course you can go on denominational trips but i wouldn't recommend them cause the trip is only 10 days. Most of my friends have gone on this trip, and it has been the best time of their lives. It is an incredible experience for people who are jewish practicing or not. I think if you go you may feel reconnected because previuosly you may have felt no connection to israel and the reliigion. Some people stay and go to a kibutz others come back and spread the good word about birthright. Little tidbit last year was supposed to be the last trips ever, but luckily they got refunded.

Also if anyone is worried about safety don't. Their is an armed guard on your private coach bus at all times. They take you nowhere where there is danger. The organizations get info from the government and intelligence agencies. For example problems on the Gaza strip you may not be within 150 miles of it. In Jerusalem they wont let you go down benyehuda as it is not safe.

Lastly, don't lie about being Jewish. That is really awful and taking advantage of a tremendous experience for those who are jewish. Remember we only encompass 2% of the world, let us enjoy what we have.