Two Recent Articles Ask: "Birthright or Birthwrong?"

I don't understand the criticism nor the proposed solutions.

Follow-up surveys have found that Birthright alumni are demonstrably
more likely to feel connected to Israel, and Judaism than unaffiliated
young adults who haven’t gone on a birthright trip.

That's a major success.

But Birthright
hasn’t been around that long, and the jury’s still out on the serious
long term effects of a birthright tour of Israel.

Great. Let's worry about those effects where the jury is in. In terms of that, we are looking at a definitive net plus, right? 

Second, Birthright needs to sharpen its goal. It needs to ask
participants directly what they need to feel that Judaism and Israel
are relevant, and it needs to provide that.

Why? This is Birthright, not some narrow-minded Big Kiruv organization that defines success when a woman wears a skirt down to her toes and when a man wears a black hat in July. Goals should remain broad. They are doing the right thing. If anything, they should broaden further to allow for different types of people to find the right trip for them, with like-minded people. Frat boys and liberal arts types don't want to see the same things the same way. 

Yes, correct, David Kelsey! And, there ARE about a HUNDRED DIFFERENT trips, for various kinds of like-minded people. on www.birthrightisrael.org. 

The time would be better spent in studying Jewish history in E. Europe in order to get a sense of the wrongess of the direction that Zionism represents.

Why Study Yiddish Culture? 

Shattering a National Mythology 

The Origins of Modern Jewry

Les origines des juifs actuels

Followup: Origins of Modern Jewry

Followup (II): Origins of Modern Jewry

Birthright is an outreach program; it is not intended to bring every Jew to Israel. Those kids whose families understand the value and importance of a long-term trip are the targets of the high school programs, which were never designed to bring the kinds of numbers Birthright brings. That's the point- Birthright is bringing the far larger group of unaffiliated and less committed Jews who may have never considered going to Israel for 6 weeks or longer, regardless of cost. The high school programs should find more ways to subsidize their trips just as Birthright has so that committed  Jews can go on a trip to Israel more appropriate to their educational and/or religious levels.

"cure assimilation"

Thank god, assimilation is the future, not some disease. 

Tamar, I really wish you the best.  Regarding this particular feature, sure I can easily pick at your points but you have written nothing that is grossly wrong and I applaud the fact you are trying to be fair minded.

Regarding your problem with "creationism"--I feel you have been shamed by the academic-elite types who want you to be embarrassed to believe in a Creator. I hope you might take some time to research the alleged power of natural selection which is so unproven and wildly inconsistent with what we know about science. I would not promote the idea of God as Creator in the science classroom, rather, the facts of science which point to design.  The point that nature seems so highly intelligent and non-random might ring some bells in your logical faculties--if not now, I hope later as you discover and follow the evidence.  Open-mindedness means not only acknowledging where the materialists have it right but also understanding where they are wrong and what they can't explain.  This would not be called "gaps"--rather, it is called inability to explain.  I trust if you search with real open-mindedness, the logic of a Creator will quickly make sense and not seem a point of shame or "ickey" or however your described it..  It was the Jews who quickly celebrated when science found a starting point in history, a beginning of time and space, material matter and evolution--this is exactly what we have insisted with Hashem's words which begin Bereshit.  

Now, regarding the intrusion by Joachim Martillo, I have read through the material, such as it is, and it hardly overturns all of Jewish history and fails to even suggest an alternative theory concerning the origin of the Jewish nation.  Deconstructing all of known Jewish history is an awesome task and your links do not even begin to try to unravel the problem.  Given the fact that the Jews have been such a significant part of world history and this history is known and documented, a kind of after the facts theory of the origin of Jews is not very rational and fails to address what is recorded in history by Josephus, Philo and a whole host of Roman historians.  I sense you feel there was no 2nd Temple and no first Temple but when was our Torah created?--it is not clear from the links you provided.

This has some entertainment value, I suppose. 

Surely the substantive criticism of birthright is not that is unfairly competes with rival Israel programmes, but rather, like these others, it is designed to reinforce Zionist ideology, and expose its participants to Palestinian life and culture, therein only showing half the story.

Perhaps the ideal would be a compulsory tour with birthright unplugged immediately after birthright!

Obviously, Friedman did not read what I wrote.

I made the same point that Tel Aviv University Professor Shlomo Sand recently expressed in "Matai ve'ech humtza ha'am hayehudi?."

Judaism emigrated from Palestine but the Judeans, Galileans and other peoples never left.

Ethnic Ashkenazi and German Jewish Zionists living in pre-1967 Israel and the Occupied Territories are simply murderous genocidal racist invaders and interlopers that stole the country from the native population in an orgy of murder, ethnic cleansing and genocide.

All decent Jews, all decent Americans and all decent human beings should hate and despise Zionists as I explain in The Israel Lobby and American Society.

In point of fact except for the 400-500 hyperwealthy Zionists that bankroll Israel Advocacy and Jewish communal organizations, the vast majority of Jews get nothing out of Zionism except increasing hatred from the rest of the human race.

Irving and Bill Kristol like to talk about the political stupidity of Jews.

Jewish support for Zionism is the proof.

If you wish to read some of Irving Kristol's misguided rantings, his original article can be found at the end of Jewish, Christian, and Palestinian Holidays.

Joachim Martillo
sapere aude

Well said.  All of this talk about the effectiveness of Birthright can only be subjective, based on what each person feels that the outcome should be.  The reality is that the outcome varies from person to person-- Birthright has produced Israel-haters, Israeli immigrants and volunteer soldiers, campus Israel activists-- and  unchanged participants.  For those that form some sort of connection with Israel or their Jewish identity, this program is surely a success (no one said that a generation of Jews making aliyah was the desired intention)-- and the others?  They had a nice vacation. Probably got laid, too.

Cori C

http://cori-c.blogspot.com

coriac@gmail.com

As a representative from BBYO, one of the organization's labeled a "Birthright hater" in the article, I would like to clearly state that that title is completely unresearched and unwarranted. In fact, BBYO's Executive Director Matthew Grossman recently published an article titled, "The Benefits of Birthright Competition," which supports the notion that it is essential for organizations running teen Israel trips, as well as the entire Jewish community, that Birthright's expansion be accelerated and without bounds.

According to his article, "the competition that Birthright has brought to the table forces organizations trying to reach teen audiences to be more aggressive in our marketing and more creative in our programming. For BBYO, this has meant a major expansion in our summer travel menu--with Israel offerings that include European add-ons, options for younger teens and families and special tracks for teens interested in community service and leadership. In fact, while Birthright registration is at its highest, registration for our Passport to Israel program is currently 28 percent ahead of where it was at this point last year and our March of the Living program experienced a 50 percent increase in registration. In my opinion, Birthright has increased the curiosity about Israel travel and has forced BBYO to be more strategic about its own programs."

Teen travel providers should view their competition with Birthright as necessary and know that there are plenty of Jewish young people out there who can gain connections from all types of experiences.

OK, Joachim, instead of thanking me for actually reading through all your stuff, you want to complain that I have not read the rantings.

Your first group was interesting and totally bad, your personal story of your turn around when you witnessed an Israeli border guard humiliating a poor Arab--a literal lifting of the Moses story one might take as a compliment since you rely on Jewish sources to elevate your Arab friends.

Your latest batch is all warm-over antisemitism, void of fact or reason. 

I suppose what distinguishes you is your overwhelming confidence in your Jew hatred that brings you to scream that Jews are perpetrating "genocide" against Arabs so that all decent human beings should despise the concept of a Jewish state in the land of Israel. Your conclusion that Jews get nothing out of Zionism except for the hatred of the rtest of human race ignores the fact that the human race (please, you mean to say some people) hate Jews well before the re-creation of the modern state of Israel.  In fact this hatred exists all the way back to well before Roman times. 

The story of Israel is not the story of an orgy of rape, ethnic cleansing and genocide.  If this was so Israel would be free of Arabs in the same way the Arab states are free of Jews.  This kind of insanity deserves no response. 

I am here to respect all people--and if you want to come to a Jewish blog--even one drenched in a clear amount of self-hatred--it is a good idea to have something other than over the top hatred accuses Israel of such crimes when there is no such reason for the accusation.

In my first comment, I listed 6 articles, none of which talked about an Israeli border guard:

1) An article on the importance of studying Yiddish civilization,

2) A Haaretz article discussing TAU Professor Shlomo Sand's book on Jewish origins,

3) The Martillo Hypothesis on the origin of Rabbinic and Karaite Judaism,

4) The same Haaretz article in case Haaretz decides to expunge the original.

5) A discussion of the second Haaretz article on Sand's book.

In my second comment, I list two URLs:

1) One is a draft of a book that explains the Israel Lobby as the public face of the Zionist Virtual Colonial Motherland, which is the culmination of an effort by Russian Jewish intelligentsia to create a low-budget Jewish empire that has no need for a separate physical imperial center because it piggybacks on the resources of states that have large Jewish populations.

2) An article that criticizes American Jews for kvetshing about Christmas.

This latter article contains the entire Irving Kristol article "On the Political Stupidity of Jews."

It also points out that Palestinians preserved a number of holidays associated with 2nd Temple Judaism because Palestinians are descendants of the Greco-Roman Judean population of Palestine.

Ethnic Ashkenazim, who are descendants of much more recent convert populations, only preserve only those aspects of culture or religion of Greco-Roman Judea that are contained in the Bible or Talmud.

In order to distract from his lying about having read my article, Friedman uses the tried-and-true pogrom-and-persecution version of Jewish history in order to manipulate forum participants into shutting off their brains:

"Your conclusion that Jews get nothing out of Zionism except for the hatred of the rtest of human race ignores the fact that the human race (please, you mean to say some people) hate Jews well before the re-creation of the modern state of Israel.  In fact this hatred exists all the way back to well before Roman times."

I spent a long time studying the Holocaust and Eastern European Jewish history at Harvard and then in the field. Hatred toward Jews was mostly a response to the fear that Jewish radicalism created, and there is a very direct causal relationship between the participation of an immense number of Jews in ethnic cleansing, mass murder, and genocide to create and to consolidate the Soviet Union and the mass murders that were perpetrated against European Jews in the 1940s.

In addition Jewish involvement in terrorism and radicalism in the Czarist Empire as well as heavy Jewish involvement in the three defining assassinations of modern Russia (Alexander II, Stolypin, Nicholas II+family) and attempted Communist coups in Bavaria and Russia tended to create completely understandable fear and animosity toward Jews not much different from the sort of Judeophobia that the State of Israel inspires throughout the world.

In terms of Jewish misbehavior since the 1850s, Birthright Israel is fairly minor, but it is a tremendous insult to the native population of Palestine, with whom practically all Muslims and a tremendous number of non-Muslims sympathize.

Obviously the minority of decent Jews, who hate and despise Zionism like any decent human being, has an obligation to attempt to chastise the majority of Jews that are misbehaving, i.e., hokhiah tokhiah -- it's a mitzvah.

David Kelsey:  The fact that Birthright alumni are more likely to feel connected than are unaffiliated Jews who have not gone on a Birthright trip is _not_ a major success.  Birthright participants are self-selecting, so, even before they go, they're more likely to feel connected than unaffiliated folks who haven't gone.  (Also, if the comparison is as described in the PresentTense article -- of Birthright participants with those who applied but were rejected -- the comparison may be more disturbing.  What do you have to do to be rejected by Birthright?)  Further, as Tamar's article pointed out, Birthright seems to be drawing some folks who would otherwise have gone on a longer trip under the auspices of USY, NFTY, BBYO, or othere group, and _those_ folks are particularly likely to feel connected, even without the Birthright trip. 

Anonymous 6/2 4:30pm:  No, part of Tamar's point is that Birthright is not only serving the unaffiliated and less committed; it's also taking kids away from more substantial Israel (and Jewish) experiences.  To say, "The high school programs should find more ways to subsidize their trips just as Birthright has" ignores reality -- Birthright is the creation of a very few folks with very deep pockets, and they did this on their own, without having to consider the unintended side-effects on existing programs that are worthwhile. 

David Friedman:  What's the relevance here of this paean to creationism?  (And the statement that "I would not promote the idea of God as Creator in the science classroom" is contradicted by the continuation that you _would_ promote "the facts of science which point to design.")

ThorsProvoni:  What is this shtuyot?

Again, pal, if you insist on accusations so far removed from sanity, no one will ever give you a hearing.  I am not here to aid and comfort the ignorant antisemite--I merely wish to make you conform to some kind of basic civility.  To accuse Jews of genocide and organized mayhem is so far removed from sanity--no one will ever listen to your nonsense.

I suggest again, if you would like to try, in the spirit and style of Jewish self-haters--to attack Israelis one one issue or another instead of generalized, organized genocide and ethnic cleansing it might help. 

If you fail to see that it insulting for outsiders to re-write someone else's history--in the most grotesque terms--you have very little imagination.  I do not regret that you are not worth any more of my time but I invite you to post as many wild accusations as you wish on the Jewcy blog since they are very sympathetic to diatribes with no factual basis..

Oh, and please remind Daniel that you will be voting for Obama since he has the voting block of Jew haters all locked up. 

German Nazis used to argue that only Germans could truly understand German history and write it properly.

As an unrepentant Jewish Nazi supporting Zionist brutality, barbarism, ethnic cleansing and genocide, Friedman takes exactly the same position with regard to Jewish history.

In any case I am not saying anything very different from Yuri Slezkine in The Jewish Century or Benjamin Harshav in Language in Time of Revolution.

In The Israel Lobby and American Society I address whether it anti-Semitic to start writing honest and factual histories of Eastern European ethnic Ashkenazim in the section entitled The Context of Jewish Violence and Subversion.

tarfon, I know plenty of people who were not from the affiliated Jewish community who went on B.I.; they are hitting them too. I do not begrudge those who are affiliated for going on these trips as well. If you have a suggestion as to how B.I. can better target the unaffiliated Jewish community, might I suggest that you drop them a line, because if it is good, they will be all ears. 

Joseph wrote,

Perhaps the ideal would be a compulsory tour with birthright unplugged immediately after birthright!

 Joseph, nothing of the sort should be "compulsory," least of all programming by the likes of the "comrades" at Unplugged.  I explained why here and here. No Jewish communal support or recognition of any kind should be given to those useful idiots.

There is, however, an Encounters program for those who CHOOSE to take a more specifically left-wing approach, as is their CHOICE.

Tamar,

I think you are a little off base here. I think Birthright is doing a great job opening up young Jews' hearts and minds to Israel to varying degrees. I know when I went on the trip we definitely had those kinds of discussions, ie Do you consider yourself an American, Israeli or Jew? If more than one, what order? Those focus groups taught so many people on the trip about how they view their identities. Additionally, the trip encourages attendees to find a way back to Israel through other programs that may be longer or more focused.

I understand that Yossi Katz is miffed because it is cutting into his bottom line, but that doesn't mean that Birthright is doing something wrong. Perhaps the idea of using the 10 day and free airfare to apply to other groups is viable, but I don't think that BR should be held accountable for actually doing something wrong in this case.

In the interests of full disclosure, I'm one of the researchers studying Birthright Israel.

Tarfon writes that:

"The fact that Birthright alumni are more likely to feel
connected than are unaffiliated Jews who have not gone on a Birthright
trip is _not_ a major success. Birthright participants are
self-selecting, so, even before they go, they're more likely to feel
connected than unaffiliated folks who haven't gone."

This is incorrect. The analyses compare Birthright Israel applicants who participated with applicants who ended up not going on Birthright Israel. Whatever self-selection there is into applying to Birthright Israel, it does not affect the research findings because we only look at the self-selected individuals who have applied. One might argue that additional self-selection takes place vis a vis those applicants who end up going and those who do not, causing the finding. The differences between these groups are, however, minimal. Applicants who participate in Birthright Israel look extremely similar to those who do not, and this cannot account for the dramatic differences in sense of connection to Israel between participants and nonparticipants.

As a side-bar, I should add that it is impossible to describe exactly how people who apply to Birthright Israel differ from those who do not, as we do not have a good source of data about young American Jews as a whole.

Benjamin Phillips