Birthright May Double its Numbers, Plus Encourage Hi-Tech Aliyah

By: Lori Lowenthal Marcus, JP

There’s a new plan to greatly increase Birthright availability Question: What’s Blue and White even though it’s on fire?  Answer:  The participants of most Birthright programs.

Approximately 350,000 Jews from across the globe have gone on the 10-day all expenses paid Birthright trip to Israel since the program started in 2000. For some reason, the people who crafted the Birthright-Taglit program 13 years ago pretty much got it right.  Research shows that young Jews who go on Birthright trips are:

    46 percent more likely to feel very much connected to Israel than their counterparts who applied but did not go, and the Taglit effect was greatest among participants from relatively weaker Jewish backgrounds.

    28 percent more likely to report feeling very confident in their ability to explain Israel’s current situation than their counterparts who did not go.

    51 percent more likely to marry a Jewish person.

    28 percent more likely to rate marrying a Jew as somewhat or very important The program is so popular that each year the program receives approximately 35,000 applications for about 20,500 spots.

But over this past year, according to a report in Haaretz, Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office, the Jewish Agency, and Jewish leaders, have developed a plan to further strengthen ties between Israel and Diaspora Jewish communities.

Jewish Agency Director-General Alan Hoffmann said the plan to increase those ties is based on four key components:

    -Expanding Israeli presence on university campuses abroad;
    -increasing the number of Israeli educators in Jewish institutions abroad; —increasing the number of young immigrants in professions deemed required for the Israeli economy; and
    -increasing participation of young Jewish adults in Israel experience programs.

While the new plan won’t be officially announced until October at a conference in Jerusalem, Hoffman divulged that one of the goals is to eliminate the long waiting list for Birthright trips. For the 2013 Birthright program, 11,862 applicants were unable to participate because of budgetary restrictions. For the 2012 program, more than 17,000 were turned away.

According to Hoffmann, the new plan also includes providing special incentives for young high-tech professionals to immigrate to Israel. “Looking at the Israeli economy over next 10-15 years, one of the inhibiting factors is that in some of the most successful areas, including high-tech, we are not generating enough trained people to meet the expanding needs of the economy,” Hoffmann told Haaretz. The new initiative is expected to begin as a pilot program sometime in early 2014, and become fully operational in 2015. The cost is estimated at $300 million, which will be financed much like the present Birthright program: Israel covers one-third of the expenses and donors cover the rest. PRINT TELL A FRIEND

Lori Lowenthal Marcus is the US correspondent for The Jewish Press. She is a recovered lawyer who previously practiced First Amendment law and taught in Philadelphia-area graduate and law schools

August 6, 2013 | 4 Comments »

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  2. Get rid of Israel’s bloated and corrupt political system and socialist bureaucratic hands-in-everything government and you won’t need to waste money on Birthright – nor on the Jewish Agency, nor on an Absorption Agency, nor on a Tourism ministry. Jews would jump at the chance to visit and move here, if we would only eliminate the hurdles to daily life and living in this country. In the meantime, Israel has to resort to sound and light shows to get people to come here and make major sacrifices to just wind up getting by in life. I am very proud of my fellow Jews who make these sacrifices but their difficulties would otherwise have been totally avoidable.

  3. If Israel would behave like it was Jewish and tear down its bloated socialist government and financial bureaucracy, there would be no need for Birthright programs, nor for a Tourism Ministry, nor for an Absorption Ministry. Inshallah!

  4. This might blow your mind (it did mine!)
    From chamish:

    On June 5.05, the Knesset committee responsible for compensating Holocaust victims, headed by Reuven Rivlin, was disbanded. A week before, Haaretz estimated the number of Israelis who suffered under Nazi Occupation to be a surprisingly high 435,000. Their government would no longer seek justice for their losses. Incredibly, Rivlin explained the reason for breaking up the committee was because it was complicating negotiations with the Palestinians.
    So where is the Jewish money stolen by the Nazis? On April 18/05, the National Post of Canada provided a most disturbing explanation. It appeared in a review of the British Channel Four program called The Final Insult, by George Jonas. The contention made is that in 1998-99, Charles Bronfman, on behalf of his World Jewish Congress won $6.25 billion from Swiss banks in a series of legal actions. However:
    Disbursements are made to agencies and institutions of the organizers’ choice, while some survivors receive little or nothing. . .
    Scholars like Dr. Brian King of Oxford have raised similar questions. “On the face of it, a small number of scholars are deciding, on behalf of all Jewry, who gets what. Where is the accountability?”
    The answer is, there is none. The Frankist Bronfman can pick the pockets of the millions dead and the Israeli government will make sure no one asks for their fair share.
    [.. ]
    Begin with Edgar Bronfman, who finagled billions of dollars from Swiss banks on behalf of Holocaust victims and kept every penny for himself. To obfuscate the larceny, he gives a little back to a program called Birthright, which brings Jews to Israel to be brainwashed for “peace.”