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Saker is among 6,000 young, mostly unaffiliated
vs taking their first trips to Israel under a new pro-
am, Birthright Israel, that hopes to fan to life the
l loldering coals of their religious and cultural identity.
Between her Jewish mother and Catholic father,
ker was raised with very little Jewish identity. "I
ink we only did Shabbos in my entire lifetime
out six times."
Like most young people, she is searching, experi-
enting with religious and philosophical ideas. For
r and the other 18- to 26-year-olds who early this
onth took advantage of a free, 10-day trip to Israel,
trt of that search involves defining their Jewishness
id how — or whether — to express it at all.
American Jewish philanthropists Charles
,onfman and Michael Steinhardt spearheaded
irthright Israel, which has, as its ultimate goal, a
l ee trip to Israel for every young Jew as a rite of
ssage, much like a brit milah (circumcision) or bar
ld bat mitzvah.
But that is the long-term vision. So far, there are
3 immediate plans to bring high school-age youth
Israel in the Birthright program. That may hap-
en by 2001 or 2002.
The big question is funding for the program,
hich was envisioned as a partnership among phil-
thropists, Israel and local Jewish federations. Israel
► s committed $70 million over the next five years,
t allocated only $8 million in its budget this year.
wish philanthropists, led by Steinhardt and

veryone boarding EI Al g t 14 was
handed a sponge — a replica of the
enormous two-story aircraft we were
about to call "home" for the next 10
hours. I remember thinking how odd. it was that
they would give us a stress toy before jetting
across the Atlantic Ocean.
Oh well, think positively. I was going to
Israel. I was going to be in the country that I
had learned about since my wee days at Temple
Israel, when I proudly carried that blue and
white flag I made during art.
Israel. I watched in high school with awe as
some of my classmates traveled to the far off
country to study abroad and came home with
new attitudes, some new personalities. This place;
a land where you don't have to explain in any city
what the six-pointed star you wore around your
neck represented. Arid now I was going on this
Birthright 2000 trip — with 40 other students
from Michigan State University --- and 6,000
other students from across the world..
During the flight, I had a lot of time to begin
mentally preparing for what could happen in
Israel. I would climb Masada, I would see
Jerusalem, I could pray at the wall — I would
be one step closer to God.

I would be one step closer to God.
This freaked me out as much as it excited and
mystified and me. What if I didn't feel this connec-
tion so many of my peers had felt? What if this new
country was indeed that — a foreign land with a
culture and a people I had no common feelings for?
BUGGING OUT on page 24

Bronfman, donated $210 million, but
so far many local federations have not
committed to the project.
Participants in the current trip —
mostly Americans, but also from the
former Soviet Union and other coun-
tries — say the program should keep
going.
Even young Jews who feel they have
no place within Judaism — who ran
away from it after what many say were
horribly ineffective Hebrew school experiences —
are engaging their minds. This, they say, could not
have been done anywhere else but in Israel, among
the shadows of their ancestors.
But touring ancient sites like the Western Wall
brought two kinds of tears to many students. Some
cried because it stirred dormant religious emotions;
others cried because they felt nothing as they
touched the Wall, and were disappointed in them-
selves for failing to experience a religious revelation.
"I was expecting to have this big profound experi-
ence, like I was going to get to the Wall and then
tears were going to come, and it didn't happen," said
Laura Senft, 23, of Lincoln, Neb. "I was really
upset. Actually, that made me cry, that I didn't feel
anything."
For others, though, seeing Jerusalem with their
own eyes reconfirmed for them their reason for
choosing to remain Jewish, when to float away
would have been easier.
Gedaliah Gurfein, a former writer for television's
"Saturday Night Live," attempted to inspire the
Birthright students by mixing references from the
Kabbala seamlessly with quotes from the British show
"Monty Python's Flying Circus."
He told one group that their visit to Israel should
cause "the little Jew inside of you to pop out."

The Culture Mantra

It's the "Jew inside" of all those who came in search
of their birthright that was the focus of a great deal
of attention.
Richard Joel, the president and international
director of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish
Campus Life, which is bringing about half the par-
ticipants to Israel, said the young adults are asked to
think and discuss how the sites they visit reflect their
own identity. It's part of an attempt to get away
from today's mantra of "I'm a cultural Jew."
"If you push the students who say they are culturally
Jewish, and ask them to tell you what it is, ask them to
tell you about their story, you don't hear a lot of culture,
you hear a lot of vagueness," Joel said.
Pride in Israel can translate into Jewish connec-
tion back home, said Michael Papo, executive vice
president of Birthright Israel North America.
Walking out of the children's exhibit at the Yad
Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, Papo
BIRTHRIGHT on page 24

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2000

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