This Week

The Birthright trip has students much more
engaged with the community.

Back On

Campus

RABBI PHILIP COHEN

Special to the Jewish News

C

an riding a bus endlessly for
10 days while sleep deprived,
fighting a virus, recovering
from jet lag and acclimating
to a new climate and cuisine be the
salvation of the Jewish people?
It can if the bus is Israeli, the cui-
sine includes massive quantities of
humus and tomatoes at every meal,
including breakfast, and the climate in
question is the climate of Israel.
Or so goes the theory behind Israel
2000, Hillel's partnership with the
Birthright Israel program.
The theory continues: Send preyi-
ously unheard of numbers of students
to Israel for free, take them. to (among
other places) Masada and the Western
Wall. Have them meet some of their

Rabbi Phillip Cohen is executive direc-
tor of the Hillel Center at Michigan
State University.

Israeli peers. Let them loose on Ben
Yehuda Street in Jerusalem. Have
them usher in the new millennium at
the Dead Sea region. Bring them
home exhausted and bleary eyed but
enchanted and they will be changed
men and women.
And as changed men and women,
they will transform Jewish life in
America.
I can't speak for any of the other
74 buses that roamed Israel from the
Dead Sea to the Golan Heights in
the first few weeks of January. But, I
can speak authoritatively about Bus
14, containing students from
Michigan State. University, the only
Michigan bus on the-first incarna-
tion of Israel 2000.
Our participants were freshmen
through graduate students: They came
from all over Michigan, with several
from out of state. We had supply
chain-management majors, medical
students, communications majors.

Without fail this person comes back
These were students who were raised
wired. After three or four days, their
Conservative and Reform, many of
Jewishness proudly hangs on them like
whom had become estranged from
a Star of David.
their Jewishness somewhere between.
It is impossible to fix the moment
bar and bat mitzvah and now
where it happens. You can't say it's
But regardless of background, it
Masada or the Underground in
was clear that the bus we rode for 10
Jerusalem (if you don't know what
days carried different people at the
the Underground is;
end of its journey than at the
National
Jewish
you're
not a college stu-
beginning, though these peo-
tr
ee
planters:
Fund
dent).
But without
ple occupied the same bodies.
Harvey Dalin, Jodi
exception each of our
You could see the difference
Levine, Abby
students found their
in their eyes; you could hear
Lieberm an, Geoff
piece of Israel.
it in their speech.
Wolner, Emily Reetz,
And you can see the
I've staffed two student
Josh Go ldblatt and
lingering effects of this
trips to Israel. I can say with-
Dana R iback.
romance upon their
out equivocation that a jour-
return to the States and
ney to Israel is always extraor-
their
return
to
campus.
dinary. Something happens to Jewish
Shabbat dinner is our most
students in Israel that doesn't happen
important continuing program at
in France or Argentina.
Michigan State University Hillel. It's
You board the plane with someone
a meeting point for students at the
whose only knowledge about Israel is
end of a hectic week to catch up
the fact that it is a country and that
with friends and relax.
most of its occupants are Jewish.

Tracking The Effect

HOWARD LOVY

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jerusalem
he Jewish world is going to
keep a very close watch on
6,000 young adults.
A lot of money, hope and skepti-
cism have been channeled toward
them and their first-ever trips to
Israel, which took place in
December and January.
Critics and supporters of Birthright
Israel will watch what participants do
next and try to gauge whether the
ambitious scheme to foster Jewish

T

1/28

2000

18

continuity will see a return on its
investment.
Jewish philanthropist Charles
Bronfman, co-creator of Birthright
Israel, said that bringing in high
school students — originally envi-
sioned as part of the program —
might have to wait.
"Suddenly, the game has changed,
which we never thought it would,"
Bronfman said during an interview in
Jerusalem. "It looks like it's going to be
more of a college game than a high
school game as far as Birthright Israel is
concerned."
Michael Papo, executive vice pres-

Birthright follow-up will determine success —
and future --- of program.

ident of Birthright Israel North
America, said college kids are more
likely to travel on their own. The
method of bringing them over, and
the educational programs involved,
would have to change to accommo-
date 15- to 18-year-olds. He doesn't
expect high school students to be
sent to Israel by the program until
2001 or 2002.
So far, there are no definite plans
for sending over the next group of
Birthright Israel participants. A deci-
sion may be made in the next couple
of weeks on whether there will be a
summer program.

As most of the young Jews return-
ing from their trips show their pictures
and souvenirs of Israel to their friends
and family and get ready for their next
semester of college, Hillel: The
Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, is
making use of its database. Some
9,000 young Jews applied for the
Birthright Israel trips. Becau,se of the
high response rate, Hillel conducted a
lottery to choose its 3,000 participants.
Richard Joel, Hillel's president
and international director, said local
chapters now have a duty to keep in
touch with all the young Jews on the
trip, but no decision has been made