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> The Romance of Birthright Israel > > By Kiera Feldman > > clip - > > The seekers are young, just beginning to face the disappointments of > adulthood. Their journey is often marked by tears. They may weep while > praying at the Western Wall, their heads pressed against the weathered > stone, or at the Holocaust Museum, as they pass the piles of shoes of the > dead. Others tear up in Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl military cemetery, while > embracing a handsome IDF soldier in the late afternoon light. But at some > point during their all-expenses-paid ten-day trip to a land where, as they > are constantly reminded, every mountain and valley is inscribed with 5,000 > years of their people’s history, the moment almost always comes. > > When Julie Feldman (no relation), then 26 and a Reform Jew from New York > City, arrived at Ben Gurion Airport in December 2008, she called herself “a > blank slate.” She returned as the attack on Gaza was under way, armed with a > new “pro-Israel” outlook. “Israel really changed me,” she said. “I truly > felt when I came back that I was a different person.” > > It was mission accomplished for Birthright Israel, the American Zionist > organization that has, since its founding in 1999, spent almost $600 million > to send more than 260,000 young diaspora Jews on free vacations to the Holy > Land. > > Birthright co-founder Charles Bronfman claims he just provides free airfare > and lodging. “Then,” he says, “Israel does its magic.” Indeed, in 2009 > Brandeis University researchers found that almost three-quarters of alumni > describe their Birthright experience as “life changing.” “If you come here, > and you connect to the origins of the Jewish people, the country that forged > our existence, our faith, our values,” then–Likud Party leader Benjamin > Netanyahu promised in a 2008 Birthright video, “it’ll change your life > forever.” > > Bronfman’s partner in founding Birthright, Michael Steinhardt, professes > faith in Israel as “a substitute for theology.” Steinhardt understands that > for a generation weaned on irony, Birthright could offer an opportunity for > deep, wholehearted conviction. “My liberal arts education taught me that any > distinct concept or ideal will crumble under the scrutiny of too many > questions,” laments a recent college grad writing on her Birthright > experience, which taught her “it was okay and even honorable to believe in > the state of Israel, to adopt, so to speak, the settlers’ original dream.” > Her Jewcy.com essay is hardly unique: Birthright has generated reams of > effusive essays and blog posts over the years. > > full article - > > > > > http://www.thenation.com/article/161460/romance-birthright-israel?page=full&utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=9f686eb19b-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email > > > > ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
