semitism.net

This is the best thing I’ve read all month. From the Christian Science Monitor:

About 10,000 young Jews from 29 countries will enjoy a generous gift this winter: a vacation to Israel - with the Israeli government and Jewish philanthropies picking up the tab for transportation, food, and lodging.

Those who fund the trips say the opportunity to experience Israel is the birthright of every Jew. But to donors’ chagrin, handfuls of young activists have used the trips in recent years to volunteer for pro-Palestinian organizations in the West Bank - some of which directly oppose the Israeli government and Zionist ideology.

Here’s a bit more about Taglit-Birthright Israel, which sponsors the free Israel vacations, and its new competitor, Birthright Unplugged…

Visiting Israel can be intense - the landscape, the language and the culture all speak powerfully to the heart. Teenagers traveling there in a group often feel a resurgence of Jewish pride. They awaken spiritually. They bond closely with other Jewish teens. Their visit to Israel is a formative experience. In the process, their relationship to Israel becomes central to their Jewish identity.

That, in any case, is the idea behind Taglit-Birthright, and why it is so generously funded by American Jewish charities, Zionist organizations, and the government of Israel.

One program graduate writes on the Taglit website about her memory of stepping off the airplane in Israel:

Here was the land where our prophets had declared their prophecies to the Jewish people. This was the land on which many battles and wars had been fought. And, of course, it was on this sacred soil that our ancestors were buried. Just to be walking on the very same land written about in the Torah was an indescribable feeling.

Taglit-Birthright claims to be unaffiliated with any political party - but teenagers participating in the program get a pretty hefty dose of nationalist ideology along with the vistas, the history and the bonding.

This is reinforced at home. In many secular and Reformed U.S. Jewish communities, support for Israel has overtaken religious practice as the principle form of Jewish involvement. For example, another alumnus begins his essay thus:

…if you still haven’t lost your Jewish identity, but are not ready/able to board the next flight for Tel Aviv, grab an M16 and support your respected brothers/sisters in green uniform with firepower, there are nonetheless powerful contributions you can make from where you live today to support the well-being of Israel in its present and future.

Taglit-Birthright is, among other things, a training ground for campus Israel advocates. This is from a report by TV producer Eytan Schwartz:

…most Jewish youth in the Diaspora have no connection to Israel and are not really capable of handling anti-Semitic propaganda. However, after an intense week in Israel, where they are faced with history, Zionism, Israeli culture and meetings with Israeli youth - they become ambassadors of sorts…

I don’t mean to dismiss the strong feelings of these kids setting foot in the Holy Land for the first time. I remember how powerful it was for me at that age. But Judaism isn’t really about worshiping ancient places and things - or modern ones, for that matter. It’s fundamentally about honoring God, treasuring Creation, protecting life, and upholding justice. These responsibilities outweigh our loyalty to any nation.

A real Jewish education for these teenagers would include a look at the other side - the sacrifices made by native Palestinians in the creation of the state of Israel, and the conditions under which they currently live.

Enter Birthright Unplugged. From the program’s home page:

Birthright Unplugged is a program designed primarily for young Jewish people to visit the Palestinian occupied territories. We realize that this experience is largely missing from most Jewish-led trips to the Middle East. As American Jews, we have a specific responsibility to understand the situation well and to promote concepts of social justice and human rights for all people in the world. Birthright Unplugged welcomes participants of all ages and backgrounds.

In six days, we visit Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps and help participants develop an understanding of daily life under occupation. We meet with Palestinian and Israeli community leaders, NGO representatives, peace activists, political figures and families. We encourage participants to be deeply reflective and give them a chance to ask tough questions.

Birthright Unplugged schedules its program so that Taglit travelers can stay in the country an extra week to tour the Occupied Territories. Taglit sponsors thousands of visitors a year, and only a few dozen of them go on to participate in Birthright Unplugged. Still, the Taglit folks are none too happy that the kids they sponsor are using their free tickets to learn about things they aren’t supposed to know. From the Christian Science Monitor article:

They have the right to explore” all sides of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but not using the money given “to explore certain values,” says Allyson Taylor, with the American Jewish Congress’s Western Region. “You have the right to buy a movie ticket, but do you sneak into another theater to see a different movie?”

Or maybe these young people have guessed that the carefully edited movie they were shown isn’t the whole story. They’re stepping outside the theater to see what’s going on. One young woman writes on the ISM website about her experience in Hebron with Birthright Unplugged:

On the tour with Walid Abu-Al-Halaweh of the HRC, we hear of settler violence happening nearby. We go to the place where the settlers have just left, and the ground is covered with rocks, some the size of my finger, some the size of both my fists. We follow Israeli army guards to the noise.

About 20 girls, none looking older than 14 or 15, are screaming, screaming. They are being gently cloistered by the army officers as they continue to scream at the Palestinians around them. The Hebrew is translated for me: “get out of our country, you’re dirt, you’re scum.”

We stand with a group of Palestinian men, women, and children, watching them… or rather, our group is watching them. The Palestinians are mostly waiting to get through the gateway that the girls have effectively blocked now for 20 minutes. Three girls break through the acquiescent army line and race towards us, where another officer holds them.

Grown Palestinian men beside me run backwards. I am shamed for the men, at the humiliation of having to fear a 13-year-old girl, because they know what the soldiers will do to them if they act in self-defense. They are afraid of the girls, with Jewish stars around their necks, screaming filth at their neighbors. The soldiers, who look no older than 19, speak softly with the girls, then turn around to scream and threaten the Palestinian crowd, telling them that if they take one step forward, there will be consequences.

It’s incredibly encouraging to me that a program like Birthright Unplugged exists, and that there are some Jewish kids - even a handful - who choose to participate. These kids are embracing real Jewish values, and they’re not afraid to challenge the institutions of mainstream Judaism to do it.

“For me, being a Jewish person means supporting social justice. For me, being Jewish doesn’t mean supporting Israel,” says Jessica, who traveled to Israel with Shorashim, a Birthright travel organizer, during the summer of 2004. “The lessons of the Holocaust and the lessons of Jewish history mean we need to stand up for people’s rights. Otherwise, who’s going to stand up for us?”