Home
Newsstand
Foundation Blog Finances & Reports 2018 Mission Photos 2018 Parade Photos 2018 Gala Photos

categoryBRIF in the News

Tens of Thousands of New Yorkers March to Celebrate Israel

by Haley Cohen June 4, 2019 at 4:45 pm
Elizabeth and Ira Savetsky with their two daughters at the 2019 Parade.

Tens of Thousands of New Yorkers March to Celebrate Israel

by Haley Cohen June 4, 2019 at 4:45 pm

Tens of thousands of Israel supporters gathered in Manhattan on Sunday for the 55th annual Celebrate Israel Parade – the largest celebration of Israel in the world. Beginning on Fifth Avenue and 57th Street and making their way up to 75th Street, marchers embraced this year’s theme of “Only in Israel” from the 1970s Hebrew classic “Rak B’Yisrael.” The parade, which began in 1965, has been organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of New York since 2011. Read More

What People Get Wrong About Birthright Israel: Even After 18 Years

by Gil Troy May 21, 2019 at 8:17 am
Girls on Birthright Israel

What People Get Wrong About Birthright Israel: Even After 18 Years

by Gil Troy May 21, 2019 at 8:17 am

Eighteen years and 650,000 happy participants later, you’d think people would get Birthright Israel right. Yet it’s amazing how many people get Birthright Israel wrong. Few understand Birthright’s secret sauce – what I call the Zen of Birthright. They expect it to be as site-oriented as a grand European tour, as partisan as a Zionist pep rally, as self-involved as most student’s freshman years, and as staged-managed as a video game. Not so. Read More

Overheard in NYC

by Avi Mayer April 12, 2019 at 5:01 pm
Avi Mayer

Overheard in NYC

by Avi Mayer April 12, 2019 at 5:01 pm

Get to my hotel. Informed my room is on the third floor. I know better than to accept a low room in Midtown Manhattan. Ask for a higher floor. Offered something on 10. “Anything higher?” I ask. The guy offers to show me a room on 22. “Great,” I say, and off we go. Read More

Jewish leader finds connections, meaning in trip to Holy Land

by Janiece Sebris February 6, 2019 at 2:24 pm
Barbara Kay and Susan Pertnoy

Jewish leader finds connections, meaning in trip to Holy Land

by Janiece Sebris February 6, 2019 at 2:24 pm

Palm Beach native and longtime Temple Emanu-El member Susan Pertnoy recently took a trip that she had spent nearly two decades promoting and supporting for others. Pertnoy joined other donors on a specially designed Birthright Israel trip celebrating the organization’s 18th anniversary. Founded in 1999, Birthright Israel Foundation, the largest educational tourism organization in the world, sends Jewish young people on a free trip to Israel. Read More

You Heard It Here First: What Atlantans Say About Birthright Israel

by Birthright Israel Foundation January 22, 2019 at 2:50 pm
Photo of Birthright Israel group in Jaffa, Israel

You Heard It Here First: What Atlantans Say About Birthright Israel

by Birthright Israel Foundation January 22, 2019 at 2:50 pm

We bet you didn’t know that since Birthright Israel’s inception over 8,000 participants from Atlanta, Georgia have been part of this unforgettable experience. Just this past summer nearly 500 young Jewish Atlantans journeyed to Israel and discovered everlasting connections with their Israeli peers and their Jewish identity. Interested how their trip went? Read More

I Can’t Wait for My 5-Month-Old Granddaughter to Go on Birthright Israel!

by Bonnie Bornstein Fertel December 11, 2018 at 8:30 am
Bonnie Fertel and her granddaughter Janie

I Can’t Wait for My 5-Month-Old Granddaughter to Go on Birthright Israel!

by Bonnie Bornstein Fertel December 11, 2018 at 8:30 am

I grew up in the diaspora of New Jersey in the 1950s, where there was no religion. We never belonged to a synagogue, never had a Seder, and didn’t celebrate the High Holidays. When my husband and I had our first daughter, Pamela, I began to realize how important that missing piece of my heritage was to me. Read More