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Event Highlights: 2019 Atlanta Leadership Celebration

by Birthright Israel Foundation August 21, 2019 at 7:00 pm
Doug Ross, Benji Sklar, Max Greenberg, Kyle Simon, and Melissa McGrath

Event Highlights: 2019 Atlanta Leadership Celebration

by Birthright Israel Foundation August 21, 2019 at 7:00 pm

We gathered with over 140 supporters at Ray’s on the River in Sandy Springs, GA on Tuesday, August 20, 2019 to celebrate seven years of Birthright Israel Foundation in the Atlanta community. Thank you to our amazing Atlanta leadership for your vision and dedication! During the festive evening, we had the pleasure of hearing from Birthright Israel alumni from Atlanta — Melissa McGrath, Max Greenberg and Kyle Simon — each sharing his/her unique story and closing with the powerful words, “Birthright Israel changed my life.” Our guest alumnus from Houston, Benji Sklar, shared his journey of how his Birthright Israel experience inspired him to join the IDF and take an active role protecting the Jewish state and Jewish people. Read More

The Real Birthright: Inheriting Our Jewish Story

by Gil Troy June 20, 2019 at 2:00 pm
Foundation Banner Holders in the 2019 Celebrate Israel Parade

The Real Birthright: Inheriting Our Jewish Story

by Gil Troy June 20, 2019 at 2:00 pm

These sleights of hands and oversights rest on a bigger distortion – the barrage of claims that young American Jews are abandoning Israel. At this year’s Independence Day ceremonies, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein identified Israel’s – and the Jewish people’s – greatest natural resource, which is pollution-free and ever renewable. “The people of Israel have a story,” Edelstein said, “a story about slaves who became free, who brought to the entire world a new hope of freedom, new tidings of peace, and a new purpose of justice.” Then, addressing “you, the child who is watching the ceremony right now,” Edelstein urged: “Keep believing that you are part of a wonderful story that began in this country against all odds, and its continuation depends on you.” Edelstein’s words reflected his background as a Soviet refusenik, a Prisoner of Zion and an educator. Read More

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