Israel Birthright: Jew-ish

This trip is long overdue for a write up, and I’m afraid my memories are a bit jumbled. Still I’ve got my notes, so let’s see what I can spin from a ten days in Israel last August . . .

Jew-ish

I told a classmate that I only celebrate a secular version of Hanukkah, and that’s only when my family remembers.

“That’s not so bad,” he said, “Hanukkah’s not a very important holiday.”

What I’d meant was that was the only Jewish thing I did.

Thanks to my half Russian Jew ancestry, I qualified to go on the birthright trip with a close college friend. The night before our flight, we used an ironing board to barricade the door of our slightly seedy hotel, located in the middle of a sea of concrete that is now my only image of Newark, New Jersey.

Up until I was seated on the plane to Israel, I was afraid that someone would call me out as a fake Jew and kick me to the street. Certainly, it was intimidating. The Israel Outdoors phone interview was followed up by a close questioning at the airport. Both coming and going, Israel security quizzed us on topics ranging from if we had friends in Palestine, to what our grandfathers’ names were (“Buell”, apparently, was innocuous enough). I was relieved to find a baptized and communioned girl on my trip: finally, someone more tenuously Jewish than me.

Rumors abound about the birthright trips, and I entered expecting the whole thing to be a grand (and very generous) recruitment effort to convert me to active Judaism and to putting down roots in Israel. I’d even heard that the trips paired each of us up with an opposite gender soldier, in an attempt to seduce us into staying (Myth: busted). My mindset was, “Israel, thank you so much for this trip! Also, you don’t own me!”

Traveler’s Tips

My guide book for this time was Insight Guide’s Israel. This one's particularly great in the photos arena,  and some nice cultural info. It's drawback is that it occasionally tries a little too hard to put a positive spin on all aspects of Israel.