<p>Yes, the food on the Birthright trips is kosher, which is no great hardship in Israel. Yes, they observed the Sabbath, but not to the degree of the Orthodox. There was a short service and there was no scheduled tour, but swimming was allowed if available (I think my d went to the beach on Shabbat), and no one had a problem if you turned on a light.</p>
<p>The Birthright folks try to make it as comfortable as possible for Jews of all observance levels; in fact, they want to connect most with those who feel less Jewish.</p>
<p>The birthright trips are getting harder to get into, thanks to Bernie Madoff. My s and several of his friends were wait-listed this year, and will have to try again if they can fit it in their schedules next year. If your s can get on a trip through his university, defitintely try that route. Good luck!</p>
<p>Unless the registration has changed, you can register for your son, but there is a lot of research to be done first. My son and daughter went together a few years ago; at the time, trips were done by age groups, I believe it is a bit different now. My son is a few years older than my daughter and should have gone with the 23-26 year olds, but was allowed to go with the younger group. Before registration time, we made a few calls to Birthright to make sure we understood the differences between each of the tours so that the kids could make a decision as to which one they wanted. After they read and reread about each tour, eliminating ones they didn’t like, or ones that were not available during the small time period they were able to go, they picked a first and second choice tour.</p>
<p>As my son has a full day of classes when registration opened, he asked if I could handle his registration. I was at the computer from before 9:00am and did not get through until after 2:00pm. My daughter finished her registration before I finished my son’s, but she had to miss a couple of classes. It is possible that registration goes smoother now, but I can tell you it was stressful! The kids were able to get the tour they wanted, so they were happy.</p>
<p>Once accepted there is a phone interview; it really is nothing, just a few questions. If I am not mistaken, all the tours are very similar as to what locations they visit; it is the rest of the day that will vary. My kids were raised conservative and chose a trip that would not be too religious. There was a mix of people on the trip and they had a blast. My son even lead Friday night services; this from the boy that hated everything about Hebrew school and the kids there. Once home, all he could talk about is going back; the trip changed him.</p>
<p>So, while you can search and pick the trip you think you son would like, and you can register for him, he will have to answer the interviewer. If you know your son well enough, I am sure you could select the best trip, but please have your son look over the ones available before registration on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Clarification- the trip is free. The $100 is for those who want to adjust to a different return flight from their Taglit group because they have stayed in Israel for other opportunities or gone to Europe and back…my daughter did say that when they were in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem apart from Shabbat, there was partying and going to bars and she hadn’t really expecting that.</p>
<p>As mentioned, snowball, it isnt that smoothe anymore, due to the financial limitations now. One of older s’s friends didnt get his application in immediately after the time opened up, and he was not contacted for an interview until well after the rest of them. They were all ultimately interviewed, but all waitlisted for the Jan trip. They were told they had to first offer spots to the kids who were previoulsy waitlisted and/or were nearing the 26 yo age cutoff.</p>
<p>My sons attended a Shorashim trip together, sponsored by the older one’s university but open to siblings. It was a life-altering experience for both. As described above, much of the time is spent in outdoor activity-- climbing Massada, taking a dip in the Red Sea, riding camels-- and sightseeing, but what had the greatest impact on my kids was (1) hearing firsthand accounts from their Israeli peers of their stints in the army, and (2) listening to an Israeli-Arab journalist share a very unexpected perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Suffice it to say that these experiences were eye opening to typical “soft” American kids. Regardless of your son’s religious or political views, I believe a Birthright trip will shake loose any complacency.</p>
<p>My Ds went on a January trip last year, as things were heating up in Gaza. Birthright did a great job of keeping everyone safe, and informing parents as to what was going on. I was, and continue to be very impressed with the organization. I hope that all who go on the trips or whose kids have benefited give a little every year to continue the opportunity. My Ds are in the rather ignorant of Judism category, and really appreciated the opportunity to connect with their heritage. The only sad part, is that most of the participant are East coast based, and they miss all the reunions. We did have to pay for flights to Newark to meet up with the group. They were with Israel Outdoors.</p>
<p>All of the organizers have been approved by Taglit. One of the major organizers, Oranim, was removed from the Birthright list because of issues of how they did their trips. You’ll get a good experience from any group.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the feedback. So far, it sounds like every kid (and parent) was generally pleased and some thrilled. I spoke with my son about the options as much as we know them. The Israel Outdoors attracts him – he loves to hike and talk. The Shorashim program – with greater involvement with Israelis – sounds fabulous and they appear to run one for Boston undergraduates 18-21 including Brandeis, Northeastern, UMass Amherst, Harvard, MIT, Tufts. His school doesn’t have any organized plan to send kids, but they are welcome to go on this one. </p>
<p>We’ll review tonight and he can sit at the computer to register. Interviewing won’t be an issue. The work I was talking about was assembling information, reading, talking to people, etc. to decide which one to register for. With that done, the rest seems somewhat pretty straightforward.</p>
<p>I’m going with IsraelExperts, but that doesn’t sound like his style.</p>
<p>A friend did the Israel Outdoors hiking program (they have a hiking-oriented program, a biking-oriented program, and a generic one) and loved it.</p>
<p>A warning - register <em>quickly</em>. Last year, I registered two hours into the registration period, and got waitlisted. This time I get to register a day early with IsraelExperts because I’m a past waitlistee. :)</p>
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<p>The questionnaire is short and simple, and is mostly collecting demographic info and such. My interview last year was over the phone and took five minutes, and was a re-asking of some of the questionnaire questions - I guess they want to make sure the answers don’t change or something. Getting on trips is approximately first-come, first-serve, with certain groups taking priority (IsraelExperts gives priority to 26 year-olds, 25 year-olds, and past waitlistees, in that order).</p>
<p>^^ditto what jessie has said; I think that past waitlistees get priority with all groups…and I think this summer will be as difficult to get the trip as last…good luck to all!!</p>
<p>Jessiehl, its possible that my daughter’s process was a little more complex because she opted to go via her own college’s Hillel. I do know that she attended one or more meetings at the Hillel prior to the trip – I had the impression that started before she knew for sure if she had been selected, but I’m not absolutely positive about that. But I can see different sponsoring organizations setting their own internal procedures for selection. I also do not have the impression that my daughter had to rush through an application on the first day it opened, although she typically is very proactive so very likely wouldn’t have mentioned to me if that had been necessary – but obviously the “applicant pool” to a college Hillel chapter is far more restricted. </p>
<p>However, I’m mentioning this because that is another factor that might come into play in selecting a sponsor. It might be a lot easier to get the trip with some sponsors than others, depending on the relative popularity of each program and the specific interest or affiliation groups they serve.</p>
<p>It’s also possible that winter trips are a little easier to get onto than the summer ones, given scheduling concerns of the applicants. One advantage of going through a college Hillel is simply that they are going to respect the schedule of that particular school, and schedule the trip accordingly. My daughter’s return flight conveniently landed a day or two before classes resumed at her college.</p>
<p>That makes sense. And it suggests that one of the positives for going through your local Hillel is that it might be easier to get on a trip (and that another is that the scheduling might be easier).</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you go through your local Hillel, you have less control over what you’re getting - they work with a trip organizer on behalf of their participants. You don’t get to choose that trip organizer. My undergrad school’s Hillel, for instance, currently works with Shorashim (I just looked this up). For some people, Shorashim might be the ideal trip organizer, for for others, it might not be.</p>
<p>snowball, he decided to register and decided that he preferred the Israel Outdoors Quest to the Israel by Foot program. He loves hiking so I thought the hiking one would be the best, but we also went over the art one as he’s talented at art and the Boston one through Shorashim and the Israel Challenge one as he’s very competitive. But Quest it may be depending upon what happens.</p>
<p>He has called a couple of times. He’s been trying to register but experienced the crash at about the same time rodney described. He called me for advice but there’s not a lot I can do. It seems like their system is probably overwhelmed. He emailed them and got an Out of Office Reply email. I just spoke to him and he hasn’t been able to get back on. At some point, he has to go meet with a professor so who knows.</p>
<p>That is what my kids and I experienced when we tried to register years ago. Each page would take forever to load, or there would be a message to try again later. I just sat at the computer and would hit enter every minute; I am pretty anal!! I believe it took over 4 hours to get to the last page and to finish the registration.</p>
<p>I hope you son is able to complete his registration and gets the trip he wants.</p>
<p>^^my daughter just got an email from Israel Outdoors and israeli experts that the sites crashed…if anyone gets in, please post…I, too, am trying to help, but can’t sit here for four hours (snowball, you’re amazing…)</p>