<p>How about borscht?</p>
<p>I never know whether to get annoyed or just feel grateful that at least they’re “trying” when they showcase the Manischewitz et al products without any regard for matching the foods to the holiday…</p>
<p>QM: we don’t hear from you for…how long??? and this is what we hear??? lolol…</p>
<p>hope all is well with you and yours and welcome back!!</p>
<p>Thanks for all the good wishes about the birthright trip. Like I said before, we won’t believe it’s happening until she’s on the plane.</p>
<p>C4T: I’m sorry that your daughter got waitlisted. She will have priority registration the next time she applies. We have found that you have much better chances getting a spot on a trip orgranized by your college.</p>
<p>I love rugelach.</p>
<p>I LOVE rugelach too. Almost all Jewish foods, well, food in general! 
The only thing I can’t even stand the smell of is Kasha Varnishgis (sp?), yucch.</p>
<p>Does anyone make the frozen gefilte fish? Imo it tastes so much better than the jarred kind.</p>
<p>Shaw: Has your D put her deposit on small U yet? Yay for her!</p>
<p>C43 and momjr: Wow. Didn’t realize students have to try so many times for Birthright! Well, I guess we’ll sign S up right away as a freshman and hope he goes before he graduates!</p>
<p>ccc: A lot of kids have good luck and get onto a birthright trip on their first try if they apply early to a trip organized by their school. My daughter has had particularly bad luck getting onto a trip. Freshman year she applied for a trip organized by Penn Hillel and was assured of a spot by the trip leader, but thanks to a computer glitch, her deposit never when through and by the time she realized this, the trip was full. She then signed up for an Israel Outdoors trip with her cousin and was waitlisted. She was offered a spot on a trip last summer, but it left from LAX, and it seemed ridiculous to pay for a plane ticket to LA for a free trip. She was all set to go on a Penn trip over winter break, but she got mono and had to cancel at the last minute. We’re hoping that things will work out this time.</p>
<p>Okay, momjr…silly question I have: If the trip is for free, why are we paying a deposit? And for how much? Do we get it back? I’ll wait till he’s at school and then we’ll contact Hillel…</p>
<p>C43…did your D get waitlisted just because of the sheer number of kids who want to go?</p>
<p>I can answer this one: the deposit (mine was $ 250 0r $500 I think) is supposedly taken against any damages or other costs your child may incur and you are told that it will be returned after he or she returns from Israel. However, if they are sent home early for any infraction of the rules, you don’t get it back. And it will be returned in the form of a cash card which you have to do some rigamorole on the web to validate, in the course of which there will be some deduction of fees or charges, I forget what for (or what they tell you it’s for). You are also “offered” the chance to put more money on the card for the child’s use in Israel. If you do, kiss the deposit goodbye.</p>
<p>Expect also to be hit up for, I mean offered, an opportunity to rent a charged up pay cellphone.</p>
<p>And of course, you knew this this, right? Expect for several years afterwards to be solicited via e-mail for contributions to continue the program and make it available to the children of others.</p>
<p>Frozen gefilte fish? Uh oh, I feel a wave of Pesach Kneidlach recipes coming on, with the same inevitability and dread of Susan Stamberg’s grandmother’s Thanksgiving cranberry sauce with onions and horseradish recipe.</p>
<p>Sorry to interrupt thoughts of holiday goodies…but I just happened to see this lovely post on the University of Miami forum:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Poster’s name is scrambler - has only 10 posts - white male living in Texas. I just reported the post to the mods. It’s sad how pervasive these attitudes are.</p>
<p>Good point, Mhc…why would I ever think something for free is really free? :eek:</p>
<p>Yeah, they get you either coming or going. Thanks for the heads up.</p>
<p>You really haven’t tried frozen gefilte fish? 
Don’t knock it unless you’ve tried it, it’s deee-lish! You just take the outer wrapping off, medium boil it (poach it) for a few hours (with lid on pot), take it out of the pot and refrigerate it. Cut it up and serve with horseradish, yum! Sooo much tastier than the jarred kind, really! Try it and let me know what you think! :)</p>
<p>RVM: Oy, not this again. Well everyone did a good job educating our last friend…anyone want to take a stab at this one? Maybe we need to discuss a plan like we did last time when we all posted messages to him…does not sound like it will be as easy as last time.</p>
<p>re birthright – i had no problem getting the deposit back for my two kids who went on birthright. the trip is free to the student. but let’s be realistic. it costs money. are you really going to begrudge the organizers from collecting a deposit to protect themselves from situations in which a student doesn’t get to take advantage of the full trip through his or her own fault? my personal opinion – sadly, people tend to value things based on the cost they incur – it can be too easy to not fully appreciate a free trip (eg. oops, a better offer for winter break came up, no big deal) – requiring a deposit ensures that people (students and their parents) take the commitment of going seriously. </p>
<p>and re the cell phone – the deal they offer is actually a very good one – i once looked into phone rates for a relative going to Israel – the phones are delivered and picked up on the buses – no having to pay shipping fees to get or return the phones. if the deal is as i remember – they don’t pay for incoming calls – only outgoing. my kids would make a quick call to me and then i would call them back with a cheaper international calling plan. you get the phone number ahead of time so you know your kid’s phone number. and its purely optional – if you don’t want your kid to have a phone, or you want to make other arrangements you are free to. </p>
<p>each kid who goes is going by virtue of the generousity of those who previously donated to birthright. why shouldn’t they and their parents be asked if they will pay it forward and donate to help others go?</p>
<p>Hi unbelievablem:</p>
<p>Is your post directed to me? I have no clue how Birthright works…YET. Once my S begins college in the Fall I will have a much better handle of what it’s all about. I really didn’t even think about a deposit since I’m not really in that frame of mind mode yet. (I figured spending money only).</p>
<p>I also had no clue that parents paid anything (or donated) to Birthright. My impression was that it was funded entirely by very wealthy philanthopists, corporations, etc. (I haven’t read up on it at all yet)</p>
<p>I suppose I’m a bit naive to hear that a trip is free and entirely paid for and then hear about, well, wait parents need to pay for this and this and this…I also, like many of you I’m sure, am a bit jaded. I have been hit up for every fund imaginable, since I’ve been in camp and then in college. Don’t even get me started with synagogue donations!</p>
<p>I am all for making donations to worthy causes, but in all honesty, we donate to waaayyy more funds than ever before. Sure, if parents donate to Birthright, then I would do the same. But until your post just now, I had no idea parents contributed.</p>
<p>Sounds like the deposit money goes to the student toward spending money, then? If that’s what you want to use it for?</p>
<p>Offensive post deleted. Thanks mods! Just saddens me to hear these anti-Semitic slurs and stereotypes being perpetuated by a new generation.</p>
<p>RVM: You are ever vigilant. Thanks.</p>
<p>Choc: At the time it happened, we thought that it was a bit strange that my daughter didn’t get on the free trip because her deposit didn’t go through. They do refund the deposit after the trip. They were actually very kind and refunded my D’s deposit after the mono cancellation.</p>
<p>Despite the minor costs, Birthright is an amazing opportunity for Jewish kids. I hope that your son can take advantage of it.</p>
<p>chocchip – no, my post was not specifically directed at you.
yes there are big philanthropists supporting birthright without whom it couldn’t exist – but it also relies on donations from regular people too.
personally, i think there is a valuable tzeddakah lesson for our children to learn that we are each responsible to contribute what we can to make things happen rather than relying on big donors – please don’t take that as a criticism of anything you said, its more a concern i have that students get used to being offered things for free (eg. hillel programs) without learning enough about the costs involved so that they end up taking things for granted rather than learning that so much depends on monetary contributions.</p>
<p>Thanks for your explanations, momjr and unbelievablem. I understand. Our family is a very big “giving back to one’s community” family. We do many, many things and have since our children were very little. Many times we give of our time if we cannot give monetarily. My children, especially S1 is very aware of how much is involved in planning programs and would never take anything for granted. I do understand, though, the need for deposits since many kids may not take it as seriously as we would.</p>
<p>Yes, when the time comes, we hope he will go on Birthright and will plan what we can to contribute to future kids going. However, he has been taught to volunteer and get involved and I believe that will help him in the future to stay an active citizen.</p>
<p>RVM: Glad offensive post was erased. Do you feel the need to send poster any other message, or just wait? Educating one person at a time…</p>
<p>Birthright/Taglit was a wonderful experience for my son, and honestly how many other places offer something like that? I had no problem with the concept of a deposit, being solicited for contributions afterwards or even with the offer of a convenient if inferior phone deal. But dealing with Payoneer when my son went felt like a “gotcha” instead of a straightforward transaction. </p>
<p>A bit of research on the web however shows that since then, they are a more upfront about how the deposit and refund works and the fees they charge. I’d have been fine with that.</p>
<p>Thanks rvm for staying on top of hate-posts.</p>
<p>As for Birthright, DD has been wait listed twice! I called and they explained that they put together trips certain ways…whatever. I am hoping she gets off the list and can go this summer because fall looks to be volatile in Israel (UN vote to establish a State of Palestine).
Also, I thought the deposit was converted to a card for the kids to use as spending money there?</p>
<p>I recommend canned gefilte fish, that you “doctor” in the pot with carrots, onions, sugar. Seriously better than lots of others.</p>
<p>This thread has become part of my daily routine…</p>
<p>Rockvillemom, thanks as always for your vigilance!
I think I posted this before, but Birthright is largely funded by the Israeli government, with a “challenge grant” of sorts from donors. It really behooves us to contribute; the idea of Birthright is not just to give kids a free trip, but to promote Jewish continuity! I have been contributing every year since my only eligible student (out of four) has gone (the others were ineligible having been to Israel on a peer trip previously). Anecdotally, I would say that my kids’ committment to a Jewish future is stronger because of their (many) trips to Israel.
[Major</a> funding boost for Birthright from Israeli gov’t ups ante for philanthropists | JTA - Jewish & Israel News](<a href=“http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/01/10/2742490/israel-to-increase-support-for-birthright-if-jewish-philanthropist-increase-theirs]Major”>http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/01/10/2742490/israel-to-increase-support-for-birthright-if-jewish-philanthropist-increase-theirs)
“Big” philanthropists only give to causes if the community also shows support!</p>