Taglit Birthright

Parent Cafe
1

I’m about to graduate from my undergraduate university and I’m seriously considering applying for birthright for this upcoming summer, but I wanted to hear some opinions on my situation.

I was born with a traditionally Jewish last name, with a Catholic mother and a Jewish father. My father tragically passed away when I was one. My mother decided that herself, my siblings, and I would go back to her maiden name and she chose to raise us in the Catholic church. I have questioned this faith since middle school and even took it upon myself to leave the Church in high school, searching for other sectors of faith. Since entering college, I have considered myself agnostic. I do not attend any faith-based denominations and instead focus on my personal spirituality.

I recently have gone through a bit of a cultural identity crisis. Because my grandparents on my father’s side are dead and I have no connection with this part of my heritage, I previously had accepted a cultural identity within my mother’s side, favoring an Irish/Italian background. Yet despite this, I have always identified with my Jewish background, proudly pointing out my Jewish roots to my peers, and this past year I visited Auschwitz, increasing my interest in uncovering my Jewish identity. After studying abroad in Europe, I realized that I did not associate with any one culture. I have such a mixed heritage on my mother’s side that I couldn’t identify with any one heritage. This is when I recently began to question and explore the heritage on my father’s side, looking more into the Jewish culture and faith.

After explaining to a peer my “half-Jewishness,” she suggested birthright, having herself gone to Israel on the trip. I recognize that I have never practiced Judaism, but I feel that due to my circumstances I was never given the opportunity. I am interested in exploring my roots and birthright seems to be an incredible opportunity to do so. I do not want to be the ‘non-Jew’ on the trip, however, as I have no upbringing in Jewish culture. Does it seem like I would be a good fit for this opportunity to explore my roots?

2

Yes! Most emphatically yes. Having one Jewish parent makes you eligible. Students from all sorts of Jewish backgrounds - some observant - some not observant - attend. Besides being a free trip - this is a wonderful way for you to discover and explore Israel and your Jewish heritage. I would absolutely recommend you make the trip - I see no downside to doing so.

3

You should definitely look into it! There are plenty of secular Jews on the trip who have little to no background in the religion. Look into the trip provider to make sure you’re in the type of group you want.

HOWEVER. There is a chance you might not be eligible. The website says

I don’t believe any denomination would recognize you as Jewish. But Birthright has loosened its eligibility reqs in other ways, lately, so you might have a chance, especially if you don’t emphasize being raised in the Catholic church.

4

I’m not Jewish. In fact, I’m Catholic, but the answer to your question is …complicated.I realize that others on this site are FAR more competent than I am to give advice and I hope they will. However, I think you should be aware that you may have some difficulty establishing your right to participate.

Check out the eligibility requirements:

See http://www.birthrightisrael.com/visitingisrael/Pages/Eligibility.aspx

My understanding is that Orthodox Jews do not consider you Jewish because your mother was not a Jew. Only the children of Jewish mothers are considered Jews.

My understanding is that Reform Jews would consider you a Jew IF you were raised as a Jew OR you converted.

See http://www.reformjudaism.org/ask-rabbi-topic/who-jew

Since you have not done either of these thngs, many Reform Jews would not consider you Jewish.

I know several young people who have had almost no contact with Judaism who have gone on the Birthright trips. Based on their experiences–which I only know about second hand, of course—it’s easy to qualify if you have a Jewish mother, even if you were not raised by a Jew, because Orthodox Jews do consider you Jewish. If you have a Jewish father and were raised as a Jew, you can go since Reform Judaism considers you Jewish.

If you have a Jewish father and were not raised as a Jew, it’s going to be a lot harder to qualify.

As I said though, this is based on hearsay. I’m just telling you the scuttlebut in my neighborhood.

I hope I have not offended anyone by my answer. As I said, though, having known several people who weren’t raised as Jews who were interested in Birthright, I’ve been told it’s a lot easier to qualify if you have a non-practicing Jewish mother and a non-Jewish father than if you have a non-practicing Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother. My post is based only on the experiences of neighborhood “kids” who were interested in the trips.

5

Does your undergraduate university have Hillel that is organizing a trip for the upcoming summer? If so, speak with them and see if you can go as part of their group - even if you have not participated in Hillel.

6

Does your campus have a Hillel chapter? Or Chabad? I think it would be better for you to start by discussing your situation with one of those groups, especially if they are involved in sponsoring the trip. But even if not, they would probably be able to offer some guidance – and whether or not you end up going on the Birthright trip, getting involved at some level locally may also be a good way for you to explore your Jewish heritage.

7

Sounds like you’ve been on an interesting journey of self-discovery. My suggestion is that you share your story with the Birthright people, much as you have done here, and let them make the call. And try not to be offended if their decision goes against what you’d like it to be…your path is valuable and important, but they may be constrained by requirements from their sponsors and donors.

8

You can qualify with 1 Jewish parent but a further requirement is community-based and is designed to identify people who actually identify as Jewish.

To be clear, non-Orthodox conversions aren’t recognized by Israel (because the ultra-Orthodox are in charge of that area - and it’s extremely contentious). But that isn’t the issue, just identification. And since Judaism is both self and community based, they look for more than wanting to explore roots.

I know a number of converts to Judaism. But my suggestion is that you talk to some Jewish people you know and get recommendations to check out their Shabbat services, programs for young adults, etc. If you’re just interested in exploring spirituality, you can find classes about Judaism by looking online and often through local synagogues and Temples. To me, one of the refreshing parts of Judaism is its willingness to explore in great analytical detail the issues raised in its history. I have, for example, taken classes about the history of the Reform prayer book and about the history of how Jerusalem became identified though its name doesn’t appear in the Torah and about how Deuteronomy stories and other books are composed of nested stories and edits. This would be equivalent to the Mormon Church holding seminars about the actuality of Joseph Smith’s “translation” of the Book of Abraham and so on.

Spiritually, I think it’s important to recognize that acts of worship or prayer are one of the 3 pillars of faith, along with righteousness (charity, justice) and “returning” to God. But that doesn’t mean blinding one’s self to meanings, issues and doubts. For most rabbis I know, acts of prayer are highly informed by critical analysis and the creativity of the Oral Law.

9

My daughter went on a birthright trip last summer. She planned to go with a friend who had a Jewish mom and Christian dad. This friend was not raised Jewish and during her phone interview told them that her mom regularly attended church. In other words, just being born to a technically Jewish mom was not enough. She was told that if she could get an affidavit from a rabbi attesting to the fact that she was Jewish, they would accept it. She could not get such a thing, as her family in truth has no connection to being jewish. My daughter went alone and had a great time, even though hostilities in the area were increasing.

10

I see one problem. Being Jewish is an ethnic group as well as a religion. There needs to be a way to separate the two. You choose a religion, you do not choose your ancestors. Religiously people can define however they want to but having either parent of ethnic Jewish background means you are at least one half of that ethnic group. You can’t be half something and half nothing.

This is a pet peeve of mine when religions take over a whole genetic background. There needs to be some separation. Very elitist as well.

11

But Judaism is not generally a prosthelytizing religion. We don’t knock on doors or distribute our literature or go out on missions. The assumption is that the next generation of Jews is going to be the offspring of the current generation. Converts are fairly rare - in fact, official conversion to Judaism is a difficult process. So Jewish ethnicity and heritage are very important-- that’s inherent in the name “Birthright” and the goals of the program. They want to encourage young Jewish adults to more strongly identify with being Jewish so that they will marry other Jews and raise Jewish children.

http://www.jewishjournal.com/rosnersdomain/item/its_official_taglit_birthright_is_a_jewish_matchmaker

12

It sounds like there are 2 separate questions here - whether you would “fit in” (your question), and whether you would qualify to go. I’m not sure about the second. Re the first, my daughter went on Birthright last year with an “Orthodox” group, because the rabbi for the group runs Chabad on her campus, and she’s very fond of his family and babysits some of his kids. We’re Jewish, but my kids were raised with no religious practice whatsoever. Husband and I identify “culturally” as Jews but are basically atheists. Daughter is basically the same and rabbi knows it but assured her she’d be comfortable, which she was. He even Bat Mitzvahed her at the Western Wall, with about 6 others. The group was definitely not too religious, according to my D - in fact, to her irritation, they seemed mostly preoccupied with the availability of Wifi.

13

Each Birthright trip has it’s own persona so to speak. We are Jewish and both our daughters went when eligible. We belong to Conservative synagogue although our rabbi is personally Orthodox. Both our daughters were bat-mitzvahed and although we do not keep a kosher home, we observe the holidays, Passover for eight days and so on. We have Orthodox family and both girls attended Jewish summer camps.

So younger d went following summer of her freshman year with a friend from sleepaway camp. This was Israel Outdoors but some of their activities had to be switched because of excessive heat. She had a good experience but found it was more like a “camp trip in Israel”. Actually she had not anticipated the “going out at night in Tel Aviv” and felt she did not have enough “going out” kinds of clothes.

Older d went at 26 during the Christmas/winter trips and had a great experience, having been waitlisted previously. Her trip required that you change roommates every night so that you could mix with many more people than just possibly a friend you went with as opposed to younger d. Her trip fell during Chanukah and they celebrated in Jerusalem which was pretty special. Her trip did have more thematic discussions about Jewish identity and so on and she did participate in Shabbat services. She did stay on for a few days extra and spent Shabbat with family in Israel and also with a friend who was studying for a Fulbright. Younger d was not able to spend any extra time because it was summer and she had already delayed starting her summer job and could not take any more time. So each trip is somewhat different because of the “leadership” on that trip and perhaps the age breakdown. It is a great opportunity and experience.

14

Responding to wis75, however intentioned, that is an offensive remark. There are traditional versions of Judaism which follow old rules about blood and there are less traditional, even non-traditional versions of Judaism which don’t. Much of the Reform and Reconstructionist movement doesn’t care about the female versus male bloodline. When it comes to Israel, the question is how the state views you and thus your children for certain purposes, mostly regarding marriage. Those decisions are in the hands of the extremely Orthodox - who have even rejected conversions but some Orthodox rabbis - and it’s a big problem within Judaism. Outside of Israel, the rules are set by Jews on a congregational and movement basis.

And it’s extremely important to note that Jews are of many ethnic groups but that the world treats Jews as a distinct ethnic group though Jews are diverse. Just visit a modern temple or synagogue and you’ll see there is no type of Jew. And I’m not referring to the hooked nose caricatures. When I’d go see my kids sing in the joint youth choir concerts, I can say explicitly our group was more ethnically and racially diverse than any of the participating Christian groups.

15

Note- today registration opens for summer

16

@Lergnom, here’s an article NYT has on Jewish ethnicity.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/science/10jews.html?emc=eta1&_r=0

17

http://hazon.org/isabella-freedman/
OP, I don’t know where you live, but you might check out this retreat center in Connecticut. If you have an inner Jewish-hippie-farmer to channel, look at their Adamah program.

18

New York Times article about Adamah: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/24/garden/new-gleanings-from-a-jewish-farm.html

19

I would encourage you to call the organization and ask them if this opportunity would be something you can pursue. We can only guess what they might say. They can give you a final answer.

20

We have a relative who leads some of the summer trips. Let me know if you go!