Birthright’s New Policy Spectacularly Backfires
My 2009 Birthright trip changed my life for the better. I fell head over heels in love with Israel, inspired by Jews controlling their destiny after centuries of discrimination, exile, and genocide. Following years of struggling with my Jewish identity, I finally felt at home with myself, the Jewish people, and the world’s only Jewish democratic state.
Birthright would consider me a success story. After returning home, I co-founded a pro-Israel group at my alma mater and launched a career largely at the nexus of politics and the Jewish community. In fact, I fought the BDS movement for 4.5 years and staffed a mission to Israel and the West Bank/Palestine for the mayor of a major city, having previously — and enthusiastically — referred dozens of other civic leaders to similar trips. My experience validated the historical truth that from the very beginning, Zionism has always been a partnership between the Diaspora and those living in Israel itself.
When news broke that Birthright participation sharply declined this year, my heart sank because it means fewer people sharing my passion for Israel and Jewish life. Yet with the direction Birthright, the Israeli government, and its American Jewish establishment partners are heading, things are far worse than I could have imagined nearly a decade ago.
Birthright’s new code of conduct banning supposed “efforts to hijack discussion” is a creepy Orwellian tactic to silence dissent at best and a profound rejection of Jewish talmudic tradition of open debate at worst.
According to its website, “Birthright Israel aims to ensure a vibrant future of the Jewish people by strengthening Jewish identity, Jewish communities and connections with Israel.” Yet if Israel is indeed a democracy, why are its biggest supporters so afraid of allowing for an actual culture of democracy to flourish on government-funded tours?
Considering that tikkun olam (“to repair the world”), tzedek, tzedek tirdof (“justice, justice you shall pursue”) and b’tselem elohim (“we’re all made in the image of God”) are the very core of Jewish values, one would think that Birthright tours would at minimum be a safe space for young Jews to grapple with how Israel lives up to the immense responsibility that comes with the miracle of our people’s national sovereignty. My Birthright tour certainly was.
Sadly, Birthright’s policy decision is a serious failure. How do its funders think that silencing Millennial and Gen Z Jews will change perceptions of Israel and its conflict with the Palestinians for the better? How does preventing difficult conversations help young Jews stay Jewish? How does Birthright execute its mission in good faith when it kicks participants off trips for asking questions about the security barrier?
If asking questions about the security barrier is too much for Birthright to stomach, what happens when participants ask about Israel’s policies towards refugees and asylum seekers, non-Orthodox Jews, LGBT people, foreign guest workers, Palestinian citizens of Israel, women, Bedouin Israelis, Gaza, and Palestinians under Occupation? Social justice defines many of our Jewish identities here at home; does Birthright really want to tell Jews to essentially stop being Jewish in Israel, of all places?
Covering up the Occupation and other challenges Israel faces will only spectacularly backfire; trip participants can see right through it. If anything, Birthright’s own behavior reflects the malignant impact on the Jewish people ruling over another nation for over 50 years in the West Bank with no end in sight (to be clear: Israel is not the only party bearing responsibility), and the corrosive anti-democratic impact it has on the soul of the Jewish communal leadership in the Diaspora and Israel alike that seeks to entrench the Occupation. Lack of overt support for a two-state solution keeping Israel Jewish and democratic will only contribute to Birthright’s demise in the eyes of the people it claims to serve.
The recent policy change reflects a painful reality: rather than embodying tikkun olam, tzedakah, and b’tselem elohim, Birthright’s behavior risks valorizing David’s transformation into a xenophobic, authoritarian, and racist Goliath that goes against these very values. Instead of a nuanced picture, it’s forcing a right-wing black-and-white vision of Israel that should make BDS’s biggest proponents kvell. For this reason, I can’t blame fewer Jews taking the chance to visit Israel.
Birthright remains far from alone in marching down the path of enabling Israel’s worst anti-democratic instincts — just look at the current Israeli government (which partially funds Birthright) — but it facilitates the first, and sometimes only, visit to the country for a substantial number of Jews. It bears a particularly profound responsibility for our communal cohesion and wellbeing.
If it wishes to be successful, Birthright cannot present Israel as a Jewish Disneyland, but rather an imperfect nation just as our home countries.
The bare minimum Birthright should be able to handle is difficult questions from young Diaspora Jews that many Israelis themselves are also asking. And in this post-Pittsburgh era when American Jews are profoundly aware of the weakness of our own democracy from right-wing extremists, I completely understand why many of my peers feel deeply alienated by the Trump-Netanyahu alliance and choose to walk away from Israel altogether.
Given Birthright’s apparent fear of left-wing Jews trying to “hijack the conversation,” they need to look no further than Peter Beinart’s refreshing, “Young Anti-Zionists: Be Uncomfortable, Like I Am With My Zionism” to include powerful and thought-provoking contexts to Jewish history and solidarity.
The fact that we in the Diaspora do not serve in the IDF nor live in Israel doesn’t take away from our political and philanthropic role in Israel’s security and international legitimacy, nor Israel’s willingness to speak in our name. Prioritize Israel’s policies along the desires of a small minority of right-wing Jews alongside anti-Semitic, sexist, anti-LGBT Evangelical Christians in lieu of the largest Jewish Diaspora community in the world (which happens to be overwhelmingly center-left), and the long-term consequences will be dire.
Telling Jews to walk away from our foundational values of tikkun olam, tzedakah, and b’tselem elohim is simply a nonstarter. For those kept up at night by fears of cratering Jewish continuity and connection to Israel, Birthright is sowing the seeds for the disaster it sought to prevent.
