Dear Friends,

We hope 2023 has been off to a great start for you and your family.

We hope this issue of Journeys continues to inspire you as you read about the impact you have had on our participants and why donors, like you, support our mission. We are also excited for you to get to know Onward, the newest edition to the Birthright Israel family and see how a midlength internship program in Israel operates.

You will also read about a new challenge that we face. Registration opened for our summer trips in January, and we were thrilled to see such high demand for our classic 10-day trip and our mid-length programs Onward and Excel. Unfortunately, due to inflation resulting in a 30% rise in costs per participant, we were unable to say yes to everyone that applied, leaving 20,000 applicants for our 10-day trip behind.

We know that these experiences can transform our participants and their connections to Judaism, Israel, and the Jewish community at large. We as the Jewish people have an incredible opportunity to come together as a community and provide these incredible experiences to our children and grandchildren. Please join us!

After celebrating the recent holiday of Passover, we are thankful for all of your generosity, and we hope you will continue to support us so that we may say “L’shana haba’ah b’Yerushalayim” (next year in Jerusalem) to the tens of thousands of young Jewish adults eager to explore their Jewish identity and the land of Israel.

Warmly,

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: PAMELA L. FERTEL WEINSTEIN

CONTENT COORDINATOR: ANDRIA K. AYLYAROV

GRAPHIC DESIGNER: MELISSA H. ROMAN