Rachel Ramos grew up at Temple Beth El and just completed her first year of rabbinical school at the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem.
What is the next generation learning from Israel?
On Tuesday evening, 1,500 Birthright participants made the 13-hour journey on a cruise liner from the Port of Ashdod in southern Israel to Cyprus. When they docked, those who didn’t make the flight back to Tampa were received by the local Chabad house, where they will stay until more planes arrive.
As a former Hillel professional, I have spent the past week reaching out to my students, their families, and coworkers who have found themselves in a very tenuous limbo. After the attack on October 7th, it took time for new adults to feel safe visiting Israel on Birthright, but that didn’t stop them. Volunteer trips ran that next summer, and by the time I moved to Israel, my former students were visiting me during their own Birthright adventures. Despite the conflict, our people’s love of Israel could not be broken.
But now, in the wake of Israel’s attack on Iran’s nuclear weapons, our students find themselves, again, in uncharted waters.
“Birthright Israel isn’t just a trip to Israel,” declares the Birthright Israel Foundation. “This gift of a lifetime opens the eyes of young adults to the Jewish world around them, creating a lasting impact on identity, family, community, culture, and continuity.”
College is a foundational milestone in a student’s life. As new adults, they can explore their Jewish identity, independent of the oversight of parents and family members. This is why Birthright recruitment was one of my main focuses when I worked at Purdue Hillel. If we expect the next generation to feel connected to the Jewish homeland, we must provide them with opportunities to build those connections. Adults who attend Birthright bring back experiences that will shape how they interact with Judaism throughout their lives.
So what about the 1,500 students waiting in Cyprus, and the remaining 1,300 still in Israel? Whose memories of the holy land will be of the Iron Dome shooting missiles from the sky, and lying down on a highway, shielding their heads from debris?
In Parashat Shelach L’Cha this week, Moses sent out scouts to discover what awaited our people in the land of milk and honey. They return with tales of Nephilim, giants, unbeatable opponents who would surely wage war on the Israelites. They thought the land was hostile and dangerous, and some of the bravest leaders of all the tribes agreed that it was not the place for them to build a home.
However, two of the scouts disagreed. The 18th-century Rabbi Or Hachim writes that these two men, Joshua and Caleb, rent their clothes in grief and protest at what their compatriots had said. Instead of focusing on the beauty and promise that Israel held, the other scouts spread tales of doom and destruction, severing the Israelites’ belief in the homeland God had promised them.
It is normal to fear conflict, but it takes an extraordinary person to recognize the beauty in something worth fighting for. And that’s what this year’s birthright participants are: extraordinary.
Over the past few days, I have had the privilege of speaking with some of them directly while they were stuck in Cyprus, and their stories have been inspiring. Not one of them regretted traveling to Israel when they did. Instead of fear or remorse, these new adults took away a sense of awe and pride in the Israeli people and their ability to embrace joy in times of crisis. They bring back with them not tales of doom and gloom, but emotional accounts of the resilience of the Jewish people that have forever shaped how they connect to Israel.
So, as we prepare to welcome in Shabbat together, may we embrace beauty, not despite the hardship, but because of it. And may we be reassured that even during the most dire of circumstances, there will always be those who are ready to defend the dream of a Jewish homeland.
Rachel Ramos
Rabbinical Student
