This year's Taglit-Birthright Israel trip hosted by Brown/RISD Hillel had one of the biggest applicant pools in the country — and accepted just over half of the hopefuls, its lowest percentage yet.
After 115 Brown and RISD students applied, Taglit allotted the campus Hillel 60 seats to fill. Last year, this Hillel sent only 30 students, but far fewer applied.
According to Leehe Ralph, Brown/RISD Hillel Israel fellow, the only other organization that had as many applicants was the Hillel at the University of California at Berkeley. The Brown/RISD group will fill one-and-a-half buses that will carry them to many of Israel's main sites.
The jump in applications was probably due to this year's new recruiting campaign, said Marshall Einhorn, executive director of Brown/RISD Hillel. Ralph said this campaign consisted of work by engagement interns, who are undergraduates working at Hillel, as well as an active effort to raise awareness of the trip through e-mails, Facebook and posters.
Funding for the trips is provided mostly by private donors, according to the organization's website. Ralph said that since the economic crisis — and the aftermath of the Bernard Madoff scandal — Birthright Israel has had fewer seats to distribute.
Students participating in the trips, which will take place in January, partake in orientation sessions to get to know each other and learn more about their destination. Einhorn described the orientation, which include a Shabbat dinner and an Israeli culture session with Senior Lecturer in Judaic Studies Ruti Adler, as "Israel 101."
Ralph, who will accompany her second Brown/RISD Hillel birthright group this year, said alums usually become "more involved" with Hillel after visiting Israel, adding that the trip is an invaluable tool for building a "Jewish community back on campus."
"As an Israeli, I am so happy to see my country has changed their lives," she said.
Ralph said the main goal of Birthright is to "strengthen the connection between these students and their Jewish identity." The trip fosters "a lot of conversation about cultures and customs" during the time in Israel and afterward, she said.
Emily Shelkowitz '12 applied to Hillel's Birthright trip after being waitlisted this summer for the trip run through her local Jewish Community Center. Shelkowitz said she is "very excited to see all of these places I've learned about since I was little."
While Shelkowitz described herself as "fairly religious," participant Miriam Joelson '11, vice-president for cultural arts on Hillel's executive board, said she has been "discovering Judaism in college." As a beginning Hebrew student, Joelson said her motivation for going on Birthright as a senior is to "see for myself what I've been reading about for the past few years." She said people she has met through Hillel "speak about Israel with so much love."
Because the Brown/RISD Hillel trip consists of students sharing the same campus Hillel, participants can "continue their journey when back on campus," Ralph said. In this way, students are "guaranteed a continuing community" when they return.
Einhorn said Birthright is a "formative time for Jewish-American students." He praised the concept of the trip as a "shared immersive experience" that allows students to "internalize Israel together."
One of Taglit's main goals is to "strengthen the bonds between diaspora Jews and Israel." Ralph said. "Israel is a part of Judaism."
The 10-day immersion into Israel is only the beginning of a lifelong journey of developing a Jewish identity, Ralph said.
"I always want to be questioning what I am doing," Joelson said.
The trip is available to anyone with a Jewish heritage, regardless of degree of religious beliefs or practice, Ralph and Einhorn said.
Ralph encouraged students who were not accepted into a trip this year to apply again, saying they will have a better chance when applying a second time.
