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Birthright Israel is cutting back on the number of loose trips it plans to offer young Jewish adults, reducing its operations by as much as a third, the organization said Monday.
The cuts come amid what the organization said was a combination of currency pressures, basically inflation and emerging prices in a post-COVID world. It plans to launch more appeals to its major donors, but still plans to particularly reduce its to Israel in 2023 to just 23,500 participants, up from 35,000 this year and 45,000 the year before the pandemic.
“The significant increases in the prices of our program mean that we will not be able to accommodate as many applicants in the coming years,” Birthright CEO Gidi Mark said in a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
However, Birthright’s fundraising was not affected. A spokesperson for Birthright told JTA that the organization expects its investment to increase between 2022 and 2023, but the expansion may not be enough to offset emerging spending and inflation.
The organization recently showed other symptoms of reduced operations for its 10-day loose trips to Israel for young Jewish adults. from 27 and 32 years old to register. The organization’s leadership said at the time that construction at the age limit failed to convince young Jews to continue delaying their travels. Birthright also merged with Onward Israel, another travel program to Israel for young adults, the pandemic
The program founded in 1999 for the purpose of encouraging greater engagement with Israel among younger generations of Jews, and studies commissioned over the next two decades showed that Jews who participated in Birthright’s trips were more likely than their peers who implemented but did not approve of marrying someone Jewish and feeling a deeper connection to Israel. One such study was published last week.
“Without an early primary buildup in fundraising, we’re going to have a hard time having the positive effect we’ve had on a lot of people,” Mark said.
The Birthright Israel Foundation, its fundraising arm, is this year making a broad appeal to donors for more funding. , Izzy Tapoohi, said it’s “a myth” that “only a few major donors” fund Birthright.
This has been a difficult time for many of Birthright’s unwavering major backers, from various legal issues for founder Michael Steinhardt to possible sanctions for Russian Jewish philanthropists in the wake of Russia’s war with Ukraine. Young American Jews have also indicated in demographic studies that they feel less culturally and politically attached to Israel than past generations, and the organization IfNotNow, which aims to end American Jewishness from Israel’s Palestinian territories, has called for boycotts and other protests by Birthright.
The recent Israeli elections that propelled a far-right bloc into government are widely known as likely to drive a further wedge between Israel and many young American Jews.
Correction: An earlier edition of this story incorrectly stated that Birthright had experienced a slowdown in fundraising. In fact, Birthright predicts that its investment will add up between 2022 and 2023, even as it reduces the amount of travel.
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