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A friend of mine is going on Birthright and wants to know what to look out for / advice. She’s going on the frum OU all female one and would like to know from people who have been on it what it’s like.
Thank you all!
Its fantastic!
Its generally lowly chaperoned so if she wants to get into trouble she can.
I went on a coed/frum bus and there was some drinking. No drugs or other inappropriateness.
My husband went on a frum mens only tour and said the same thing.
You can pay extra to stay extra after the tour is over.
I went on the all girls trip last January.
Some things to keep in mind:
-each trip is diff, some more bais yaakov type and some not. My trip had a big mix, but few yeshivish bais yaakov type.
-like the others just posted, plenty of oppertunities to go to bars
-very zionist tour guides, the focus is zionism and the Land of Israel. Some speeches are straight from historia classes on what the zionists said in the olden days. sitting in a classroom you think it’s funny what they said, but hearing ppl saying the same things….basically keep your haskafos straight from what you learnt.
-tell your friend to extend her ticket if she wants to daven at kevarim and get the spiritual side of eretz yisroel.It’s dirt cheap to extend your ticket and totally worth it.Birthright doesnt take you to kever rochel or mearos hamachpaila. we went to the rambam’s kever i think, but that was it.
-go with friends, don’t go alone.
Kashrus. A friend of mine went on an all male one this summer. He was basically only eating pudding. Not all the food was mehadrin, and even when it was, it was often heated in oven without mehadrin supervision.
I take no public position regarding different kashrus agencies in Israel. I am just raising the issue.
It’s a fantastic trip and they take you to all the main cultural (read: not necessarily but does include religious) sites. It’s action packed, and you’re always on the move. The tour guides won’t give you the yeshivishe insight you would look for if you were custom planning your own trip. They will give you the zionistic slant on things and you need to take it with a grain of salt. The group that you are with will impact greatly on the outcome of the trip. I traveled with a great group where (almost) everyone had their heads screwed tightly on their shoulders and we made a great kiddush Hashem for the very mizrachi tour guide and the not yet frum chayalim. We also had the seychel to say no parts of the itinerary and had it changed for us (such as removal of the “pubbing” on motzai shabbos and replacing a day trip to visit kevorim). So it really is what you make of it. If you feel the trip is lacking anything and u have the time, it is well worth it to extend your ticket.
pascha: a good friend is fine. If the group is your friends type than she’ll make friends also. If they’re not, then you just stick with your friend.
pascha bchochma:
In Israel, even fruit is an issue. My friend was on an all male trip organized by a frum group. He was very surprised that the food was an issue. I would suggest anyone going on one of these trips inquire into the details of the kashrus.
This is a little off topic, but…. Does anyone know if there is some type of trip to Israel that is similar to Birthright/Taglit that is available for “young” senior citizens? I know that there are dozens of tours and missions (such as JNF or UJA, etc) that a person can go on, but usually they are quite brieg – 7-10 days and very costly. I am looking for something that could last a little bit or a lot longer and costs very, very little.
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