A week and a half ago, I returned from Israel, having – for my first time – led a Taglit Birthright Israel trip. It was quite a trip and there is much to say about it! Look for future posts about the trip on this blog 🙂
One thing that struck me was hearing many participants say how more excited they were for exploring their Jewish identity than they had before. I was very glad to hear that. However, one thing I learned – having gone on the trip – was that the trip is really a spark for exploring one’s Jewish identity in contradistinction to being the place where one fully explores it.
Thus, the task ahead of us (my wife and I were the trip leaders) is to leverage the participants’ experience and to help guide them on their continued Jewish journeys now that we’re back. Although we had a small get-together with some of the participants in the days following our return, we hope to have other get-togethers, as well as other follow-up meetings. There is much work to be done!