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Making Meaning: Participants’ Experience of Birthright Israel Shaul Kelner, Leonard Saxe, Charles Kadushin, Rachel Canar, Matthew Lindholm, Hal Ossman, Jennifer Perloff, Benjamin Phillips, Rishona Teres, Minna Wolf, and Meredith Woocher A publication of the Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, Brandeis University Birthright Israel Research Report 2 November 2000 This report is a publication of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, Brandeis University Additional copies may be obtained by contacting: Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies Brandeis University, Mail Stop 014 415 South Street Waltham, Massachusetts 02454-9110 Tel: 781-736-2060 Fax: 781-736-3929 Table of Contents Preface..................................................................................................................i Executive Summary .......................................................................................... iii Introduction: Observing Birthright Israel.........................................................1 Encountering the Western Wall ........................................................................2 Expectations Shape an Experience.....................................................................4 Significant Others, Real and Imagined..............................................................8 An “Off Day”................................................................................................... 11 The Readiness Is All........................................................................................ 14 It’s About People ............................................................................................. 17 Through the Eyes of a Group.......................................................................... 19 The Enduring Significance of Place ................................................................ 26 A “Teacher-Proof” Program? ........................................................................... 30 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 32 Methodological Appendix............................................................................... 34 References........................................................................................................ 36 PREFACE The present report is the second in a series of documents that describes a systematic evaluation of Birthright Israel. A previously published report focused on two surveys conducted with alumni of the launch programs. The results of these surveys indicated that Birthright Israel, at least in the near-term, had considerable impact on participants. At the outset, there was substantial concern whether young Diaspora Jews would be interested and whether it was a worthwhile investment. The program sponsors acknowledged these concerns and were willing to subject the program to external scrutiny. The present report delves in-depth into the dynamics and processes by which the trip produced the outcomes observed in the survey data. It is hoped that these findings will provide useful feedback to the program sponsors and will be of value to scholars interested in how the program achieved its impact. Additional studies and reports are underway. Most importantly, a third follow-up will be conducted with Winter 1999-2000 participants. A new round of evaluation of the Spring 2000 and Winter 2000-2001 trips is also in process. In addition, research is focusing on the experience of the organizations charged with implementing Birthright Israel and further analyses of the survey data are being conducted. The present report should be seen within the context of this on-going program of research. As with most contemporary social science, the present project was a team effort. Although, as principal co-investigators and as the coordinator of the field work, we take responsibility for the overall conduct of the Birthright Israel ethnography and its conclusions, this report could not have taken shape without the incredible work of our colleagues and students. We feel privileged to work with each member of the team. In addition to each of the field workers, whose names appear as the co-authors of this report, we also want to acknowledge the contributions of our other team members. Naomi Bar-Yam skillfully managed the logistics that enabled the nine researchers to enter the field. Heather Shapiro spent much of her internship with us reflecting on her own participation in Birthright Israel, and providing a crucial “reality-test” for our ideas. Archie Brodsky’s keen eye and sharp pen helped us express our thoughts as clearly as possible. Our work also benefited from the assistance of colleagues. Professor Harvey Goldberg shared with us advice based on his own experience as a participant observer on an Israel trip for teenagers. Dr. Elan Ezrachi provided insight into the structured encounters with Israeli peers. Howard Charish and Professor Samuel Heilman offered helpful suggestions for the report. We are also very grateful to Keith Kriviztky, Yuval Koren, Paul Reichenbach and the numerous other professionals working for Birthright Israel, the trip sponsors and the land service providers, whose assistance was crucial to the success of this field work; in particular, our primary liaison, Professor Barry Chazan, who made our work possible. His consistently insightful feedback has added immensely to the current report. Making Meaning: Participants’ Experience of Birthright Israel — page i One theme that emerged in our study of Birthright Israel was the importance of family. With that in mind, we offer heartfelt thanks to Pamela Kelner, Jared Kelner, and Rhoda and Morton Schulman, whose readings of multiple drafts helped us craft a report we hope is accessible to diverse audiences. Most of all, we would like to extend our gratitude to the participants and bus staff of the Birthright Israel trips we observed. They received our team of researchers warmly, and made the research experience for us both interesting and fun. Throughout the research process, we have attempted to treat the subjects of our study with respect. We hope this respect is reflected in these pages. After all, this story of Birthright Israel is the story of their thoughts and lives. We hope that the present report, like the others in this series, will be useful to both scholars and practitioners. We welcome your feedback. Leonard Saxe, Ph.D. Charles Kadushin, Ph.D. Shaul Kelner, M.Phil. Co-Principal Investigator Co-Principal Investigator Field Work Coordinator [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies Brandeis University, MS 014 Waltham, MA 02454-9110 Making Meaning: Participants’ Experience of Birthright Israel — page ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Birthright Israel’s short-term goal was to provide participants with “a stimulating encounter with Israel — and by extension with their own identity” (Post, 1999). Three months after participants returned home, survey data (see Saxe et al., 2000) make clear that the goal was met. Alumni evaluated almost every dimension of the trip highly and there was evidence of enhanced feelings of Jewish connection and increased levels of participation in the North American Jewish community. Although the program’s long-range impact cannot yet be assessed, the preliminary success of the program raises the question: “What is there about a ten-day Jewish experience in Israel that has such powerful impact?” To understand what participants experienced, and how it was affected by the way in which trips were organized, a team of ethnographers from Brandeis University’s Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies conducted detailed participant observation of over a dozen diverse Birthright Israel groups. The findings reinforce the results of the surveys and help to explain why the trip seemed to have such great impact. The principal findings can be summarized as follows: • Being in Israel contributed directly to the program’s Jewish identity-building goals. Suffused with Jewish symbols, Israel forced Jewishness onto the consciousness. Trip itineraries capitalized on this by explicitly linking educational themes with physical settings. This capacity to tap the reservoir of core elements of American Jewish folk religion (a sense of history, tradition, peoplehood, family, heroism, insecurity and power) was experienced most vividly at evocative settings like the Western Wall, the Golan Heights, and the JNF forests. By the end of the trip, Israel became the encapsulating symbol of an intense, positive Jewish experience. The personal experience of Birthright Israel was thus tied to a collective Jewish symbol possessing great tangibility, durability, and authority. • Post-trip survey data found that Birthright Israel participants exhibited greater diversity in their Jewish backgrounds than is typical for Israel experience programs. Both the survey and the ethnography found that this diverse group was self-selected for interest in Israel. Participants understood the goals of the program and were open to a Jewish identity-building experience, even if this was not an explicit desire. Both because of their own interests, and the guidance of Birthright Israel staff (before and during their experience in Israel), participants anticipated a meaningful experience and interpreted the things they did and saw in light of these expectations. In other words, participants saw what they expected to see and felt what they expected

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