H a’aretz’s Judy Maltz reported November 26 that Birthright has dropped the Reform movement as a trip provider because it has failed to enlist sufficient numbers of American Jews between 18 and 26 in its programs. And Maltz is not happy about it as her scare headline “How Orthodox Groups Are Taking Over Birthright and Using It to Target Young US Jews ” makes clear.
A quarter of all Birthright participants Maltz reports now come to Israel on Orthodox-sponsored programs even though the number of Orthodox participants in the program is under 5 percent. Over the past decade Birthright has been gradually consolidating the number of trip providers — going from 33 to 10. Of those remaining three are Orthodox: Mayanot (Chabad) Free Spirit (OU Aish HaTorah and Meor) and Ezra. The first two are among the largest of the trip providers.
A third of Birthright participants identify as Reform. But as the removal of the Reform trip provider from the program indicates they have little interest in coming to Israel on Reform-sponsored trips.
Maltz views this as some sort of nefarious plot to turn young American Jews Orthodox. But her explanations of how the Orthodox cabal works do not hold up.
