March 27, 2026
I'm originally from Brooklyn, and I attended college and law school in New York City. I'm married, I'm observant by choice, and I have teenage twins. I've always known that as an adult, you have to constantly reinvest in your commitment to Judaism. It's not something that just happens. It has to be planned. It has to be intentional. After October...
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March 23, 2026
Brandeis University has documented the sharpest decline in Jewish connection among young American Jews in 25 years. Without intervention, campus pressure, misinformation, and political polarization are pulling young Jews away from Jewish life.Birthright Israel is the proven solution: participants return more connected to Israel, more grounded in their Jewish identity, and more committed to the Jewish community.The impact doesn't fade...
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March 13, 2026
Last week, 500 Birthright Israel Excel Fellows from around the world gathered at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York for the Excelerate26 Summit. To understand why this weekend mattered, you first need to understand who was in that room and what brought them there.Who Was In That RoomBirthright Israel Excel Fellows are students from Harvard, Stanford, Penn, Cambridge,...
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March 4, 2026
I grew up in Commack, Long Island, in a Reform Jewish family. My parents are from the Bronx, and although our home wasn’t kosher, I had my bar mitzvah, and spent summers going up to the Catskills for family reunions.I never originally saw myself as a Jewish educator. I saw myself as Jewish and happened to work in a yeshiva...
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February 17, 2026
My name is Tatyana Kheyfets, and I live in San Ramon, California. I was born in Gomel, Belarus, and immigrated to the United States in 1995 when I was nine years old. My life has always been shaped by the desire to build meaningful relationships, learn from different perspectives, and stay actively engaged with my community. Growing up in Belarus,...
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February 3, 2026
I was born in Israel, and my family moved to the U.S. when I was seven and a half. I grew up in New Jersey, and now I’m a fourth-year student at Drexel University, majoring in biology. I work at a cancer immunotherapy research lab at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and I’m exploring a career in medicine.As an immigrant...
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January 29, 2026
I’m from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and I’m a sophomore at Drexel University in Philadelphia, studying marketing. I’m interested in social media and branding, and I also play basketball. I went to Hebrew school until about age thirteen and had my bar mitzvah, but after that, there was a gap. Then the pandemic hit, everything got chaotic, and before I knew...
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January 29, 2026
For most of my life, Israel was something I was supposed to wait for. When I was growing up in a Chabad Chasidic community, the answer was seminary. When COVID-19 shut that door, the answer became “next year.” When my health collapsed, the answer became “when you can walk again.”Once COVID restrictions were lifted, and I had time off from...
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January 28, 2026
I’m from Westchester, New York. I studied cinematography at Ithaca College and graduated in 2023. Now I’m getting an MFA in photography through Savannah College of Art and Design. I’m going through my photos from Birthright Israel and writing about my experiences, hoping to eventually compile them into a book.My dad is Jewish, and my mom is Catholic. My sister...
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