Birthright Israel
Five Washington and Lee sophomores took part in the “Taglight/Birthright Israel” project, spending 10 days in Israel during December. The five students were Stephanie Krasnov, Natasha Lerner, Kathryn Marsh-Soloway, Nora Wallenius and Ali Greenberg. W&L has sent students on the biannual trips during December and June since 2001.
“It was a really great experience,” Ali wrote in an e-mail. “We were able to travel throughout the country, meet Israeli soldiers and get more in touch with what our Jewish culture meant to us as individuals.”
In addition, Ali and Nora Wallenius celebrated their Bat Mitzvahs during the trip. “That,” wrote Ali, “was very special for us.”
The Taglit-Birthright Israel program offers a free, 10-day, educational tour of Israel as a joint project of the government of Israel, Jewish philanthropists and Jewish communities from around the world, including the North American Jewish Federations, Keren Hayesod and the Jewish Agency for Israel. More than a quarter of a million young Jewish adults, in more than 50 countries around the world, have participated since the program began a decade ago.
