'Gearing Up' for the 10th Year of Taglit-Birthright Israel

Taking 1,500 Taglit-Birthright Israel participants to Israel every year requires great staff, both Israeli and American. Every Israeli guide holds a coveted “Moreh Derech” license, the highest touring certification offered in Israel. Shorashim has also invested considerable resources to hire and train staff from the United States to ensure the highest quality individuals staffing trips and educating the 40 Americans per bus who are experiencing Israel for the first time with six to ten of their Israeli peers.

To staff a Taglit-Birthright Israel trip, Shorashim requires madrichim to have had significant experience in Israel. Our U.S. staff includes many Shorashim alumni, and alumni from study abroad programs at the University of Tel Aviv and Hebrew University, former Otzma participants, and some who have staffed other high school, college and mission programs.

This winter, Shorashim held three staff trainings this season in Chicago (in partnership with JUF), Boston (at Harvard University Hillel) and New York (in partnership with JNF). The topics included the mifgash in the Shorashim mission, how to assess your strengths and weaknesses to be an effective trip leader, and how to transmit the meaning of Shabbat to your participants. The Chicago group had the fortune of hearing Israel political expert and former Editor of the Jerusalem Post Carl Schrag explain the intricacies of the 2009 Israeli elections and contextualize them in terms of U.S.-Israel relations.