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September 28, 2001
Cover - Low Birthright enrolment
Fear factor hurts program
Only 17 people apply for December Birthright trip to Israel.
KYLE BERGER REPORTER
The Western Canadian director of Israel affairs for the Israel
Experience Centre of Canada said British Columbia is in jeopardy
of losing an opportunity to send 120 people on a free trip to Israel
this December.
Zoe Klein, whose office is located in the Jewish Community Centre
of Greater Vancouver, said Birthright Israel had offered the province's
Jewish community three buses that hold 40 participants each. That
number was based on an expected 400 applications for the tour, which
is slated to visit Israel Dec. 26, 2001, to Jan. 6, 2002.
However, as of Sept. 21, she had received only 17 applications,
a number that she called embarrassing.
"Seventeen is ridiculously low considering it's for the entire
province," she said.
Klein said that fear generated by escalating violence in the Middle
East, as well as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States,
has proven to be the number one factor for the drop in applications.
"People are afraid to travel anywhere right now but, more
specifically, the idea of going to Israel is sort of like going
to a black hole in the Middle East," she said. "They don't
think it's safe, they can't imagine why you'd want to go there and
they can't imagine why they'd have a reasonable time."
Applications all across Canada are down, however, as terrorism
continues to threaten Israel.
In Toronto, with a Jewish community of approximately 185,000, they
have received 435 applications, down significantly from the expected
2,000.
In the 15,000-plus Jewish community of Winnipeg, where the response
for Birthright is usually quite positive, they have only 56 applicants
to fill the four buses that have been offered to them. Klein said
she is unable to guarantee anyone's safety at any time in their
lives, however, she can guarantee that her organization does everything
that they can to protect their participants.
"What I can assure people is that we use top security, we
take precautions that are unparallelled and all the itineraries
are thoroughly checked by top level security," she said. "I
think our organization is second to none when it comes to not taking
risks."
Klein has been in Israel for several Canadian Birthright tours
this year. She said not once has she or any of her participants
felt any danger.
"It's a matter of turning off CNN, ABC, CBC, BBC and CTV and
just stepping off a plane and recognizing that you're as safe as
the people who live there every day," she said. "Over
the past 15 years that I've been going back and forth to Israel,
I can't recall one year of my life that someone hasn't said it was
a bad time to go."
Klein said that even if the safety restrictions prevent groups
from spending time in popular places such as Tel-Aviv, the experience
they can offer is still worthwhile.
"I think that we're going to be able to show a first-time
[visitor] or a person who has never been on an organized trip [to
Israel] an experience that they will never be able to have any other
time," she said. "For such a small country, there's so
much to do and see there and we're going to be able to give someone
an experience that's going to blow their socks off."
Rabbi Yosef Benaroch, who was the rabbi at Beth Hamidrash synagogue
for eight years before moving his family to Israel two years ago,
was back in town for Rosh Hashanah to promote a Birthright trip
of his own.
Now the rabbi for the Sephardic Educational Centre in Jerusalem,
Benaroch travelled across Canada to talk about a Birthright tour
co-sponsored by his organization.
He told the Bulletin about his own challenges of raising
interest for Israel tours and said that Jews everywhere have a responsibility
to support Israel under any conditions.
"The Jewish response to the situation has to be that we are
even more enthusiastic about supporting Israel and standing with
our brothers and sisters in Israel," he said. "If there
was ever a time we had to show our support it is now."
Benaroch said that breaking peoples' perceptions about safety in
Israel is difficult. However, he insisted that if they took the
chance to see it for themselves, they would probably feel safer
there than in any major North American city.
"I've been travelling quite a bit since the twin towers attack
and the security here is so beefed up it's unbelievable," he
said. "But I can tell you that, even with the extreme security
that's going on in North America today, it doesn't come close to
the kind of security we go through in Israel. They're so much more
careful there."
For information about Birthright Israel tours, call the Israel
Experience Centre office at 604-257-5140 or apply online at
www.israelforfree.com.
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