Over 1,000 Shabbat Dinners, All Hosted By Alumni Of BirthrightIsrael Birthright Israel NEXT Expands Successful Home Hospitality Program, Aims To Reach 25,000 Young Adults (NAPSA)—Young adults in their 20s are hosting their friends for Friday night Shabbat dinners in record numbers. As part of an initiative by Birthright Israel NEXT, the largest peer-led home hospitality Shabbat program in North America is expanding after the unprecedented success of its inaugural five-month round, which provided funding for Shabbat meals for over 10,000 people Twenty-something young adults in the United States and Canada. are partnering with Birthright “This was an extraordinary Israel NEXT to host Shabbat opportunity to provide a setting for people to come togetherin celebration,” said Danielle Solan, who hosted a dinner in Austin, Texas. “IT love opening up my homefor friends and showing them Jewish generosity. This was my first time doing anythinglike this!” In exchange for the time and energy put in to organize the events, Shabbat hosts receive $25 per mealguest for up to 16 guests, provided by a grant from the Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life. Hosts create the guest list online and can invite whomever they like. The program launched its pilot stage in Maythis year and to date there have been 1,025 events. “During the Taglit-Birthright Israel trip experience many people feel a sense of peer-community for the first time. That absolutely should not end with thetrip alone, and Shabbat dinners are a powerful way to continue those shared Jewish experiences,” said Rabbi Daniel S. Brenner, Executive Director of Birthright Israel NEXT. “Weare thrilled by the overwhelming response, grateful for the support and excited to be able to extend the program.” Birthright Israel NEXT has been developed to connect TaglitBirthright Israel alumni to Jewish life upon their return from their trip to Israel. Local directors meals fortheir friends. across North America coordinate a variety of community-building activities and encourage alumnito reach out to their friends, engage Judaism in new ways and continue to explore their connections to Israel. About Birthright Israel] NEXT The mission of Birthright Israel NEXT is to ensure that Birthright Israel alumni and their peers strengthen their bonds to each other, expand their connections to the land and people of Israel, and deepen their personal commitments to Jewishlife. To learn more, visit next.birthrightisrael.com. About Taglit-Birthright Israel Taglit-Birthright Israel provides the gift of first-time, peer group, 10-day educational trips to Israel for Jewish young adults ages 18 to 26. Taglit-Birthright Israel’s founders created this program to send thousands of young Jewish adults from all over the world to Israel as a gift in order to diminish the growing division between Israel and Jewish communities around the world; to strengthen the sense of solidarity among world Jewry; and to strengthen participants’ personal Jewish identity and connection to the Jewish people. To learn more, visit www. birthrightisrael.com.
