Unforgetable Encounter

Last night we tried something that Birthright has never done; we did an evening activity with a special needs Birthright group. It was such an amazing experience for each and every one of us. We learned that our groups weren't so different from each other; after all, we are all seeing the same sites and cities and having the same experiences, just at a different pace. Most importantly, we are all Jewish, and are all here to embrace our heritage and learn about our roots. For the activity, our bus was split into groups of two and three, and we were paired with one member of the other bus. After introducing our selves and getting to know each other a bit,l we came up with short skits of our favorite experience in Israel so far. One by one the groups perform, and then we had to guess what they were acting out. It was a good time for all of us. After the skits we lit the Hanukkah candles together and danced and sang Hanukkah songs; we even danced the hora! The other group was so happy that we came and spent the evening with them, they all had the biggest smiles on their faces. our group left feeling really grateful for having been able to have that experience and having made those amazing people so happy. As one of the girls from the other group said, "We all made a new friend or two who will always be part of what made our Birthright experience so special."

Lauren J.