Program Aims To Keep Alumni Connected After Birthright Israel

The Taglit-Birthright Israel program, which has sent about 26,000 young Jews from New York and nearly 200,000 worldwide on free trips to Israel, has its sights set on a new audience: its alumni.

Through a new initiative, called Taglit-Birthright Israel NEXT New York, the group seeks to keep participants of Birthright Israel engaged in Jewish life through programs, seminars, and retreats.

"Obviously, you get very excited on the trip, and then of course you go back to life," the director of Taglit-Birthright Israel NEXT, New York, Rebecca Sugar, said. "It's our job not to recreate the Israel experience, but to build on the energy they found over there."

The program is based on West 13th Street in Greenwich Village at the Jewish Enrichment Center, a 3,000-square-foot space featuring a coffee bar, Internet access, a pull-down movie screen, and, on a recent visit, artwork that was part of a recent show. Some of its programming includes community service opportunities, follow-up trips to Israel and parts of Europe, and a club for young philanthropists. While such programs are run through the New York space, similar programs are being replicated in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and parts of Florida.

Founded in 2000 by the philanthropist Michael Steinhardt, who is also an owner of The New York Sun, Birthright Israel has sent nearly 200,000 Jews to Israel. About one quarter of the program's alumni live in the New York area. Initial funding for the alumni program came from Mr. Steinhardt and from the real estate developer Aaron Wolfson.

So far, more than 13,000 alumni have participated in follow-up programming, organizers said. "There is a community growing right here on 13th Street and no one knows it," the executive director of the Jewish Enrichment Center, Matt Mindell, said.

Ms. Sugar said her organization differs from other Jewish communal groups seeking to engage younger Jews because she is not trying to build a membership base or increase her database of contacts. Instead, she seeks to connect alumni to other young Jews and to ground them in Jewish life. "People need to meet people, not organizations," she said.