Excellent reporting in the New York Jewish Week on a "divorce" in the birthright program that provides free trips to Israel for American Jews, 26 and under. Gone is Shlomo "Momo" Lifshitz, the largest Israeli provider of the trips, through his organization, Oranim Birthright, who promoted the marital and rightwing political aspects of the trip too hard:
“Oranim’s ‘honeymoon package’ and emphasis on ‘making Jewish babies’
commit a cultural faux pas that carries the potential to damage
Birthright’s image in the U.S.,” said Ruth Stein, who attended an
Oranim trip in June 2007. “Such ‘religious’ choices are regarded as
private matters that are none of anybody’s business.“Momo’s
lectures on the unsurpassed beauty of Jewish women, among other
topics,” continued Stein, “are especially risky given the trip’s
reputation as a secular option for non-religious Jews.”…
“The right-wing perspectives presented were rather unsettling, and the
indoctrination was unappealing,” said a 23-year-old 2005 Oranim trip
participant, who requested to remain anonymous due to his work at an
American Jewish organization. “[Momo] spoke to our group, saying, ‘Some
people say the Iraq war was good for Israel. Wrong. The Iraq war was
great for Israel,’ representing a rather astonishingly narrow
viewpoint.”
