The rationale for these trips was straightforward: An American Jew who has traveled to Israel, funders and organizers said, was more likely to stay Jewishly involved, marry Jewish and support the Jewish state than one who hasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Facing rising intermarriage rates and declining support for Israel among young people, the trip providers trumpeted study<\/a> after study<\/a> presenting Israel travel as the best defense. And they filled airplane after airplane: In 2020, a Pew Research Center survey<\/a> found that nearly half of US Jewish adults had been to Israel at least once. One in four had taken the transatlantic trip multiple times. Overall, a record 4.5 million tourists<\/a> entered Israel in 2019.<\/p>\n That was then. In the years that have followed, getting to Israel has been frequently arduous and increasingly expensive, if not downright impossible. First, COVID-19 all but barred entry into Israel. Then, airlines canceled flights en masse<\/a> following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel and the start of the Gaza war. Subsequent waves of cancellations came after attacks by the Houthis in Yemen and during the two rounds of fighting over the past year between Israel and Iran.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tGet The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition \t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n In 2024 Israel saw fewer than a million tourists. Last year the numbers rose slightly, to 1.3 million tourist entries<\/a>. As flights have grown scarcer and the shekel more valuable, the cost of tickets has skyrocketed, with a recent study<\/a> by the Jewish Federations of North America finding that educational trip providers are paying 55 percent more in operating costs than they did before COVID and the October 7 attack.<\/p>\n Getting to Israel is only part of the problem. A trip to the Holy Land is far less appealing when one considers the possibility of spending some of the time there in bomb shelters, as the ongoing conflicts continue to see intermittent bouts of missile fire from Iran, Lebanon or Yemen.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone is still very much in support of going, wants teens to come have these really rich experiences,\u201d said Randi Charles, senior managing director for RootOne, which provides vouchers to teens for dozens of Israel trips. But, she added later, \u201cRootOne launched its first summer in 2021 and between COVID and post-10\/7 and Iran, I would say we haven\u2019t had a full summer where we\u2019re running at full scale yet.\u201d<\/p>\n Calmer times will, presumably, return at some point, whether this week or further down the line. But it\u2019s fair to ask whether, between the havoc and the high prices, the golden age of American Jewish travel to Israel is ending.<\/p>\n \t Despite the interim agreement that was just announced between the US and Iran, it\u2019s become nearly impossible to predict when day-to-day life will be tranquil enough for travelers and airlines to fly here at the same volume as they did seven years ago.<\/p>\n And regardless of how safe travel to Israel might be, the country has become so stigmatized by the war against Hamas in Gaza that it\u2019s unclear how many people will still want to come, let alone shell out thousands of dollars for a round-trip ticket.<\/p>\n Increasing unpredictability, declining popularity<\/p>\n Among Jewish Americans ages 18 to 34 \u2014 the prime target of Birthright and other Israel trip initiatives \u2014 the country is especially unpopular. A recent poll<\/a> found that most of them don\u2019t feel attached to Israel, more than 70% oppose Israel\u2019s conduct during the Gaza war and nearly three-quarters oppose the war with Iran. When the airways return to normal, how many of those people will want to board a plane?<\/p>\n An example of the ongoing unpredictability came last week, when a one-day flare-up between Israel and Iran sent Israelis again running for shelter \u2014 including at Ben Gurion Airport itself. The exchange of fire ended relatively quickly, and Israel didn\u2019t close its airspace, but the conflict was enough for two European carriers to temporarily suspend flights. This week brought fears of another such flare-up, before the interim peace deal was announced.<\/p>\n The new status quo could lead to a feedback loop in which, because of the dearth of trips, young adults don\u2019t get to see Israel firsthand. Those young adults may then feel a weaker affinity to the country \u2014 further dampening their desire to travel here, or to send their kids in the future.<\/p>\n After nearly three years of warfare following October 7, Honeymoon Israel co-founder Avi Rubel described would-be participants worrying about paying a \u201csocial cost\u201d for travel to Israel.<\/p>\n \u201cWe hear a lot about people being nervous about telling their friends or talking about where they\u2019re going,\u201d he told The Times of Israel. \u201cThat\u2019s very worrying and that\u2019s difficult. And that\u2019s mostly because Israel means something different to a lot of people now after all these years.\u201d<\/p>\n An El Al plane takes off at Ben Gurion International Airport, outside of Tel Aviv, March 5, 2026. (Yossi Aloni\/Flash90)<\/p>\n Despite the interim deal, as of this writing, many major US carriers have no plans to resume landing at Ben Gurion anytime soon. United Airlines and Delta have canceled their flights until September. American Airlines won\u2019t be flying to Tel Aviv until 2027.<\/p>\n Changing itineraries and destinations<\/p>\n In light of the uncertainty, some organizations have taken steps to move beyond Israel. Last year, RootOne offered vouchers for Jewish teen tours to destinations in Europe, Latin America and beyond. That summer, the Foundation for Jewish Camp allocated $2 million for camps contending with canceled Israel trips, some of which sent participants to South America or Europe. Honeymoon Israel now also offers journeys to Argentina, though co-founder Rubel called them a \u201cstopgap.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s still an interest in traveling to Israel,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery time we\u2019ve seen safety and security become less of an issue, we see a very significant uptick in registrations.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, Honeymoon Israel \u2014 Like RootOne and Birthright \u2014 has had to scale back its expectations. Before COVID, the organization ran 40 trips to Israel per year. In 2025, only a handful of trips were made, and in 2027, Rubel is shooting for 20. Birthright is reportedly<\/a> hoping for 10,000 participants this summer, rather than the 20,000 who had been expected to come.<\/p>\n The traditional pitch for such trips may also be losing its potency. Rather than winning over otherwise unaffiliated teens, many trips may be filling up largely with those who already feel connected to Israel.<\/p>\n \u201cNot surprisingly, over the past few summers, it\u2019s really been the more engaged and the more connected teens that have been traveling to Israel,\u201d Charles said.<\/p>\n Rubel described a similar situation. \u201cOur population of couples that are coming are a little bit more engaged in Jewish life than before October 7,\u201d he said. \u201cSo to that extent, we are attracting people who are a little bit more already, closer to the center of Jewish life than before.\u201d<\/p>\n Passengers check-in for the first outbound flights since the closure of Israel\u2019s airspace on February 28, at Ben Gurion Airport on March 8, 2026. (Courtesy of Israel Airports Authority)<\/p>\n While this is one of the most sustained periods of disruption for Israel travel in the country\u2019s history, it isn\u2019t the first. During the Second Intifada in the early 2000s, teen tours had to recalibrate their itineraries, treading lightly around crowded areas liable to be hit with suicide bombs and limiting their participants\u2019 free rein in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n During the COVID pandemic, getting to Israel from abroad was so difficult that activists called for the country to make a special effort to allow Diaspora Jews in. That call was endorsed by then-Diaspora affairs minister Nachman Shai, who lamented<\/a> that \u201cIsrael has closed its doors repeatedly to the Jewish people time and again, without taking into account the consequences of Israeli policy on the fabric of relations, on our future.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018They\u2019re probably not going to sign up\u2019<\/p>\n One difference now is that in addition to there being fewer airline seats available, the value of the shekel has spiked, further jacking up costs.<\/p>\n \u201cIf these conditions continue, the field risks losing some of the range that allows Israel educational travel to reach different participants in different ways,\u201d Anna Langer, executive director of the Jewish Federations\u2019 Israel Educational Travel Alliance, said in a statement accompanying the study showing a 55% cost increase. Maintaining the trips, she said, will \u201crequire advancing practical solutions that keep high-quality, transformational Israel travel opportunities operationally possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Organizations are addressing the \u201csocial cost\u201d as well, taking measures to address participants\u2019 discomfort with Israel or the heavy subject matter they\u2019re sure to encounter once they land. Honeymoon Israel has emphasized exposing participants to a diversity of speakers, including Arab Israelis and Palestinians, and has trained its staff in group facilitation for when conversations get tense.<\/p>\n But while Rubel stressed that the organization always has enough applicants to fill its trips, he added, \u201cThere probably is a percentage of people who are lost to this right now. Israel is too toxic for them, and they\u2019re probably not going to sign up.\u201d<\/p>\n The Phoenix group from one of the pilot Honeymoon Israel trips gathers in Jerusalem, May 2015. (Courtesy\/Honeymoon Israel\/JTA)<\/p>\n Of course, there\u2019s no guarantee that traveling to Israel (or the territories it controls) will lead people to support or like the country. Depending on the itinerary or narrative lens, it\u2019s demonstrably easy to show visitors an Israel that conforms to many of the worst criticisms leveled against it.<\/p>\n The author Ta-Nehisi Coates, whose latest book includes a harsh indictment<\/a> of Israel\u2019s treatment of Palestinians, was inspired to write it after a trip to Israel and the West Bank guided by writers associated with the Palestine Festival of Literature as well as activists from the left-wing anti-occupation group Breaking the Silence. New York Democratic congressional candidate Effie Phillips-Staley, who accuses Israel of genocide, told the anti-Israel streamer<\/a> Hasan Piker earlier this year that her criticism of the country stems from a trip she took here.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can see for yourself the situation on the ground and act as a \u2018multiplier\u2019 by returning and talking to others, formally and informally, about what you\u2019ve seen,\u201d reads a webpage on the site of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.<\/p>\n That sentiment wouldn\u2019t seem out of place in a Jewish organization\u2019s Israel travel brochure. But the question, as Israel tiptoes toward an uneasy peacetime after years of bloodshed, is less what people will want to see, and more whether they\u2019ll want to come at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For decades, the American Jewish community\u2019s biggest organizations and funders treated travel to Israel like a silver bullet.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[190507,35593,1130,229160,85,46,43,229159],"class_list":["post-497887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-2026-us-israel-war-with-iran","tag-airlines","tag-covid-19","tag-honeymoon-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-taglit-birthright-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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