c. 2007 Religion News Service

NEW YORK _ Mark Zemel took his first trip to Israel last month, hoping to see the sights and make new friends during a free 10-day excursion for young Jewish adults.

The 26-year-old law student returned with two bags of Aroma coffee for his parents and something they appreciated even more: his newly minted bar mitzvah status.

“That was my trump card,” he said half-jokingly, noting that his less rebellious siblings had already experienced the coming-of-age ceremony at the traditional age of 13. “They were surprised but glad.”

From circumcision for baby boys to sitting shiva to mourn the dead, observant Jews live in a world of ritual moments developed over thousands of years. Now Taglit-birthright israel, a seven-year-old program that has provided free pilgrimages for more than 100,000 Jews ages 18 to 26, touts itself as the latest addition.

Officials estimate the number of American Jews participating in a birthright trip exceeds the number of young Jews who are welcomed into adulthood through bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies each year, according to United Jewish Communities, the umbrella organization of the American Jewish Federations.

“Taglit-birthright israel has become a new Jewish rite of passage, a new life cycle event unto itself,” said Jeffrey Solomon, president of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, one of the foundations that provided seed money for the program.

Birthright officials insist they shy away from religious indoctrination, although the program has made a point of reaching out to unaffiliated Jews, in hopes of cultivating their commitment to Israel and the Jewish community.

Research indicates the program is persuasive.

A 2006 study by Brandeis University sociologists Leonard Saxe and Ted Sasson shows that one year after participating in the program, more than 80 percent of birthright alumni say they feel more connected to Israel than they did before they went, as compared to 43 percent of non-participants. Three-fifths of participants also say that it is important to them to marry a Jew, and 78 percent say they plan to raise their children Jewish, according to the research.

Over the course of a whirlwind trip to holy sites, some participants who had classified themselves as “just Jewish” _ as opposed to Reform, Conservative or Orthodox _ spontaneously decide to make a religious commitment. Within a few days, aided by more religious participants, they learn to read the short Hebrew prayers in English phonetics for the brief ceremony.

Lengthy public ceremonies developed over the centuries created a system of years of formal education to prepare for bar mitvahs (for boys) and bat mitzvahs (for girls), but the act of marking the legal status of adulthood for Jews technically requires no advance study, explained Rela Mintz Geffen, a professor at Baltimore Hebrew University.

On a June 3 birthright trip, Joanne Loiben, 20, of Chicago, was among four women who opted to have a Reform bat mitzvah ceremony in a hotel conference room in Jerusalem. Now she plans to learn Hebrew and said she wants to become a rabbi someday.

“My family didn’t know until I got home,” she said. “They were really, really excited. … My brother is 18 and he wants to go on birthright. I imagine he’ll do the same thing.”

Halfway through their May 27 birthright trip, Zemel, Zachary Cary and three other men decided to have bar mitzvah ceremonies. After a few days of study on their tour bus, they participated in a 15-minute service in Tel Aviv, supervised by Chabad rabbis.

Cary, a 23-year-old biochemistry doctoral student at Wake Forest University, said he wanted to feel more “complete” as a Jew, given that his household had not been very observant. Most of the other birthright participants he knows share his feelings, he added.

“Most people I talked to wanted to connect more to their Jewish community in some way, ranging from going to services more on Fridays, or even just getting involved,” he said. “Not having been bar mitzvah’d before left me feeling disconnected from Judaism.”

In contrast, Zemel said he remains wary of organized religion, despite his strengthened commitment to the Jewish state of Israel. But, after getting kicked out of Hebrew school for misbehaving as a child, he viewed the ceremony there as a way of making it up to himself and his family.

“I’ve always regretted being such a schmuck when I was a kid,” he said. “Plus, my mom has extra bragging rights for it _ which I owe her after making her wait another 13 years.”

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