Birthright Israel / Taglit

Birthright Israel (formal name: Taglit-Birthright Israel) is the philanthropic program providing free educational Israel trips to young Jewish adults age 18-26. Founded in 1999 by Charles Bronfman, Michael Steinhardt, and a coordinating partner consortium including the Government of Israel and the major Jewish federations.

Per program disclosures, Birthright has provided trips to over 800,000 young Jewish adults from approximately 50 countries since the 1999 founding. Annual participant volume runs in the 35,000-50,000 range in pre-pandemic and post-recovery years.

The program operates through multi-pillar funding architecture combining major private philanthropic donor commitments, sustained Government of Israel funding, Jewish federation system funding through the overseas-allocation channel, and Keren Hayesod-United Israel Appeal funding for international participants.

Annual program operating budget runs in the multi-hundred-million-dollar range.

Trips operate as 10-day group experiences with structured educational programming through approximately a dozen Israeli-based trip operators (Sachlav, Mayanot, Israel Outdoors, Israel Free Spirit, Shorashim, and the broader operator tier). The educational curriculum covers Israeli history, geography, cultural and religious sites, and contemporary Israeli society.

Birthright has expanded programmatic scope through Birthright Israel Onward (longer programs), Birthright Israel Excel (professional internships), and adjacent programmatic structures over the program's operational history.

Detailed institutional coverage of Birthright is at /philanthropy/birthright-design/.

See also: /philanthropy/birthright-design/, /glossary/jewish-agency/, /glossary/keren-hayesod/