Led by Maran HaRav Yosef Sholom Eliashiv, shlita,
maranan verabonon have stated their opposition to an
organization that arranges trips to Eretz Yisroel for groups
of chareidi youths from the U.S.
In recent years a joint American-Israeli venture with Zionist
leanings began offering trips to Israel for American
teenagers designed to impart "ahavas Yisroel" to them.
This program, known as Birthright, offers highly subsidized
trips, and many participants--hastily assuming the program
was sponsored by chareidim and was perfectly kosher--have
been tempted to take part.
Last year many of the participants lodged serious complaints
about the trips, saying they were taken to various national-
religious sites and that the tone of the trips, which
included the participation of potentially damaging figures,
was inappropriate.
Recently it was learned the organization is expanding its
activities to include bnei yeshivos from the U.S.
Roshei yeshivos and marbitzei Torah from the U.S.
issued an announcement warning parents that the program poses
a genuine spiritual danger to their sons and daughters,
including compromising their standards of tznius and
kashrus and presenting opinions inconsistent with the
Torah view.
The letter read (in part): "With regard to the tours called
`Birthright' that many of those in our community started to
participate in -- we come to note that even though the
leaders of those tours claim that they are kosher and
conducted lefi rucheinu, nonetheless it has become
clear to us that this is not so, and these tours have hidden
dangers for the chinuch of our children, to cause our
sons and daughters to break the limits of tznius and
kashrus and to influence them with ideas that oppose
our holy Torah.
"Therefore, parents and educators should not send their sons,
daughters, talmidim and talmidos to such
tours."
Signatories included HaRav Shmuel Birnbaum, rosh yeshivas
Mir; HaRav Yisroel Perkovsky, rosh yeshivas Beis HaTalmud;
HaRav Aharon Shechter, rosh yeshivas Chaim Berlin; HaRav
Elioh Simchoh Shustal, rosh yeshivas Beis Binyomin, Stamford;
HaRav Shmuel Avigdor Feivelson, rosh yeshivas Beis Medrash
LeTorah; HaRav Yosef Rosenblum, rosh yeshivas Shaarei Yosher;
HaRav Chaim Leib Halevi Epstein, rosh yeshivas Zichron
Melech; HaRav Elioh Dov Wachtfogel, rosh yeshivas Zichron
Moshe, South Fallsburg; and HaRav Malkiel Kotler, rosh
yeshivas Bais Midrash Govohah Lakewood.
In Eretz Yisroel a similar notice was issued by HaRav
Eliashiv, HaRav Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman, HaRav Chaim
Kanievsky and HaRav Shmuel Auerbach.
They wrote: "The gedolei Torah of America already
publicized their opinion about the pirtzoh involved in
organizing tours to the Holy Land in the framework of
`Birthright' without any appropriate spiritual supervision or
oversight. This causes many problems in tznius and
kashrus and leads to hearing false opinions and
hashkofos against the holy Torah in the course of
these tours.
"We hereby join the horo'oh of the American
gedolim not to send talmidim and
talmidos to these tours. May those who heed us merit
to reap spiritual nachas from their children."
In a separate letter HaRav Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz also
stated his opposition, saying the organization distorts the
proper perspective on Eretz Yisroel. "Regarding the trips
called Birthright, in which many of anshei shlomeinu
have begun to participate, including groups of girls raised
in chareidi homes, the results demonstrate that during the
short time they are in Eretz Yisroel, many of them are
negatively influenced and are infused with a hashkofoh
that Eretz Hakodesh, chas vesholom, is a place and a
state just like any other country, with no feeling for the
kedushoh [of Eretz Yisroel and of the site of Beis
Hamikdosh] even after the Churban, [while] Chazal say the
kedushoh of the Kosel Maarovi has not ceased, for it
is a place of tefilloh to the Creator.
"And now we have heard that this organization wants to
arrange [a trip for] a group of bochurim studying at
yeshivas in the U.S. [who are] unaware that these trips,
Rachmono litzlan, distance the participants from
everything holy and the organizers come from a group that can
be considered machti'ei horabim, a type of group
Rabbenu Yonah, in Shaarei Teshuvoh (Shaar 3:51), ruled
is forbidden.
"Therefore we hereby warn parents and yeshiva staffs to
prohibit talmidim from joining this group for these
trips--for the danger is a very dire spiritual danger--and to
be aware of the extent of [spiritual] decline [they are
liable to cause].
"May HaKodosh Boruch Hu infuse us with a spirit of
purity and holiness to be safeguarded from all of these ways
of the yetzer hora and may all those who heed [this
warning] merit siyata deShmaya and protection. May
HaKodosh Boruch Hu spare us from such trials."
