Last year, gedolei Yisroel in Eretz Hakodesh and the
US, headed by Maran HaRav Yosef Sholom Eliashiv,
shlita, issued a statement against trips for chareidi
youths from the US to Eretz Yisroel that cause numerous
stumbling- blocks, in tznius, kashrus and
hashkofoh. Maranan verabonon said these trips,
organized by a program called Birthright, have a detrimental
effect on the participants.
In recent years, an Israeli-American organization with
Zionist leanings began offering trips to Israel to impart
girls with "ahavas Yisroel." These trips are highly
subsidized and many participants--hastily assuming the
program was sponsored by chareidim and was perfectly kosher--
have been tempted to take part.
Last summer, rabbonim from the US and Eretz Hakodesh
strongly opposed the initiative, which has already caused
spiritual harm to many girls, after it was learned that the
organization planned to expand its activities by offering
similar trips for boys.
Recently, a prominent educator reiterated warnings against
these trips, after hearing more stories about the spiritual
dangers they contain, including the following account: A
group of girls from Monsey registered for a chareidi seminary
in Israel for girls from abroad. Before the school year
began, they unknowingly decided to join a Birthright trip.
One of the guides was a female soldier who had been educated
in chareidi institutions before falling off the path. This
soldier formed a friendship with several of the girls and
later even came to the seminary where they studied. The
director would not allow her to come inside, but for one of
the girls it was already too late. This chareidi girl had
already formed a bond with the soldier girl and agreed to
meet with her outside the seminary. Eventually the soldier
had a negative influence on the seminary student and took her
to Lishkat Hagius (the IDF induction bureau), had her
sign induction forms and walked her through the induction
process. Thus the seminary girl descended into spiritual
ruin, to the astonishment of all her acquaintances.
Rabbonim and principals recently received a disturbing letter
containing eyewitness testimony by two Birthright
participants describing the stumbling- blocks and spiritual
trials they faced during the trip.
"Our journey began on a Monday," they wrote. "When we arrived
at the airport we were greeted by the tour guide and a
representative of the travel company. We immediately noticed
they were clearly not chareidi and wondered what lay in store
for us. When the girls got off the bus at the first rest stop
and began to take pictures, we immediately noticed the lack
of spiritual supervision on the trip. All those who oversaw
the trip saw that their responsibility focused only on
maintaining the girls' health and physical well-being. There
was nobody there who could guide the girls in matters of
kashrus, tznius or halocho.
"During our trip, because the girls thought they were on a
Bais Yaakov trip, they let down their guard and were not wary
to maintain an upstanding spiritual level. Some of the girls
went with the flow and accepted the entire itinerary without
question because they assumed it had been planned according
to a Bais Yaakov level.
"When we began to get friendly with the girls, we learned of
the lack many of them sensed. These girls had come to Eretz
Yisroel, many of them for the first time, with tremendous
expectations of encountering the kedushoh of Eretz
Yisroel. But there was no opening talk about the
kedushoh of Eretz Yisroel and how to access this
power.
"Based on this marked lack, we took responsibility. At this
point, L. gave a short, stirring talk on the kedushoh
of Eretz Yisroel. This was a real awakening for the girls and
for the first time they really felt they were in Eretz
Yisroel.
"A few days later we grew closer to the girls. Some of them
told us that until that moment they had wondered what was not
quite right with them. They couldn't understand why they
failed to feel the kedushoh they had heard so much
about. After the first night, the two of us recognized we
were the only ones who could assume the job of spiritual
supervision and we privately decided we would do as much as
we could. Some of the girls on the trip also recognized the
problems we faced and they told us of their concerns."
At this point, the chareidi girls described incidents in
which the participants were taken to restaurants with
questionable or no kashrus where some of them ate
because they relied on the organizers. The overall nature of
the trip and the choice of sites to visit was more suited to
the secular Zionist approach and the explanations given by
the official guides had Enlightenment undertones.
The long, detailed letter goes on to say, "On Thursday we
took a tour of the northern town of Tzippori. We were taken
to an archaeological dig and they brought us into what was
once the home of a wealthy Jew who lived around the time of
the Mishnoh. We were astonished to see the ancient
mosaic floor was decorated with depictions of pritzus
and immodesty and images of centaurs suggestive of pagan
culture. The girls were not yet aware of the hashkofoh
problems with the tour guide and when she began to speak,
many of them still accepted her remarks as authoritative. The
guide explained that the home had belonged to an influential
Jew who lived during the time of R' Yehuda Hanossi and the
findings indicated the floor may have been from the home of
R' Yehuda himself [afro lepumei] . . .
"We realized how illogical what she was saying was, but we
stood and listened until we saw some of the girls were
accepting her remarks as fact. When L. saw a girl taking
notes on what the guide was saying and other girls began to
speak, a debate broke out over the logic of her [the tour
guide's] explanations. This was our first open confrontation.
We tried to stop the debate without retreating from our
position.
"In response to our remarks, the tour guide said perhaps R'
Yehuda lived in this house and the fact he could assimilate
Roman culture [afro lepumei] without being negatively
influenced is indicative of his high dargoh . . . We
left Tzippori with an uncomfortable feeling, knowing the
girls had imbibed spiritual coolness and bewilderment as a
result of what happened."
*
A letter issued by roshei yeshivos and marbitzei Torah
in the US read, "With regard to the trips known as
Birthright, in which many from our own ranks have begun to
participate, we hereby alert and warn that although the
leaders of the trips present them as kosher and in keeping
with our ways, we have learned this is not the case and they
harbor a great danger to the education of our dear children
by causing our sons and daughters to breach the bounds of
tznius and kashrus and to expose them to
opinions that run counter to our holy Torah. Therefore,
parents and teachers should know not to register their son or
daughters or talmidim for trips of this sort."
The statement is signed by HaRav Shmuel Birnbaum, rosh
yeshiva of Yeshivas Mir; HaRav Yisroel Povarsky, rosh yeshiva
of Beis HaTalmud; HaRav Aharon Shechter, rosh yeshiva of
Yeshivas Chaim Berlin; HaRav Eliyoh Simchah Shustal, rosh
yeshiva of Yeshivas Beis Binyomin of Stamford; HaRav Shmuel
Avigdor Feivelson, rosh yeshiva of Beis Medrash LeTorah;
HaRav Yosef Rosenbloom, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Shaarei
Yosher; HaRav Chaim Leib Halevy Epstein, rosh yeshiva of
Yeshivas Zichron Melech; HaRav Eliyoh Dov Wachtfogel, rosh
yeshiva of Yeshivas Zichron Moshe of South Fallsberg; and
HaRav Malkiel Kotler, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Lakewood.
In Eretz Hakodesh, gedolei Yisroel wrote, "Gedolei
haTorah of the Diaspora in America have already revealed
their opinion, daas Torah, regarding the breach of
arranging trips to Eretz Hakodesh in the framework of
Birthright, which lacks any proper oversight and spiritual
supervision, leading to numerous stumbling blocks in modesty
and kashrus and exposure to a misleading worldview, and
opinions contrary to the holy Torah in the framework of these
trips.
"We hereby join them in their directive not to send
talmidim and talmidos on these trips.
"And be'ezras Hashem those who heed us will merit
nachas of kedushoh from their children."
The letter is signed by Maran HaRav Eliashiv, HaRav Aharon
Yehuda Leib Steinman, HaRav Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz, HaRav
Chaim Pinchos Scheinberg, HaRav Chaim Kanievsky and HaRav
Shmuel Auerbach, shlita.
HaRav Lefkowitz also stated his opinion in a separate letter
in which he replies to inquiries and explains at length that
these visits are in stark contradiction to daas Torah
in their very essence since they distort the proper
perspective on Eretz Yisroel.
"Regarding trips called Birthright, in which many people from
our own ranks 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 Churbon,
[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 seeks 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 represent a group that
can be considered machti'ei horabim, a type of group
Rabbenu Yonah in Shaarei Tshuvoh ruled it is forbidden
to join (Shaar 3, Piska 51). Therefore we
hereby warn parents and yeshiva staffs to prohibit
talmidim from joining this group for trips of this
kind, for the danger is a very dire danger and who can know
the extent of [spiritual] decline they can cause?
"May HaKadosh 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."
