our Birthright and our freedom...

Last night I saw my dear childhood friend Jackie who is here on a Birthright trip. It felt like pure happiness just to stand next to her. We went to a classy bar-restaurant in the Tel Aviv port where we ate at the bar and the bartender spoiled us with free drinks to "start us off on the right foot" throughout the night. We were seated next to three non-Jewish Irish businessmen who work at Intel here and it was interesting to hear their perspectives about living in Israel. What was funny and frustrating about my time with Jackie was that she had a curfew - the Birthright participants were restricted to staying within the Tel Aviv port area, and they were threatened with being back at the bus by midnight on the dot (or else). Being 26 years old and with high-powered New York City careers, the participants were not amused by these rules to say the least. At the end of the night when I walked Jackie and her friends back to the bus, and I saw their typically American-anal counselors with name tags around their neck freaking out about how so-and-so was missing and the bus was going to leave without them, I just had to laugh to myself. Here was a group of adults, my age, who were being guarded like a bunch of prisoners that if let out of sight for a minute something terrible would happen -- while Israeli children are let loose to run wild across the country as they please. I have taken long walks through Tel Aviv and seen ten-year-olds beside me the whole way, unsupervised and unfazed. It's just funny how different the American and Israeli perceptions are of "what's safe" in Israel. But I understand Birthright. What they are doing is incredibly important, and Gd forbid the minute one bad thing happens to a Birthright participant, their reputation will be forever tarnished. And we can't afford to let that happen. So in a way I respect and accept Birthright's unbelievably anal rules- but as I walked away from my peers boarding that Birthright bus, I couldn't help but think to myself how grateful I was to be walking free through the Tel Aviv streets.