It's not every day that you see a prominent American rabbi lead a group of young Jews on a tour of Israel, but this is what "America's rabbi," Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, is doing these days.
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Boteach, a rabbi, bestselling author, TV host, and public speaker, is known for his efforts to bring Jews closer to their heritage. He also heads The World Values Network, an organization that promotes universal Jewish values.
This week he has been accompanying a group of participants on a 10-day tour organized by Birthright Israel (Taglit), an organization dedicated to bringing young Jews on short visits to Israel.
"Birthright brings more young people [to Israel] than any other Jewish organization in the world. The [pro-Israel US lobby] AIPAC reaches many people who are in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. Chabad reaches people all over the world, but young people [are a hard demographic to reach]," Boteach told Israel Hayom this week as he toured Israel with the group.
"[They] come to Israel and they have no connection to Israel whatsoever, many don't even have any connection to Judaism. So I think it is very important to me, as a rabbi, as a Jew, and especially as someone who loves Israel, to be connected to this program. To be with young people, to experience Israel with them, to see Israel with them, it is the right thing to do."
Boteach, who spoke to Israel Hayom as the group of some 40 participants traveled to their next destination Israel on a bus, "About 99% of them came to see how they interact with Israel, how they connect to Israel, how they absorb Israel. It's a very inspirational thing; it's an uplifting thing; it's a spiritual thing. Most of us who love Israel – and who either live here or who have visited many times, sometimes we think it's magic because we are used to it, but to see people experience it for the first time – it is an amazing thing."
Boteach said that what motivated him in coming to Israel on this trip was his hope that he would be "able to offer something in terms of Judaism, in terms of my love for Israel, in terms of defending and protecting and standing by Israel."
He added that "on top of that, I really wanted to come on Birthright because it is under attack; you have people who are infiltrating Birthright groups, they're encouraging young people to lie and to get on the trips so fraudulently, and there's a lot of fraudulent stuff going on."
Boteach was referring to efforts by left-wing organizations to undermine the Birthright Israel program because of the way it presents the Arab-Israeli conflict to participants.
"I have no issue with political differences; I have no issue with political disagreements, that's the beauty of democracy. I have an issue with [one of the organizations critical of Birthright], which is encouraging people to lie that they want to go on a Birthright trip when really they want to go to disrupt the trip," Boteach said.
"They want to go to ruin the trip, so how is that acceptable? [Nowadays], I'm involved in communications and media, so when I heard last year what was happening with Birthright, I really wanted to show my support and to participate. [The attendees] are not fans of President Donald Trump, and they may not be fans of the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu either, that's about 70%. About 30% support Trump, and love Netanyahu."
The Adelson family, which has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to Birthright Israel, owns the company that is the primary shareholder in Israel Hayom.
