The first group of Birthright Israel, the largest educational tourism organization in the world, landed at Ben- Gurion International Airport on Monday , for the first time after a yearlong halt due to the pandemic.
"The participants are vaccinated students from the United States, arriving Israel for a 10-day educational tour," the organization said in a statement.
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Before the outbreak of the global pandemic, Birthright Israel had provided trips for more than 750,000 young Jewish adults from 68 countries. In 2019 alone, the organization hosted 45,777 participants; that number was topped only by the 48,000 participants it brought in 2018.
"Dozens of more trips are expected during May and June, with many more tour groups planned for July, August, and October, the company said.
Gidi Mark, the CEO of Birthright, which is also known as Taglit, said he was "extremely excited that we are renewing the connection between the young Diaspora and Israel. We've developed the best plan to safely and efficiently resume our trips, which play such a critical part in strengthening the Jewish identity of hundreds of thousands of young people around the world and connect them with the State of Israel. Following the rise of antisemitism over the past weeks, this is now more important than ever before."
To attend a Birthright Israel trip, "all fully vaccinated or recovered participants with one vaccine doze will be required to provide a negative PCR test before boarding a flight to Israel as well as take an antibody test upon their arrival at Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport."
Israel is one of the early nations to have achieved a high level of inoculation of its citizens due to the modern and effective vaccine distribution and due to the early orders secured by the government from Pfizer and other vaccine makers.
The return of Birthright Israel programming marks the end of the only cancellations in the organization's 20-year history.
The Adelson family, which has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to Taglit-Birthright Israel, owns the company that is the primary shareholder in Israel Hayom.
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