For Disabled, Birthright Trips Meet Needs, Fulfill Some Dreams

Gil Shefler
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

NEW YORK

Staff and participants on a Birthright Israel trip for people with Asperger's syndrome make time for socializing. (JTA Photo/Bruce Sharon)

Pamela Saeks thought that her daughter Karly, who has Asperger's syndrome, would never be able to go on Birthright Israel, the program that offers Diaspora Jews free trips to Israel.

"For years," said Saeks, "she has been so frustrated that she can't be like other kids and go on an organized trip to Israel."

But in December, Karly will embark on a 10-day Birthright trip tailored for individuals with Asperger's, a form of high-functioning autism. The trip will take her from the Dead Sea to the Golan Heights.

The trip is organized in partnership with Shorashim, an organization aimed at strengthening ties between the Diaspora and Israel, and Koach, the college outreach group of the Conservative movement. It will be the fourth Birthright trip suited to meet the needs of people with Asperger's.

The Asperger's trip is one of a number of specially tailored Birthright programs for those with disabilities. Birthright, which has brought some 220,000 Jews aged 18 to 26 to Israel since its inception in 2000, also runs trips for the hearing-impaired, the developmentally disabled and wheelchair-users, and has even had a trip for blind participants.

By the end of 2009, at least 28 groups of people with special needs will have traveled to Israel on Birthright since 2003, according to the organization.

The Birthright trips for the disabled visit all the major sites of a typical trip, but changes are made to suit the participants' particular needs.

At Masada, for example, they do not ascend to the ancient citadel via the rigorous serpentine trail. Instead, they tour the Roman ramparts at the bottom of the hill and take the cable car to the top.

At Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, organizers highlight the persecution by the Nazis of people with disabilities. And Asperger's trips hold discussions about the Nazis' persecution of Eastern European Jewry in classrooms located next to the museum to provide a better environment for participants to absorb the information.

More Expensive Than Other Trips
Despite their popularity, the frequency of Birthright trips for the disabled is limited due to the budget.

The costs of these trips are higher for several reasons. Each group has a higher staff-to-participant ratio -- one to three on the Asperger's trip, compared with one to 20 for regular Birthright trips.

In addition, some groups need specific and sometimes expensive facilities. Mobile-impaired groups need special buses that can accommodate more than 20 people in wheelchairs, and organizers have to scout every destination to ensure wheelchair accessibility.

Laura Siegel, who went on a trip for the hearing-impaired two summers ago, said that the experience was transformative.

"I feel that this trip would leave a long-lasting impression for every deaf Jewish young adult out there in the United States, as it did for me," Siegel wrote in an e-mail.

"We started out as strangers and ended up almost feeling like a family, and all it took was 10 days up close and personal sharing this amazing journey," she added.

Lior Baruch, an Israeli special-needs teacher who has escorted three Asperger's trips and will take part in the one next month, said that one particular memory during his last trip sticks out in his mind.

"A few hours after the group landed in Israel, they stood on the Armon Hanatziv promenade overlooking Jerusalem," recalled Baruch. "You could see the excitement in their eyes. Some took nonstop pictures. Others called their parents. It was a touching moment."

Rabbi Elsye Winick, associate director of Koach and one of the organizers of the Asperger's trip, said that one of the most powerful moments on past trips came when her group met Israelis who also had the same syndrome.

"It was an eye-opening experience," said Winick. "It was an experience to realize that on the other side of the world, there were people just like them."

Jeffery Odols, who is deaf and took part in a Birthright trip for the hearing-impaired, raves about the experience. He said that it included many memorable times, such as visiting the Bedouin in the Negev Desert, and savoring the "wonderful shwarma and falafel."

But the 22-year-old from Rochester, N.Y., said that the trip's real highlight was the friendships he forged with other deaf and hearing-impaired participants.

"We learned so much from each other -- our backgrounds, our struggles, our identities and our aspirations," wrote Odols. "It was interesting observing personalities blend in together."

After returning from the trip, Odols was inspired to enroll in a course in Middle Eastern studies. He said that he hopes one day to help Israel improve its ties with its neighbors.

Said Odols: "Going on the Birthright trip actually opened my eyes."