Here’s the worst part for American Jews about Israel’s national elections last week – not many people here seemed to care.

Rather than lament the fact and offer excuses about how we’re all so busy, we need to figure what can be done about it. That’s because an American Jewry that pulls away from Israel hurts both itself and the State of Israel.

The Taglit-Birthright Israel trip CLICK HERE is a great start, but the follow up with its participants has basically made it only half an investment. The free 10-day trip to Israel for young adults age 18-26 (who have never been to Israel before on a “peer organized trip” – and yes, there’s cheating, as I learned from staffing a trip in 2002) – is a fantastic experience. In fact, well more than 100,000 people have already gone on the trip from around the world (but mostly from the United States).

The problem is that when the young adults come home, few of them plug into the Jewish community. That means that either they don’t like what we offer or we need much more creative approaches than we old people currently offer them. More likely it’s a combination.

I know those on college campus might get a call and a bunch of e-mails inviting them to a speaker or breakfast. But the deal should be that there is mandatory programming before going and after returning from the trip. What if you don’t attend? Simple: You have to pay the bill for the trip, which these days is probably more than $3,000. Hard to collect? Well, maybe we should ask them to pay $500 or so into an escrow account before going, and then return it with a gift of a discount on an El Al flight when they fulfill their obligations.

Too heavy a price to induce people to go? Not if you’ve ever hear the expression “there’s no free lunch.”

At least then maybe they’ll be able to figure out who wants to be Israel’s prime minister and why it should matter.

Hi Neil, In regard to the last 2 posts, Our American 2 party system is convoluted enough as it is, and studies have shown that high school and college age young adults as a group are woefully un- or mis-informed as to the make up and workings of our own government. I my self at 52 find the Parlimentary system of government about as clear as mud and Israeli politics with it’s ever changing blocs and co-alitions and alignments and majority and opposition and minority party alliance…OY!! Perhaps a mandatory introductory lecture or informational seminar before and a dicussion group after is a good idea, possibly it could even be arranged to be counted as college credit in poly/sci or history? ...... Dave Cluster