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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/35406/full/35406/baby-boomers-get-a-birthright-trip-of-their-own/ <br /><br /> <b>Baby boomers get a Birthright trip of their own</b> <br /> Friday, July 25, 2008 | by <p>dina kraft </p> <br /><br /><p>Standing in the sparse shade of a Cyprus tree in the Old City of Jerusalem, a group of American parents gathered closer to hear the story of how the tribes of Israel became the Jewish people on these same ancient streets 3,000 years ago.<br /><br /> Sara Silverman, a single mother from Louisville, Ky., had longed to visit Israel since she was a teenager harboring fantasies about kibbutz life. Looking around, she declared, “This is a dream.”<br /><br /> Silverman was one of 17 parents who won a free 10-day trip to Israel thanks to their children, alumni of Birthright Israel who submitted winning video applications to a Birthright contest called “Let My Parents Go.”<br /><br /> The group followed in the footsteps of their children’s tours, exploring the Galilee, standing at the Western Wall and climbing Masada.<br /><br /> The trip was organized in honor of Israel’s 60th anniversary and in response to a sentiment voiced by many enthusiastic Birthright Israel alumni: If only my parents could see Israel as I did.<br /><br /> Birthright offers free 10-day trips to diaspora Jews ages 18 to 26 who have never been on a peer trip to Israel.<br /><br /> “We are giving an opportunity to families and to communities to grow and dive into their own Judaism,” said Aaron Herman, a Birthright official.<br /><br /> For the Sheltons of Newark, Del., who work as professional clowns, a trip to Israel was out of their financial reach.<br /><br /> “Clowns make laughable salaries,” Cindy Shelton quipped.<br /><br /> But the Sheltons’ daughter Emily, 19, won them free tickets by putting together a video farce showing her parents so busy trying to squeeze in extra clowning gigs to earn enough money for an Israel trip that they miss Emily’s message about applying for a free trip.<br /><br /> “We talked about coming someday, perhaps after we paid off all our college debts, so this is a big treat,” said Chris Shelton, 50, a former clown in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus who converted to Judaism after years of involvement in a Reconstructionist synagogue.<br /><br /> Shelton said his experience at the Western Wall was intense. As a convert, he approached the Kotel with trepidation, fearing he would not feel a sense of belonging.<br /><br /> But, he said, “As I prayed against the wall I could hear no noise. I could not hear anyone around me. I was isolated in my thoughts.”<br /><br /> Many of the parents said they were excited that their children paved the way for their own first visits to Israel.<br /><br /> “Jonathan came back and said, ‘You have to go,’ and although my husband wanted to, I was too nervous security-wise,” said Ilene Kleinman of her son, who returned from a Birthright trip two years ago with newfound enthusiasm for his Jewish roots. “It’s a privilege as parents to have your kids show you the way.”<br /><br /> For Silverman, who worked overtime at her job at a nursing home to enable her daughter to visit Israel several times after her Birthright trip, visiting Israel herself seemed like an unattainable goal.<br /><br /> When she read an ad in her local Jewish newspaper about the Let My Parents Go contest, she told her daughter Nina, now a graduate student at Brandeis University.<br /><br /> “Being physically here gives a sense of what it feels like to be part of something, that this place was built for us — for me,” Silverman said. “I really feel a sense of being at home.”<br /><br /> In the bustling market of the Old City in a stall crammed with red and orange patchwork pillowcases and wall hangings, Phyllis Kaplan thanked her daughters, Eliza and Dara Silverman, for making their winning video.<br /><br /> “It’s a truly amazing experience, and I’m so thrilled they did it for us because I don’t know that I would have done it otherwise,” said Kaplan, 60, a psychologist from Lexington, Mass.<br /><br /> Eliza and Dara, a singer-songwriter and animator, respectively, put their talents together to produce “The Land of Milk and Hummus” to promote their parents’ candidacy.<br /><br /> “Never did we know the extent of what they gave us until the days we spent in the land of milk and hummus,” croons Eliza to a banjo’s twang in their application video. “We’d love them both to reconnect to Judaism ... noshing pomellos, climbing a carob tree ... being there for Shabbos would mean a lot.”<br /><br /> Kaplan’s husband, Elliott Silverman, a 59-year-old clinical social worker, said it was a revelation to see the normalcy of life in Israel.<br /><br /> “You really do have to be here to get a sense of it, to know it,” he said.</p> <p> </p>

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