Busloads for Birthright

Due to a waitlist of over 20,000 young Jewish adults caused by unprecedented demand and increased costs for Birthright Israel trips, Atlanta’s Lodges of the Hebrew Order of David, in partnership with Birthright Israel Foundation, have teamed up to launch a fundraising campaign to help provide many more young Jewish adults with this life-changing experience.

As a result, HOD’s lodges throughout North America have engaged in the Busloads for Birthright campaign to help fill up buses with young people, ages 18-26, to experience Israel and strengthen their Jewish identities. It takes an investment of $180,000 to cover the cost of 40 young people on each bus, which comes to $4,500 per participant.

The Atlanta lodges are conducting an exciting fundraising campaign with help from a generous matching grant provided by Andrea and Mike Leven and Robyn and Doug Ross.

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Mike Leven is legendary in the business and philanthropic worlds and serves as an honorary director of Birthright Israel Foundation. Leven stepped down from the national board about a year ago after many years of exemplary service to the organization. Doug Ross is Atlanta chair and national vice chair of Birthright Israel Foundation.

“The idea to support the Birthright program came up in a conversation with Jeff Kalwerisky, president of Lodge Carmel in Atlanta,” said David Joss, a past president of the lodge who helped establish HOD in North America and is the incoming deputy grand lodge president for HOD International.

Kalwerisky, Ross, and Joss then started to design and implement the program with the help of Birthright Israel Foundation professionals in New York. The campaign received an immediate and enthusiastic buy-in from Atlanta’s three other lodges, Bezalel, Magen David, and Shimshon.

The current president of HOD’s governing lodge North America, Lawrence Barris, of Houston, also jumped on the bus, committing all North American lodges (in Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Boca Raton, San Diego, and Toronto) to join in this historic effort. As a result, lodge members throughout the United States and Canada will be reaching out to family and friends in a unique peer-to-peer crowdfunding campaign.

“Birthright Israel has an urgent need for funding,” Joss said. “Birthright Israel has sent over 800,000 young people from 70 countries to Israel, including over 10,200 from Atlanta since the program’s inception 23 years ago. When participants return home, they often become leaders in their local Jewish communities, feel a strong connection to Israel and are far more likely to be active in Jewish and pro-Israel organizations. In addition, college-age alumni are much better prepared to counter anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda, such as BDS, that they encounter on college campuses and across social media.”

To underscore the urgent funding needs, Ross added, “We had 32,000 applicants for only 12,000 North American spots for this summer – and trip costs are up 30 percent due to inflation. It’s heartbreaking to leave 20,000 hopeful applicants behind, so we are working around the clock to ask members of the Jewish community to step up and help provide this profoundly impactful gift from one generation to the next.”

Leven expressed his admiration for HOD stating: “It is a fantastic idea for Hebrew Order of David to demonstrate this commitment to Birthright Israel Foundation and to the Jewish people. All of us who support Birthright are excited and deeply appreciative of this tremendous show of support.”

How to Donate

Busloads for Birthright officially runs through mid-May. Donations can be made online at: https://birthrightisrael.foundation/hod-atlanta or contact Kate Smith, Birthright Israel Foundation’s Atlanta regional director at Kate.Smith@birthrightisrael.org or (404) 558-5358.