Originally appeared in jns.org, January 9, 2026

Supported trips quietly expand access, dignity and belonging without changing the essence of the Birthright Israel journey.

As Israel’s streets once again fill with the voices and laughter of Birthright Israel participants from around the world, a quieter but no less meaningful story is unfolding alongside the program’s better-known classic trips.

Since its founding in 2000, Taglit-Birthright Israel has brought more than 900,000 young Jews to Israel. Far less widely known is the organization’s long-standing commitment to making that experience accessible to young adults with disabilities and other special needs—through customized, fully supported trips offered at no additional cost.

The most recent Birthright trip, from Jan. 4-15, for young adults aged 18 to 25 with autism spectrum disorder, was titled “Israel All Together.”

For Elizabeth Sokolsky, executive vice president of Birthright Israel, the rationale is both simple and deeply Jewish. Citing the Talmudic principle that “All Israel is responsible for one another,” she explained that inclusion is not an add-on but a core value.

“Taglit-Birthright Israel believes that every eligible young adult should be able to travel to Israel to experience their birthright,” she told JNS. “Guided by our Jewish values, we aim to be inclusive of all individuals with disabilities, special requirements, limitations or challenges.”

Birthright currently offers both classic 10-day and volunteer trips tailored for participants on the autism spectrum, those with vision or hearing impairments, mobility challenges, intellectual and developmental disabilities, individuals in recovery, and others with medical, cognitive or physical conditions. These trips feature higher staff-to-participant ratios, adjusted pacing and, when necessary, one-to-one aides—without sacrificing the richness or rigor of the itinerary.

I write this not only as a journalist, but as someone who has led more than a dozen such trips. In December and January, I guided back-to-back Birthright programs: one for alumni of Camp Ramah’s Tikvah Program for people with disabilities, and another for the participants on the autism spectrum. Both were organized by Tailor Made, a leading provider of accessibility-focused travel in Israel.

“This mission is our flagship and our honor—to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to experience Israel with dignity, independence, and equal access,” said Tatiana Hasson-Katz, Tailor Made’s director of programming and outreach. “We are deeply passionate about serving this community and are proud to continue our commitment to creating meaningful, inclusive travel experiences for all.”

On a bus winding from Tiberias to the Golan Heights, 23 Birthright participants on the autism spectrum chatted easily with one another, listening intently as tour guide Duby Langberg narrated Israel’s landscapes and history. They had arrived just a day earlier on an Arkia flight from New York, quickly bonding in the airport chapel as connections arrived from across the United States and Canada.

The days that followed were filled with the kinds of experiences familiar to any Birthright alumnus—only thoughtfully adapted. At Ein Kshatot, the group explored an ancient synagogue. On the Golan, a musical workshop invited participants to tap rhythms, sing and engage multiple senses.

At Agamon Hahuleh, small groups toured the wetlands by golf cart, observing hundreds of thousands of migrating cranes. One participant took 600 photographs, later curating and sharing her favorite 50 with the group.

Accessible hikes at Ein Afek and Nahal Shofet, a nighttime boat ride on the Kinneret, volunteering with therapy horses, visits to Tsfat (Safed), Tel Aviv, Jaffa and Jerusalem—all were part of the journey. The group was also scheduled to meet Israeli soldiers, attend a geopolitics lecture and visit Yad Vashem, the Western Wall and the Dead Sea.

For Brad Levitt, 30, from Manhattan’s Upper West Side, this January trip was his second Birthright experience in four months. “The reason I chose this trip is that I struggle with organization, so changing hotels every three days doesn’t suit me so well,” he said with a laugh. “Changing hotels only three times is perfect.”

Levitt, a professional headhunter, said the appeal went beyond logistics. “It is hard to argue with a free trip and also—how often do you get an opportunity to see Israel with fresh eyes, meet locals, and have powerful programs on identity like we had last night?!”

Langberg, who has guided similar groups before, said the experience is transformative for staff as well as participants. “Being here with these amazing, sensitive, kind people is a privilege,” he said. “They see so much, and most of the time in society, they are misunderstood. It is amazing to see Israel through their eyes.”

Levitt hopes the program continues to grow. “These trips are important and need to continue,” he said, “because they serve a specific population that wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to go on an organized trip.”

In doing so, Birthright Israel is quietly affirming a powerful truth: that belonging, connection and peoplehood are not limited by disability—and that Israel, like the Jewish people themselves, is strongest when everyone has a place on the journey.

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Originally appeared in Jerusalem Post Magazine, January 2, 2026

A 12-year-old’s love for Israel inspired her entire family to leave Paraguay and start a new life in Ra’anana

Had Esther Levin, now 21, not fallen in love with Israel on a trip to the Holy Land when she was 12 years old and decided on the spot that she was making aliyah, her parents and three siblings might still be living in Paraguay. Now they live in Ra’anana, a city with a population of approximately 84,000 Jews – a big step up from the reported mere 1,100 Jews in Paraguay. 

Levin owes that first trip to the ANU Museum of the Jewish People, the museum’s My Family Story project, and the project she created that won her a free trip to Israel, which she took with her father, Ariel.

She describes her shorashim (“roots,” or family tree) project, which she called “A Never Ending Story.” “It had a circle with steps and a mirror on the bottom…”

Nine years later, Levin is enthusiastic as she describes the project, the competition, and her first trip to her ancestral land.

“I fell in love with Israel! In Paraguay, there is not a big Jewish community. We have no kosher restaurants, it is hard to eat kosher, and no one knows about Shabbat or the Jewish people. In Israel, I felt free. I felt a sense of belonging.

In Paraguay, I never felt I belonged. In Israel, I felt I belonged – there were shuls everywhere, the smell of flowers on Fridays, and they were selling challah. In Paraguay, we had to make our own. I felt this is where I belonged, and I told my Dad, ‘I am making aliyah – I want and need to come!’”

Levin in the Golan. (credit: Courtesy)

To Levin’s surprise, her father confided, “I also want to make aliyah. We have to come up with a plan to convince your mother!” Levin laughs as she recounts the plan they hatched. “We were going to tell her every day, ‘We want to make aliyah’ until she got tired of hearing it.”

Her mother, Sandra Zarecki, wasn’t buying it: “Israel is scary. We don’t have wars in Paraguay!”

‘In Israel, it was the safest I ever felt’

Levin countered, “You just hear the news. In Israel, it was the safest I ever felt.” She began exploring options for boarding schools. Ultimately, though, she and her parents agreed that it made the most sense for her to complete high school first. She graduated in December 2022 and made aliyah on her own in January 2023, at age 18.

“My goal was to join the army – I really wanted to join,” Levin says, recalling seeing IDF soldiers when she was 12. “It was really exciting. They were my heroes. They were close to my heart.  For us, it was the most special thing.”

She spent five months at Kibbutz Ma’agan Michael, studying Hebrew four hours a day and working another four hours in the garden, zoo, or kitchen. She followed that with a month’s employment in a Tel Aviv hotel, which provided accommodation before she returned to the kibbutz for another round of ulpan.

Levin’s second stint on kibbutz coincided with Oct. 7. “It was really scary. For us, it was our first war.” 

To her delight, however, her parents and siblings made aliyah while she was on ulpan. She left ulpan in December 2023 and spent one Shabbat at her family’s new home in Ra’anana ahead of being drafted into the Israel Air Force (IAF) on January 1, 2024.

Levin considers that she was at a disadvantage in navigating the army system. Peers who grew up in Israel were much more familiar with the process, options, and various units. “I didn’t know what to do. I had no family in the army. I didn’t get much help.”

While she had combat soldier aspirations, things didn’t work out that way. Levin has been serving as an Air Force airplane technician and will complete her service in a few months. She maintains what seems like an always positive attitude, though she concedes that it has been tough.

“At the end of the day, I came to give,” she declared. Her mother points out, “Her service has been all during the war – they work 24 hours.”

Sandra Zarecki and Ariel Levin are proud of their daughter for leading the way for the family to make aliyah.  They openly share their sometimes complicated aliyah process, along with both the challenges and the pleasures they experienced upon arrival.

How did Zarecki eventually come around to deciding to make aliyah?  “When Esther said, ‘I want to make aliyah, we thought, ‘We are a family and don’t want to be apart,’” she recounts. She also knew how much Ariel wanted to make aliyah.

She suggests that there were additional signs directing the family toward aliyah. Both sons – Uriel (18) and Yaakov (15) had won the same ANU “My Family Story” competition as their sister and earned a free trip to Israel. Uriel got to go, but Yaakov’s trip had been postponed due to COVID. Currently, their youngest has her sights set on the competition.

Deep down, Levin’s parents always knew there was no future for Jews in Paraguay and that Israel was the only option. They point to very high intermarriage rates. “We couldn’t continue in Paraguay,” Ariel says.

While he grew up in Paraguay, his wife lived in Argentina with a father and two grandparents who had been in the Vilna Ghetto and fought as partisans.

THEIR ROAD to Israel was not simple. “We don’t have Nefesh B’Nefesh or even a Jewish Agency in Paraguay,” says Ariel.

They worked with the Jewish Agency in Uruguay and Argentina, and a staff member even went to Paraguay for their in-person interview.

Thirteen days before their aliyah date, Zarecki’s mother, who was to make aliyah with them, broke her hip. Ariel and the children traveled ahead of her to Israel, and Zarecki stayed behind for two months to help her mother. Eventually, she asked her husband to come back to Paraguay to help finalize the move. He flew back, and then Oct. 7 happened.

With a great deal of persistence and advocacy, Zarecki, her mother, and Ariel were able to fly from Asuncion, Paraguay, to Sao Paolo, Brazil, to Paris, France, where they boarded an El Al flight to Israel. Unlike most new immigrants, who are greeted with great fanfare, they report, “We were alone in the airport.” Sadly, Zarecki’s mother passed away three months later.

DESPITE THESE initial difficulties, the family continues to adjust to life in Ra’anana and Israel. They have a number of relatives living in Ra’anana and other places in the country, which is helpful. Levin’s parents work as architects, though Zarecki is currently on a leave of absence in order to continue with ulpan and improve her Hebrew. Their eldest son, Uriel, also attended ulpan, in anticipation of drafting to the IDF. The other children – Yaakov (15) and Tali (12) – as expected, have been acclimating to a new language, culture, and social scene – all during wartime.

The family continues to smile and remain upbeat. Their advice to new olim and those considering aliyah is to get a jump on Hebrew. They note that learning Hebrew is useful, though Zarecki notes that it is “not enough – it is a bridge.”

Levin’s dad offers this: “Don’t wait for everything to be 100% before coming on aliyah. If you do, then two years will pass, and then 20 or 30. It is okay to come, even if not everything is perfect!”

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Originally appeared in the Jerusalem Post Magazine, jpost.com, December 27, 2025

Not a sudden move but a long decision, how Israel became home through patience, purpose, and planning.

For Micol Radzik, the path from Venice to Tel Aviv was steady, gradual, and well planned – all starting with a one-month family trip to Israel at age 17.

When Radzik’s grandmother learned that her granddaughter would be spending the summer of 2000 in Israel with her parents and younger sister, Benedetta, she thought it would be useful to teach her some Hebrew. “She wanted me to be able to read the street signs,” Radzik, 32, recounts.

They spent 30 minutes daily after school learning Hebrew together. “She used to teach Hebrew to children and had beginner’s books in Hebrew, books about the chalutizim [pioneers] and the founding of the country,” she says.Unmute

Those pre-trip lessons were both useful and enjoyable. Radzik was able to read the street signs in Israel, and the lessons continued for several years after the family’s trip to Israel in 2000. “I learned Hebrew and Judaism; whatever bitu’im [expressions] she knew, she taught me,” she recalls. “She had my grandfather show me things each time we met, from his many books on Hebrew and Judaica.”

During that first month-long Israel trip, Radzik remembers her family touring the entire country. In their rented car, they would leave the moshav near the Lebanon border where they were based, and headed to the Galilee, Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, and Masada. She also fondly recalls the wonderful meals – and the oranges.

Back there in 2022. (credit: Courtesy)
Back there in 2022. (credit: Courtesy)

Her paternal grandfather had lived in Israel briefly after World War II but returned to Italy because he couldn’t find work. Other family members had gone to Israel as well, and Radzik’s father has several second cousins who live in Israel. During their trip, they spent time with relatives in Hod Hasharon and Tel Aviv.

Radzik and her family enjoyed Israel so much that they returned the following winter and again the following summer. This time, they went to Eilat, a warm contrast to the cold winters in Italy. “We got to swim on December 25; it was super fun!” she recounts.

She returned to Israel in 2012 with an Italian Birthright delegation, her first organized Israel trip. Next was a 10-day trip in 2013 for her peers from all over the world, sponsored by the Jewish Agency. She feels fortunate to have participated in a trip that captured “the beauties and challenges of Israel.” Meeting diverse people and visiting off-the-beaten-track places helped capture the nuances of life in Israel for her. She met olim in South Tel Aviv, haredim at a Belz synagogue, and Women of the Wall.

New experiences and insights of Israel

Future trips brought new Israel experiences and further exposure to people and places in Israel. A Young Leaders trip in 2019, sponsored by Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund, gave her the opportunity to visit JNF sites such as ADI Negev-Nahalat Eran, a rehabilitation village for people with disabilities. She also visited Nazareth and the Ach Gadol lone soldiers program, and attended the 64th Eurovision Song Contest at Expo Tel Aviv.

After another organized trip – this time with the Union of Italian Jewish Communities – she decided to focus on improving her Hebrew. It started with one ulpan on Zoom, then increased to two, given the extra time she had during the COVID-19 pandemic. She listened to Israeli radio, watched Israeli TV, and participated in weekly Fluent Language Exchange Events through the Abraham Hostel in Tel Aviv, where participants practice more than 12 different languages with native speakers.

This language experience led to an additional Zoom Hebrew-language conversation group. She became friends with an Israeli guy in the group, who she recalls, was always sharing exciting stories of his daily life in Israel – picnics, volleyball, Independence Day celebrations, and more. It sparked her interest in making aliyah.

“I was thinking what a life in Israel would look like, and this contributed to my desire. I became more and more interested,” she says. “I realized I like international environments and languages, and that I am cosmopolitan. There is a special atmosphere in Israel, and it is very stimulating for me. This friend showed me how good it can be.”

She carefully considered whether moving to Israel was right for her. She realized that she had always gone on programs for short periods of time. While she always felt happy in Israel, she wondered if it was because she was on holiday or because this is life in Israel.

But the pandemic meant she wouldn’t be able to go to Israel for two years. “I wanted to go and felt so bad,” she recalls, wanting to return and experience living in Israel for a longer period of time. “I felt so sad. I felt the need to go even more.”

Then there was an opportunity for those who received the first COVID-19 vaccine to come to Israel. She seized the opportunity. “I even got my second dose [of the COVID vaccine] here!” she says.

She continued to take stock of her life, goals, and desires. By this time, she was 28 years old. “I have always focused on my goals and didn’t want to get off track,” she says. “I had a good job in Italy.”

She worried that coming to Israel would be expensive and that it would mean “starting from scratch.” It also meant being far away from her family, with whom she was very attached. But she said to herself, “Let’s try.”

Then something wonderfully unexpected happened in 2022. Friends from the European Union of Jewish Students group had made aliyah, and one Italian woman was working at the WIX web development company. “She saw that a position was open in Israel for an Italian-speaker,” Radzik recounts. “Wow! I needed to apply.”

She prepared all the necessary documents and received a six-month temporary visa. She reasoned, “Even if they don’t take me, I’ll go.” With a job waiting for her and a source of income, she knew it was time to make aliyah formally.

Now, in addition to working for WIX, she is meeting people through local theater classes, her synagogue, and the Italian Institute of Culture. Although she misses her parents and sister in Italy, she enjoys their visits. Her father has come for extended visits and participated in an ulpan at the same Tel Aviv location where his daughter studies.

She feels the key to her reasonably smooth aliyah is due to securing a job, working hard on learning Hebrew, and generally acting responsibly at all times. She has also pushed herself out of her comfort zone to meet people. It seems to be paying off.

She advises other new immigrants to check events for olim, as well as events for people from their home countries.

“Go on trips; see Israel,” she stresses. “Join communal Shabbat dinners. Find a community of people with similar interests, such as swimmers or a painting group. And volunteer!”

MICOL RADZIK, 32, FROM VENICE TO TEL AVIV, 2022

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Originally appeared in jns.org, December 24, 2025

Six months after losing her lab to Iranian missiles, Prof. Yifat Merbl is honored by “Nature” magazine for groundbreaking immune-system research.

t has been a year of both devastation and distinction for Yifat Merbl, a professor in the Department of Systems Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot.

Merbl was recently named one of Nature magazine’s “Ten people who shaped science in 2025,” a prestigious honor recognizing her groundbreaking work on the human immune system.

“It’s an amazing recognition in what we do and provides an amazing boost, also to my incredible team, to keep pushing the boundaries of science,” Merbl told JNS in a recent phone interview.

The accolade came just six months after her laboratory in the Wolfson Building at the Weizmann Institute was largely destroyed by Iranian missile strikes. Her home on the institute’s campus also sustained major damage in the attack.

Merbl was in her campus apartment when the missiles hit on June 15. She ran to her lab to close freezer doors in an effort to salvage irreplaceable research samples.

“It was the hardest day of my life,” said Merbl, a mother of three. “Some very expensive equipment was gone as well as clinical samples from oncology, cerebral spinal fluid and brain tissue from all over the world.”

She praised the Weizmann Institute for its rapid response, noting that the university helped relocate some 50 damaged or destroyed laboratories so research could continue. Her team is now operating out of a nearby plant biology lab using salvaged and newly purchased equipment.

Merbl is acutely aware that her personal story is only one chapter in Israel’s broader ordeal. “How does the country do it?” she asked.

Still, she remains resolutely optimistic. “We have to go forward. We wake up each day, hope for better days, find other solutions and get creative. It could have been worse—our house could have been ruined. And our kids and students weren’t hurt.”

Merbl’s journey

Raised in Givat Shmuel, Merbl served as an officer in the Israeli Air Force before earning a bachelor’s degree in computational biology from Bar-Ilan University. She went on to complete a master’s degree in immunology at the Weizmann Institute under the guidance of Prof. (Emeritus) Irun Cohen.

In 2010, she earned her doctorate in systems biology under the guidance of Prof. Marc Kirschner at Harvard Medical School, where she also completed postdoctoral training. She then returned to Weizmann as a principal investigator to establish her own lab.

“One aspect of our lab focuses on trying to understand what happens when proteins are degraded,” Merbl explained.

Her research centers on proteasomes—the cellular “waste disposers” responsible for breaking down damaged or unneeded proteins. “It is like a home garbage can, where you throw out all you don’t need.”

Her work builds on the seminal discoveries of Israeli scientists Aaron Ciechanover and Avram Hershko, who shared the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Irwin Rose for uncovering the mechanism of protein degradation by the proteasome.

Merbl has earned the affectionate nickname “dumpster diver” for her deep exploration of this molecular machinery. Her lab developed novel technology allowing researchers to track proteasomes under different disease conditions, generating vast datasets of degraded protein fragments.

Her team suspected that these so-called “waste” products might serve an additional purpose.

“We took a broad look at all the data and asked ourselves: could the products of degradation play an additional role?”

The answer, it turned out, was yes. Merbl’s research revealed that proteasomes routinely produce small protein fragments, known as peptides, and that their production increases sharply during bacterial infections. Some of these fragments were found to kill harmful bacteria.

Many resembled components of the body’s innate immune system—the first line of defense against bacteria, viruses and parasites.

The findings suggest that the cell’s “dumpsters” may actually play a key role in fighting infection, opening a potential new frontier for personalized treatments at a time of growing antibiotic resistance.

Reflecting on her recognition by Nature, Merbl said the honor underscores how much remains unknown.

“It serves as a reminder of how much we still do not understand,” she said. “What excites me most is realizing how much there is still to uncover. Each answer opens a new set of questions, and each question expands the map of what is possible.”

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