A Summer of Uncertainty: The Impact on Birthright Israel's Summer 2025 Cohort
Graham Wright, Shahar Hecht, Micha Rieser, Samantha Shortall, Leonard Saxe
March 2026
This report focuses on the experience of summer 2025 US participants in Birthright’s 10-day trips. Summer 2025 marked a year and a half since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas. Although a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel had been agreed upon six months earlier, Israel was still experiencing regular Houthi missile and drone attacks from Yemen. Having made the decision to travel to Israel during this precarious time, many participants found themselves confronting an outbreak of a new war that erupted between Israel and Iran in June 2025. Birthright, which was already tasked with operating successful, safe, and meaningful trips during a time of intense conflict, was additionally faced with mounting an evacuation operation of all its participants by boat to Cyprus and then to their home countries.
The report aimed to understand the characteristics of participants; how they perceived the program; and how participation affected their relationship with Israel, their Jewish identity, and their Jewish connections. The findings are based on a pair of surveys: one survey conducted prior to the trip in spring 2025 and the other conducted several months after the trip in the fall of 2025.
Key findings
- Summer 2025 Birthright participants represented a range of Jewish backgrounds. Nearly half (46%) had never been to Israel, more than half (58%) never attended Jewish day school, and the majority (83%) did not identify as Orthodox. At the same time, Birthright participants in both summer 2024 and 2025 were more likely to have had intensive Jewish experiences growing up compared to their peers who participated prior to October 7.
- More than half of summer 2025 participants (53%) were very connected to Israel before the trip. Levels of connection to Israel prior to going on the trip were similar to those observed among summer 2024 participants and were markedly higher compared to those who participated before October 7.
- A plurality of participants in summer 2025 identified as politically conservative (42%), and about a third identified as liberal (34%). This finding is similar to that observed in 2024, but compared to summer 2023 participants, the share of conservatives more than doubled (42% in 2025 versus 20% in 2023), and the share of liberals shrank dramatically.
- Travel to Israel, forging Jewish connections, and having Jewish experiences with peers were the main motivations driving participants to apply.
- Virtually all of the participants, regardless of their prior experience and level of Jewish education, rated the trip extremely positively. The majority rated it as one of the best experiences of their lives and described the trip as very meaningful.
- Summer 2025 Birthright participants increased their level of connection to Israel despite joining the trip already highly connected (from 53% very much connected prior to the trip to 74% after the trip, with no observable change among nonparticipants).
- Participants increased their level of knowledge about various topics related to Israel, despite reporting high levels of knowledge about these topics prior to the trip. Participants’ level of knowledge on topics concerning Arab citizens of Israel and contemporary Israeli politics increased the most.
- Participation in Birthright increased the importance participants placed on being Jewish to their identity. This impact was concentrated among those who identified as politically liberal.
- Participation in Birthright helped maintain participants’ connections to Jewish life (Jewish values, Jewish history, Jewish customs and traditions, the worldwide Jewish community), while nonparticipants’ levels of connection to Jewish life decreased.
- Participation in Birthright increased participants’ sense of responsibility toward other Jews and Israel.
- Birthright’s positive impact on connection to Israel and to the worldwide Jewish community, on Jewish identity and on knowledge about Israel, was evident even among those who attended Jewish day school and tended to be already highly immersed in Jewish life.