Does Travel Foster Great Citizenship?
If you were offered a free ten-day trip to one of the holiest places in the world would you accept it? Since the establishment of Taglit-birthright, hundreds of thousands of young Jews have visited Israel on an all-expense-paid tour known as Birthright Israel. Birthright encourages young Jewish adults to expand and join the global Jewish communities. The Taglit-Birthright program does this through activities, religious social events, and engaging conversations regarding present-day Jewish life. Birthright is more than just a new rite of passage; it is becoming the new norm in Judaism on a global scale. Travel and tourism give first hand exposure to problems and allow people to feel compassion for what they …show more content…
Great citizenship is to experience compassion for everyone. Compassion is a limited resource we need to conserve and find a way to renew that can be done by tourism. Great citizenship emphasizes behaving in a way others should mimic and exhibiting the types of values one hopes the world will reflect. Even if you only have Jews communicating with other Jews it still creates a diverse community that will challenge people’s perspective and insights. Liu and Hanauer emphasize on creating positive social trends and acting they way you want to see the world become give us away to evaluate effectiveness of birthright tourism. Although, at a first glance Birthright tourism might seem like it is reinforcing social divisions this type of religious tourism is going to create a more interconnected and compassionate world. Even though this tourism is related to religion, the main values it instills are secular. No matter what your faith is, the notion of taking young adults from various walks of life fosters interdependence and promotes responsibility in their community. This type of tourism encourages participants to become great citizens as leaders in their community back home and …show more content…
This is not the case. A cynical interpretation of this type of tourism might seek evidence of social divisions. However, these social divisions is a misunderstanding of birthright tourism and what it is actually about. Liu and Hanauer would say part of being a great citizen is undertaking your connection and responsibility towards everyone in the world. However, looked at from one angle, birthright Israel could actually be creating a sense of tribalism rather of a sense of globalism. It fosters a notion like your a Jew above all and your community is a community of just Jewish people rather than your community being the world. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary the definition of tribalism is loyalty to a tribe or other social group especially when combined with strong negative feelings for people outside the group. Because birthright Israel above all emphasizes that Jews are part of a Jewish community it reinforces a sense social division in the world, rather reinforce a sense of unity. It fosters an idea of “Us verse them” mindset rather than creating a sense of interdependent, which is what great citizenship, is supposed to be
If you were offered a free ten-day trip to one of the holiest places in the world would you accept it? Since the establishment of Taglit-birthright, hundreds of thousands of young Jews have visited Israel on an all-expense-paid tour known as Birthright Israel. Birthright encourages young Jewish adults to expand and join the global Jewish communities. The Taglit-Birthright program does this through activities, religious social events, and engaging conversations regarding present-day Jewish life. Birthright is more than just a new rite of passage; it is becoming the new norm in Judaism on a global scale. Travel and tourism give first hand exposure to problems and allow people to feel compassion for what they …show more content…
Great citizenship is to experience compassion for everyone. Compassion is a limited resource we need to conserve and find a way to renew that can be done by tourism. Great citizenship emphasizes behaving in a way others should mimic and exhibiting the types of values one hopes the world will reflect. Even if you only have Jews communicating with other Jews it still creates a diverse community that will challenge people’s perspective and insights. Liu and Hanauer emphasize on creating positive social trends and acting they way you want to see the world become give us away to evaluate effectiveness of birthright tourism. Although, at a first glance Birthright tourism might seem like it is reinforcing social divisions this type of religious tourism is going to create a more interconnected and compassionate world. Even though this tourism is related to religion, the main values it instills are secular. No matter what your faith is, the notion of taking young adults from various walks of life fosters interdependence and promotes responsibility in their community. This type of tourism encourages participants to become great citizens as leaders in their community back home and …show more content…
This is not the case. A cynical interpretation of this type of tourism might seek evidence of social divisions. However, these social divisions is a misunderstanding of birthright tourism and what it is actually about. Liu and Hanauer would say part of being a great citizen is undertaking your connection and responsibility towards everyone in the world. However, looked at from one angle, birthright Israel could actually be creating a sense of tribalism rather of a sense of globalism. It fosters a notion like your a Jew above all and your community is a community of just Jewish people rather than your community being the world. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary the definition of tribalism is loyalty to a tribe or other social group especially when combined with strong negative feelings for people outside the group. Because birthright Israel above all emphasizes that Jews are part of a Jewish community it reinforces a sense social division in the world, rather reinforce a sense of unity. It fosters an idea of “Us verse them” mindset rather than creating a sense of interdependent, which is what great citizenship, is supposed to be