Taglit-Birthright Israel aims to change the course of Jewish history and ensure the continuity of the Jewish people by strengthening Jewish identity, Jewish communities, and solidarity with Israel via an educational trip to Israel for Jewish young adults around the world. More than 300,000 participants from across the globe have visited Israel for the first time on a 10-day educational trip with their peers through Taglit-Birthright Israel. Since the inaugural Taglit-Birthright Israel flight in the winter of 2000, the program has grown from a core of college students in the United States and Canada to reach participants from 62 countries, and an increasing number has included those who have finished their college studies. Born out of a concern that assimilation was leading Diaspora Jewry away from engagement with Jewish life and the State of Israel, the program that began as an experiment has been extraordinarily successful; it is enhancing the vibrancy of Jewish life in North America and other centers of Jewish life around the globe. The ten days of a Taglit-Birthright Israel trip are a journey in both Jewish history and in a contemporary Jewish state, accompanied by Israeli peers (“the Mifgash”) who join the trips as colleagues and friends. The Taglit-Birthright Israel educational journey is committed to a culture of open discussion and dialogue about all issues: identity, politics, religion, and Jewish living.