Taglit-Birthright will, for the first time, allow participants to freely visit more parts of the historical heartland of the Jewish People, according to a report in Makor Rishon.
Taglit-Birthright takes Jewish youths to Israel for free, so they can connect to their historical roots, see what Israel is today, and meet other Jews, and hopefully marry Jewish.
Until now, Taglit-Birthright has not allowed visits to many areas in Judea and Samaria as part of their program, purportedly to avoid the (internal) political conflicts that those trips might raise, and in part because of the exorbitant cost of the armored buses they feel they need.
But during the past month, Taglit-Birthright has begun allowing groups to visit Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem, without requiring special permissions in advance.
Among those places that can now be visited are Kfar Etion, the ancient aqueduct to Jerusalem underneath Efrat (Emet HaBiyar), and Machon Tzomet.
We can only hope that at some point Taglit-Birthright will also include trips to Hebron, and the Tomb of the Patriarchs.
