After staffing 13 Birthright trips and sending more than 500 young Jews to Israel, I recently sat in a Manhattan theater and watched my professional role and personal preoccupations play out on stage.
Jonathan Spector’s “Birthright,” now at MCC Theater, uses the free Israel trip as the starting point for decades of wrestling with Israel, Judaism and friendship. I watched versions of people I came to know on Birthright, never knowing how their own journeys might turn out.
The play follows six American Jews across three moments in time: 2006 after their Birthright trip, 2016 after a wedding rehearsal dinner, and 2024 after a shiva. All three acts take place in the same house. Even though we’re plopped into three vastly different time periods, the location acts like a portal, connecting us across the decades.
The six men and women become friends on Birthright and stay in touch over the next 18 years. The play offers snapshots into real life and how the conversation around Israel has evolved over the past two decades.
'Birthright' captures how every Birthright participant carries different story
The play captures how, whatever the goals of the trip organizers or the intentions of the participants, every Birthright alum walks away with a different story. Sure, organizations and educators have their goals. But eventually people build their own relationships - with Israel and each other - ask their own questions and make meaning out of their experiences in ways nobody can fully predict or control.
There’s the character whose Birthright trip inspired a spiritual awakening and deepening, if not always straightforward, journey into religious thought. Another character grew up Jewishly affiliated, is over it in college and then finds her way back to caring deeply about Jewish peoplehood. There’s the character who always centered social justice and human rights, who starts off critical of Israel and then becomes increasingly anti-Israel.
And, of course, there’s the character who comes back from Birthright ready to make aliyah after falling in love with a soldier from the trip.
Each character returns with a different relationship to the country, and we watch those relationships shape and shift, for better and worse.
Israel impacts friendships, family stories, celebrations
For so many Jews, Israel isn’t a topic we pull out and discuss in a vacuum. It’s woven into friendships, family stories, celebrations, losses, and all the mundane conversations in between. The script managed to jump between all these topics of regular conversation while organically and sometimes painfully integrating Israel, just like real life.
Both Zionist and anti-Zionist views were represented onstage. At one point, I thought, “Why am I doing this to myself? Haven’t we all had enough of these conversations already?”
But then I remembered that not everyone lives inside these conversations and that theater might be one of the few places where we can safely witness difficult conversations unfold. We sit together in the dark and watch people we recognize, people we disagree with, and people we don’t fully understand. No one needs to win, but we all have to listen.
One of the questions I keep asking when seeing shows that address the modern-day Jewish experience around Israel and antisemitism, including the Broadway hit “Giant” and the off-Broadway farce “Slam Frank,” is about the intended audience. In the case of “Birthright,” that audience appears to be Jews. The show is so “us.” The dialogue assumes an insider perspective, and the characters feel incredibly specific.
And instead of elevating the extremist voices that dominate the public discourse and have been driving us apart, Spector captures the silent majority of American Jews who are heartbroken by war and all of the innocent people who suffer from it. The play reminds the audience we have far more in common with one another and we need to be able to live, converse, and celebrate together. After all, we’re one mishpacha.
The final act did something I haven’t seen another show do: the staging visually expressed how phones, social media and echo chambers have completely taken over our lives and played a role in our division. When a character receives a text or notification, the lights go out, and a spotlight isolates the character on their device. The phone screen is projected onto the wall, and the conversation around them dissolves into incomprehensible “blah blah blahs” - a brilliant depiction of how digital devices and social platforms are severing our human connections.
I left thinking a lot about how many people I know who have lost friends and relationships since October 7. I thought about how Israelis continue to be misunderstood and dehumanized. About how so many Jews are distraught and broken by ongoing war and trauma. I felt the tension held by so many American Jews who oppose and are actively concerned about the current Israeli government while feeling an ever-heightened connection to the Israeli people and Jews worldwide.
Without giving away too much, there is a moment at the end when the tension hits a point that seems like it’s beyond repair. Then, a very clear representation of Judaism comes back into the room. The politics dissipate, the tension dissolves, and Judaism becomes the pathway through which everyone can get back together.
I’d suggest this is the clear call to action of the play - especially for those of us who find ourselves able to hear the different perspectives, even when we wholeheartedly disagree. “Birthright” is not here to change your stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Rather, for those of us who know the extremes on either side are the most harmful, it calls us back to remember that at the end of the day, it’s our community who will care for us and have our back.
So, instead of insisting that everyone think exactly the same, let’s share a meal and remember that there is much more that brings us together than pulls us apart.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.