Birthright trip offers college credits

The first Birthright trip offering Jewish students from the United States academic credit is currently traveling in Israel.

The students will attend academic courses at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, or IDC, and at Ben Gurion University in the Negev during their two-week stay. The program will entitle participants to three academic credits at their academic institutes in the United States, according to Taglit Birthright.

Some 50 students from colleges and universities in the United States are participating in the first cohort.

At the IDC, the students will learn about “The challenge of terrorism in Israel and the Middle East” and will study “Global Warming, Renewable Energy and the Desert Ecosystem” at Ben Gurion University. As part of the terrorism course, the students will visit an Iron Dome battery in the field. As part of the ecosystem course, the students will snorkel in the coral reef in Eilat.

— JTA

Illustrative: Birthright Israel participants visiting Yad Vashem, summer 2012 (JTA/Taglit-Birthright Israel participants taken with permission inside Yad Vashem)