Lowenthal. Excited over trip
Photo: AP
100,000th Taglit participant to arrive in Israel
Stephanie Lowenthal of New York set to become 100,000th participant in program that sends young American Jews to Israel
Stephanie Lowenthal, a young Jewish New Yorker with a thriving career on Wall Street, is set to leave all the financial excitement behind her this summer and depart on a journey to Israel as the 100,000th participant to take part in the Taglit
program.
Stephanie, who was born to a Reform-turned-Conservative family in Queens, told reporters during a press conference attended by Israel Consul General in New York Arieh Mekel that she and her parents never visited in Israel, but that her brother was in the country two years ago. Now it's my turn to go, she said.
Lowenthal, who said she was very excited about the upcoming trip, studied Hebrew as a girl in Queens but said she remembers absolutely nothing. I think I have relatives in Tekoa, but I'm not even certain of that, she told journalists.
Like most young American Jews, Stephanie has been busy pursuing her career in the last few years. She moved to Manhattan to work at the Wall Street Stock Exchange broadcast studios. Relocating to the Big Apple, she admits, has caused her to drift away from Judaism, but she says she has always kept a warm place in her heart for Israel.
Whenever another Israeli company got listed in Nasdaq it moved me, she said.
Reconnecting with Judaism
However, Stephanie never really thought of traveling to Israel, until friends who took part in the Taglit project convinced her to register for the trip.
It is a great honor to be the 100,000th visitor to Israel in the framework of the project, Stephanie said, calling it a "once in a lifetime opportunity" to reconnect with her Jewishness and to see and experience the things she had learned about as a child.
Stephanie also believes this would be a good chance for her to strengthen the connection with Israel and Judaism. I am thrilled about going to Israel and hope the trip improves me as a Jew and turns Israel into an important part of my life, she concluded.
Over the last six years, more than 2,700 delegations of young Jewish American teens aged between 18 and 26 have visited Israel with the program. Many of them fell in love with the country and returned to Israel to attend university or settle there. Stephanie is set to arrive in Tel Aviv with some 10,000 youngsters, chosen out of 25,000 who wished to take part in the project.
Taglit is funded by Jewish philanthropists Michael Steinhardt, Charles Bronfman and Lynn Schusterman, along with the Israeli government and the North American Jewish Federations.
