Since 1999, the non-profit Taglit-Birthright Israel program has sponsored more than 350,000 Jewish youths on heritage trips to ancestral Israel. Application deadlines for its upcoming summer tour are fast approaching.

“Taglit-Birthright Israel’s founders created this program to send young Jewish adults from all over the world to Israel as a gift to build a connection between Jewish young adults of the diaspora and Israel,” Pamela Weinstein, senior public relations associate at Taglit-Birthright Israel, said.

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Apart from a $250 refundable deposit fee and the cost of lunches, the organization covers all expenses for a 10-day excursion, including airfare and hotel stays, as well as breakfasts and dinners. Participants immerse themselves in Israeli culture and visit sites that are meaningful to Judaism, including the Masada, an ancient fortification, and the Western Wall, a historic site for pilgrimage and prayer.

“Israel [was] the refuge for Jews after the Holocaust,” Eric Sterling, editor of “Life in the Ghettos During the Holocaust,” said. “It is the Jewish homeland and has much history and cultural significance. ”

The program has sponsored students and young professionals, ages 18 to 26, from 64 countries and 1,000 North American colleges. This year marked the largest winter round yet with 17,000 participants, Weinstein said.

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“This organization is important because they’re trying to bring young Jews to Israel just to show their connection with Israel,” said Danielle Freedman, a junior majoring in accounting and a member of the Jewish student union Alabama Hillel.

Freedman has participated in the program before and said she bonded with her trip companions quickly.

“When we met each other, we all had the connection of being Jewish, so it wasn’t awkward,” Freedman said. “It was very easy to connect to each other.”

Freedman said the trip is much different than the average family vacation because participants travel with people of the same age.

Freedman said she particularly enjoyed being in a country where the majority of people shared her religion, in sharp contrast to the southern U.S.

“As a Jew in the South, you can forget your religion, because it’s so foreign to others,” Sterling said.

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Trips run during the winter from November to March and in the summer from May to September. Registration for the winter tour usually begins in September, Weinstein said. Past applicants can register for the upcoming summer tour on Feb. 18, and new applicants can register on Feb. 19. Interested candidates should visit birthrightisrael.com to apply.

“No matter what their knowledge or interaction with Judaism, this trip introduces our participants to Israel’s history, culture and modern society as a technology capital,” Weinstein said.