Tours That Bind - 9780814748176

Tours That BindDiaspora, Pilgrimage, and Israeli Birthright Tourism\nAuthor(s): Shaul Kelner\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: New York University Press, United States\nImprint: New York University Press\nISBN-13: 9780814748176, 978-0814748176\nSynopsis\nWinner, 2010 Association for Jewish Studies Jordan Schnitzer Book Award\n 2011 Honorable Mention for the American Sociological Association Culture Section's Mary Douglas Prize for Best Book\n Since 1999 hundreds of thousands of young American Jews have visited Israel on an all-expense-paid 10-day pilgrimage-tour known as Birthright Israel. The most elaborate of the state-supported homeland tours that are cropping up all over the world, this tour seeks to foster in the American Jewish diaspora a lifelong sense of attachment to Israel based on ethnic and political solidarity. Over a half-billion dollars (and counting) has been spent cultivating this attachment, and despite 9/11 and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict the tours are st.