Birthright, other teen groups, face unprecedented challenges amid COVID restrictions

(JNS) — Israel abandoned its “red list” of countries last week — those destinations with high COVID-19 infection rates, from which foreign travelers were banned from entering Israel. It’s welcome news to pro-Israel groups whose bread and butter is organizing trips to Israel. They say the travel bans have complicated their mission to connect people to the Jewish state, and no amount of speaker series and digital events can compare to “putting two feet on Israeli soil.”

Izzy Tapoohi, president and CEO of the Birthright Israel Foundation, told JNS that COVID and the resultant travel bans have had...