r/birthright

I live in the US, and transatlantic flights are expensive. I'm planning on going to visit Belgium with some friends around the same time, and would it be possible to fly to Israel for for birthright, do the trip, stay a bit longer to visit relatives and such, and then after that leave for Belgium, but return to Israel for the trip home? Nothing has been booked yet, just trying to see if this is an option.

I explained my situation exactly as it is and was still approved and accepted for a trip, so I know I'm allowed to be going, but now that it is happening so soon I'm wondering will I likely to be surrounded by practicing Jews/secular Jews who have more knowledge? I'm specifically going in order to learn about the side of my ethnicity that I did not get growing up, but will it cause issues if I am pretty clueless to everything beyond just knowing pretty surface level stuff? I've never been to synagogue, my family never celebrated Hannukah, didn't have a bar mitzvah, etc. I also got a very biased view of Israel based on my university (I went to UCLA during the protests and the vast majority of people in my major were very pro-Palestine) which makes me worried I may either say something tone deaf due to unintentionally internalized antisemitism/misinformation or become uncomfortable if any of the group discourse turns into what I would consider hateful (I assume this won't happen, but I've also seen Jewish dudes in LA walk up to women in hijab in the street in broad daylight and cuss them out unprovoked, so I'm not sure).

I looked at the names of many of the other participants and it seems to be predominantly guys with Jewish sounding names in their early 20s. I'm gay, non-binary, AND 26, so in addition to being an extremely inexperienced Jew, I'm a little worried about how I'm going to fit in socially, especially since I already tend to have social anxiety at first and can take some time to warm up. I just don't want to end up in a position where I am solo on the trip if everyone else has more similarities to connect over. And I feel like I'm bound to be an outsider given all this.

The bottom line is I really don't know what to expect and it's both exciting and a little scary. Any insight or advice?

I went on my birthright trip in 2023. I was incredibly sick The entire trip even had to make a couple trips to the hospital.
Obviously this is such a once in a lifetime experience and I’ve always been so sad that the whole thing was ruined for me.
Is there any way to go again even if I paid or something? I’m just so sad I never got to have this experience

I signed up only a few weeks ago when I found out I was available to go, so I'm worried I may have been left out of something. I had signed up for a trip in the past and had to cancel last minute, but they had already formed a group chat prior to the day of departure. I have my flight info and see the names of people in my group, but I've gotten no other info at all about leaving from LAX.

Is this normal? I want to contact someone but obviously it has been the weekend and I wouldn't be sure who to even reach out to.

Any help very appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Planning on going to birthright this winter. If I wake up super early or during any free time go to a nearby gym is that possible?