About Us

OU Israel Free Spirit was founded in 1999 and we’ve been a proud organizer for Birthright Israel ever since! After thousands of alumni and hundreds of trips, we’ve learned A LOT about providing you with the perfect Israel experience and we look forward to making our product better and better for many years to come.

Part of what makes IFS so special is that we’re part of a large family of programs built for teenagers and young adults to help strengthen their Jewish identity. Some of the other OU sponsored programs include:

• JSU is a not for profit and non denominational organization with headquarters in Los Angeles, California and offices in Teaneck, New Jersey whose mission is to get more Jewish young adults to do something Jewish! That’s it! It’s that simple!!!
• NCSY  is one of the largest Jewish youth movements in the world. NCSY is under the umbrella of the Orthodox Union, a not-for-profit educational social service organization which serves the North American Jewish community.
• JLIC  places Jewish education couples within the Hillels on local college campuses. Now on fifteen campuses in North America, the JLIC educators strive to enhance the learning opportunities available to students, and also to bolster the Jewish infrastructure so it can flourish.
• The NJCD (National Jewish Council For Disabilities) was established in 1983 and is under the Orthodox Union.  The NJCD is dedicated to addressing the needs of all individuals with disabilities and including them in the Jewish community.

Participants on all our trips get a stronger sense of Jewish community, identity and spirituality as they join together with like-minded travelers, first-rate tour guides and advisers for whom Jewish spirituality is not just an idea, but a way of life.