When Simon Amiel took over as Birthright Israel’s executive vice president for North America, he saw the move not as a career change but as the next step in a mission that has guided much of his professional life: strengthening Jewish identity through transformative experiences in Israel.

The Seattle native, who now lives in Teaneck, N.J., joined Birthright after six years as executive director of RootOne, an initiative that helps Jewish teens travel to Israel while preparing them to navigate increasingly hostile campus environments.

“The opportunity to take on this role with Birthright was there. I thought, ‘What a great way to level up now what I’m passionate about,'” Amiel told JNS.

While Birthright remains best known for its free 10-day trips to Israel for young Jewish adults, Amiel said the organization has broadened its offerings since the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. In addition to its flagship trips, Birthright now offers weeklong volunteer missions and longer-term opportunities, including Birthright Excel and Onward internships.

Amiel said the trips produce measurable gains in Jewish engagement. According to Birthright’s 2025 impact report, the share of summer 2025 participants who described themselves as “very connected” to Israel rose from 54% before their trip to 74% afterward. Among young adults who registered but ultimately did not participate, the increase was significantly smaller.

For Amiel, the statistics reflect something deeper.

“We don’t want to show young people or anybody sites in Israel,” he told JNS. “We want to show them insights.”

Amiel also addressed social-media users who have publicly suggested signing up for Birthright under false pretenses to undermine or expose the program.

“We do a good job screening participants,” he said. “But if they want to come on that bus and they want to speak honestly with Israelis and ask tough questions, they should do that. You’d be welcome.”

Too often, he said, critics approach the program not looking to engage with Israelis in good faith.

“They’re saying, ‘Let’s go and blow up the whole thing,'” he said. “As opposed to saying, ‘Let me actually go and think critically and ask tough questions.'”

‘Something of meaning’

For Amiel, Jewish identity must be rooted in something lasting.

“Jewish identity is such an important anchor for us and our future, and we have to give that anchor to people,” Amiel said.

“That anchor is not watching ‘Seinfeld’ and eating a bagel,” he said. “That flies away. An anchor needs to be something of meaning that will carry on and that is accessible to you. Not everybody can access a relationship with God or a prayer book. I think the most accessible anchor is Israel. You can connect meaningfully to Israel in a thousand different ways.”

Amiel said his upbringing in Seattle’s Sephardic Jewish community and attending a diverse Jewish school shaped his inclusive approach to Jewish life.

“Being surrounded by people who all took their Jewish identity seriously but expressed it in extremely different ways, especially ritually and religiously, allowed a greater level of tolerance and interest and ease and comfort with people who are coming to Judaism in a bunch of different ways,” Amiel told JNS.

“Growing up in a Sephardic community has the same sort of thing,” he said. “You’ve got this level of traditionalism, but not necessarily ritual religiosity.”

That perspective carried into his professional life.

“When I first started working in the Jewish world, I got it, it made sense to me,” he said. “I wasn’t repelled by that idea. Whether or not I agreed with how they lived their Jewish life didn’t matter.”

Amiel, 58, and his wife, Amy Amiel, executive managing director at the Center for Jewish-Inclusive Learning, have four children, one who is married, and a 9-month-old grandson.

“If I could, I would spend every living moment with that baby,” he said. “It is the greatest joy to be a grandfather.”