Sophomore Rebecca Siegel started shopping for shorts when it was still raining out. She’s stocked up on sun block and water bottles, too, because in a few weeks she’ll be in the desert.

This summer, Siegel is going on her birthright trip to Israel for free, thanks to a Hillel UW program. The program believes that it is every Jew’s birthright to go to the state of Israel.

Siegel said she hopes to form a deeper connection to Israel on the trip.

“As a Jewish teenager, I’ve always had this deep curiosity about Israel,” she said. “Even though I personally don’t have family from Israel, I feel very connected to the state of Israel because of its history. I grew up going to Hebrew school my whole life, so I’ve learned about Israel and Judaism my whole life. I’m actively Jewish, but it’s kind of been this whole build up to this trip, so I finally get to experience it.”

Hillel UW, the Foundation for Jewish Life at the UW, in concordance with the Taglit-Birthright Israel organization, offers free 10-day birthright trips to Israel twice a year to Jewish young adults ages 18-26 on campus and from the surrounding Jewish community.

“Basically, the trip takes you all over the country seeing different kinds of pieces of Israeli society from the religious side to the cultural side to the historical side — just seeing what the entire deal is with Israel,” said Daniel Linver, associate director of Hillel UW.

Taglit-Birthright Israel’s birthright trip program sends Jewish young adults from all over the world to Israel in order to shrink the gap between Israel and the Jewish community, foster a sense of unity among Jews and help participants strengthen their Jewish identities and connection to the Jewish people, according to the Taglit-Birthright Israel Web site.

The birthright trips are paid for with a grant from philanthropists through the Birthright Israel Foundation, the people of Israel through the Israeli government and from Jewish communities throughout the world.

“The birthright trip was designed to create an opportunity to connect Jewish youth and the land of Israel,” said Lauren Brown, the Jewish Campus Service Corps senior fellow at Hillel UW. “The Hillel trip is very focused on Israeli culture as opposed to religion, but because it’s such a religious and spiritual place, participants will usually get something spiritual out of the trip on a personal level.”

Sophomore Alex Caggiano, who went on the Hillel UW birthright trip last winter, said the birthright trip strengthened her connection to Judaism.

“I thought that going to Israel would be a great opportunity to experience another aspect of being Jewish and see what it’s like over there in Israel, in the place where so many Jews have gone for refuge when there was nowhere else to go,” she said. “It’s like a whole other world for Jews.”

Sophomore Annie Levine, who went on the Hillel UW birthright trip last summer, said the trip helped her see Judaism as a culture, as well as a religion.

“I don’t really consider myself to be religious in any extreme way by any means, and I definitely felt connected to the territory and to the people and the attitudes,” she said. “The whole thing that you have to wear funny hats and chant in another language to be Jewish really isn’t true. There’s a definite community, and that’s one of the reasons we all clicked so well.”

Birthright trip participants explore the city of Jerusalem, float in the Dead Sea, climb Mount Masada, dig for ancient archeological artifacts and eat inside a traditional Bedouin tent, among other activities, according to the Hillel UW Web site.

“It’s an opportunity to experience Israel however they want,” said Linver, who is leading a group of 22- to 26-year-olds as part of the Jconnect Seattle program in a trip this summer. “Israel is a unique Jewish state run on Jewish values. There’s no other place in the world like that and to experience that is what it’s all about. Participants get to learn about and experience Israeli history and politics and Israeli music. They get to see all sides of what’s happening there.”

The Hillel UW program gives participants the opportunity to build lasting friendships with others in their birthright trip groups because they recruit from the Seattle Jewish community, Linver said.

“With the Hillel birthright trip, participants can make friends and share experiences with people from their community and then be able to keep in touch,” he said. “In other trips [available through Taglit-Birthright Israel], you may form a community, but those people are from all over the place, and you never see them again. It’s cool to meet people from all over, but the downside to that is that you can’t meet up with them later on.”

Caggiano said she loves going to Hillel UW reunions to catch up with friends she made during the trip.

“I made a lot of good, good friends that I still keep in touch with, and I love them, and we’ll always have our trip to Israel together,” she said.

Brown, who is leading the 18- to 21-year-old Hillel UW birthright trip group this summer, said the trip is also a chance to become more aware of Israel and the events happening in the Middle East.

“A lot of people know very little about the Middle East conflict — they only see the Middle East as it is portrayed on CNN, and they don’t have a strong grasp of what’s going on over there,” she said. “It’s a chance to learn about what’s being talked about and in the news and actually see it with their own eyes.”

Lavine said Israel is nothing like it is portrayed in the media.

“In the media, it’s like going there is a death wish, and you’re going to explode immediately and be killed, or there’s all this hate and everything — and that’s not true,” she said. “I didn’t feel unsafe at any point — and we were wandering streets at night like idiots.”

Both Caggiano and Lavine recommend the Hillel UW birthright trip to others in the Seattle Jewish community.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity that you really don’t get very often to do anything like this,” Caggiano said. “A lot of my friends always tell me that they wish they were Jewish, so they could go to Israel. It’s an amazing thing, and if you like meeting people, if you like free trips, if you like exploring the world, then this is definitely your time and place to do it. How many other times do you get to do this type of thing?”