Birthright, which sponsors free trips to first-time visitors to Israel, is cutting its budget by one-third next year, The drop in the budget to $75 mlllion means that it will be able to send only 25,000 people to Israel in 2009 instead of the 42,000 who are visiting this year.
One of the biggest contributors to Birthright has been billionaire Sheldon Adelson, whose casino empire has suffered colossal losses since the beginning of the current financial crisis.