In this paper presented at the 2001 annual meeting of the Association for Jewish Studies, the author addresses common perceptions of tourism as shallow, frivolous and inauthentic. This paper examines the use of tourism for the purposes of Jewish education through the Taglit/birthright Israel program. An analysis of ethnographic data from the evaluation of Taglit contradicts expert predictions to the contrary. Findings reveal that Taglit tourists’ perceptions of an authentic Jewish experience were rooted in perceptions of Jewish authenticity in both Israel and themselves.