War and uncertainty in Israel will keep Bay Area teens from going there, but it hasn’t yet produced an exodus of those already in the Jewish state.
Both Camp Tawonga and the Diller Teen Program pulled the plug on their planned Israel trips this week, while teen groups in Israel have moved out of the north and are proceeding cautiously and keeping parents informed daily.
To name just a few, the Reform Movement’s NFTY teen trip has around 40 local participants, the Conservative USY trip has seven and 111 teens from every corner of the Bay Area are on the “Let’s Go: Israel” trip sponsored by the Bureau of Jewish Education and East Bay Federation.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency indicated that a small number of participants were leaving Israel on their own volition.
Rabbi Janet Marder, spiritual leader of Los Altos Hills’ Reform Congregation Beth Am is in the midst of a month of study at the Shalom Hartman Institute with her husband, Rabbi Shelly Marder. She reports that teens are streaming into Jerusalem.
“Our hotel in Jerusalem is starting to fill up with Israelis coming down from the north,” she told j. in a phone interview. “There are 200 teens here from a Detroit teen trip. They were up in Tiberias when the missiles hit and the trip was immediately canceled. They tried to send them home [Sunday] but they couldn’t get a flight.”
Eighteen youths from Marder’s congregation are currently on the NFTY trip, and Beth Am’s assistant rabbi Micah Citrin spent a week with them.
“Our students are safe and secure,” he reported upon returning home.
The East Bay contingent’s timing was almost preternaturally lucky; the group was in the Golan Heights and visited Caesarea as late as July 7, but headed south toward Eilat just before Hezbollah’s rockets began dropping with deadly regularity.
“Some groups had to change their itinerary. We did not have to change anything,” confirmed group leader Tali Lipschitz via cell phone. Her contingent is scheduled to return to the Bay Area on Wednesday, July 26 after nearly a month in Israel. The rest of their time in Israel will be spent in Jerusalem and the Negev, unless the security situation dictates otherwise.
“We will be keeping updates every hour regarding our itinerary. We are in constant contact with the San Francisco and East Bay federations here in Israel. The parents are concerned but we have 24/7 point people in the East Bay and the West Bay,” Lipschitz said.
Loren Basch, CEO of the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay, was in Israel this week, just as he was during the first Gulf War. He remembers the ghost town atmosphere in Israeli cities when the SCUD missiles were thundering in from Iraq. And if he saw it again today, he’d call off the East Bay teen trip in a Haifa minute. But he hasn’t, at least not yet.
“There’s all kinds of next levels that would end this trip very quickly, but there’s a very responsible and experienced team of Israeli security working with the Jewish Agency people and the UJC people and I’m in touch with them every day,” he said.
“The last thing Israelis want is for anything to happen to any kids. There are 4,000 kids in Jerusalem and more coming, clearly. Everyone is being very careful.”
That applies for trips yet to start — trips that may never leave the States. As of Friday, July 14, the Diller Teen Program’s trip was ready to go. But by Monday, July 17, it was postponed indefinitely.
Bob Sherman, executive director of the BJE (which oversees the Diller Teen Program) said the situation wasn’t conducive to the contingent having the right sort of “Israel experience.”
The group originally consisted of more than 20 teens. Nicole Sasson-Miller, the national director for Diller Teen initiative, said an alternative program is in the works to keep the kids engaged with Israel.
“In the long-term, we are committed to sending this group of Diller Teens within a year. There’s no substitute for Israel,” she added.
Similarly, Camp Tawonga’s board nixed the camp’s Israel trip over the weekend. Thirty-five participants had been slated to go. Tawonga is working on putting together an alternative international trip.
“On late Friday night [the 14th] we spoke to our ground providers in Israel and they were pretty much certain the fighting would be contained to the upper reaches of the Galilee,” said Ann Gonski, Tawonga’s director.
“When we woke up Saturday morning it was clear Tiberias had been hit and you couldn’t predict the kind of containment people felt they could do before that.”
Gale Mondry, whose son, Barry Mondry-Cohen, is on the Let’s Go: Israel trip, isn’t nearly as panicked as she thought she’d be.
“The people who are coordinating the trip are sending us emails once or twice a day. If they will determine it is in the best interest for everyone to leave, they will,” said the San Franciscan.
“They had every kid call home at least once. [Barry] sounded good … I’ve talked to other parents who say their kids are upbeat and positive and still having a great time in spite of knowing what’s going on. They’re not ignorant.”
J. staff writer Alexandra J. Wall contributed to this report.