While touring a busy street in Netanya, Ronit Yomtovbian discovered a small ashen stain that dirtied a storefront’s wall.
Up close, she saw “the marks of a fire” which had not been washed away. It turned out to be the last visible remnant of a bomb detonated earlier this year by a Palestinian terrorist.
While “it felt really weird” to be so close to this “random spot,” said the 17-year-old Saratoga resident, the experience did little to shake her. “The entire time I was in Israel I never felt like my life was threatened.”
Yomtovbian was one of the significantly reduced numbers of teens who visited Israel this summer as part of one youth delegation or another. Many Bay Area teen trips to Israel, including those offered by the Bureau of Jewish Education, the Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay and the Koret Foundation were canceled due to security concerns.
But, aside from a decrease in enrollment and a surge in cancellations, national trips put on by groups like United Synagogue Youth, Young Judea, B’nai Brith Youth Organization and the JCC Maccabi Experience proceeded anyway. Overall figures for the number of local teens traveling to Israel weren’t available, but Young Judea estimated that six of this summer’s 210 delegates came from the Bay Area. Last year, the organization sent 1,200 teens to Israel.
Yomtovbian visited with a national delegation of 37 teens on USY’s Easter Europe-Israel Pilgrimage.
“Really, if the situation stops us from going then it’s like we’re giving the terrorists a prize,” she said. “They’re getting exactly what they want, for us to say ‘yes, we are afraid of you,’ and I don’t want to give in to that.”
Like Yomtovbian, 16-year-old Tom Gorlin of the West Marin community of Forest Knolls did not let the cancellation of local trips deter him from making his first pilgrimage to Israel. He visited with a USY delegation and had “an incredible experience.”
But while Gorlin was poised to go from the start, the decision-making process was hard on his parents.
“It was a tortuous thing,” said Nancy Boxer, his mother, who also visited Israel for the first time at the age of 16. “You pray and you worry — the whole time he was there we were worried.”
In deciding whether to let him go, she and his father watched the news daily, spoke with their own parents and discussed the matter with their relatives in Israel. Eventually they felt confident enough to respect his wishes to go.
“There was something in Tommy’s spirit that said this was really important to him,” she said. “We knew this is part of what he needed to do, for whatever reason. And even though it was scary, I am pleased he took the journey. He came back more mature and more thoughtful.”
Gorlin did not feel at risk while he was traveling, in large part due to the increased safety measures taken by the Israelis. For Gorlin such safety measures started even before he boarded his El Al flight in Newark, N.J.
“In my passport picture I have long hair and I have short hair now,” he said. “Three or four airport people looked at the picture and at me, back and forth, trying to confirm it was me.”
Gorlin was by no means put off. “Actually,” he said, “I found it kind of comforting.”
Trip leaders also took precautions by tailoring their itineraries. Many groups found creative ways around skipping activities altogether.
The California, Nevada and Hawaii region of Young Judea is a perfect example.
“Since we weren’t allowed to take the teens to some of the typical shopping areas in Jerusalem, we brought the shopping areas to them,” said Sharon Perlstein, the Berkeley-based regional director. She invited more than 80 merchants from Ben Yehuda Street to set up shop at Young Judea’s Jerusalem headquarters. Teens from other national movements, including BBYO, were also invited to the event.
“Not only is it fun for the teens but it’s also good for the Israeli economy,” said Perlstein.
Even Yomtovbian noticed the economic downturn in Israel: The drop in tourism was stunning. Yomtovbian, who was visiting Israel for the fifth time, was immediately struck by the lack of tourists, particularly while visiting the Western Wall.
“Last time I was there it was full of people davening and praying,” she said. “This time it was so empty you might have thought it was being renovated or something.”