In 19 years of marriage, Michael Ginsberg can’t think of many disagreements he’s had with his wife, Phyllis. But they differed over whether to send daughter Jennifer to Israel this summer.
The televised carnage of suicide bombings was enough to make Jennifer afraid to go, and her mother did not want to send her. But her father thought otherwise.
The Walnut Creek family belongs to the Reform Temple Isaiah in Lafayette. Yet Michael Ginsberg strongly disagreed with the stance of the Reform movement as well as Bay Area Jewish institutions, which canceled their teen trips to Israel last summer because of the outbreak of violence.
Just weeks before the first scheduled departures, the Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay, the S.F.-based Bureau of Jewish Education and the Koret Foundation pulled the plug on teen Israel trips.
“I was offended,” said Ginsberg, who “felt it was essential” that such trips “go forward…As American Jews we have to do more than just send money. We need to be there physically.”
Jennifer Ginsberg also came to that conclusion. She is one of 40 East Bay teens who have signed up to go to Israel so far on the Israel Experience, which runs from June 26 to July 24.
And despite her initial angst, she is excited. “Before Sept. 11, I wanted to go, but after that I was scared to,” she said. Nevertheless, after attending a meeting for parents and teens convened by the East Bay federation, “I felt more safe and I wanted to go. They told us how they are going to keep us as safe as they can.”
So far, five recruitment meetings have been held in the East Bay, three in San Francisco and five in the South Bay. While organized by the East Bay federation, Jewish teens from throughout the Bay Area are invited to join the trip — the only Israel teen trip sponsored by a local federation.
At peak periods last year, more than 300 Bay Area teens had signed up for the BJE, Koret and East Bay trips. But those numbers dropped as the violence continued. At press time, teens outside the East Bay had not yet registered. However, more meetings are scheduled, and two will be held in San Jose area next week.
“We understand that parents are struggling with the question of sending their kids to Israel this summer — we’re not naive,” said Ami Nahshon, executive vice president of the East Bay federation. “At the same time, we want to engage parents in these conversations.”
Jon Friedenberg, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater San Jose, said teens from that South Bay federation have participated in prior years on the Koret-sponsored trip, which was administered by the East Bay federation.
“The East Bay federation, for some time now, has taken a leadership role in planning and sponsoring these trips, and we’ve been very pleased with the program.”
Friedenberg added that he hoped the trip would include a significant contingent from the San Jose area.
Nevertheless, he is not in the business of convincing parents that Israel is a completely safe destination for their children.
“It’s a very personal decision,” he said. “We can only try to answer all questions and lay out the information and let each family make its own decision without any pressure or guilt or convincing from us.”
While Nahshon understands the issues parents are grappling with, the bottom line for him is that “we truly and fully believe we can take their kids to Israel this summer, and give them an amazing experience, even if it’s somewhat different than what they could have in a previous year.”
Obviously, if an all-out war breaks out in the region, the trip will be canceled, as it was last year. But if things stay more or less the same, with sporadic terrorist attacks, the East Bay federation is convinced it can keep teens away from any violent incidents.
And for now, enrollment is in progress, even though the federation risks a second year of considerable financial loss if the trip should be canceled a second time. Parents are sending their deposits, which are fully refundable.
“Canceling our trips last year for the East Bay and San Francisco had very significant financial consequences,” said Nahshon.
Last year, the East Bay federation lost upward of $100,000 in promotion, advertising and exploratory trips, but mostly in staff time, he said.
The board took that into consideration before going forward with this year’s trip.
“We debated it over a couple months,” said Nahshon. “It was not a simple decision. These dollars are not easily come by.”
In the end, the board decided last month to go ahead.
“The board was clearly concerned about not having an Israel Experience two years in a row,” said Nahshon. “The Israel Experience has become the centrality of growing up as a Jewish teen in our community.”
Nahshon will be going to Israel in early March, along with some local rabbis and other community leaders, to assess some of the sites slated for the trip. Leaders will then report back to the community.
From what he is hearing, parents are torn. “Parents desperately want their children to have this experience,” he said. “The teen Israel trip has become a community institution.”
Amir Segal, the East Bay federation’s Israel emissary, said most parents felt confident about leaving the decision in the federation’s hands.
They “really trust us in this matter,” he said, “maybe because of our reputation over 16 years of doing this trip.”
One frequent question Segal has been hearing at meetings is about the nature of the trip. Both parents and kids are concerned security precautions will be so stringent that the kids’ ability to enjoy themselves will be severely affected.
While free time to roam the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv obviously will not be on the itinerary, most kids do not cite that as one of the most memorable parts of the trip.
Segal said most of the highlights from previous years would be on the itinerary this year. Furthermore, planners are talking to Israeli vendors to bring a kind of marketlike atmosphere to the campus where the kids will be staying, so they can at least get a taste of shopping on Jerusalem’s Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall, which has been the site of frequent terrorist attacks.
The trip will also be based primarily in a remote location, not Jerusalem as it has been in prior years. And a special-interest week has been added, allowing teens to choose activities geared toward their personal interests.
In the East Bay trips’ 16-year history, no two trips have been identical, noted Segal.
When the East Bay trip began, only 25 kids participated, Segal said, and at its height there were 123. The itinerary changes from year to year as well, he said.
What remains a constant, though, is that “when kids come back, they say it was the best experience in their lives. We are not going to promise it will be the same trip it was before, even if it was a normal year,” said Segal, “but we still promise it will be a once-in-a-lifetime-experience — just not what they expected.”
Segal also said he and his staff were trying to ensure that parents and teens should make the final decision for themselves, without pressure from the federation.
“Last year, the parents of our community put it very clear, that they trust us and want us to decide for them if we’re going to have the trip,” he said. “They didn’t want to make the decision.”
This year, things have changed.
“We are telling parents in advance that we will do whatever we can to provide a safe and secure trip — the same kind we always did — but you have to decide; we’re not going to decide for you.”
Glenn and Ricki Oleon of Orinda have already made that decision, along with son Michael.
Glenn Oleon said he never thought of not sending his son. “We’ve always felt that if there is a trip that goes, he will be on it,” said Oleon, whose family belongs to Reform Temple Sinai in Oakland.
Oleon visited Israel himself after the latest intifada began and found it a far cry from what he had seen on television.
“Of course the situation is very serious and of concern,” he said. “But my feeling is that though one has to be cautious and safety conscious, the likelihood of encountering any serious danger is a risk we are willing to take, given the incredible benefits to our son of going on the trip.”