When Benamy Yashar and Mateo Aceves left the Bay Area for Israel at the end of June as participants in the prestigious Bronfman Youth Israel Fellowship, they knew they were in for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. They didn’t know they’d be there for a war.
“If there was going to be a war in Israel, and I was going to be there anyway, I’m very glad that I was there at that time,” said Aceves, of Berkeley, the week after he got home. “It gave me some good insight into Israeli culture and how Israelis deal with this type of thing.”
The Bronfman group — 26 Americans, about to enter their senior year of high school — was in Safed when the war broke out. They left the ancient city a day early, and rockets fell there hours later. Nevertheless, Aceves said he felt the rules put into place during the years of intifada affected the trip more than anything else. For example, they were not allowed to go out in Jerusalem alone, something they used to be able to do.
Yashar said that having a group of their Israeli peers joining them made them feel the war more intensely.
“As soon as the news went on, we’d get Israeli channels, and they’d translate for us,” he said. “We all felt we were in the same boat together. We had already been a close-knit group, but when the Israelis came, they were immediately taken in.”
In one lecture by author and Middle East expert Michael Oren, “World War III came up several times,” said Yashar, who said that at times, things were pretty tense.
Only one participant left the program, though others did receive some parental pressure.
Yashar, of Petaluma, has an Israeli father, who was in Israel at the time. Many of his relatives live there.
“Those parents who were Israeli like mine were more accepting that this is how life is there,” he said.
Yashar said that in a way he was glad to experience this side of Israel, especially when learning some other youth programs had cancelled.
“That made us almost feel good, like we weren’t leaving and running,” he said. “But in the end we knew we’d go home, and Israel would have to continue on with its problems. We also felt we couldn’t really do anything about it. You wish you could help but you can’t.”
Yashar said the war didn’t have the same effects on everyone. Being there during the war made some of them feel less connected to Israel and increased the feeling that they belonged in America.
When asked how being there for the program changed them, Yashar said that although he had been to Israel before, he now felt more connected to it and to Judaism, and he wanted to do more for the Jewish community.
Aceves, who had never been to Israel and did not grow up Jewish, said, “My views about Israel were never that liberal, but growing up in Berkeley … they were very liberal compared to everyone else in the world. I’m much more right-wing than when I left.”
Aceves now hopes to return to study in a yeshiva in Israel after he graduates from Berkeley High next year. That is, after he officially converts to Judaism. He then hopes eventually to make aliyah. He said he felt quite different than most in his group in more ways than one.
“When we got back to New York everyone in the group was saying goodbye and crying,” said Aceves. “I liked all the kids, but I didn’t cry. But when we were on the bus leaving Jerusalem, I was sobbing.”