After enjoying sunrise hikes up Masada, the sparkling lights above the Old City, the Western Wall at dusk and the varied cultural delights of the Holy Land, dozens of Bay Area teenagers on a Young Judaea-sponsored summer program had to confront a dangerous reality: war.
Josh Korb of San Ramon was watching the TV news at Kibbutz Keturah, 45 minutes from Eilat, when hostilities broke out in northern Israel.
“My parents were pretty worried,” said Korb, 17, of San Ramon, who was one of more than 900 teenagers there for from three to six weeks. “I was actually telling them what was going on before they saw CNN here in America.”
Young Judaea updated understandably anxious parents daily with emails, while guides and leaders received briefings from Israeli intelligence so the teens were constantly informed, Korb said. Because of his intense interest in the situation, Korb was in charge of updating his group.
Two of the 12 groups were in Haifa and Safed as Hezbollah rockets rained down at the start of the shelling. “Those kids had to haul ass out of there,” said Korb, who will be a senior at California High School in San Ramon this fall.
“I was actually in all three cities that were rocketed the day before,” he continued. “One day I was at a klezmer festival in Safed, and the next day, no more. Safed went from being total fun and celebration to the entire place being deserted; from lively to nothing.”
Rebecca Bronstein’s father wanted her to come home immediately. But the Palo Alto High senior, who was in Israel for four weeks, was there at the same time as her mother. Both of them convinced him they were safe.
“It was still scary,” said Bronstein, 17, from Redwood City, “but I liked that the news wasn’t biased against Israel like it is here.”
Amy Ackerman of Palo Alto was outside a newsstand with a portable TV in Tel Aviv when the conflagration commenced. “People were gathered there and told us what was happening,” said Ackerman, 17, a senior at Palo Alto High School. “I was a little stressed. I called my parents and they didn’t want me to worry, wanted me to stay.”
She spent the latter half of July in Jerusalem and considered it a blessing that she learned to navigate the city so well. “We were supposed to be in a special-interest program in contemporary arts in Tel Aviv,” said Ackerman. “But they wouldn’t let us sleep there,” amid reports that Hezbollah had targeted Israel’s most populous city.
Aliza Zangwill’s special-interest group was at an army base in southern Israel, where she participated in rudimentary Gadna (civil defense) training. She counted in Hebrew, did push-ups, and shot an M-16 at a target.
“The training was more serious because of the war,” said Zangwill, 16, of Oakland and a junior at Oakland Tech. “We couldn’t goof off and had to wake up early. But it was weird when the war began because it didn’t seem like a war was going on. But they told us missiles were hitting in the north and Israel was retaliating.”
Now that they are back with their families, the students are struggling to process their experiences. “I loved the people, the food, the atmosphere, the hot weather,” said Allison Wathen, 17, of San Rafael. “We did a lot of hiking, and before the trip I hated hiking. But now I kind of like it.”
Wathen, a senior at the Marin School in Sausalito, added that she hopes to spend her first year of college in Israel on a Young Judaea program.
Korb said he would return instantly. “It’s kind of hard to get back to life here,’ he said. “Not seeing Hebrew, not seeing crazy drivers. I really wanted to stay there a bit longer, and feel I abandoned Israel at such a critical time.”
Bronstein said the entire experience made her much more of a Zionist. “I realized that Israel needs Jews. Israel is the only place that Jews can turn to reliably.”