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July 26, 2002
Returning home with hope
Solidarity Mission participants would "do it again tomorrow."
KYLE BERGER REPORTER
During the week of June 13 to 20, 31 Israeli citizens were killed
in three separate terrorist attacks. Yet, despite the carnage that
surrounded them, the 18 members of the Greater Vancouver Jewish
Federation Solidarity Mission to Israel still managed to come home
with a sense of hope.
"I came away from my week in Israel so immensely proud of Israel
and the Jews of the Diaspora," explained Martin Donner. "I
know for certain that Israel will survive and that, despite these
horrible acts of violence and hatred against them, the people of
Israel will not give up their hope of one day living in peace with
their Arab neighbors."
Unlike some of the previous locally organized tours to Israel, the
most recent mission wasn't only about visiting popular Israeli sites,
talking to heads of state or learning about the history of the Jewish
people. It was about Diaspora Jews walking on Israeli soil in order
to show the people who live there that they have friends on Canada's
West Coast, according to Dina Wachtel, the Keren Hayesod Israel
Emissary for Greater Vancouver, who also joined the mission.
Judi Majewski said she sensed gratitude for the mission's visit
from the Israelis with whom they came in contact.
"I would do it again tomorrow for the benefit I understand
it brought to a number of Israelis," she said. "I would
also do it for the benefit of the deeper and better firsthand understanding
I have gained through this experience."
The mission was organized in conjunction with the local Israel Now
and Forever campaign.
The mission started in Tel-Aviv, where beaches were packed with
locals happy to get their minds off of their troubles. The tour
featured meetings with politicians, political scientists, journalists,
members of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), social, community and
welfare workers and Israeli students and teachers. However, it was
the meetings with the victims of terror that left the most significant
impression on the western Canadian group.
Among the surviving victims of suicide bombings, the group met with
19-year-old Leah Saban, who was severely burned in an attack on
Ben Yehuda Street last summer. Saban had rushed to the site of two
explosions to do whatever she could to help those who were still
alive when a third bomb detonated.
"In most places in the world, when a bomb goes off, people
run as fast as they can in the other direction for their own safety,"
said Donner. "In Israel, when a bomb goes off, people run to
where the bombing occurred to help pull survivors from the rubble
and to administer first aid until the paramedics arrive."
Saban, whose body is still covered in bandages, is a volunteer at
Sha'areh Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem and still spends a lot of
time there after each terror attack.
The mission participants also visited the site of the Passover massacre
at the Park Hotel in Netanya, where they met the wife of the hotel's
manager, who was killed in the attack.
The site had been cleaned up, but otherwise left as it was; no renovations
or construction had taken place. Still visible was a dinner knife
that had been lodged into the concrete ceiling from the impact of
the explosion.
Wachtel said she hoped that the trip inspires some of the participants
to become more involved in their own Jewish community.
Mission participant Dr. Mark Fisher supported Wachtel's sentiment
and described the mission as a moving experience in a tumultuous
time that "lifted my spirits [and] pride and reinforced my
determination to contribute whenever and whatever I can on a personal
level to our Jewish people and Israel.
"This journey revealed the power, fortitude, determination,
humanity and resilience of Jews in many astounding ways," he
added.
Luba Greenberg, for whom the mission was her first trip to Israel,
said she has never been as proud of her Jewish background as she
was while in Israel.
"Israel has given every Jew in the world a reason to walk taller,
to have confidence and self-esteem and to take pride in what the
Jews have accomplished in this little space of the world,"
she said, before pleading with her local community. "The situation
today is critical. Look into your heart and extend your vision to
beyond your own needs and desires.
"Put your energy and your faith behind Israel," she continued.
"If we all pray and work together, the present madness may
come to a peaceful conclusion."
In the midst of a packed schedule, the mission also included a visit
to Har Vagay high school in the Galilee Panhandle, where they met
with high school students on the verge of joining the IDF. Har Vagay
has been twinned with Vancouver Tamud Torah high school.
The mission's experience concluded as they joined a group of approximately
500 people involved with missions from other Diaspora communities,
through Keren Hayesod, to witness Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
speak about his commitment to finding ways to stop the killing of
innocent civilians.
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