Dor L’Dor Mission to Israel

Renate Frydman

Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer

Dayton mission to Israel a study of contrasts, a celebration of Zionism

The trepidations were primarily concerns for personal safety. Our security guard, Yoni, alleviated this concern. He was young, originally from Russia, well-trained and always at our side.

My son-in-law, Bill Doner, recalled, “At no time did I feel any immediate danger or threats while flying to, touring, and returning home from Israel.”

By the time we left Israel on June 20, we had traveled from Tel Aviv, through mountains and deserts, to Jerusalem and back to Tel Aviv. We were inspired and amazed. Our feelings about Israel were strengthened and the diverse group of 40 had bonded through the experience.

We saw the throbbing life of the city of Tel Aviv, the greening of the desert, the beauty of the land. We realized why we must stay on the Golan Heights while standing there with the soldiers who defend it. We stood at Masada and knew why its motto is “Never Again.” We grew close with each other and laughed and cried together.

Thanks go to mission co-chairs Joe Bettman and my son, Joel Frydman, for arranging this trip and working for months on planning it. Always there for us were Federation staff members Larry Skolnick, Deva Zwelling and Jill Steele.

What made this mission different was seeing it through the eyes of three-generational families, single persons of Jewish and non-Jewish faith, couples, and parents with their children. This diverse vision added to the way we absorbed what we saw and how we drew our own conclusions.

At Rehovot, we volunteered with the Table to Table Project, which provides leftover produce to Israelis who need it. Our group picked beets, pulling the rough stalks from the red beets, becoming red-handed and dusty. It became a two-hour challenge for the still travel-weary Daytonians. The unusual beets, many melon-size, were picked, placed in baskets and put on trucks ready to take them to food pantries.

“I was glad we started our mission trip by picking beets for Table to Table,” said Beth Adelman. “(This was) a good reminder of how fortunate we are and the importance of providing for others.”

We also visited a British Mandate-era hidden munitions factory under a kibbutz, disguised above ground as a laundry on one side and as a bakery on the other. The young kibbutzniks had worked secretly there, hidden from the British. It was operational until 1948. Called the Ayalon Institute, 45 people worked underground to manufacture bullets.

Later that week, we stopped at Nahariya, where crystal clear blue-green water splashes against white, smoothly worn rocks. Radar and Israeli gunboats are part of the landscape of the grottos and sea. Nahariya is situated in the Western Galilee, Dayton’s region in the Partnership With Israel project.

While in the Western Galilee, we visited the Ghetto Fighters’ House. Yad LeYeled, a Holocaust Museum for children, is part of the complex. Children from area schools visit to learn about the Holocaust.

We joined nine Israeli teenagers at the Ort Rose Middle School in Akko. In April, they had visited Dayton as part of a Partnership school twinning project with Hillel Academy. Several of the Israelis and our mission members went to a room in the school and worked together on a kite project. We drew designs on paper, colored them and made kites, assisted by their teachers. Most of the designs had to do with peace. We then flew the kites on the grassy knoll outside.

We then divided into smaller groups and had home visits with the teenagers and their families.

“After a remarkable day that included an afternoon with our friends in their home in Masra, we enjoyed a sunset feast with singing and dancing atop the castle overlooking the beautiful valleys of Jordan,” Todd Bettman said.

The feast was at the medieval castle at Yechiam, with a view high above the Jezreel Valley.

Our two nights at the Hagoshrim Kibbutz Hotel in the Galilee offered us a treat: a wedding at twilight.

“The bride was of Indian decent and the groom was a Parsi from Iran,” Diane Williams recalled. “Both were Jewish and it made me feel good to see Jews of different cultures celebrating their Jewish marriage in Israel.”

On the Golan Heights, we came to a memorial room with photos of the young men and women killed capturing and defending this place during the Six-Day War. Ninety Israeli tanks were aligned against an onslaught of more than 1,000 Syrian tanks. Some held out until reinforcements came. Most were killed in this battle, which destroyed the 188th Armored Brigade. The brigade is now reestablished in the Golan.

Dayton’s mission was the first to visit the Golan, so close to Syria, in six months. We had lunch with three young soldiers under tall trees, on stone benches and tables. The silence on the heights was eerie. The soldiers were Millie, a Sabra; Uval, a son of Moroccan Jews; and Peter, born in Russia, and the grandson of a Holocaust survivor.

“Our Jeep driver on the Golan Heights told us he loves to come up to the heights with his son to fish and enjoy the peacefulness of the place,” said Jeff Engber. “He hopes Israel will never give up the Heights. It personifies what he cherishes — the beauty of its nature, family and peace.”

For Shabbat, we ascended to Jerusalem. At Mt. Scopus, we stopped say the Shehecheyanu blessing and the blessing over wine. On Friday evening, thousands of people from all over the world flock to the Western Wall to pray and leave notes tucked in its cracks.

“The part of the trip that I really enjoyed was the tour of the entire Western Wall,” Dan Sweeney, age 20, said of a late night tour of the tunnels under the Arab quarter. “The history behind the recently excavated tunnels was amazing. That is definitely one thing I will remember forever.”

Sunday was a day of extreme emotions. We visited the Mevasseret Absorption Center, home to hundreds of new immigrants, the most recent arrivals from Ethiopia. We wanted to stay there because the 3- and 4-year-olds we visited in their play area were too adorable for words.

“I liked hanging with the Ethiopian kids, bringing smiles to their faces,” said Chad Chessin, age 14.

Everyone wanted to take a child home. As soon as they saw us, they wanted to connect, raising their arms to be taken and held close. They were beautiful, with large, dark eyes and smiles, looking well-fed and happy.

At our briefing, we learned that 80,000 Ethiopian Jews had been brought to Israel and 20,000 more needed to come before the end of 2007.

“Our visit to the absorption center, to me, it was so much more than just a group of the most adorable kids. It was the realization that world Jews are taking care of other Jews,” said Melissa Sweeney. “It is the reason we need and love Israel. Jews do not have to live in parts of the world where they cannot practice their faith. It was inspiring to see the Ethiopian Jews and the promise and hope of their futures.”

The Dayton youths really took to the Ethiopian children. Our boys, some quite tall, played soccer with the little ones and said the next World Cup champions were in the making. They were upset that the children only had one soccer ball and decided to come back to Dayton and do something about that.

“When we get home, we are going to make a DVD of the pictures everyone took of the Ethiopian children. Then, we will have a BBYO fund-raiser to help them,” said my grandson, Craig Doner, age 18.

Solemn, eye-opening, we see the proof that millions of our people were murdered. We had a memorial service there. Rabbi Judy Chessin and all the children took part. So did my son Joel, Joe Bettman and I.

“Finding my father’s city on the wall of stone in the Communities of Remembrance was the most moving thing to me,” Joel said.

Israelis opened up their arms to us in a way that hadn’t happened before the Intifada drove away many tourists. Visitors are coming back in amazing numbers this summer, exemplified by the 7,000 birthright israel students who gathered in Tel Aviv that week. Throughout our travels, we saw these animated young adults sightseeing, singing, visibly charged, oblivious to the heavily armed Israeli soldiers always at their side.

This is Israel today — open arms and visibly armed. Strong and tough, yet welcoming as tourists walk through Jerusalem, Safed, and Masada.

Most of the old and ancient edifices and grounds are still being preserved, dug into and revered. In Safed, the synagogues still glow in their antiquity, prayer shawls are still woven by hand.

One of the last places we visited was Ein Gedi, an oasis in the desert. I will always remember climbing up the rough rocks to beautiful springs where some of our group refreshed under the falls. A large group of young Israeli army soldiers was on holiday. Several of the them were armed with rifles, always watchful of their group. A rifle was on the ground by some clothes, shed to go in the water. Even in the loveliest places, these kids were protecting their own.

To see photos from the Dor L’Dor Mission, click here.

© 2006 The Dayton Jewish Observer