Much changed in Israel since May mission

By Deborah Moon Seldner

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"We planned to gather tonight to celebrate the fabulous experience we had in Israel. But the world has changed a whole lot since we returned," Laurie Rogoway told those who gathered July 18 for a mission reunion.
Rogoway, the executive associate vice president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, led the May 14-24 community mission that took 33 participants to explore Israel. Mission participants had planned to gather July 18 to share and swap photos and recall their shared experiences. Instead many spent the evening talking about the current crisis in Israel.
Additionally, JFGP President Robert Philip and Executive Vice President Charles Schiffman, who were in Israel when the crisis began and returned the day before the reunion, provided an update on the situation. Philip and Schiffman were among 165 federation leaders from 50 U.S. cities who went to Odessa, Ukraine, and Israel to view some of the social service programs funded by federation dollars in those countries. Philip said they did see many incredible programs, but they also found themselves in the midst of a war.
As the group landed in Tel Aviv, they learned that the first rockets had been fired into northern Israel, said Philip.
When two children evacuated from northern Israel came to speak to the American group, Schiffman said, "One child cried and cried and couldn't talk."

The other child managed to tell the group about living in a bomb shelter for three days without food and air conditioning.
United Jewish Communities immediately launched an emergency campaign to raise $10 million to evacuate children from northern Israel and take them to summer camps in the safety of central and southern Israel. JFGP sent out an email appeal the night of the mission reunion (see box at right).
Philip said the group had briefings every day they were in Israel.
"They had power point displays that showed the activities in Gaza and Lebanon," said Philip. "In spite of all that, life was going on in Israel. In Tel Aviv, the streets were packed. ? The feeling was 'we are not that concerned because our military will take care of it for us.'"
The group continued to visit federation-funded sites such as an absorption center and after school programs for Ethiopian immigrants, and a seven-week government conversion course for military personnel from the former Soviet Union who are not halachically Jewish but are nonetheless risking their lives for the Jewish homeland.
Since only Orthodox conversions are recognized in Israel, children of a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother have a hard time converting in Israel, said Schiffman. This intensive course provides a government recognized conversion "that we should be proud our money is providing."
Despite the exciting programs and the normalcy of life in central and southern Israel, "an obtrusive background to our trip was the military situation," said Schiffman. "Every day became more ominous."
Following the update, participants of the May mission compared notes on what they had heard on the news and what news sources they had found useful.
Mission participant David Lippoff, who has decades of experience in broadcast journalism, urged people to turn to multiple sources to and to question what they see and hear.