My Israel Trip
Stories of Inspiration

The trip to Israel occurred in mid-April. Our graduation took place on June 14th, 2010, the same evening that our own Arlene Frumkin was installed as the President of our local Federation by Rabbi Wolkoff. Arlene participated in every aspect of the Tanzman Fellow Program, including our trip to Israel. Thank you Arlene for your hard work and your support.

When I came back from Israel I spoke with Rabbi Wolkoff. The Rabbi used the word "miracle" to describe Israel. That is the perfect word. If one visits Israel with open eyes one learns the sweetest of lessons. My reflections below only skim the surface of this life altering experience, but this article reflects the beginning of a process, a process which will evolve overtime as I figure out ways, with the help and support of the CBT leadership, to make a contribution not only to my synagogue but to the Jewish community at large, including Israel.

At Kibbutz Kinneret Cemetery in the northeastern part of Israel, we met Joel Goldman, a scholar immersed in the diaries left behind by the young Zionists who comprised the Second Aliya. Through Joel we were offered a "behind-the-scenes" peek at the lives, dreams and ambitions of the group of young pioneers, such as David Ben Gurion, who came to the shores of Lake Kinneret a hundred years ago. These young people, many of whom were just seventeen and eighteen years of age, came to Palestine determined to transform the landscape by creating the institutions of modern statehood.

Mr. Goldman unraveled the complex reality that faced these young idealists. All had a vision, a common belief in a Jewish homeland, and regardless of the odds, pursued their dreams and along the way formed community. They blocked out the naysayers. They focused on what they believed was right. They woke up every day with a sense of divine purpose. As one young woman wrote in her diary: "We came to transform the land and in doing so we transformed ourselves."

Some of the young people committed suicide but, rather than being shunned and buried at the outskirts of the cemetery, these individuals were honored by the community with placement in the center of the cemetery. They were honored because the others knew that the reasons why the suicides occurred were complicated and involved leaving families behind, sometimes being disowned by their families, as well as having to cope with other emotional stresses and physical hardships.

What did I learn from this visit to a cemetery? I learned how important it is to think out of the box, to do the right thing, which in certain situations may require one to "violate" religious tradition, to even if one feels pain and loss in one's heart know the beauty and healing effect that comes from showing compassion to others. You have to love people to be a good leader. I also learned that these young people knew how to rejoice and celebrate each others' successes. "What makes you want to jump off your haystack (the pioneers literally slept on haystacks together) every morning?", asked our tour guide. We all knew we would go back to New Jersey framing many of our choices against this question.

General Noan Tiberon is a leader. Our group was permitted to visit the IDF College (Pum) for Senior Officers. There we learned how the IDF identifies and trains its highest ranking officers. What deeply touched me was to hear that all potential officers in the Israeli army are required to travel to Poland for one full week, and as part of the trip each officer in training is required to spend time at Auschwitz. At that moment I thought of my Grandmother Malka, my Great Aunt, Adah, my Aunt, Lucia, all of whom did not survive Auschwitz. My Grandmother Malka and my Aunt Lucia were sent to the gas chambers upon arrival and Adah, who was my mother's guardian angel, could not keep up with the others selected to go on one of the "marches to nowhere" and was shot in the head along with the other stragglers.

My mother often told me how beautiful Adah looked even at the very end. That she had a grace and dignity about her and that even with no hair and no body mass, she had "beautiful eyes that radiated faith and a belief and hope in people". My mother, in her description of my Great Aunt Adah, which can be found at Yad Vashem, went on to say that she pleaded with Adah to let her go on the march. My mother was too weak at that point and Adah knew that, and hid my mother under the floor boards of the barrack and covered her with dirt. Adah just looked at her and said: "you have to survive, our family must have one survivor." That was their goodbye. Adah inspired and motivated my mother to keep living.

My mother's survivor guilt runs deep. During my childhood, my mother felt like she let her aunt down somehow and that she should have been with her at the end. I believe that life is hard and complicated and there are no right or wrong decisions that the victims made when it comes to the Holocaust. I would tell my mother that she did survive and that Adah would be so happy to know that and that maybe, just maybe, she is looking down on us and getting such happiness from seeing the family my mother created. That scenario never helped my mother but, it helped me and I have taken my Great Aunt Adah on as my personal guardian angel. She has been there at all the important times in my life. I really mean that. I think about her when I need inspiration or I need a gentle kiss on the forehead--and I do feel her support and love--I feel that I have much of her in me. My Adah was a leader and in my day to day work life, where I am responsible for running an important division of county government, I know that some of my best decisions have been guided by her divine inspiration.

Why do the officers in training visit Auschwitz? Because, as I learned, this is where they are exposed to the painful history of the Holocaust. Not by reading about it in a book but, by looking at it directly and feeling the impact of the millions of murdered Jews whose cemetery is just the cold ground underneath their feet. The government believes that future officers must feel the pain of the Holocaust in order to get the motivation they need to lead soldiers into war to protect Israel so, that all Jews, no matter what their country of origin, have a homeland that will take them in, no questions asked. I also knew at that moment that the motivation that my mother, who miraculously survived Auschwitz, has given me to be a good person who must stand up to intolerance and indifference are the same core beliefs that are taught to and guide the officers.

The officers are also taught that "If you do not love your people you cannot lead". What a beautiful philosophy to give your officers as they take on the responsibility of making life and death decisions. And so we must as leaders back home, love our community and make caring thoughtful decisions on behalf of our Jewish community because, that is the right thing to do based on our faith. Israel is the representation of that attempt at goodness in the human realm for the Jewish people.

We visited Sderot, a city of 20,000 people adjacent to Gaza, that has been the target of thousands of rockets over the last eight years. Over 70 percent of the children in this city have been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder. The government is doing everything it can to provide therapy services but, the need is great. There is constant tension in the air that at any time the alarm will go off throughout the city giving people just 15 seconds to run to the hundreds of bomb shelters that have had to be constructed. The government is almost done with its promise to provide each house with its own bomb shelter. We learned how the terrorists target children on their way to school.

We spoke with Laura Bialis, a beautiful, vibrant woman, eight months pregnant with her first child. She lived in Los Angeles and is a successful filmmaker, winning awards at the Sundance film festival for her acclaimed 2008 documentary "Refusenik", which chronicles the thirty-year international human rights movement to free Soviet Jews.

She heard from friends in Israel what was happening in Sderot and she could not understand why the American press was not covering the story in a fair manner. So Laura made Aliya and moved to this city, fell in love and married an Israeli. Laura is almost done with her documentary on the situation in this city. We saw the trailer titled "Sderot - Rock in the Red Zone". Her work is honest and blunt and will ensure that this situation gets the proper attention. Laura fought back and while the press has been indifferent to Sderot's plight outside of Israel, she is doing what she can to change that situation. I really admired her action.

Lastly, I want to profile Michael Levine, who I think about every day. I met Michael at a moving ceremony that marked the beginning of Erev Yom Hazikaron, the Eve of Israel's Remembrance Day, a time when the entire nation remembers its debt and expresses eternal gratitude to its sons and daughters who gave their lives for the achievement of the country's independence and its continued existence.

Michael grew up in a suburb of Philadelphia. When Michael was just 16 years old, he told his mother that his dream was to move to Israel and join the most front-line combat unit in the IDF. Michael possessed those character traits that special individuals are blessed with, namely, courage, honor, independence, love of the Jewish people, and above all else, eternal hope and optimism, even in the face of real danger. And he carried these leadership qualities in his soul. He was a young man who was determined to "walk the walk" and follow through on his vision for his life.

At 19 years of age, after graduating from high school, Michael immigrated to Israel alone, joining the paratroopers just as he said he would. This was Michael's purpose in life. He just knew from a very young age that he had to be an Israeli soldier and serve on the front lines in order to help ensure the future of our Jewish homeland. But Michael Levine was a sensitive, handsome and charismatic young man.

During his time in Israel he made many Israeli friends. But he was lonely, especially on weekends when the soldiers were off and most were able to go home to their families. In Michael's journal he wrote about how hard it was to fight the loneliness but that it had to be done and he never wavered when it came to his convictions. He fought valiantly during the first Lebanon war. He went home to spend time with his family in Pennsylvania and rest and think when he saw that the second war with Lebanon had broken out. Against his family's wishes he returned to Israel to fight in that war. He was shot down by enemy gunfire. His diary expressed that he wanted to be buried in Israel along with the other soldiers. His family honored his wishes.

When the country heard the story of Michael Levine, the entire population was moved beyond words. Thousands of Israelis attended his funeral. Men and women were crying in the streets. I was crying in the audience as I embraced this young man who gave everything up to fight for a Jewish homeland-to fight the battle that my lost family would be fighting if they could. I would give anything to have known Michael. His family started the "Lonely Soldier Foundation" that has raised money to build a retreat open to any soldier who is alone in Israel and who on weekends needs a warm and welcoming place to go to recharge and rest. Now other lonely soldiers congregate at the retreat on weekends or over holidays in Michael's memory and are not alone anymore.

I met many more inspirational people on this trip. Too many to present in one article and I had the opportunity to visit so many special places. I prayed at the Western Wall, walked along the ramparts that encompass the Old City of Jerusalem, spent time in the Jewish Quarter, explored the archaeological excavation under way to showcase King David's residence, walked through the ancient water tunnel that permitted Jerusalem to flourish while other kingdoms failed, learned about the Roman domination of the area and King Herod's rule, visited a park that is handicap accessible because of our local Federation, explored the Golan Heights on an ATV, danced in the streets of Jerusalem with my new friends to celebrate Israel's Independence Day and on and on.

Throughout this entire experience it was my Jewish identity that was strengthened by the beautiful landscapes, our Jewish history that goes back thousands of year to this land, and the wonderful people who embraced me and made me feel so welcome and at home. How will I use what I learned from the profoundly inspirational journey called the Tanzman Fellows Program? I will continue to nurture my relationships with my Tanzman Fellow counterparts at the different Jewish institutions throughout Middlesex County with the goal of breaking down some of the barriers that exist between synagogues.

We are all Jews and it should not matter if we identify ourselves as Reform, Conservative, or Orthodox. I believe that the Rejoice Festival, the brainchild of Aaron Rosloff, represents the perfect project to grow from what it is now to what it could be if just the Tanzman Fellow Nominating Groups worked together as one through Federation. Each synagogue and agency could take a piece of the work and ensure that their members attend the festival and our local Federation could do the marketing. I hope we can move in this direction, if not with the Rejoice Festival, then with another special project.

We must all begin to think out of the box and get involved. I want to remain open and warm and kind to all congregants and strive to be a good listener so that opportunities for connections and new relationships do not pass me by. Creating community - isn't that what we all want and hunger for down deep? May we all do our part to make sure CBT remains a warm and loving community, a "little Israel" in the heart of New Jersey. May we all stay true to our values and honor and reflect on those people who make a true difference in the lives of others.

Thank you Rabbi Wolkoff, Cantor Rockman, and President Ruth Anne Koenick for nominating me to represent CBT in the Tanzman Fellow Leadership Program. Thank you CBT for having faith in that nomination.

Your Fellow Congregant, Mirah Adah Becker