The siren started to blare while we were still inside Ben Gurion airport, as if to remind us that we were arriving in the middle of the Gaza war. I was amazed at the calm of everyone in our large group as we retired to a safe area to be cleared. This was my fourth trip to Israel with the Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project, and in retrospect, other than the siren and an empty Kotel plaza, you would hardly have known that a battle was raging a few miles away.
Although most people have heard of Birthright, the program that brings young Jews to Israel to awaken and strengthen their Jewish identity, few have heard of JWRP. It, too, leverages the magic of Eretz Yisrael to empower women to reach their potential as Jewish wives and mothers and thus transform their families and communities.
This trip was the first that JWRP coordinated with the Ministry of Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs. The Israeli government shares an interest in strengthening Jewish values in the Diaspora, and partnering with them means that JWRP will be able to bring 2,400 women to Israel this coming year, double the usual number, for a highly-subsidized trip.
The women are chosen by kiruv organizations across the world, and travel in “delegations” from their city, accompanied by a frum person from the organization. Although there were many cancellations this year because of Gaza, 250 women did arrive to take part in the eight-day, action-packed trip.
I was on one of the four buses that left the airport for Tiveria. My role as a “bus leader” was to help set the tone of the trip by facilitating sharing, instilling Jewish values like hashgacha pratis, and just being available to talk and to listen. The delegations on my bus were from Ottawa, Toronto, and St. Louis. The women came from many different Jewish backgrounds, and most had children under age 18. I represented a frum young mother with whom they could identify.
I became involved in JWRP through my friendship with Mrs. Lori Palatnik, who devotes her life to outreach and is in charge of this project. When we arrived in Tiveria, Mrs. Palatnik gave us a shiur entitled “Gossip, Lies, and Lessons,” in which she challenged the women not to blame and not to complain for the next eight days. We had a wonderful welcome dinner overlooking the Sea of Galilee, and went on a tour of Tzfas the next day.
In Tzfas, the women were amazed at the magnificent mikva, which resembles a spa in the Ritz Carlton. (It’s called the Tzfat Mikvah, and you should really go see it.) When introducing Judaism to women who are not yet affiliated, it is especially important to show the beauty of the mikva. The highlight for the women was meeting the “mikva ladies” whom they described as “pure souls.” These incredible women exemplify the idea of leshem Shamayim in their speech and deeds, and our women easily bonded with them.
After kayaking down the Jordan River, we had dinner at the Adir Winery. Then we continued to Jerusalem where we spent the second night. The next day, we walked to Aish HaTorah in the Old City from the King Solomon Hotel, where each woman was given an ArtScroll Siddur. Then we all walked to the Kotel. On Thursday, we traveled to Masada and the Dead Sea, rode camels, and ate a festive dinner at Abraham and Sarah’s Tent in Eretz Breishit, a tourist place.
Friday morning was incredible. We walked to the Prima Palace Hotel to make challa together, and we had the unbelievable merit to hear Racheli Frankel, mother of Naftali, one of the three abducted boys. Her message was that we must have Jewish unity on a global level and also on a personal level, to treat each person with respect, just as her son Naftali did. She is an incredible powerhouse of emuna and bitachon and became a role model for the 250 women being exposed for the first time to a woman who lives and breathes belief and trust in Hashem.
Friday afternoon was free time, and many women from our group went to the Machaneh Yehudah shuk (outdoor market). That was my one opportunity to see my brother Shmuli Oberstein and his family. In fact, we were so busy that the only time I saw my sister and her newborn son was when she came to the airport to greet me upon my arrival.
During past trips, the group has walked to the Old City on erev Shabbos for candle lighting at Aish HaTorah and kabbalat Shabbat at the Kotel. This year, we were told that, due to riots by the Arabs in East Jerusalem on Thursday night, we would be spending Shabbos at the Inbal Hotel. I happened to be at the Kotel on Thursday with my son, Dovid, who is learning in Toras Moshe, and we witnessed two helicopters and 100 riot police march by us. Dovid commented that he had never felt safer, but we did not know what was going on in the Arab section.
Friday night davening was incredible in the courtyard of the hotel. Normally, we invite a chayal boded to join us at each table, but because of the war, the chayalim (soldiers) were at their assigned bases. A chayal boded, a lone soldier, is someone from another country who comes to Israel and volunteers for the IDF. At the eleventh hour, one of the city delegation leaders, Rikki (Fleischman) Samel, originally from Baltimore, was able to get her son and daughter-in-law to join us. He is a commander in the Golani brigade and spoke to us. In addition, a former chayal boded from Ottawa joined us. He told us how it pained him that his fellow chayalim were doing their service while he had not yet been called up. In addition, a trip participant, a non-observant mother whose son is currently serving as a chayal boded, shared her gratitude to all the women for coming in this time of war.
Shabbos day, the women were paired with hosts. Each city delegation experienced an authentic Shabbos with an Israeli family. This is arranged through an organization called Shabbat of a Lifetime. The food and the china is delivered to the host family, and JWRP pays the expenses for each person.
Finally, the authorities gave the all clear, and we walked to the Old City for seudah shlishis at the magnificent home of Pamela and Abba Claman. This special couple regularly hosts celebrities and soldiers, and started an organization that helps Israeli soldiers. They invite chayalim to eat with them every Shabbos. My brother Yoni Oberstein has been there. Yoni was not able to meet with me at all, as he was at the Gaza border on active duty.
On Sunday, after listening to Sergeant Benjamin Anthony’s reflections on being a frontline IDF soldier, and visiting Yad Vashem, we arrived at Mount Herzl, the military cemetery, where we had the tremendous zechus to hear from Miriam Peretz, a mother who has two sons buried there. Her firstborn son Uriel was killed in the Lebanon War in 1998 when was 22 years old, and her son Eliraz was 34 and had a wife and four little children, including a six-week-old baby, when he died in Gaza in 2010. Miriam shared with us how she grew up in the Sahara desert of Morocco with parents who could neither read nor write. But they knew one word in Hebrew, she said: “Yerushalayim.” After her first son Uriel died, Eliraz told his mother that he wanted to be a commander. She said, “What about me?” This was Eliraz’s response: “What kind of child do you want, a child who is alive but dead inside, or a child who died but who lived with bitachon and emuna.”
Miriam Peretz spoke to our group, saying that it is our choice how to go on after tragedy. She chose to live and to continue. She lost two sons, but she has four other children and eight grandchildren. “We women give light and life to our homes; we are stronger than our husbands; we understand with our hearts. Every day, I wake up and say to G-d, you gave me this day to do kindness. I ask Hashem to give me strength to do something good. My boys died for this Jerusalem that my father in the Sahara only dreamed of.”
Miriam started to speak about Max Steinberg, a”h, the chayal boded from California who was killed in action, saying that she would visit his grave and light a candle for Max, too, as all the boys are our children. Just at that moment, Max’s family happened to pass right behind her on their way to say “goodbye” to their son before returning home, and Mrs. Steinberg threw kisses to all the women. It was an incredible chizuk and kiddush Hashem for both the women and Max’s family. Mrs. Steinberg originally wanted to bury her son in California, but when she saw the outpouring of kindness by Jews who did not even know Max during his lifetime, she decided that his place was in Israel. Over 20,000 people came to his funeral.
There is much more I could write about Miriam Peretz and how she visits the shiva houses and gives strength to the mourners. Her message to our women was that they have the power to change the world.
From the cemetery, my bus went to Susan’s House, located in Talpiot. This is a unique program that empowers teens-at-risk through artistic expression. They make glass serving pieces, pottery, and jewelry. The manager told us that five of the last six visiting groups had cancelled due to the war, and that the teens did not believe we would show up either. He told me privately that a group usually spends 1,500 shekels, and he had hoped that our group would spend 5,000 shekels to make up for the other losses. In fact, my bus of 40 women spent 6,940 shekels buying handcrafted items. I was the last one out of the store, and the kids were jumping for joy.
On the final day, we all walked to Aish HaTorah, and each woman wrote a letter to herself that will be mailed to her in three months. It is a very powerful concept to receive a letter from oneself, when the excitement of the trip has worn off, as a reminder of their goals and their passion for leading a Jewish life.
Lori Palatnik gave a class entitled “Bringing It All Home” to help the women re-acclimate to their families. The goal is to promote Jewish values, to make them passionate about Judaism, to bring it back to their families. Our goal is that they and their children will be proud to be Jews and to marry Jews.
Just before we left for the airport, at exactly 7 p.m., on Monday, July 28, we all stood up and said Shema Yisrael, in unison with the Shma that was being recited by Jewish women around the world at the same time.
It is impossible to sum up in words what I and the women on my trip experienced, but let me conclude with a quote from Miriam Peretz’s son, Lietenant Uriel Peretz (1976-1998), who fell in battle in Lebanon: “With the number of thorns and plants that entered my body (crawling on the ground in the army) it is possible to build a flowerbed a meter by meter long. But, these are not ordinary thorns; these are the thorns of Eretz Yisrael.” I truly felt that the best and safest place to be a Jew is in Israel, even in a time of war. I feel that great things are happening. Let each of us go on our journey of life doing what we can for am Yisrael, for Jewish unity, and for ahavas Yisrael.
Chaya Lasson is the wife of Jonathan Lasson, Psy.D, and the mother of six children. She is a registered nurse and her involvement in JWRP is as a volunteer. She is looking forward to her next trip, with Etz Chaim, in December.
