Editor's Notebook

Community Views

Another Mission
Of Miracles Scheduled

Tragedy Calls Us
To Strive For Peace

PHIL JACOBS EDITOR

RABBI DANIEL POLISH SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

It was just over
a year ago that
1,300 Michigan
residents gath-
ered at Detroit
Metro Airport
to take a trip
that many are
still talking a-
bout. The sight
of El Al jets at the interna-
tional terminal made Mich-
igan Miracle Mission some-
thing beyond the expected.
Over the weeks prior, dur-
ing and after the Miracle Mis-
sion, The Jewish News covered
many stories related to the
event. It was, and still is, the
largest United Jewish Appeal
mission ever. But it wasn't
necessarily the scope of the
mission that is memorable.
Yes, there were three full ho-
tels, 30 bus loads of people
with different itineraries.
Some of those busses still have
reunions.
What was special were the
stories that couldn't be found
in a brochure. The couple who
renewed wedding vows, the
woman who discovered a fel-
low mission-goer from the
same European town wiped
out by the Holocaust; a sur-
vivor telling her stories at Yad
Vashem; a woman leaving a
note in the Western Wall ask-
ing Hashem for a baby, only to
have it happen months later.
There were countless experi-
ences and events that are so
personal that they bring tears
to the eyes of the mission
alumnae.

Jackier, and will also be oper-
ated by its executive director,
Jane Sherman, the woman
who successfully put together
Mission I. Mission applications
will be accepted as of April 4
on a first-come, first-served ba-
sis. Young adults, aged 25-40,
who will have their own bus-
es in Israel, are encouraged to
attend a gathering, 7:30 p.m.
April 13, at the Federation
Building, to learn more about
the trip.
Mission II will have two El
Al planes instead of three. The
planes will originate here in
Detroit. Also, Mission II will
take 800 of us to Israel instead
of 1,300. The mission will be
based in the Holiday Inn
Crowne Plaza and the Rama-
da Rennaisance hotels in
Jerusalem. However, Mission
II will fly from Detroit to the
outskirts of Eilat before bus-
ing north to Jerusalem.
There will be opportunities
for Miracle Mission I veterans
to take special bus trips not
necessarily geared to beginner
travelers to Israel. The idea,
according to Mr. Jackier, is not
to make Mission II a replica of
last April's. This, he said, will
be a mission with its own char-
acter and different opportuni-
ties for learning and for fun.
Already, he said, the mission
is looking into travel perhaps
to Jordan and Egypt as sight-
seeing opportunities.
Two years ago when the
concept of Miracle Mission was
first discussed, leadership ex-
pected maybe one chartered

Mother mission scheduled for 1995.

One of the most asked ques-
tions even during the mission
was whether or not it could
happen again. Indeed, mission
organizers weren't sure about
that answer. The answer,
though, is yes. Already, Michi-
gan Miracle Mission II is
planned for May 7-17, 1995.
It's being chaired by Lawrence

El Al jet with perhaps 400 peo-
ple to take the trip. Instead,
the pent-up energy of the com-
munity, as well as a reason-
able price, led to an over-
whelming response. Already,
according to Mrs. Sherman,
hundreds of preliminary in-
quiries have been made. Tem-
ple Israel has already made it

known that it needs two bus-
es. Bar-Ilan supporters have
notified organizers of their in-
tent to have a bus, and it's ex-
pected that 25 to 30 percent of
Mission I will apply for Mis-
sion II. Mission II will cost
$2,495. I am not writing this
to sound like an advertise-
ment.
Mission II will fill itself with
or without any editorial com-
ment. There are, however, few
opportunities to see Israel with
friends like this. Missions, in
general, make me skeptical.
But I found myself feeling sor-
ry for people who decided not
to go along with the 1993
event. We were there to meet
Soviet and Ethiopian dim and
see how they were living. We
were there when the sirens
went off on Memorial Day. We
were there for the excitement
of Independence Day. But then
there were also experiences
not necessarily planned. One
of those became the highlight
of the entire Miracle Mission
for me as a person and as a
Jewish journalist. Photogra-
pher Glenn Triest and I had
been all over Israel, straying
from the mission at times. We
were given tea by poor Ehtiopi-
ans at Givat Hamatose. We
played baseball with Israeli
children behind the Jerusalem
YMCA. We wandered around
Kibbutz Gezer. We talked to
Ethiopians holding signs of
protest in search of jobs.
But then came the trip to
the French Hill, to the Frankel
School where we saw Adat
Shalom's Rabbi Efry Spectre
and members of his congrega-
tion deliver a Torah to the
young students. The students
met Rabbi Spectre with a
chuppah , a canopy, and the
hour or so of dancing and
singing was an unforgettable
postcard memory.
You see, that's a secret
about a mission like this.
Sometimes, the best memories
aren't necessarily scheduled.
Covering Rabbi Spectre's de-
livery was an afterthought fol-
lowing a hard week of work-
ing coverage.
The key for all of us is to get
there, to get to Israel. Mission
I's popularity and demand
snuck up on all of us, includ-
ing its organizers. We know
that there's a Mission II corn-
ing around. If you've never
been to Israel before, consider
this an opportunity.
When we returned last
April, it was often difficult for
some of us to explain even to
our loved ones what we had
just experienced. This is an op-
portunity to share that mes-
sage we learned.

The terrible
events at the
cave of the Pa-
triarchs in He-
bron last week is
a tragedy on
many levels. On
the human level,
it represents the
kind of loss of
life that has become too corn-
mon in the Middle East. What
a paradox that these events
should have taken place in that
cave. For Abraham is seen as

the old animosities and to be-
gin to discover ways to live with
one another respectfully and
caringly.
For us in the Jewish com-
munity, this event represents
a significant challenge. Shock-
ing as it may be, we must rec-
ognize, at long last, that it is
possible that we have extrem-
ists and terrorists in our midst,
too; terrorism is not only an
Arab phenomenon; but, as we
have seen, it has roots in the
Jewish world as well. For too

the common ancestor of both
the Jewish and Arab peoples.
As cousins, then, we must ex-
tend human condolences to all
those who have lost loved ones
in this tragedy.
This event is a tragedy on a
larger level as well. For its in-
tent, and fearfully, its conse-
quences, were to derail the
peace talks in progress between
the state of Israel and the Pales-
tinian people. The goal of this
horrendous act was to arouse
such fury in the Arab world as
to make it impossible for the
talks to go forward. The
tragedy would be compounded
if the perpetrator of these
events would be allowed this
posthumous victory.
With this event underscored
is not the difficulty of making
peace, but the imperative to
peace. Rather than setting
peace aside, the response to this
atrocity must be for all of the
peoples of the region to find a
way to live together, so that this
kind of event does not repeat it-
self. There should be no more
widows, no more orphans, no
more grieving families, Jewish
or Arab. It is time to put aside

long we have tiptoed around
that reality. Now we can avoid
it no more.
We have tolerated the ex-
pressions of extremists; we have
looked the other way while ugly
things were said and done.
Now we see the logical conse-
quences of those attitudes and
our inactivity. It is time for the
Jewish community to do what
we have called on the black
community to do with regard to
Louis Farrakhan and its ex-
tremists.
We must repudiate the val-
ues, the ideals, the goals and
the methods of those who em-
brace extremism, those whose
nationalism goes to such
lengths that it has no room for
"the other" in our midst.
All those Jews in Israel and
in America who cannot imag-
ine Jews and Arabs living
alongside one another pervert
the fundamental teachings of
our faith and our people.
Rather than imply acquiescence
by our silence, it is time for us
to speak out, to denounce them
and to reject their teachings.
These unJewish ideas are un-
acceptable to us. CI

