PHOTO BY RICHARD SCHE INWALD

Patti Tapper
will share her
experiences
with her
children.

A Visual
Account On
The Sketch Pad

34

She brought along six sketch pads, watercolor
pencils and markers with a brush at each
tip.
Patti Tapper is experiencing the Miracle
Mission II as an artist. On the trip with her
husband, Steven, the professional painter
and art teacher has created a visual diary.
From Eilat to Masada, from Jerusalem to
Jaffa — step by step throughout the 10-day
trip — Mrs. Tapper sketched scenes to re-
member.
"It's like people who bring a camera. I
bring a sketch pad. Ifs so much a part of me,"
she says.
On May 10, Mrs. Tapper stayed awake
hours past midnight to color in her drawings
of Mitzpe Ramon (a crater and desert com-
munity in the Negev), Masada and the Dead
Sea. The busier the day's itinerary, the more
there is to sketch.
"I have to work really fast," she says.
"That's one of the challenges."
Back home in Farmington Hills, Mrs. Tap-
per plans to create full-sized paintings from
her sketches. She also hopes that written
annotations etched in black pen will help the
Tapper children share in their parents' mir-
acle journey.

The Last Time
Was A
Quick Study

months," he recalls.
Mr. Turner didn't
Kibbutz En Gedi, Israel — Ma tthew Turner touch it, didn't read
s back as
it, didn't practice it.
Nearly 14 years have
an adult.
On the eve of his
passed since Matthew
flight to Israel 14
Turner of West Bloomfield
first visited Israel. He came years ago, this bar mitzvah
initially for his bar mitzvah boy-to-be decided he'd better
ceremony at the Western get cracking. He packed up the
portion in a carry-on bag,
Wall.
Like many teen-agers, boarded the plane and stud-
young Mr. Turner was a ied, studied, studied.
"By the time we got to Is-
chronic procrastinator.
Months before turning 13, he rael, I had basically gotten it
received a Torah portion from down — after the most miser-
his rabbi in suburban Detroit. able 14 hours of my life," he
Since the ceremony was to be says.
Less than 24 hours before
held in Jerusalem, Mr. Turn-
er opted out of regular, pre-bar the big day, Mr. Turner
showed his Torah portion to
mitzvah tutelage.
"The Torah portion sat on the Israeli rabbi who would
my desk at home for six lead his bar mitzvah ceremo-

ny. The rabbi looked at it,
frowned and apologized. It was
the wrong Torah portion.
The rabbi gave Mr. Turner
another portion and told him
to learn it, learn it quickly. The
word-weary youth gave it his
best shot. "I just sort of winged
it," he says.
Thankfully, Mr. Turner
spent the rest of the trip with
family members, and he had
a great time. Now, at age 28,
Mr. Turner is back in Israel on
the Miracle Mission.
This Southfield attorney
and high-school football coach
has many plans for his 10-day
vacation, but he'll make do
without the Hebrew. He's
more than happy to stick with
English.

