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A prayer rose from two female soldiers
singing in memory of Israelis who died
in battle. Detroiters wearing white Mir-
acle Mission T-shirts sat on steps near
the Wall. They listened and some peo-
ple cried.
Representing Boyer School graduates,
Israeli families sat in the front row of
the crowd.
The school is located in Jerusalem
and has lost many former students to
war. As a tribute to those who fell,
Detroit children prepared a colorful
\, quilt, personalized with the soldiers'
names and decorations symbolizing
their lives.
Missionaires presented the quilt to
relatives of the fallen.

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Only two weeks before at the Maple-
Drake Jewish Community Center, the
quilt was unveiled to a group of 1,000
Detroiters who had gathered for a com-
memoration ofYom Hazikaron, Israel's
Day of Remembrance. "For me, all the
names represent personal stories," said
Boyer School Principal Zvi Galonn,
speaking to Missionaires at the Wall.
"Thank you so much for strengthening
our feeling that we are one. Thank you
for helping us feel that you are with us
all along. Thank you, Detroit."
The phone awoke David Benkoff
at 6:45 a.m. last Saturday. It was his
son, calling urgently from the United
Sates.
The cross-continental crisis? Mr.

Benkoff won a $10,000 lottery prize. The
frequent player had cashed in on an-
other big win only weeks before.
What's he going to do with his win-
nings? "I'd like to go to Israel again," Mr.
Benkoff said.
Other miracles on the trip were, per-
haps, somewhat less obvious. They
happened in split-seconds for people
like Frances Berger of metro Detroit
who was digging a hole in the dirt of
Eilat. Mrs. Berger, who traveled with
two girlfriends she has known for 50
years, found it hard to choke back tears
when a young Israeli boy handed her
a flag, knelt down in the soil and helped
her plant a tree in memory of her par-
ents.

"I felt like Israel was coming to us in-
stead of us going to Israel," Mrs. Berg-
er said.
As the Mission continued — from
Eilat to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Tiberias
and back to Jerusalem — participants
said they were coping with about four
hours of sleep per night. Although the
trip put them on overdrive, from sun-up
until well after sundown, nearly all said
the excursion fulfilled its mission.
"Israel is not a place," reflected Sy
Finkelstein, Mission vice chairman. "It's
an emotion. I've been to far more beau-
tiful places. I've certainly been to far
more luxurious places.
"But there I stood, at a stone wall, and
I'm crying like a two-year-old child."

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