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January 12, 1996 - Image 77

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1996-01-12

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

Fami ly

contents

Israel With Mishpacha

Family vacations are among the many ways of
appreciating the country.

4

LISA BRODY SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

restaurants that
have been tested. In
10 days, you see the
country with a red-
carpet treatment."
UJA sponsors five
family missions a
year, four during the
summer months
and one during win-
ter school vacation.
The family mis-
sions are terrific for
bar and bat mitzvah
children, and their
trip is free if it is tak-
en during the year a
boy is 13 and a girl is
12 or 13.
Many other orga-
nizations, such as
Hadassah Travel
B'not mitzvah are popular on family missi ons.
and Israel Discovery
Tours Inc., also
t's a given. Parents worry sponsor family trips to Israel.
about their children. Are Travel agents can arrange trips
they eating right? Are they with private guides.
hanging out with acceptable
friends? How are they doing in
school? And often, are they gain-
ing a Jewish identity?
For many parents, a way to ce-
ment the last question is by tak-
ing a family trip to Israel, or by
sending their high-schooler on a
— Susan Langnas
teen trip to Israel.
"Do not teach them about
Masada, take them to Masada,"
"Bar mitzvah age is really
says Susan Langnas, in charge great because the kids have
of next summer's Miracle Mission learned a lot," says Susie Harold.
for Teens.
"A real benefit of a family mis-
"Anything Jewish that be- sion is being with the family
comes a warm memory is won- while the kids are also with oth-
derful, but nothing is as special er kids," says Linda Aviv of Birm-
to a Jewish child as experiencing ingham, who went on a UJA
Israel, and visiting Jerusalem Family Mission last June with
and having Shabbat there," says her daughter, Stephanie Etkin,
Susie Harold of Bloomfield Hills, 13, husband, Joe, and his daugh-
who with her husband, Dr. David ters, Sari, 16, and Rachel, 13.
Harold, led a national United
While she felt some of the chil-
Jewish Appeal family mission in dren's activities were too juvenile,
1989. Traveling with them were the girls felt a connection to their
their children, Danny, Stacy and Jewish roots.
Jessica. "If memories help create
"A defining experience for our
us," Ms. Harold says, "then won- family was a tour of Jerusalem
derful, strong Judaism can stay with a private guide," says Ms.
with us."
Aviv. "We saw an excavation in
Leonard Milstone of UJA Fam- the Old City, and the guide con-
ily Missions says everything is nected what the girls had learned
done for its participants.
for years in Hebrew school to the
"You get your itinerary, show physical reality of it."
up at air-conditioned buses with
Dr. David and Ann Rosenberg
guides who are exceptional, stay of West Bloomfield have twice
in excellent hotels and eat in traveled to Israel with their fam-

I

.

"Do not teach them
about Masada, take
them to Masada."

ily, once on a mini-family mission
and once with a private guide.
"Each. time, my children got
the pride in being Jewish, the
connection to the State of Israel,
and a feeling of Jewish and reli-
gious continuity," Ms. Rosenberg
says. "They had the feeling of re-
living and rewalking history."
UJA missions caution that
children under 7 will not get
much out of the trip, and the rig-
orous schedule may be too de-
manding. -
Ms. Rosenberg, who has four
children, left her youngest (at
ages 1 and 4) home each trip. Son
Kevan, who was recently bar
mitzvah, was only 7 1/2 when
they first visited Israel, and she
had great worries about whether
it would be worth it.
"I chose to take him to connect
hini with Judaism," she says. "At
the end of the trip, I realized that
everything we had seen and done
he had understood from his He-
brew at Hillel Day School."
Jessica Harold was only 5
when the Harolds led their fam-
ily mission, and her mother does
not feel she retained much. "It
was more of a-family vacation for
her," said Ms. Harold.
Sari Aviv stayed on in Israel
last summer after her family's
mission ended. She toured with
Israeli Sports Challenge by
YMiYWHA of Bergen County,
N.J., playing tennis.
"It gave a great flavor of Israeli
life," said Sari. And Sari felt that
traveling with her peers was a
great way to meet "really cool
Jewish friends."
After her bat mitzvah, Sari
and-her father, Joe, a native Is-
raeli, traveled the country.
. For Sari, each trip provided
something special, as well as a
desire to go back. "Next time, I'd
like to go back to stay for a few
months, or even a year abroad,"
she says. U

For information about UJA
Family Missions, contact
Leonard Milstone at (810) 642-

4260, Ext. 250; Israel Discovery -
Tours Inc., Ilene Wallerstein,
(800) 362-8882; Hadassah
Tours, (800) 363-2373.

Kiddie Deco

Tips for decorating
children's rooms
and styles they
won't outgrow.

Getting cozy in
the Fischgrund
house.

First Day, First Time

8

Looking at the beginning of overnight
camp through the eyes of a first-time -
camper.

10

Teens Take
The Road

Teen-age driver Neal Hafner and his
mother Ilene .

1

How parents survive
the stress of young
drivers behind
the wheel.

,‘ A Camp for Jews,
Or A Jewish Camp

18

Knowing what to expect
from a summer camp.

Winter Blahs

Boredom
busters for the
deep freeze
of a Michigan
winter.

Parents On Vacation

With the kids at camp, some
parents opt for a getaway.

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