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Affiliated With Many Local Hospitals: • Huron Valley-Sinai • Sinai • Troy Beaumont • St. John Hospital And Medical Center • St. John Macomb • Bon Secours • Providence • Macomb Hospital Center • St. John Oakland Hospital Most Major Insurance Plans Accepted: • Medicaid/Medicare • Blue Cross/Blue Shield • Blue Care Network • Omnicare • HAP • Selectcare • M Care • PPOM • Wellness Plan • Aetna • Blue Cross PPO • Smart Care • First Care • Cigna • PHCS • Plus Many Others. Call For Details. ravel Sea! Being in Israel was a very emo- tional experience for us all and we want to wish Israel a very happy and peaceful 50th birthday Rabbi Eli Mayerfeld, executive director of Yeshiva Beth Yehudah; Southfield and Oak Park My most unforgettable visit to Israel was during the 1991 Gulf War. I hope there is never an opportunity for anyone to repeat my experience, but nevertheless, it stands out as the most meaningful and memorable time I have ever spent in Israel. I was visiting my brother and his family in Ra'anana (a suburb of Tel Aviv) the night of the first Scud attack. We stayed indoors for a cou- ple of days, "holding our breath" through those first few attacks. When I finally did leave the house and took my gas mask with me for a trip to Jerusalem, I was unprepared for the mood on the street. The drivers did- n't honk, the taxis weren't as fierce, strangers were friendly. As life got back to semi-normal, there was a sort of camaraderie and kinship. It ,. reminded me how inexorably we are tied to each other as a people, united in all circumstances. It took the pres- sure of being under attack to bring it to the surface, but ever since then, I have felt a difference in my relation- ship to each Jew I meet. Tamara Kolton, assistant rabbi at Birmingham Temple: Narrow out- door markets overflowing with the smell of freshly baked pita and the sound of deals being made, the view from a hilltop set amongst the green of an ancient valley, aged faces where each wrinkle has a story to tell of a far-off place and a home left behind: These images of Israel continue to flood my mind and define my Jewish consciousness. When I was 16 years old, my plane landed at Ben-Gurion Airport. I had come to Israel as part of a teen summer trip. I came expecting very little. What I found profoundly changed my life. In the midst of my own youthful search for identity, for my place in the world, I discovered Israel, a young nation that was also defining its identity. Almost immediately, I felt connected to the Jewish state. In Israel, I came to understand the power of legacy. I understood that I was a living link in the chain of Jew- ish history. I thought down the gen- erations of Jewish people, their courage, their strivings. All came to define who I was and what I wanted to do with my life. At times, while hiking in the Judean Desert, the sense of history was so powerful that it seemed to come out of the desert sand and seep into my hiking boots. Six weeks later, I returned to the United States alive with the flow of history in my veins. My late teens and early 20s were spent at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. I studied Jewish history, literature and politics, but more importantly, I studied Israel. I watched intently. I admired the pas- sion with which the Israelis approach the world. I was attracted to the energetic pace of life in the Middle East where things felt urgent and alive. I loved living at the crossroads of the different cultures that Jews had imported to Israel from all over the world. My friends were an exotic mixture of Yemenites, Russians, Iraqis and New Yorkers. Over a long period of time, yearn- ings to return to my family became overwhelming. I discovered that the passion and energy of Israel could have a flip side that expressed itself in hostility and intolerance. - I now knew that I wanted to be a rabbi. As a woman, I was aware that if I did this in Israel I would spend my life in an aggressive and painful battle for feminism that would keep me far away from my real love, which was congregational life. Ulti- mately, I chose to return to the United States and enter rabbinical school. Today, my relationship. with Israel continues to evolve. Although I have chosen to live many miles away, Israel remains an integral part of who I am and how I choose to live my life. In many ways, my relationship with Israel can be compared to a love affair. At first, I fell hard and fast. I was consumed with its beauty and its passion. I celebrated' this new con- nection and felt alive with possibility. But all love affairs must in time be tempered by the reality of imperfec- tion. If the love is to last, we must come to accept imperfection and rec- oncile harsher realities with our ini- tial vision. This is the road of mature love and the real test of devotion. It is true what the poet says: "One does not travel to Jerusalem, one returns." And we return, over and over again. ❑