414 ,-
. 0060
Long after their return from Israel,
a Miracle Mission group sticks together.
ping pictures of the trip, sharing good
HARRY KIRSBAUM
Staff Writer
T
he Miracle Mission, a 10-
day tour of Israel for adult
Jews in the Detroit area, was
created as a way to touch
the neshama (Jewish soul), of partici-
pants, in order to foster a better identi-
fication with Israel and to get the peo-
ple involved in the Jewish community.
The 42 riders on Bus No. 4 of the
this community's second Miracle
Mission four years ago got all of that,
and then they got a bonus — they got
each other.
While some of the vivid memories
of Israel itself are fading, the group
still holds a yearly reunion — the first
featured a bus ride to a Toledo restau-
rant — and at least every two months
the friends meet for dinner, still swap-
Harry Kirsbaum may be reached by phone
at (248) 354-6060, ext. 244, or by e mail
at hkirsbaum@thejewishnews.com .
-
12/4
1998
14 Detroit Jewish News
news and bad, and above all, remain-
ing connected.
The fact that they continue to meet
is something that has surprised them all.
Although people who meet during
a vacation might swap addresses and
phone numbers, most go on with
their lives and don't follow through,
said Judy Marx, who captained the
bus with her husband Dr. John Marx.
"No one knew until we came home
that we would all still be in touch."
Before the El Al planes left from
Detroit Metro Airport on May 7, 1995,
the 800+plus tourists had each been
assigned to the bus that would be their
rolling daytime home as they moved
about Israel. Seven of the 21 buses were
reserved for members of different congre-
gations, and two were for the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit's
Young Adult Division. The rest —
including Bus No. 4 — were considered
buses of Federation, the mission sponsor.
Ruth Broder, director of the
Michigan Miracle Mission, said the
continuing closeness of Bus No. 4 is
both nice and unusual. "As far as I
know, this is the only Federation bus
group that still meets," she said.
Marx, who held a pre-trip meeting
at her house in early 1995 for the 42
who became Bus No. 4, recalled that
"our group bonded from the very first
meeting."
Fran Klinger, from Southfield, who
traveled on Bus No. 4 with her hus-
band, sister and three other couples,
found old classmates that she hadn't
seen in years at the pre-trip meeting.
Lorry Fenster of West Bloomfield
and her husband had been assigned to
No. 4 at random, but discovered 10 of
the passengers were people they knew.
When they met again as part of
Miracle Mission II in Israel, they were
already feeling close.
As the bus picked them up at 8:30
a.m. for daylong trips through
Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and to various
other sites planned for the first-time
visitors, the passengers found them-
selves growing even more connected.
"As husbands helped their wives
through the more treacherous pas-
sages, they would come back to help
us," said Adele Staller, a widow from
Southfield, who went with an old high
school girlfriend.
"By the end of the trip, the whole
bus became friends," said Fenster.
At the start of the trip, she passed
around swatches of cloth for her bus
mates to draw a picture or write down
one of their highlights. She presented
a quilt she made of their memories to
the members at one of their three
annual reunions.
The chemistry that has kept the
group in touch with each other
remains something of a pleasant mys-
tery to participants.
"I can't explain what a great experi-
ence it was, and what it continues to
be," said Klinger. "I want to inspire
somebody to do what we did. You
can't explain it, you have to feel it."
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