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Meaningful Missions
Dry Bones
T
he American Jewish community is gear-
ing up for a summer of solidarity with
the Jewish state, most visibly expressed by
sending regular "missions" for weeklong
visits in Israel.
The goal of showing Israelis — and the
rest of the world — that American Jews
care is laudable. But the method may bear
some scrutiny to be sure that it is the right tool for
the job.
The danger is that the missions may end up send-
ing the wrong message, may be seen more like send-
ing flowers to a funeral or lighting a yahrzeit candle
than putting on your best duds to dance at a friend's
wedding.
Before the El Al jets loaded with American Jews
thunder down the runway, participants need to
decide what the mission of a mission is. They should
be crystal clear about what they will need to learn
when in Israel and what they will try to accomplish
with that knowledge when they return.
In recent, happier and more hope-filled years, mis-
sions have been a way for American communities to
travel together easily and comfortably to a destina-
tion they would enjoy. Participants, many of them
first-time visitors to Israel, reported enthusiastically
on the overwhelming emotion they felt when stand-
ing at the Western Wall or talking with an Israeli
family in the Galilee. They returned fired up with
an understanding of why the State of Israel was so
important to the nation of Israel.
The missions this summer will be different
because the goal is to express solidarity rather than
to build it fresh. But who needs to know about this
solidarity and how will they get the message?
not going to be convinced by a busload of
Americans professing unswerving commit-
ment when his cancelled reservations tell a
tale of abandonment.
Nor are the missions going to
convince Palestinians that they
better not mess with an Israel
that is so powerfully connected.
In embracing terror over talks,
the Palestinians have already shown that
they aren't interested in common sense —
and their PA-controlled media isn't going
to report on the trips at all unless a terror-
ist attack disrupts one.
Whether the rest of the world will know
or care about the missions is probably.
moot. Unless organizers put together the
mother of all missions — with thousands
of participants from every Jewish commu-
nity around the globe — the trips this
summer are likely to go unnoticed by most
of the world, no matter how deeply they
affect the souls of those who are on them.
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A Deeper Concern
Even if the missions attract several thousand partici-
pants, they clearly cannot make up for the devasta-
tion of the Israeli tourist business, where the 90 per-
cent drop in American visitation had hurt so pro-
foundly. The operator of a shuttered tourist hotel is
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Building Bridges
Perhaps the most useful audience for the
mission participants is non-Jewish
America.
Americans tell pollsters that they are
generally well-disposed toward Israel, but
many are not terribly well-informed and a
fair number believe there is some substance to the
Palestinian complaints about Israel's conduct. While
they may understand why Israel could not accept
the wholesale return of several million Palestinians,
they don't understand the continuing occupation of
the territories or the need for settlements or even the
dreadful dilemma of how to govern Jerusalem.
So before they leave, this summer's "missioneers"
would be well served by arranging to listen to the very
real concerns of their non-Jewish friends. They ought
to go far out of their way to find out what it is that
these neighbors would like to know and what might
convince them that Israel does have right on its side.
Then they could truly use the missions as oppor-
tunities to gather that sort of information and use it
in a coordinated outreach effort when they return.
Who knows? In clarifying what their friends and
neighbors most need to know about Israel, this sum-
mer's mission-goers may return with a deeper under-
standing for themselves that will help make them
even more enthusiastic and effective ambassadors of
our communities. ❑
On Finger Pointing
Jerusalem
ne spring morning in Jerusalem, a few
weeks after the end of the Gulf War, I
found myself in line at the local super-
market behind the mother of Esther, one
of my neighbors. Passover was fast approaching,
but neither of us seemed much undone by all the
housecleaning. We were much too full of joy for
that.
0
Sarah Shapiro is a writer living in Jerusalem. This
article was distributed by New York City-based Am
Echad Resources, a syndication service offering articles
from an Orthodox perspective to the Jewish and general
media.
SARAH
SHAPIP,0
Special
Commentary
With gusto, we'd dismantled
our sealed rooms and tossed
our ghoulish gas masks onto
the highest shelves. Ever since
Iraq's Saddam Hussein had
threatened Israel with chemical
warfare seven months before,
the prospect of some horrible,
unthinkable death had been
looming overhead. Now we
were free. And Hussein's sud-
den surrender, on Purim Day,
had instilled into the event an
implausible dimension of the
miraculous.
The rescue was as inexplicable as the strange Gulf
War itself had been, and we were not only grateful,
but also proud for we had stayed. We'd weathered
the storm, and our ample reward for not fleeing had
been to witness with our own eyes the bizarre
unfolding of events.
But amidst all this rejoicing, there was something
I, and many other American immigrants, were not
thinking about anymore, in the wake of our libera-
tion.
It was our own secret and solitary inner wars,
about the children, that we were already forgetting.
To stay or to go? It had been a daily torment. To leave
FINGER POINTING
on page 30
7/6
2001
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