spend time and money in Israel.
just to show them the Americans will
support them — that we're not
afraid."
The youngest travelers in the group
were Michael and Kathryn Marcus of
Royal Oak, married just a year and a
half. They were attracted by the mis-
sion's $999 cost.
We saw the ad for the mission trip
and said, 'We can afford that, let's
go,"' Michael said.
We want to show support for
Israel, but I've never been there — so
we can do both at once."
Mission-goer David Kahan of Troy,
on his 22nd visit, recently donated an
ambulance to Israel.
"I was hoping that they wouldn't
have to use it for anything bad," he
said.
"Of course, I have some apprehen-
sions, but I feel we must support Israel
in these perilous times.
"My philosophy is that it's a miracle
that I survived Auschwitz at age 15,"
he said. "It's the duty of every Jew to
support Israel because we learned
through the Holocaust that if terrible
things should happen again, we need a
place to go to.
Norman Katz of Birmingham, chair-
man of the Detroit contingent, was res-
olute. "Despite all the terrorism that's
going on now, we've got to go there
and life has to go on," he said. "We
have no choice. There's no alternative.
"If you give up, you wring your
"
hands, then they've won. They're not
going to win."
Terrorist Bombing
Although they arrived at the King
David Hotel in Jerusalem on Monday,
the Detroit contingent spent most of
Tuesday and Wednesday checking up
on Detroit's special commitment to
Israelis in the Central Galilee region
and coastal Netanya.
.
[Next week's Jewish. News
will look at specific Detroit
efforts through Partnership
2000 and the American
Jewish. Joint Distribution
Committee to aid both
everyday and underprivi-
leged Israelis.]
Wednesday morning, as
the Detroiters were visiting
the Central Galilee, about
a two-hour tour bus ride
north of Jerusalem, a sui-
cide bomber struck two
blocks from their Jerusalem
Hotel. Minneapolis contin-
gent member Marc
Grossfield of Minnetonka,
Minn., witnessed the
attack.
Grossfield was in a taxi,
returning to the King
David Hotel, from early
morning Shacharit services
at the Western Wall in the
Old City. His cab was tvvo blocks
from the hotel, behind six or seven
other cars, when he heard the bomb
ao off in the middle of the street.
"When we got to the intersection,"
he said, "we saw the bomber's corpse
with no arms, no legs, no head.
"We found out that his head flew
up through a window into a room on
the fifth floor [of the David's Citadel
Hotel]."
No one other than the bomber. was
killed, but two people were injured.
Police speculated the bomb had
exploded prematurely and it could
have killed many if it had been deto-
nated in a crowd.
The Detroiters heard about the blast
while at breakfast in their hotel in
Nazareth Illit. Many called family in
Detroit to let them know that they
were out of town when the bombing
occurred.
Norman Katz and Daniel Cutler, part of the Detroit contingent on United Jewish Charities'
IsraelNow MiSSi011, find a welcoming sign on a Ben Yebuda plaza gift shop, four days after the
bombings.