Checking Up On Family
Detroit Jews pay a call on their sister region.
520 students at the Jezreel Valley's region-
al elementary school at Moshav Nahalal.
At a presentation for the Detroit
guests, a 10-year-old girl said, "My
great-great grandmother came to work
here at the agricultural settlement at
Nahalal 84 years ago. My family has
farmed in Nahalal since then."
Said another girl, "My grandparents
came from Romania and felt farming
provided their best future. They found
mud, mud and more mud. Today my
parents and I have the same love for
Eretz Yisrael."
But mixed in with the children of
families who had lived in the region
for generations were the transient Air
Force "brats" whose fathers are sta-
tioned at the nearby Ramat David air
base. Jets from the base could be heard
occasionally zooming overhead.
"My father is a pilot with an acro-
batic team," said one boy. "We've been
here one year and I've been at five dif-
ferent bases. I like my life, except
every time I have to move, I lose my
friends and I have to make. new ones."
After the presentation, the students
mingled with the visitors and thanked
the Detroiters for being there and
showing support.
"I love the region!" Sirlin said.
DAVID SACHS
Senior Copy Editor
A
fter the Sept. 11 bombings
in the U.S. and the relent-
less terrorism against Israel,
the kids at Moshav
Nahalal's elementary school in Israel's
Central Galilee weren't sure the
Detroiters would come back.
But on the stormy, splashy evening
of Dec. 4, a tour bus carrying 24
Detroit Jews arrived in the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit's
sister region in Israel.
"You brought rain!" beamed a wel-
coming resident of the drought-weary
area, where there hadn't been a storm
of such intensity for two years.
But most appreciated was that the
Detroiters were brave enough to visit
Israel in not so fair-weather times.
Tourism has fallen 90 percent in the
face of suicide bombings all over the
country. The Detroit group was part of
the Dec. 3-6 United Jewish
Communities' IsraelNow mission.
Federation sponsored the local mission,
in cooperation with the Detroit Jewish
News and the Jewish Community
Council of Metropolitan Detroit.
The group stayed in the Central
Galilee for parts of two days. For
Valeri Sirlin of Bloomfield Hills, the
visit made the mission complete. For
Elizabeth Bloch of West Bloomfield,
the mission was a homecoming.
Sirlin had briefly visited Nazareth
Illit, the largest Jewish city in the
Central Galilee, during a Federation
mission Sept. 11. But like everyone
on that mission, she was devastated
and distracted by breaking news
reports of the bombings of the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Upon returning home, Sirlin felt
cheated that she never got acquainted
with the people of Detroit's "twinned"
community. She knew she had to
come back.
In contrast, Elizabeth Bloch of West
Bloomfield, a native of India, lived 18
years in Nazareth Illit and now was
returning to an area that, like all of
Israel, had changed for both the better
and worse.
12/2]
2001
18
At The Dinner Table
Arline Gould of West Bloomfield hugs two Ethiopian-Israeli children at a Federation
and JDC-sponsored program in Netanya.
What they discovered were Central
Galilee residents not only excited to
greet them, but also yearning to estab-
lish person-to-person connections
with the Detroit Jewish community.
Federation's Partnership 2000 pro-
gram encourages such contact between
Detroit and its sister region, consisting
of the Jewish cities of Nazareth Illit
and Migdal HaEmek — along with
the Jezreel Valley, which is dotted with
kibbutzim (collective farms) and
moshavim (farming villages) and a few
small residential communities.
Welcomed By Students
The Detroiters' first stop in the region
was the Pioneer Settlement Museum
at Kibbutz Yifat in the Jezreel Valley.
There they were entertained by actors
who reenacted scenes from the every-
day lives of the first wave of Jews who
settled on kibbutzim and moshavim in
the area decades ago.
The next day, the group met descen-
dants of those first settlers — among the
On their first night there, the
Detroiters were invited to dinner by
families in the region. Bloch was host-
ed by Avi Aviram and his wife,
Hanna, at their home in Migdal
HaEmek.
Aviram is vice principal of an inno-
vative high school there where all the
students are issued laptop computers
and many of the courses are taught on
computers. He serves as an Israeli
member on the education committee
of Partnership 2000.
Aviram suggested to Bloch, education
director at Temple Beth El in
Bloomfield Township, that his 7th-
grade students be paired with similar
students in Detroit. They would not
only be e-mail buddies, but also could
participate in a computer course
together on Jewish religion and culture.