Special Report Miracle Mission Seeing Is Believing Mission goersget glimpse of real Israeli life —joys and heartaches. STORY BY SHARON LUCKERMAN PHOTOS BY DEBBIE HILL Jerusalem ith each passing day, Federation's Michigan Miracle Mission 4 partici- pants gained clearer understanding of what it means to be an Israeli. And with that insight, they also better understood what it means to be an American Jew deeply concerned with Israel. One of the best bridges to understanding each other was through American Jews now living in Israel, such as former Detroiter Barbara Levin (formerly Goldsmith), founder and principal of the Jean and Samuel Frankel School in Jerusalem. The Levins made aliyah 30 years ago. Unable to find a school for their children that combined both good secular and good religious education, Barbara started one. Levin raised $250,000 — much of it in Detroit — and the Frankels, Bloomfield Township residents who are members of Adat Shalom Synagogue, matched the sum. This was the first Tali (intensified Jewish stud- ies) school in Israel; now 20 exist. As two busloads of mission-goers disembarked at the Frankel School, young students greeted them along a narrow path leading to the school, waving Israeli flags and singing "Haveinu Shalom Aleichem.' Henia Lewin of Oak Park, who lost her entire family in the Holocaust, said, "That I lived to see this in Israel ... I can't express what this does to me — especially see- ing the children." Allan Nachman of Bloomfield Hills had visited the school before. "Eleven years ago, on the first Miracle Mission, we gave the school a Torah -- the one they use every day." Participants also visited the Marla and Ethan Davidson Archaeological Visitors Center in the Jerusalem Archaeological Park, an excavation and restoration of a section of the Old City's Temple Mount. The project was supported by Detroit busi- nessman and philanthropist William Davidson. The stone ruins once supported great archways, shops that sold animals for sacrifices and mikvaot (ritu- al baths) for pilgrims coming to the sacred city. "I get a chill walking along this wall after seeing the simulation [of what the Temple looked like before it was destroyed]," said Wendy Wagenheim of Birmingham, in Israel for the first time. "You have the feeling of being there, of experiencing what it was like to have been a Jewish pilgrim then." Said her husband, Elliot, "We were in Rome and saw the excavations beneath St. Peter, but this surpasses that." Added Wendy, "This is ours." At the Western Wall, the couple renewed their wed- ding vows after 35 years, with fellow mission-goer Rabbi Joseph Krakoff of Congregation Shaarey Zedek officiating. Those on Congregation Shaarey Zedek Bus 5, with . 4/30 2004 18 Doreen Hermelin of Bingham Farms, were treated to the inside story of how her late husband, David, was approached by Israelis to first support this proj- ect. He, in turn, suggested the project to Davidson, telling him the great selling point of this property was "location, location, location." Prior stops on the mission didn't touch on the effects of the bloody terrorist attacks over the past few years. But visits to hospitals, such as Shaare Zedek in Jerusalem, brought home to Detroiters what life is like for Jerusalemites. Known for its innovative trauma center, Shaare Zedek Hospital has the largest decontamination unit in the country, formed by the clever transformation of its outdoor parking lot. While it was not an easy visit, a hospital spokesperson commended the mission-goers for coming to Israel in its time of need. "You people here are a mitzvah," said Faith, a nurse and hospital administrator. That appreciation was felt in all corners, "from the falafel-stand man to the merchants on Ben-Yehuda Street," said Emily Weiss of Waterford, a BBYO adviser. "We've talked about terrorism, but never felt in danger." Faith, however, shared her experience of being a mother with two sons in the Israeli army and said she hasn't slept well for those three years. Her slide show of the hospital's amazing capabili- ties was dedicated to Dr. David Applebaum, head of Shaare Zedek's emergency room and a former Detroiter who was killed, along with his daughter, in a terrorist attack last year. Her presentation showed how quickly the hospital staff moved into action when there was an emer- gency and victims of a terrorist attack were brought in. Even the hallways are equipped with lines for electricity and water so that space can be used for beds and doctors can check patients quickly. Three floors are built below ground in case of war so all hospital functions are possible. While Faith's deep frustration with terror.became clear as she also told of her own close call with ter- rorism, she also was adamant that politics is checked at the hospital. door. Arab or Jew, all are served. Dr. Mel Lester, president of Harper Hospital in Detroit, explained the difference in emergency med- icine in the United States and in Israel. "We [in America] take emergency medicine seri- ously; they take it more seriously," he said. "We never saw terror in Detroit; Israelis see it here over and over again." One antidote for the terror attacks, Faith said at the end of her-presentation, was to go to the hospi- tal's maternity ward, where 900 new lives begin • every month.. The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit-organ-- ized mission was held April 18-28. The Detroit Jewish News and Michigan Board of Rabbis were cosponsors. Dr Mel Lester, left, president of Detroit's Harper Hospitah stands near . a poster memorializing former-Detroiter Dr. David Applebaum at the entrance to the emergency room in Shaare Zedek Medical Center. Doreen Hermelin of Bingham Farms stands in front of the new Davidson Visitors Center in the Southern Wall Archaeological Gardens in Jerusalem's Old City. At tke- Western Wall in Jerusalem, Wendy and:Elliot Wagenheim of Birmingham renewed their wedding vows after 35 years.