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from page 27
declared Israel's independence in 1948.
For Amy A.B. Bressman, chairman of
the synagogue's board, the most moving
moment was watching 10 of their bar
mitzvah-age children help a group of
special needs Israeli children hold a bar
mitzvah ceremony in a Conservative
synagogue in Jerusalem.
Cloaked in white tallitot, the 13-year-
olds from New York City helped wind
leather tefillin straps around the arms of
the Israelis and read aloud from the
Torah. The Israeli teenagers led the ser-
vice's prayers.
Later, members of the Park Avenue
Synagogue and the Israeli families hoist-
ed the special needs children into chairs
amid a chorus of singing and cheering.
"The faces of those children in those
chairs is a memory I will always have,"
Bressman said.
The event was part of a Bar/Bat
Mitzvah for Special Children Program
operated by the Masorti movement, the
Conservative movement in Israel. "We
were very moved," said Orna Schwartz,
an Israeli woman whose daughter partic-
ipated in the ceremony.
Exposing congregants to the ordinary
and the extraordinary is what the trip
was about, Corwin said.
"You don't get people to just go to
Israel, you get them to engage in Israel,"
he said, adding that other synagogues
have begun to turn to them for advice
on building congregants' interest in
Israel.
Young Visitors
Birthright Israel, the free trip to the
Jewish state for diaspora youth who have
never visited on a peer trip, also saw
high numbers, bringing about 8,500
youth to Israel this winter.
The Jewish Agency for Israel saw a
Israel Insight
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TEM ISSUE
With the results of the November
presidential election, Jewish
Republicans were pleased that
President George W Bush received
25 percent of the Jewish vote, 6 per-
cent more than in 2000. Some
Jewish Democrats affiliated with
Americans for Peace Now viewed the
vote differently, especially in regard
to U.S.-Israel relations.
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit
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Bloomfield Hills, MI 48303-2030
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BEHIND THE ISSUE
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Mark Rosenblum of Americans for
Peace Now stated recently that
s •
Federation
1/ 7
2005
dramatic rise in the number of high
school and college students that it brings
to Israel from around the world. Some
4,600 students from countries as diverse
as South Africa, France and Australia
came for their December vacation as
part of JAFI's "Israel Experience" pro-
gram.
JAFI also led programming of trips for
2,400 of the Birthright participants.
Hillel also is seeing the highest num-
ber of American college students coming
to Israel since the start of the intifada.
"We are at maximum capacity," said
Wayne Firestone, executive director of
the Israel on Campus Coalition, an
umbrella group for 30 national Jewish
organizations founded by Hillel
International and the Schusterman
Foundation.
He said the easing of the security situ-
ation has made it easier for people to
come to Israel and also has facilitated
travel within Israel.
"Parents seem more comfortable and
have less problems about sending their
kids," he said.
Surveying the Hadassah trips to Israel,
which include two family missions and a
singles group, Post was struck by the
increase in both people traveling with
their children and in first-time visitors,
something not much seen in recent
years.
"I think there is this window of
opportunity and people see it and are
positive about it," Post said.
During the previous intifada years, the
majority of Jews coming to Israel were
devoted Zionists. "Now you have people
on the fringes who are not necessarily as
identifiable as passionate Zionists but
came because they feel safer and see sta-
bility in Israel's government and
America's government," she said. ❑
926070
Jewish Democrats on the left of their
party saw that, despite the apparent
wide popularity in the Jewish com-
munity of President Bush's Mideast
policy, fully three-quarters of Jewish
voters voted for his opponent.
According to Rosenblum, these
Democrats then concluded that
Jewish voters want a more intense,
faster-moving U.S. involvement in
Israel-Palestinian peace efforts and
may push for that when Congress
reconvenes later this month.
— Allan Gale, Jewish Community
Council of Metropolitan Detroit