rip Of A Lifetime "

Mate leaders opine on this summer's Legislators Mission tolsrael.

10

The
Legislators
Mission at
Yad Vashem

Jackie Headapohl
Managing Editor

T

his summer, 11 state legislators and representatives from the United Jewish
Foundation participated in the 2011 Michigan Legislators Mission to Israel in
search of economic development opportunities for Michigan.
The objective: Explore possible new business opportunities that would bring jobs to
the state or create new markets for the products produced here.
While there, legislators met with key Israeli businesses and institutes that have or
want to develop connections with Michigan, helped by the Michigan Israel Business
Bridge. Discussions explored the potential for Israeli businesses to locate in Michigan,

Israeli markets for Michigan products and vice versa, and research and development col-
laboration between Israeli and Michigan universities and institutes.
In addition, mission participants received a firsthand understanding of Israel's politi-
cal, security and social issues/concerns through briefings by former Israeli Ambassador
to the United Nations Dore Gold, and Editor in Chief of Ha'aretz Aluf Ben.
While there, participants visited social service programs supported by the Jewish
Federation and enjoyed home hospitality in Michigan's Partnership Together region, the
Central Galilee.
Three of the participants, Speaker of the House Jase Bolger, Rep. Lisa Brown and Mark
Davidoff, Federation's Government Relations Oversight Committee co-chair, shared their
experience of the trip with the Jewish News. I I

Randomness vs. Beshert

H

aving participated in more than
25 organized missions of one
nature or another, I am always
fascinated by the unique chemistry that
develops among and between the mission
participants on any given bus.
The United Jewish Foundation has
sponsored this important mission for
more than 10 years to provide leaders of
our great state with a front-row seat to
experience the land and people of Israel
in a way they could never have imagined.
When we first met with this group of
participants to brief them on the mission
itinerary, it was an assembly of individu-
als from different parties, from different
Houses of the Legislature, representing

44 October 6 • 2011

different geographies, and
holding differing views on
a host of social and fiscal
policy issues.
Over the course of the
mission it was evident, as is
often the case, that the differ-
ent elements that had been
added to the chemistry of
this mission, each individual
participant, were morph-
ing into a more complicated
compound of elements. With
each new experience, with each fresh
emotion and with each surprising fact
about Israel, the individuals were becom-
ing a family, a group with shared values

and perspectives.
By mission's end, the indi-
viduals who had walked into the
briefing meeting one month ear-
lier had been transformed into a
collective with a shared under-
standing and a crisp apprecia-
tion for the common bonds we
all share.
So would the result have
been different if some, or even
one participant in the mission,
had been someone else? Is the
dynamic that occurs on these missions,
on your bus, random? Or is the dynamic
beshert, meant to be?
I would like to believe that it is, in fact,

beshert and that all the variables that
result in a particular group of individuals
experiencing Israel at a particular time is
not random at all — and that any change
in the elements that make up the chemis-
try of the bus would change the outcome
and the experience. It was truly meant
to be that I had this experience with this
exact group at this exact moment.
The United Jewish Foundation's com-
mitment to this effort should be applaud-
ed as it fosters an essential appreciation
among the leaders of our state for the
work done by our local and global Jewish
community that they will carry with
them, wherever their public service takes
them. I

