metro >> Detroiters in Israel
Israel Solidarity from page 9
Ariel Hermon/Ministry of Defense/Flash 90
our weekend trips have been canceled.
When a siren sounds, we also have to
crowd into a stairwell in the morning,
all still wearing our sleeping clothes.
Life Goes On
Tilly Shames, executive director,
U-M Hillel, Jerusalem
I am in Jerusalem with a group of Hillel
professionals studying at the Shalom
Hartman Institute, which has been an
ideal and cathartic environment to process
this past month in Israel: the kidnapping
and killing of three Israeli boys, the mur-
der of a Palestinian boy and now the rock-
ets on Israel and operation in Gaza.
In our third time in the shelter, we were
quickly joined by an Orthodox Israeli fam-
ily strolling past the Institute on Shabbat
afternoon and a secular woman walking
her dog. We waited out our time in the
shelter like family and then re-emerged
to the courtyard and went on our ways,
knowing we will never see each other
again. Life goes on quickly after here.
The streets and restaurants are still
packed, and the Taglit Birthright Israel
buses are everywhere. There is a great
deal of comfort and checking in with one
another in our Hillel group, and check-
ing in with students we know are here on
internships and summer programs. There
is no judgment toward our peers who feel
fear and those who do not, those who
want to stay and those who want to go
back home.
While I am grateful for the opportunity
to understand this side of Israel, I am
also grateful that I will have the luxury to
return to Michigan and not worry about
the next time I will hear a siren.
Anna Rubin prays at the Western Wall.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister
Moshe Yaalon being briefed in the South Front Command, July 9.
Dealing With Students
Noah Zucker, 21, West Bloomfield,
Mizra
We are staying in
Mizra [close to
Nazareth, in Detroit's
Partnership2Gether
region of the Central
Galilee], which is thank-
fully out of range of all
the rockets. I am here
Noah Zucker
for a program where
we teach English to
third-, fourth- and fifth-graders as a pilot
program for the eleventh month of pub-
lic education in Israel. [Ten others from
Michigan are part of the program.]
Because of our safe place, I personally
have not been too scared. At school, we
had to do a missile attack drill where we
lined up our students and took them to a
shelter, and that was a pretty awful thing
to have to do and think about.
We also have 10 Israeli teacher mentors
with us on the trip and two were called
up, so that also hit close to home as we
watched them pack up and leave.
Each morning, the principal starts the
10 July 17 • 2014
U-M Hillel students/alums gather in Jerusalem: Jessica Curhan, Josh Belinky, Lauren Rouff, Leah Sternberg, Tilly Shames and
Jonathan Cohn.
day with a morning meeting and usually
brings up the situation and says how we
should all be hoping for the safe return of
the soldiers as many of the students have
parents or siblings in the army.
One time we also asked what the stu-
dents thought, and listening to what they
had to say was hard as most of it had hate-
ful undertones, like one fifth-grader who
said to burn all of Gaza to the ground.
I have been able to keep in touch with
my parents through email, Facebook and
Skype, so all is well on that front. Overall,
it has been amazing to see how Israel pulls
together as a community during this time.
Volunteer First
Responder
Hanna Berlin, 21, Farmington Hills,
U-M senior, Ramat Gan
For six weeks this summer, I am partici-
pating in the Magen David Adorn volun-
teer program. My job is mostly to assist
the medics and paramedics in treating and
transporting patients. I have been doing
shifts on the ambulances for about two
weeks now.
I live in the Tel Aviv University dorms
and volunteer at the Ramat Gan station,
due east of Tel Aviv. Three days ago, I was
sitting in the back of the ambulance with a
patient. As we were driving to the hospital,
I heard a loud siren go off and watched as
the driver pulled to the side of the road
and saw other cars on the road pull over.
I barely thought anything of it as I was
more concerned about using my very
basic Hebrew skills to communicate with
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