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changed the agenda. “It was
no longer celebratory; it was
more somber.”
After the event, the Detroiters
headed to the Renaissance
Hotel in Nazareth, an Arab-run
hotel that had been shuttered
but was opened just for the mis-
sion-goers.
“We walked into the lobby
and saw they had wheeled out
large-screen TVs. Many of us
had not seen one image the
entire day,
” Davidoff said. “
As
we watched the coverage, many
of our delegation became emo-
tionally overwhelmed. Seeing
the towers falling was a horrific
moment.
”
Photographer Debbie Hall
captured the horror the delega-
tion felt with a photo of Rachel
Rosenthal “crying my eyes out
on my mom’s shoulder,
” she
said.
Kirsbaum said, “I didn’t
understand the immensity of
the attacks until we got back to
the hotel. It was such a horrible
thing to see. I was wrapped up
in the emotions but trying to
do my job as a reporter. It was a
pretty sleepless evening.
”
Kirsbaum recalls that the next
morning, their first stop was at
a school Detroit had been sup-
porting that had been attacked
earlier that year. “There were
guards everywhere. We walked
into the courtyard and saw an
Israeli flag and an American
flag, both flying half-staff. Kids
were lined up holding flowers
for us. Before we even took the
tour, they planted a tree for us
in a moving ceremony.
“
All the children had written
us notes and drew us pictures,
”
he added. “I took one with me
and still have it. It says, ‘I am
very sorri’ with a pencil draw-
ing of planes crashing into the
building. It was really touching.
”
Rachel Rosenthal said that
their “friends in Israel were
there for us. A lot of that day
was a bit of blur … Then I
remember getting on the bus
and trying to get back home.
”
THE RETURN HOME
Mission-goers spent the next
several days in Jerusalem while
the mission leaders worked
the phones, trying to arrange
a flight home. “We called Sen.
Carl Levin to help us,” Jackier
recalled.
PHOTO BY DEBBIE HILL
PHOTO BY DEBBIE HILL
Marta Rosenthal of Franklin
holds her daughter Rachel as
they watch footage of the ter-
rorist attacks in America on a
large-screen TV in the Nazareth
Renaissance Hotel.
Yoav Raban was nearly 21 on Sept. 10, 2001, on his way to Detroit
for a mifgash, exchange visit, following a 10-day Hillel of Metro
Detroit Community Birthright trip in Israel. He had been selected
as one of six Israelis from Michigan’s Partnership Region to join the
Birthright trip.
He had arrived in New York two weeks prior to his flight to
Detroit, scheduled for Sept. 11, in order to meet friends and tour
the city.
“On the morning of Sept. 10, I wanted to say goodbye to the city
and decided the best way to do that would be to go on top of the
Observation Deck of the World Trade Center for one last scenic
view of the city,
” he said.
He was with his dad, who was also making his way to Detroit for
a business meeting, when they
arrived at LaGuardia airport on
Sept. 11. “We were not allowed
to go in. We were told there was
a bomb threat, something we
were very used to from back
home when there were daily
suicide bombings, and so the
notion of a bomb threat was an
everyday thing for us.
“We thought we would wait
outside for a bit, and they will
surely clear the bomb threat and
allow us back in just like they do in Israel,
” he continued. “But after
a couple of hours, we were told that all flights were canceled, and
we should go back to the city.
”
Neither Yoav nor his father had a cell phone. They began to make
their way back to the city, clueless as to what had happened. “We
could see the smoke all the way from Queens, but we had no idea
what we were looking at.
”
After hours of looking for a bus, they made it back to their uncle’s
hotel room, with whom they had been staying. It was already late
evening. “When he opened the door for us, he was pale, as if he had
seen a couple of ghosts,
” he said.
“We asked him in such a naive manner, ‘What is going on in the
city today? It’s crazier than ever out there,
’” Yoav continued. “He
was absolutely shocked and in total disbelief, asking us if we really
had no idea what was going on. He immediately took us in front of
An Israeli in
New York on 9-11 —
A Firsthand Account
Yoav on
the World
Trade Center
observation
deck, Sept.
10, 2001.
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