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ple gathered to be happy and to celebrate
life. It didn’t matter what these people’s
political beliefs were or if they were Jewish
or not. They were targeted simply because
they were at a nature trance music party in
Israel.
”
In the shade of a stand of trees, we
gathered to process what we had just wit-
nessed with the guidance of Zohar Raviv,
Birthright’s international vice president of
educational strategy.
Raviv spoke of a 23-year-old Israeli Arab
who worked as a paramedic at the festival.
He was killed in an ambulance along with
his wounded patients he was trying to triage
when terrorists hit it with a missile.
“People of all religions from all over the
world came here to this festival to dance and
be together for peace, and a radical form of
Islam tried to destroy us.
”
Raviv, who earned his master’s degree
in Near Eastern studies and doctorate in
Jewish thought from the University of
Michigan, instructed students that just like
the Holocaust, Oct. 7 cannot be a defining
moment for the Jewish people.
“
After Oct. 7, I feared that we have been
plunged into another moment in history
where the horrendous emotional dividend
[of this place] will forge a Jewish identity for
young Jews for the wrong reasons,
”
said Raviv. “This is not the
reason to be Jewish. We are
Jewish despite Oct. 7th,
not because of it.
“We as a people
must be proactive and
celebrate being Jewish.
That is the purpose
of Birthright. We
as Jews are meant to
plant trees, not put out
fires. We should celebrate
how Jews all over the world
showed unity toward the Jewish
state. We can achieve uniformity as a peo-
ple even if we cannot agree on what that
uniformity means.”
Raviv also praised the majority of Jewish
diaspora college students who “did not par-
ticipate in the disgraceful rhetoric against
Jews, Israel or Zionism.”
“I call this group a silent majority that
increasingly feels like they are a silenced

minority,
” Raviv said. “We need to raise
awareness to that silent minority that they
are not alone, and they are actually the
majority. We need to turn that silent majori-
ty into a vocal one.
”

THE TOUR CONTINUES
Donors were then treated to a multi-
course lunch to meet Onward volunteers
in Netivot, a small city between Beersheva
and Gaza. Afterward, we headed to a
farm. In the shelter of a metal shed that
somewhat shielded us from the midday
heat, we spent an hour sorting and bag-
ging root vegetables that would be dis-
tributed to families who were undergoing
hardships due to the war.
The next day, we headed to
Jerusalem. On our first stop,
we met with students on
a tour of the Knesset
building organized
by Taglit Israel-Free
Spirit, a group com-
prised of 21 young
adults with learning
challenges.
There, I met
Elisheva Tobi, 25, of
Southfield. Tobi, a stu-
dent of the Berkley Adult
Transition program, visited
Israel with family before, but this was the
first time she had been with a group of 21
of her peers on a tour specially designed
for their needs.
“For me, this trip marks my first steps
toward independence,” Tobi said in
between learning about the Marc Chagall
mural and viewing the Knesset floor from
the viewer’s galley.

By coincidence, we met again a few days
later at our departure gate at Ben-Gurion
Airport as we waited to board our flights
back to the United States.
After greeting me with a big hug, she
was excited to tell me that just that day,
she climbed Masada in the early morning
to watch the sun rise over the Dead Sea
from the summit.
“It was hot and a little bit hard, and
drinking lots of water was mandatory,” Tobi
said. “But climbing to the top was a great
experience, especially because I did it with
friends.”
Getting back to our tour of Jerusalem,
we left the Knesset and joined a group of
students from the Los Angeles area and
their Israeli counterparts, all in uniform,
as we paid respects to the fallen soldiers
at Har Herzl. Our guide there pointed to
a new section of graves that was not there
before Oct. 7. I looked at the red eyes of the
young women soldiers and wondered who
they had lost. They are the same age as my
own children. What else was there to do
at this point for the soldiers, students and
journalists alike than to offer one another a
supportive embrace? It was at this point of
the tour that my tears would not stop.
As our group was told by the Birthright
educators, these soldiers fell in pursuit of
making sure the rest of us could appreciate
every moment of our lives, to not take any-
one or anything in our lives for granted. We
needed to carry on living, loving our fami-
lies and doing mitzvot in their merit.
And that is the dichotomy I witnessed
in Israel. While there is a somber under-
tone just below the surface, in the streets
of Tel Aviv and Yafo, where I spent my
free time, the bars and restaurants are

OUR COMMUNITY
ON THE COVER

continued from page 11

Elisheva
Tobi

Special needs Birthright students
tour the Knesset. Elisheva Tobi is
on the bottom left.

STACY GITTLEMAN