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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