Reflections on a recent Birthright trip

Yehuda Fishhaut, originally from Beit Shemesh, has been living in Providence since April 2013. He teaches a Hebrew and a Unity Diversity class on the Israeli Palestinian Conflict at The Wheeler School and Hebrew at Temple Emanu-El’s Hebrew school. Yehuda was one of two counselors who staffed a Birthright trip in July. Some of his thoughts and reflections from the trip:

“If you want to talk about changes being made because of the current situation, let’s start from before we even left JFK. I received endless phone calls and emails from parents concerning their child’s safety. When I arrived at the airport, I was shocked only 16 of 40 participants showed up. Once we landed in Israel, my group merged with another group because only 29 of their 40 participants came. We ended up being a group of 45 participants, 7 soldiers, 4 staff members, a tour guide and medic/security guard. Our itinerary changed almost every day. Every move we made had to be confirmed with the security office. The first thing we did when arriving to a museum or hotel was show the group where the bomb shelter was and tell them how many seconds they have in order to reach it before a rocket may land if it wasn’t intercepted by the amazing Iron Dome.”

“I think the participants that ended up coming on the trip are very brave. Being on the trip during a war connected them to the land and the people in a very deep way. Wherever we went, Israelis told the participants how grateful they are that people from abroad are coming to Israel and showing their support despite the situation.”

“We had moments of silence on the bus for the soldiers and the wounded almost every day. Personally, my trip had a turning point when I was notified that an officer of mine, 38-year-old Dolev Kieder, father of three was killed in battle. I left for the night to share my respect and honor to my officer. Tens of thousands of people came to his funeral to be a part of his last moments with us before he was buried.”