Keeping the Wonder Alive

by Cory R. Schneider

Even though the state of Israel and I were born just a few years apart, my first memory of Israel was from when we changed from Ashkenazic to Sephardic Hebrew pronunciation in Hebrew school, because that’s how they spoke in Israel. I also remember bringing tzedakah each week to plant trees in Israel for Keren Kayemet. I was sure that one day I would see the very tree I had planted with my own nickels and dimes.

My first trip to Israel was on USY Pilgrimage in 1962, and my next was to celebrate my oldest son’s bar mitzvah at the kotel. A few years later I was back, sharing my middle son’s hospital room after an accident he suffered on his teen tour. My fourth trip was as an adult participant on the March of the Living.

I have represented Women’s League twice on missions of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Last summer I had the joy of witnessing my two oldest grandchildren become b’nei mitzvah on Masada. And just a few months ago, I led Women’s League’s 2007 Mission, during which we networked with Masorti women, performed acts of tzedakah, and enjoyed the sights, tastes, and arts of Israel.

As we celebrate Israel’s 60th birthday, it amazes me how connected I am to it. Israel is our hope, our dream turned to reality. But when I spoke with my grandchildren this summer they did not have that automatic connection to Israel I take for granted. They don’t have the institutional memories of a land fighting for existence. What they do have is exposure to both positive and negative press.

As I returned from my last trip, I felt much as I had the first time I visited, when I was a teenager, and I vowed to share that wonder with the next generation. Our movement provides a myriad of ways to craft that unbreakable relationship with the land of our fathers and mothers for our sons and daughters. Send your children to Israel on USY Pilgrimage, with the Ramah Seminar, with their Hebrew high school or Schechter semester programs, or to Nativ. Make sure that they consider colleges with a strong Hillel and Koach presence, where Israel advocacy is a positive aspect of campus life. If they haven’t gotten to Israel on a formal tour, encourage them to apply for birthright israel or to spend a spring vacation as a volunteer with JNF or other organizations. Take a family trip to Israel, not only when your children are 12 or 13 but also when they are 15 or 18 or 21, or as parents of their own children. Bring the grandchildren along. Join your synagogue or local federation for a family or multigenerational mission. The Masorti Foundation can help. Discuss Israel around the dinner table. Make Israel a part of your children’s vocabularies as they develop a personal relationship with the land and the people.

As we join together during this year of celebrating Israel’s 60th, I ask you to join me in passing on that wonder.