The 2011
Journey Home to Israel

Day 7 - Jerusalem

Sunday’s Highlight

The 2011 Journey Home Tour’s farewell banquet — a time when tour participants reminisce about their favorite memories in Israel and begin the painful process of bidding adieu to those new friends they have made over the course of the 10-day tour — was Sunday’s highlight.

Recognized were bus captains Jim Jewell, John and Carole LaRue, and Peggy and Bob Kennedy; Rev. Kenneth Adams and his wife, Darlene Stanford-Adams, delayed the longest (five days) because of the unseasonal snowstorm in New York City that cancelled many flights to Israel; father-daughter pair Harold and Cheryl Williams for being troopers as he overcame a bout with diabetes; Mary Daniel and Cortney Bruner, the oldest and youngest participants; and Rev. Roseanne Jackson and Maxine Rickard-Simis, good friends and roommates who were without luggage for five days because of snowstorm-related flight problems.

Greg Mazel, CEO of Keren Hayesod (United Israel Appeal) in Jerusalem, thanked the Fellowship supporters for visiting Israel and told a poignant story about saying goodbye to his 18-year-old daughter who began serving in the Israeli Defense Force — a vulnerable young woman who grew up rapidly, was soon in charge of training young men, and drive a military tank. When his daughter returned home for a visit, she was suddenly heard shrieking in her bedroom. Rushing to his daughter’s room, Mazel discovered her standing on her bed — in her Army shoes — screaming and pointing to a cockroach on the floor. Realizing she still had fears common to teens, he suggested she not let the enemy in on her secret. Mazel urged the visitors to remember the young members of the military defending Israel — and to always remember Israel.

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, IFCJ president and founder, and his wife, Joelle, attended the dinner. The rabbi spoke briefly, also thanking the tour participants for their support of the Fellowship and Israel. He reminded them to not say goodbye to God as they leave the Holy Land, but rather to continue to be moved and inspired by what they experienced in Israel.

Holy Land Spirit provided the music for listening and dancing Israeli-style.

Perhaps a Premature Farewell

A strike by government employees — which threatens to close Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, hospitals, schools, parks and other state agencies at 6 a.m. Monday — could pose a serious threat to Journey Home Tour participants who are scheduled to fly out of Israel at midnight Monday. Unless Israel’s high courts issue an injunction to prevent the strike, tour members will be forced to stay in Israel for the duration of the strike, which is expected to last only 24 to 48 hours.

Rabbi Eckstein On Giving

Addressing the Journey Home Tour Sunday afternoon, Rabbi Eckstein said Jews are intrigued by what motivates Christians to give sacrificially to the Fellowship — for example, why a Christian in Memphis, Tenn., would care about buying food, clothing, medicine, and heating oil for an elderly woman in the former Soviet Union through the Fellowship’s Isaiah 58 program.

“It’s purity of heart — it’s unconditional love,” he explained.

He reminded his Christian audience that “fulfillment of prophecy is not a spectator sport you watch,” adding that they have been called to be participants. “We are called. God is calling and saying, ‘Are you your brother’s keeper?’”

Citing Isaiah 49:22, the rabbi added, “We are called to be witnesses in God’s world.”

He spoke of the needs of elderly Jews living on pensions of $15 to $25 per month in the former Soviet Union — needy seniors who must, he said, decide between taking medicine or being warm, eating food or paying their rent.

“Why should we support them? Because God tells us to,” stated the rabbi, emphasizing that Genesis 12:3 says, “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.”

Sunday’s Other Stops

Sunday morning began with a visit to Yad L’Kashish, a non-profit project funded by the Fellowship for seniors in Jerusalem, where the tourists chatted and photographed the men and women who regularly create metal, paper and wood products, jewelry, hand-sewn and hand-knit items — all available in an on-site gift shop, an instant favorite with the Fellowship guests. More than 300 seniors in their 70s, 80s and 90s participate in the creative workshops in exchange for a small stipend to ride the bus to work and receive a hot meal.

Later, the group visited the Israel Museum to see a model of the Holy Land and the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in 1947 in a cave near Qumran, an area the Fellowship visitors saw first-hand on Saturday.

Coming Monday

On Monday, the group will prepare food boxes for the needy before a somber visit to Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Museum) and a communion service at the Garden Tomb.

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