Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ recently returned from a historic endeavor – taking 475 people from across the community on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Israel. For many of the participants this was their first trip to Israel, while others had been numerous times, but for all, it was an eye-opening experience connecting with the people and places in Israel that are impacted by the dollars raised through the Annual Campaign.

The Trip of a Lifetime

By Tracey and Jason Hoberman, Scotch Plains

On October 15, we embarked on the Jewish Federation of Greater Metrowest NJ commUNITY Mission trip to Israel along with almost 500 members of our community. The Mission gave us the opportunity to travel to Israel; one of us for the first time and one of us after not having been in 26 years. As leaders in our local Jewish community, we left New Jersey on this weeklong trip to Israel with enthusiasm and excitement.

We saw our history... We stood at the top of Ammunition Hill where the Israelis defeated the Jordanians during the Six-Day War. We felt sadness and anger at Yad Vashem, Israel’s official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, as we saw the images and heard the horror stories of the six million Jews who lost their lives to the Nazis during World War II. We were reminded that we must never forget for it clearly shapes who we are as a people today. We prayed and danced at the Western Wall on Shabbat after we shared a beautiful Kabbalat Shabbat service with over 1,000 people from other Jewish Federation Missions in Israel. We were reminded of our past as we stood at the site of the destruction of The Temple. But, we also felt optimism for the future as we danced at The Western Wall with our friends, old and new – a feeling that permeated the entire trip.

We felt hopeful and optimistic seeing the state of Israel today:
We spent two days in a thriving Tel Aviv where we learned about advancements in cyber security.
We went to a culinary school where we cooked and tasted Israel’s delicious food.
We volunteered at Project Leket, an organization that provides healthy food to those in need in Israel.
We visited an IDF base in Haifa where we expressed our gratitude to the soldiers defending Israel.
We went to the Negev where we saw cities literally growing out of the desert. We learned about the partnerships that our Jewish Federation of Greater Metrowest NJ has with these cities and how our dollars and our work together with the people in these cities are helping them thrive.
We visited the Halamish Communication School in our partner community of Arad, which teaches elementary-aged children about communication. Tracey was interviewed on their school radio station!

And we participated in Koolulam, a mass singing event, which teaches large groups of people a song to create a powerful musical experience. Here, we sang “One Day,” by Matisyahu, in a Roman amphitheater in the Negev.

We returned home on October 22 with a sense of optimism; optimism for the current thriving state of Israel, optimism for the future state of Israel, and optimism for our people and our local Jewish community. We were thrilled to be a part of this mission with our community and we hope to go back to Israel one day.