Goodbye, or rather, Lehitraot (See You Soon)
By now most, if not all of you have spoken with your travelers, safely arrived on this side of the Atlantic, if a bit delayed.
We appreciate the patience of those of you who were waiting in the arrivals area. Wish the airport had been more efficient! Those of you with travelers with missed flights and flight delays have all been contacted; our volunteer staff on the ground has done a phenomenal job of getting everyone to their destinations in spite of interesting airline-imposed challenges. Your travelers will return tired, for sure, but filled with an experience beyond compare.
Our thanks to you once again for entrusting them to our care. This sacred work could not come to pass without your willingness to make it possible and we have been grateful to be your partners for the past ten+ days.
Much gratitude goes to Rose Sharon, for countless hours on the phone with families, participants, therapists and life skills coordinators, to Sharna Marcus and her team at Shorashim for arranging all of the logistics of registration, itinerary and ground arrangements and to Dror Kidron, tour guide extraordinaire, for his incomparable ability to bring Israel alive.
Dr. Bruce Sharon, Lior Baruch, Kashmir Kustanowitz and Syd Berkman were a caring, responsible and reliable staff team, day in and day out. Rabbi Paul Drazen, Joanne Palmer, Bonnie Ras and Gila Drazen (all of the The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, KOACH's parent organization) helped us navigate the complex arrangements of escorting travelers to and from connecting flights and keeping weary passengers (and staff!) cheerful and entertained. Rich Moline, Director of Youth and Young Adult Services for The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism was at the helm of a successful fundraising campaign which made this trip -- which because of its unique particulars costs 20K more than Taglit-Birthright Israel allocates -- a reality. A variety of private donors and family foundations underwrote those expenses and we honor them here as well.
Our greatest thanks to our travelers, who bravely took on a great unknown, traveling with strangers who they didn't know would become their friends, climbing mountains, packing and repacking suitcases, boarding buses, disembarking from buses, asking brilliant and charming questions, smiling and putting their whole selves into this experience. They make the entire endeavor worthwhile.
As they say in Israel, Lehitraot -- we hope to see you again soon.
Rabbi Elyse Winick
Associate Director for KOACH
USCJ Department of Youth and Young Adult Services
winick@uscj.org
