We’re marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of Israel with a year-long celebration! Keep an eye out for “Memphis Celebrates Israel at 70” branding at your synagogue, at events around town, and online. In this My Israel Story series, we’re asking Memphians to tell their personal Israel stories. Do you have a story to tell?
Snow. When I dreamed of Israel, snow is not what I envisioned. Yet, snow is what greeted me in February of 1992. And snow was to be only the first of many unexpected, but wondrous, Israeli experiences.
For as long as I could remember, I wanted to travel to Israel. In my mind it was not a matter of if, but when. When I graduated from college in the summer of 1991, I was thrilled when my parents told me my graduation present would be a visit to Israel followed by backpacking through Europe. After working for six months, I left America to begin my overseas adventures.
I remember flying across the Atlantic, filled with anticipation and nervous excitement. I had never been abroad, and although I was going to be on a structured program with Jews my age from around the world, I didn’t know anyone else on the program.
The name of the program was Livnot U’Lehibanot (to build and to be built). It was aptly named as it was a combination of hands-on community service, classes about our Jewish history, Zionism and the Jewish religion, and amazing hikes across the country.
We helped to build the state of Israel by doing community service for the country’s olim. Our group built a kindergarten playground for new Ethiopian families. It was powerful to use our labors to help contribute when others before us had done so much.
As we hiked across the country, we learned from scholarly yet accessible teachers who could point to the very spot where biblical stories happened and make history come to life.
We celebrated Shabbat and holidays with families in Tzfat and saw the connection that happens when you meet your fellow Jews halfway across the world and realize how much you have in common, yet how your differences can be connectors as well.
I had planned to return to the United States and attend the University of Texas to get a Master’s in Social Work after my travels. It was while in Israel on this remarkable program that I realized I wanted to direct my career path to have more of a connection with the Jewish world. Through my community service work with the new Ethiopian immigrants, I realized I would like to help raise money for Jews in need around the world.
I was fortunate to have Passover that year with Howard Weisband, the prior executive director of Memphis Jewish Federation, who had made Aliyah (moved to Israel). At the Seder, he told me about Yeshiva University and their school of social work and Jewish communal service. He also told me about a program through the Federation movement called the Federation Executive Recruitment and Education Program (FEREP).
I was able to apply from Israel and have an interview on my way back to the states. Fortunately, I was accepted to the Yeshiva program and to FEREP as well. That laid the groundwork for my rewarding career path as an employee of the New York and Memphis Jewish Federations and the Jewish Foundation of Memphis.
As rewarding as my career was, there was another part of my Israel experience that surpassed that.
On the first evening of the program, as I walked up the stairs to the dining hall, a young man was walking down the stairs. Our eyes met…it was bsheret (destined to be). I had connected with my future husband! So powerful was our connection to Israel that we gave both our children Israeli names and our son Jonah shares the name of my husband’s great uncle Yonah, who was a mayor of Tzfat – the town where we met.
So, if someone asks, “What is your Israel story, Molly”, I can only respond that my Israel story is everything. My entire adult life was shaped by my first Israel experience and it is impossible for me to envision what my life today would be had it not happened.
I have been fortunate to go back to Israel numerous times through my work with Federation, and each time the experience renews me and reminds me of my deep connection to my faith, my family, and our ancient heritage.