Gleaning a better understanding of their pasts
■ Students get a chance
to connect with their culture,
history, and family through a
summer trip in Israel
By Lisa Toth
Oregon Daily Emerald
The water in the Dead Sea is so
dense with minerals and salt that
people can float, but they can’t
swim. Because of its content, the
sea cannot sustain any form of life.
Josh Frankel, kicker for the Ore
gon football team, heard rumors but
didn’t believe them.
“I thought I’d go in and swim like
an Olympic champ,” he said. “I
soon realized that the rumors were
true.”
Frankel, a senior majoring in
journalism, was one of 40 Jewish
students at the University who at
tended a free, 10-day trip to Israel
in June. Hillel, the foundation for
Jewish life on campus, offered the
trip.
As the largest Jewish organiza
tion in the world, with foundations
and affiliates on 500 college cam
puses around the globe, Hillel of
fered the intense program to college
students around the world who
had never been to the ancient city
of Jerusalem, but identified them
selves as Jewish people. The tour,
underwritten by Taglit/Birthright
Israel, balanced meeting new
friends with educational tours
about the historic sites and a reli
gious understanding of Judaism.
Taglit/Birthright Israel, a partner
ship of philanthropists, Jewish
communities and citizens of Israel,
is a worldwide initiative to provide
this learning experience to stu
dents.
Stephanie Yellin, the Jewish
Campus Service Corps Fellow for
Hillel, graduated from the Univer
sity of Massachusetts in May and
started working at the fellowship in
August. She said staffing the trip
was an opportunity to meet 40 stu
dents before she even arrived in Eu
gene to start her new job.
One of the first stops on the trip's
itinerary was Hezekiah’s Water
Tunnel. The ancient system under
neath Jerusalem was constructed
hundreds of years before Christ to
bring- water to the city from Gihon
spring, east of the city. Yellin said
actually walking through the pas
sage with flashlights was much
more exciting than just reading
about it.
The group visited the Western
Wall, the only wall still standing
from the second temple of
Jerusalem. Yellin said there were a
range of responses when the group
came before the wall. Some stu
dents cried, while others felt no ef
fects.
“When I first went to the Western
Wall, all I saw was a bunch of
rocks,” Frankel said. But as the trip
went on, he said he learned it was
not the physical rocks that were im
portant, but the memories and his
tory of the Jewish people that the
rocks represented.
“One tradition is to write a note,
letter or request to God and to stick
it between the cracks in the rocks in
the wall,” Yellin said.
Yellin added that one of the re
wards of the trip was being around
people who, like her, were con
fused and were questioning their
religion.
The group camped in Tel Arad in
the Negev Desert and woke up at 4
a.m. to watch the sunrise from
Masada, a Jewish mountain, which
features the ruins of a Jewish com
munity. Yellin said Masada is a
symbol of strength, honor and
pride.
“It’s hard to compare to anything
in America,” she said. “It's not like
going to visit the Washington me
morial.”
Other highlights included the
club scene in Tel Aviv, community
service work for the elderly and vis
iting the Yad Vashem Holocaust
Memorial Museum.
Director of Hillel Rachel Canar
said the participants returned to
Eugene with a better understanding
of their identities and beliefs.
“This trip is so significant be
cause it affords Jewish students the
opportunity to learn something
about their heritage, and hopefully
gives them an interest in positively
identifying with Jews,” she said.
Yellin said she left Israel feeling
reconnected with her culture, his
tory and family.
The trip will be offered again in
June of 2001. Students can contact
Hillel at 343-8920 or register on
line at www.israel2000.org.
Coutesy Photo
Sophomore pan Gruber and senior Erik Nicolaisen help sophomore Lisa Warshaw down
an incline during a hike in the Negev Desert.
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