“Hi! Are you going to Israel?”
“Why yes, I am!”
“Great! I’m on a program that teaches about communicating and advocating for Israel. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?”
“Of course not.”
“Thank you. So, our program is through the Cleveland Federation -“
“I’m from Cleveland!”
Of course…
A group of Cleveland Jews traveling together interview the one person in the entire terminal at Philadelphia International who is not only going to Israel on our flight, is not only from Cleveland, but also currently lives in Beit She’an.
That helped…
After that, interviewing was a breeze. Our interviewee, Maddy, grew up in Cleveland but has lived in Israel for 37 years. Truly a Zionist, she raised her children in the same way. The mother of five, she raised her children in Israel on the kibbutz of Male Gilboa. Talk about a small world.
And yet, the world isn’t small enough. Like any Jewish mother, she worries. She worries now, today, as much as ever as her 26 year old son is called from the reserves to help locate the three missing Israeli teenagers. She says that she feels guilty to be away from her family in these troubling times, and while she is apprehensive to return to the current situation, she will be relieved to be with her family again.