By Jennifer Brandeis
When we realized that we could get our four children, ages 18-24, together for a family vacation in late December, we thought about warm places and fun activities. But given the events of October 7, 2023, and all that has happened since, it was clear to us that we needed to go to Israel.
My husband, Dan, and I had gone to Israel in March of 2024 on a Federation Solidarity Mission and had thought many times on that trip that we wanted our children to be with us. Ben, Will, Ellie and Jacob are all in academic settings and have had to present their views on Israel to classmates and teachers, so why not give them the first-hand experience to better support their views.
We also wanted to demonstrate our support for the country with our presence, bear witness to what happened, and listen to Israeli’s to understand what they have been through and what they will need to move forward.
One of the first signs that this was not an ordinary trip, was upon arrival at a nearly empty Ben Gurion Airport. As you walk from the gate to the terminal, you walk down a long ramp lined with memorials for the hostages, with statements like, “Bring Them Home.”
Our kids proceeded at their own pace looking at the photographs and reading notes left for each. Around the country there are reminders everywhere, including many posters with Hersh Goldberg’s photograph saying in Hebrew, “What would you do if it were your son?”
Within 48 hours of arriving in Israel, we were met by Haim, a family friend and tour guide, who planned a day for our family that would trace the destructive path of the Hamas rampage.
After seeing some of the areas where the fences were breached, we visited the site of the Nova Music Festival and saw hundreds of memorials for the young, vibrant, revelers who were brutally murdered.
Our daughter, Ellie, stopped to read each one of the hundreds of memorials for the hostages and victims. Our kids looked at many of the faces and saw themselves in those smiling images.
We were horrified when we looked at the hundreds of burned-out cars that had been stacked together in a wall of carnage.
In Sderot, we learned of the heroic actions of local police who fought valiantly–eventually destroying their own police station that had been taken over by terrorists in order to ensure that they could not escape to attack a nearby school filled with hundreds of students.
When we went to a hill that overlooked Gaza, we heard a loud boom. We were told not to worry–that it was an Israeli mortar being fired toward Gaza. If it were coming from Gaza toward us, there would be a siren. Our son, Will, was taking a video at the time and captured the sound and then the smoke where the ordinance fell. Not an ordinary vacation!
In a particularly poignant moment, as we drove to Netiv HaAsara, a moshav attacked by Hamas paragliders, Haim reminded us of his personal story of being born in a displaced persons camp in Poland shortly after World War II and moving to Israel as a child where he met his wife–also a refugee.
As newlyweds, they became good friends with another young couple, Bilha and Yacov. Bilha was an art teacher and potter and Yacov was an agronomist. We arrived at what used to be their house but there was nothing except a slab of concrete that was the floor of the house and a concrete “safe room.”
Outside, a once-beautiful garden was littered with shattered pieces of pottery that Bilha had made in her workshop. Although the safe room remained standing, the couple was unable to survive the smoke and heat from the fire that engulfed their house.
Their five children emphasized in an article in the Times of Israel that their parents were lifelong peace activists.
While staying in Jerusalem, we were able to see many of the sites that make Israel special. On Christmas day we heard the Muslim call to prayer in the Old City, we listened to Christmas carols rung out over the bells at the YMCA’s 152-foot bell tower that was draped with Christmas lights and we saw hanukkiot in windows and in glass boxes outside of doorways throughout the city.
In Tel Aviv, we wandered through markets and walked along the promenade and we were glad to see that the city was still a vibrant and thriving metropolis that doesn’t sleep. In the ancient city of Tzfat we watched an amazing sunset and lit candles and attended service on the last night of Hannukah.
The next day, we toured new excavations of the 16th-century Sephardic community found under the current city. But yet the war and hostages were never far from our minds.
There were frequent vigils and protests from hostage family members and other citizens at the prime minister’s residence. There are posters on signposts advocating for a release of the hostages. And, sadly, on three nights, in the middle of the night, we heard sirens and saw alerts on our phones telling us to seek shelter.
It was the first time that any of us had been under attack. The first night that we heard a siren, we entered the safe room with our children and Dan and I wondered if we had done the right thing by bringing our children. By the third time, it felt less threatening and that 10 minutes together was actually a bonding experience and one of numerous memories that were part of a vacation like no other.
Shortly after our return to Richmond, our middle son, Will, was told by his best friend from his Jewish Day School in Pittsburgh that he was joining the IDF–not as a part of making Aliyah, but simply to serve.
Because of our trip, our family’s reaction to this news was not a surprise – as it might have been – but rather an understanding and appreciation for the path that he was choosing. The trip was more than a vacation, it was an eye-opening experience we will always treasure.
