Jonathan and Beth Frieder served as regional and national chairs of United Jewish Communities’ National Winter Family Mission to Israel. Despite the ongoing conflict, said Beth Frieder, “life goes on as normal.”
Photo by Marilyn Silverstein
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January 6, 2009
Despite the ongoing Israeli air attacks on Gaza, everything was going well with the 2008/09 National Winter Family Mission to Israel of United Jewish Communities, according to Ophir Busel, marketing and communications director for United Jewish Federation of Princeton Mercer Bucks.
“We’re not near it. We’re in good hands,” Busel said while in Israel during the mission, which ran from Dec. 25 through Jan. 2.
Jonathan and Beth Frieder of Princeton Township, longtime volunteers with the PMB federation, served as cochairs of the national mission and also of the PMB contingent, which accounted for 76 of the 100 mission participants.
The UJC, the umbrella organization for North American federations and communities, was taking good care of the participants on the mission, Busel said.
“The UJC has a security company that examines our itinerary every day and adjusts accordingly,” she said during a phone interview from Jerusalem. “Today, we were at Masada. People are just enjoying having a good time, getting to know Israel, connecting with it, and loving it.”
Busel added that she did not sense any great tension or concern among the Israelis she was meeting.
“Most people are going about their business as usual,” she said. “There’s definitely discussion. You know that something is going on, but people are going about their routines. They’re used to it here.”
Beth Frieder also remarked about the seeming disconnect between the warfare raging over Gaza and the normalcy of the Israeli life all around her.
“You would never know something is going on in Israel. Life goes on as normal,” she said during a Dec. 30 phone interview from Jerusalem.
The Israelis seemed to be taking the state of warfare in stride, according to Frieder. “They’re very much concerned, but it seems to be more of their real life,” she said. “They live in an area where they have neighbors who don’t want them to exist.”
But the children on the mission had a lesson in reality when one of the security guards on their bus was suddenly called up for reserve duty the day before, Frieder noted.
“That was a difficult thing to tell the kids,” she said. “It’s been an interesting lesson — and one you can’t teach them except by being here.”
Otherwise, the mood of the mission has been happy, Frieder said. “We’re having a great time. All is well.”
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