Kara Rosenwald works as the Minneapolis Jewish Federation’s Director of Global Experiences and Community Israel Education Strategist, which meant that early last month, she went to Israel to help prepare for what should have been MJF’s latest Israel experience.
The Minneapolis Mifgash was supposed to be a trip to Israel for more than 20 Jewish communal professionals, Jewish and non-Jewish, to “learn together, experience Israel together, and bring Israel into their organizations upon returning to Minneapolis.” (Libby Parker, Jewfolk, Inc.’s executive director, was slated to be one of the participants).
And then Operation Rising Lion changed everything. After returning home, Rosenwald still wasn’t sure how to process what she experienced.
“The whole thing was just so…not shocking, but just not like anything I ever experienced before,” she said of her 12th time to the country. “I’ve been there other times when there’s been sirens, sure, but it wasn’t like this, just multiple times a day barrages. Israelis didn’t even know what to expect.”
Everything started for Rosenwald and her husband, Uri, on June 12 – their first night in Israel. They quickly realized that the first alerts weren’t about incoming missiles yet, but to warn of what may happen.
“Once we calmed down and realized we didn’t have to go to the shelter, but should stay awake to be ready for what comes next,” she said. They went to the mini-market next door to them to load up on water, snacks, and cans of tuna to take to the shelter for when they needed.
Twenty-four hours later, after Iran’s response and the closure of Israeli airspace, the Rosenwalds had a decision to make.
“We had a heart-to-heart conversation and decided very quickly that we were going to wait for Israeli airspace to reopen,” she said. “For a variety of reasons, going through Jordan or Egypt did not feel like safe scenarios for us.”
Working for MJF, Rosenwald was contacted by a lot of other Minnesotans who were also in Israel.
The Rosenwalds had registered with the American Embassy and consulate to get on a list to leave once flights resumed. Because of her role at MJF, tour companies were reaching out to her to let her know they were organizing flights – some through Egypt, others waiting for Israel to open up airspace.
Finally, she had been contacted by the Jewish Agency for Israel about charter flights that they were pulling together for Americans looking to leave. The got the call on June 23 that they had seats on a flight to Athens the next day. She said the eeriest part of the experience in Israel was being at Ben Gurion.
“The airport could only have a maximum of 1,500 people there; because it was a target, they were trying to keep the numbers down,” she said. “And the planes could only have 50 people on them. We went through very different security. I think it was like the security that the employees go through, because, again, like the airport didn’t have full staff there, and so they were really streamlining it as much as possible.”
They stayed overnight in Athens – their first night’s sleep in two weeks without hearing sirens – before flying home via Atlanta the next day.
“The feeling, the emotion [of leaving Israel] was almost palpable,” she said. “I really think there was not a dry eye on the plane, for all the varieties of reasons. No one ever wants to leave Israel feeling like stepping away from something. We go there to be a part of something.”
As for the Minneapolis Mifgash happening, Rosenwald is planning for it to take place at some point.
“Because of the variety of the participants coming from the different organizations in town, there’s a lot of different schedules to consider,” she said. “We do still really believe in the mission of this trip, and we want to bring this group to Israel, because in Israel, everything can switch as fast as a light switch. That’s what we saw even from when we left on Tuesday, by the time we landed in Atlanta the next day, the ceasefire had happened, and airspace was completely back open.”
