All part of the birthright? Tour groups stranded in Israel hunker down amid missile fire
With skies closed since start of conflict with Iran, participants in Birthright and other trips struggle with nervous families and unknown timelines while sheltering from rocket attacks
Zev Stub is the Times of Israel's Diaspora Affairs correspondent.
ChayaLeah Sufrin came to Israel to lead a group of 40 participants for a Birthright trip that was scheduled to wrap up Saturday night after Shabbat. Now, Sufrin and her charges are unable to leave the country after Israel launched its surprise attack on Iran’s nuclear program in the early hours of Friday morning.
“On Thursday night, we had gone out to [the Mahane Yehuda market] in Jerusalem for a fun night, and then we were woken up several hours later by the news,” said Sufrin, who is the executive director of the Hillel Center in Long Beach, California. “A lot of people are freaking out about not being able to fly back.”
Approximately 2,800 young adults are currently stranded after concluding their 10-day tours with Birthright Israel, according to the organization, which provides free educational visits to the Jewish State.
All groups in Israel are safe and located near secure zones, Birthright Israel said in a statement. Upcoming programs scheduled to depart by June 26 have been postponed, it added.
Birthright is far from alone. June is peak tourism season in Israel, and organizers of numerous visiting groups found themselves scrambling to alter plans after it became clear around 3 a.m. Friday that Israel had launched a massive preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
Israelis and foreign visitors alike sought cover from Iran’s indiscriminate missile barrages on population centers as security concerns upended schedules and forced air carriers to cancel flights, effectively sealing off the country to travel.
The ballistic missile attacks continue unabated, and authorities have so far reported 24 people killed and hundreds wounded in the attacks.
The Tourism Ministry estimates that about 40,000 tourists are stranded in Israel after the country’s airspace was closed until further notice amid Iranian missile strikes.
Eliana Mandell, executive director of the Koby Mandell Foundation, said that hundreds of English-speakers in Israel came out Thursday night to laugh at the first show of the annual Comedy for Koby tour, which raises funds to support families of terror victims.
Now, Mandell said, the rest of the comedians’ tour is canceled and the performers, including Los Angeles-based organizer Avi Liberman, are stuck in Jerusalem waiting to go home.
“Being trapped in a country you don’t know while it is under attack is very scary,” Mandell said.
Sufrin said that many Birthright Israel participants have jobs or classes to get back to, and their parents are panicking, adding to the uncertainty.
“People are keeping their spirits up with a lot of singing, but there are a lot of rumors circulating,” she added.
For the time being, Sufrin’s group remains in the hotel, along with several hundred other Birthright participants from five other groups. Groups based in Tel Aviv have been moved to more isolated locations. Birthright will foot the bill for everyone’s extended stay as long as needed, the organization said.
Some participants have signed waivers to leave the hotel and go stay with family members, Sufrin said. Otherwise, no one is allowed to leave the hotel.
Max Zimmerman, a native of Long Island, New York, who came on Birthright, said the mood among his peers was “more anxious than scared.”
“We feel safe, we know that we are in a good hotel, but we really just want to go home,” he said. “Last night, one of the trip advisors told us, ‘Don’t let this ruin your memories of the trip. Think of it as a different chapter of the trip.'”
Diverse groups
Another group stuck in Israel is the Jewish Federations of North America’s LGBTQ+ Pride Mission to Israel, which came to participate in Tel Aviv Pride Week last week. The massive pride parade scheduled for this past Friday was expected to attract hundreds of thousands of people before it was canceled following news of Israel’s attack.
The approximately 100 participants in the mission “now have a much greater appreciation for what Israelis deal with on a daily basis,” said Nate Looney, one of the trip’s organizers and director of Community Safety and Belonging at Jewish Federations of North America’s Center for Jewish Belonging.
Participants have received a tremendous amount of support since Friday morning, Looney said. The Aguda, the umbrella organization for the LGBTQ community in Israel, is working to help find lodging for everyone and the Israel Trauma Coalition has brought several therapists to provide services, he said. JFNA will help cover the costs of breakfast and dinner for participants throughout their stay, Looney added.
Meanwhile, Rick Perkins, a Canadian politician, arrived in Israel on June 11, a few days before the planned start of a mission this past Saturday with the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, which represents Jewish federations across Canada. That mission never materialized, as most of the other participants were unable to fly to Israel.
“Coming from our pleasant and gentle society, rushing out of bed to a bomb shelter is not something I’m used to,” said Perkins, who is visiting Israel for the first time.
“What has been surprising for me is how calm and safe Israelis seem to feel. I overheard one family at the hotel saying that despite the challenges, they would rather be here than anyplace else in the world. My family at home is way more worried than we are here. We actually feel very safe here. It’s a strange concept,” said Perkins.
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