On April 5, 241 US students swelled JFK’s lounges and counted the hours until El Al Flight LY004 whisked them back to school in Israel — a year after COVID-19 sent them packing.
The mission, pulled together in a few fast weeks of planning and interagency cooperation, was aptly named “Operation Zion.”
Jewish National Fund-USA and educational host Alexander Muss High School in Israel, a JNF partner since 2013, held a remote, hastily arranged global press conference that day for Jewish leaders, students, parents and the media.
Impassioned speeches by JNF CEO Russell Robinson; Ron Werner, president of the school; El Al’s Yoram Elgrabi and others recalled footage of rescued Ethiopian Jewry arriving in Israel during the 1980s.
JNF’s Robinson praised the 241 teens for their bravery and commitment to continuing their studies after what seemed like an eternal exile from Israel due to the pandemic. Passover seemed the perfect metaphor.
“You know, it was almost a little over a year ago when we had to charter a flight from Israel to bring our children home from Alexander Muss High School in Israel because of COVID,” Robinson said. “We were unsure of what was going to happen.”
Once applications were bureaucratically eagled-eyed and stamped, the kids flew home — but left their hearts in Israel.
“Now it’s the end of Passover, an unbelievably momentous time,” Robinson said. “We just talked about ‘Next year in Jerusalem,’ and about returning to the land of Israel. That’s what is going to happen just hours from now.
“Our children will be in Israel, in the land of promise, tomorrow — but this is not just about 241 teenagers going back to a country,” he said. “They won’t only learn their academics and their algebra and their biology.
“They will learn 4,000 years of Jewish history, and will become part of that history because of what is happening today.”
Robinson said the students returning to Israel represent the next 50 to 70 years of Jewish leadership. These teens are going to be “the ones who lead the Jewish people in the years ahead.”
For Ron Werner, a school alumnus, current president and JNF Mountain States chair, watching the unfolding event was both personal and indicative of the Jewish future.
“I know how amazing the study program will be for these students, because 39 years I was one of them,” Werner said.
“I was a 17 year old going to what was then called the High School of Israel. It led me on a path to be a better student, a better citizen and a better Jew.”
Werner said the school provides a curricular foundation centered on the chronological arc of time and turning Israel into an immersive classroom.
When COVID’s ferocity struck Israel in April, 2020, “We felt despair. We felt trapped,” he said. “We were searching for freedom.
“Today it’s as if we are completing the Passover story.
“I know that there are future Theodor Herzls, future Ben Gurions and future Golda Meirs on this plane today.”
The push to allow US students back into Israel — now 60% vaccinated against COVID but a cautious veteran of four lockdowns — entailed interagency dialogue and cooperation.
JNF worked closely with government ministries, health authorities, El Al and Ben Gurion to gain special entry for the American teens, even while Israel denied most foreigners.
Operation Zion may be the first reentry of US students — or any non-Israelis — to Israel since the country imposed travel restrictions last spring.
The students will follow COVID protocols, including masks, distancing, undergoing rapid testing upon arrival and supervised quarantines for 14 days at Muss’ Hod Hasharon campus.
Ben Stolberg, Israel program admissions director for the Mountain States Region, told the IJN that the three Colorado students scheduled to go on this trip had to defer until summer or fall.
“We usually send 15 to 20 kids a year,” he said, adding that two teens from Arizona and one each from Utah and Wyoming did make the trip.
JNF Dream Israel, launched on March 10 and headed by Denverite Josh Samet, provides grants to students engaging in fundraising activities for JNF.
“We have a grant for every kid in Colorado who wants to go to Israel,” Stolberg said.
Groups throughout the country are in the process of coalescing their summer Israel plans for students.
JNF representatives broadcast live, on-the-spot interviews with a group of kids in the airport lounge during the press conference. Noise muffled the sound, but their faces said it all.
One by one, they approached the camera, trying to speak over the back-packed, masked din behind them. They introduced themselves, proudly proclaimed their home locales — “New York, Los Angeles, Massachusetts, Los Angeles, New Jersey” and some inaudible ones — summarized the moment’s meaning and gave a thumps up.
Whether they slept during the 14-hour excursion to Israel or passed the entire time in animated conversation is anyone’s guess.
The 241 American troops landed Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. Israel time.
Now nearing the end of their quarantine on the Muss campus, they are about to enter the dawn of an unexpected day.
Information on Alexander Muss High School, GLitcofsky@amhsi.org. Contact Dream Israel, dreamisrael@jnf.org.
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