Zoe Bell and Braden Hamelin | Staff Writers
Ava Familant had wanted to go on a Birthright trip to Israel since she was 13. The rising senior at Towson University got to fulfill that wish earlier this month in what she called an “amazing trip” with the Chabad Jewish Center of Towson.
“Every moment was so magical,” Familant said, adding that she felt immersed in Israeli culture.
But Familant and her Birthright group got a look into another aspect of the Israeli experience when the Israel-Iran war broke out at the tail end of their trip, leading to nights in bomb shelters and a winding road home.
The trip started off normally, as the 38 young Jews left from Baltimore on June 4 and arrived in Israel on the morning of June 5. From there, the group went through its itinerary as planned.
The group noticed the Western Wall was closed off on June 12 in Jerusalem, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been there several hours before Israel launched the first attacks into Iran, according to Rabbi Mendy Rivkin of the Chabad Jewish Center of Towson.
Rivkin, one of the leaders of the trip, said the group was woken up around 3 a.m. on June 13 by an emergency alert that Israel had attacked Iran, warning them they might need to find a bomb shelter on short notice.
“There was no attack that night; the first attacks happened during Shabbat dinner,” Rivkin said. “The next night, there were two during Shabbat dinner but the first one locked us down. [The government] said, ‘Hey, no more activity.’ The state put in some security measures, and we had to stay in the hotel. The shelter was in the basement of the hotel.”
“It was definitely a really scary situation, especially because we constantly got woken up by these alerts,” Familant said. “And they’re really loud too. … That first alert we got on our phones was the thing that got me to [think], ‘OK, something is definitely wrong here. Something’s definitely going on.’”
Josh Segal, a recent Towson graduate on the trip, said the group was decently prepared, having gone to the grocery store to grab food and water in case they were stuck in place for a few days.
He added that everyone in the group was completely new when it came to dealing with the threat of missile attacks from Iran and needing to stay near a shelter.
Familant said she was grateful that the bomb shelter doubled as a gym. The group had air conditioning, cell service to contact their parents and lots of space.
“We definitely got very lucky with where we were placed,” she said. “At one point, we had to go into a bomb shelter that was just kind of like a concrete box. Everyone was really cramped in there and it was really hot, so everyone was a little claustrophobic.”
For Rivkin and the other leaders, the time in the shelter and coordinating everyone’s safety was “an exercise in keeping everyone in good spirits,” to keep people calm and prevent panic from spreading through the group.
Rivkin said there was lots of singing in the shelter, activities such as coloring books, drinking wine and doing whatever they could to keep people in a good mental state, and he added that his group did “spectacularly.”
“By then, [our group had] been together for about 10 days, so we were all pretty close,” Familant said. “I was with a lot of my friends, so I had people to be comforted with and be safe with.”
“Our group was really a cohesive group,” Rivkin said. “At times, some kids struggled a little bit, and they had each other’s backs. It was kind of a beautiful experience in a weird way.”
From their home in Bethesda, Familant’s parents were worried sick. They “constantly” checked in on Familant via texts and calls, even taking turns staying up through the night due to the seven-hour time difference, to make sure she was safe.
The group was stuck in the hotel from Shabbat through 4:30 a.m. on June 17, when the Birthright organizers collected people on trips who had missed their flights and loaded around 2,000 kids on a cruise ship to Cyprus, Greece.
“I feel like everyone felt such a sense of relief once we were able to get on the ship — ‘We’re safe; we can breathe again’ — because everyone had been in such tensions for days,” Familant said. “We were all so scared all the time [and] just wanted to be home.”
From there, a Chabad house in Cyprus welcomed the travelers and accommodated a total of 1,500 people while organizers arranged travel back home.
“They gave us food [and] air conditioning. It was a really nice place; they were so welcoming,” Familant said. “I was sitting there, very thankful that none of us had to worry about … being bombed, and that we were safe.”
The group chartered a plane out of Cyprus to Milan, Italy, on June 19, and caught commercial flights from there back to the U.S., arriving home later that night. Familant said this tumultuous trip reminded her never to take anything for granted. She also shares a unique bond with her peers who were also in Israel, who all have a deeper understanding of what it’s like to be Israeli.
Despite the challenges and anxiety that came with the trip, Familant said she has no regrets.
“I’ve been asked, ‘Would I do it again?’” Familant said. “And honestly, I would, because I truly grew as a person. I had so many amazing experiences, not only for myself, but with others and I wouldn’t change that for the world. Even though it was a really scary experience, I took as much as I could from it positively.”
