Tourism may be down by 76% in Israel since last summer, but that did not deter many from the Washington, D.C., area from traveling there this summer. New grandchildren, weddings, the opportunity to volunteer and just needing to be in the land they love found many people from the area headed to Israel despite higher airplane fares, more arduous routes and threats from Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas.
Rabbi Hyim Shafner, the rabbi of Kesher Israel: The Georgetown Synagogue in Washington, D.C., traveled to Israel in July with his wife, Sara Winkelman, director of education programs and services at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington.
It was Shafner’s third trip to Israel since the war began on Oct. 7. On this trip, he attended a month-long program at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem while his wife attended a Jewish educator’s program there.
Their daughter, Hava, who served in the Israel Defense Forces, lives in Israel and their two sons joined them in Israel during the trip, “giving us all a Shabbat in Israel together,” said Shafner.
Shafner said that while the Hartman program is a three-year course of Jewish study for rabbis, “of course, so much of the program dealt with Oct. 7,” with speakers including author Yossi Klein Halevi and Tal Becker, who is representing Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Shafner was grateful for the opportunity to read poetry that has been written in Israel since Oct. 7. Against the backdrop of war, “even the secular poetry sounds Jewish and spiritual because it’s about the pain of the Jewish people.” He shared some of the poems with his congregation a few weeks ago during Tisha B’Av, the saddest day on the Jewish calendar.
“Even with the war still raging, life, to a certain extent, goes on in Israel,” said Shafner who, with his family went hiking, out to dinner, saw friends and relatives, and attended a memorial service for former Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, of blessed memory. “Israelis are trying to live as normal a life as possible and you could feel that, but everyone is anxious, nervous and knows someone who has died,” he said.
Referencing his trip to Israel in Nov. 2023, Shafner said, “I noticed strength and optimism, but on this trip, I didn’t see that as much because the war has dragged on for so long.”
Travel was made more difficult this summer by the loss of the three times a week direct United Airlines flight to Tel Aviv from Dulles Airport, which was halted when the war started, as well as cancellations of flights to Israel by many other carriers.
Steve Kerbel, a Jewish education consultant who lives in Rockville, travels to Israel every year or two and went this year to officiate at a wedding of a close friend’s daughter. Kerbel, who leads Israeli wine tastings in the U.S., also visited eight wineries in the Negev.
Kerbel said there are volunteer opportunities in Israel and hotels in Jerusalem are inexpensive, although it is hard to get a rental car because the Israeli army has requisitioned a lot of them.
“The tourism industry is suffering. The clerk registering me at the hotel was an out-of-work tour guide,” said Kerbel, though “restaurants and malls seemed full and busy.”
Like Shafner, Kerbel found a changed sense among Israelis since the start of the war. “Most people have resumed their lives, [but] the spirit of “Yachad Nenatzeach,” we will win together, that was written about so much at the start of the war in the fall has dissipated. There is an undercurrent of depression and frustration … there is a pessimism that isn’t usual — there is little talk of peace, of coexistence — it’s about how to get out of this current war and bring the hostages home.”
Three of four members of the Polonetsky/Lewin family from Potomac, Maryland, traveled separately to Israel this summer, including a college-age child who did a multi-week internship.
“I lead a delegation of policymakers and senior technology executives from around the world to Israel every June, where we hold a local conference, meet with Israeli leaders and do some touring,” said Jules Polonetsky. “Usually, 25 leaders travel with me, but this year only three were ready to go. Rather than cancel the trip, we ran it, in order to support our Israeli partners, who were very appreciative that we showed up. Some of our events were modified to focus on issues like data protection in time of war, to address some of the very painful issues Israeli first responders and government leaders needed to address when dealing with questions about photos of those murdered on Oct. 7, databases to track hostages and more.”
Polonetsky said that instead of touring, he added a wine tasting “in order to help support Israeli wineries who have been hard hit by the conflict.”
Buddy and Sarah Stern of Silver Spring, Maryland, traveled to Israel this summer for the third time since the war began to welcome a new grandchild. Buddy, a physician, and Sarah, the founder and president of Endowment for Middle East Truth, a pro-Israel think tank, helped with a barbecue for soldiers, visited Hostage Square in Tel Aviv and spoke with family members of hostages, and took older grandchildren hiking and on other trips.
Cancelled flights, higher costs and more arduous travel routes haven’t dampened their future travel plans to Israel. “We plan to return by the end of the year, or early next year,” they said.
Fran Kritz is a freelance writer.
