When we think of rescue flights, what usually comes to mind is bringing people from a place of war or disaster to a safe area. But, as the oft repeated joke that became popular in Israel goes, “Israel is the only country where people who are in a country where there is peace are eager to be rescued to a country where there is a war.” During the recent 12-day war with Iran, many people were struggling to get home – in both directions. Here are a few stories of the very circuitous ways that some people managed to make the trip.
Rikki Rubin
My daughter and son-in-law, Chana
Leah and Motti Margalit, sponsored a hachnasat sefer Torah at Suburban
Orthodox on Sunday, June 15th. Among the many participants were
Motti’s family members from Israel. The Margalits had a full house of guests a
few days before the ceremony, many of whom were planning to return to Israel
within a few days. However, once the war with Iran began, on Friday, June 13th,
Ben Gurion airport was closed, and all foreign carriers canceled their flights,
disrupting plans for thousands of people.
“I was really scared when I found
out the war with Iran had begun, and the only thing I wanted was to go back home
to Israel,” says Rikki Rubin, Motti Margalit’s 21-year-old niece from Ramat
Beit Shemesh, who had come with her father for the Hachnasat Sefer Torah.
Both she and her father heard the war news on the day they arrived and just
wanted to forget about the trip and return to Israel. A sleepless night
followed, during which they constantly checked the news from Israel.
Because they had
flown United, they were not eligible for any of the El Al rescue flights.
Fortunately, a travel agent they know in Israel was able to design an itinerary
through an airline company called Flyyo. On June 23rd, they flew to
Athens, which was teeming with Israelis. Flyyo also got them visas and a flight
to Taba, a small town on the Egyptian border, near Eilat.
Rikki found the Taba airport
rather amusing: “It looked like a joke, like a shell of an airport, just for
show. It is very old and small. Someone with a really old computer took our
passport information. Only a couple of the people there had on uniforms.” She
believes this airport is not normally open during the year.
From Taba they were escorted to
the Israeli border on buses, by men Rikki believes were police, but again, they
were not wearing uniforms. They crossed the border on foot. On the Israel side,
buses waited to bring Israelis to various locations in Tel Aviv. They saw many
people, who appeared to be American tourists, crossing from the other
direction, from Israel to Egypt. They took the bus to Ben Gurion, an almost
five-hour ride, where Rikki’s mother picked them up. The entire trip took about
a day and a half. Fortunately, they had brought plenty of food with them since
there was none provided on any of the flights or buses. When they arrived
in Israel, the cease fire had just taken effect. They were told, “You missed
the war!”
Yanky Margalit
Motti’s brother, Yanky, who
traveled from Israel with Delta, had planned to spend 10 days in the U.S. but
was stuck here for an extra week. He says he “felt like a refugee in
Baltimore,” unable to return home. He was finally able to get home after around
60 hours of traveling through Athens, where there was a 24-hour flight delay.
In Athens, he saw many other Israelis at the airport, including families with
children, who were there for four days, trying to get flights back to Israel. He
flew from Athens to Aqaba, in Jordan, and from Aqaba, he took a bus to the
border, where he got a bus to Ben Gurion.
Rabbi Rivkin, Chabad Emissary at Towson University
Rabbi Mendy
Rivkin, the Chabad emissary at Towson University, led a 40-member Birthright
group on a trip to Israel. They arrived in Israel on June 5th with a
scheduled return on the 15th. For their final Shabbos in Israel,
they stayed in the Jerusalem Gate Hotel, planning to depart on Motzei
Shabbos. After Israel attacked Iran early that Friday morning, June 13th,
all activities were curtailed, and they were “stuck” in the hotel until
restrictions on outside movements, imposed by the government, were lifted. They
only ventured out within easy reach of a shelter, to do some shopping, which
included groceries, board games, and “a lot of wine.”
Before Shabbos started, one of the
students led a campaign, which was partly successful: “There’s a war going on,
let’s try to do an extra mitzvah; let’s try to keep Shabbos a little more and
turn off our phones.”
While they were eating dinner
together Friday night, the first sirens went off. Although it was a scary
experience, the students remained calm and went down to the shelter. For their
parents back home, the fear was much more intense when they heard the news, not
knowing whether their kids were safe. There was a parents’ WhatsApp group, but
they knew that Rabbi Rivkin never posted anything on Shabbos. By Shabbos
morning, after two more sirens interrupted their Shabbos meal, unfortunately,
not many student phones were still off because the parents were understandably,
“freaking out.”
On Monday morning, they were told
that they would be moving to a different hotel where there was a pool and more
facilities. The kids packed up, excited about the prospect of this change, but
a half hour before they were due to move, they got a new message from the
Birthright people. “Never mind, there’s a good chance we’ll be able to leave by
sea tomorrow.”
A cruise ship in Cyprus was bringing
stranded Israelis back to Israel, and the government realized they could use it
to bring the Birthright kids to Cyprus, from where they could get flights.
Rabbi Rivkin’s group left Jerusalem early Tuesday morning for the port of
Ashdod. They were told to use the bathroom before arriving at the port since
there were not enough facilities. On the way, all the small gas stations were
full of buses like theirs lining up to wait their turns in the restrooms.
Unlike other
stranded tourists leaving Israel on these cruises, the Birthright students
thoroughly enjoyed the amenities. The 2,000 passengers on that ship were from
different Birthright groups, and they were living it up. It turns out that they
were at the port on the same day that the pro-Gaza activist Greta Thunberg and
her entourage were brought to Ashdod.
The group was on the ship for
almost a full day, arriving in Cyprus at 8:30 a.m. the next day. There were
supposed to be five planes waiting at the airport to bring them directly to the
U.S. However, only one of the planes was actually there! In addition to that,
the passport control people decided that only 30 people of the group of 2,000
were allowed into the passport facility at the same time. It took hours to get
the kids through customs. Eventually, they returned to the boat to wait in order
to get out of the heat and lack of water in the parking lot.
After they had finally gotten
through customs, it was obvious that no planes were going to materialize. So
they got back on the buses and were taken to the Chabad of Cyprus, in Larnaca, which
had only 10 minutes notice that they were coming! This obviously created a
chaotic situation, but they were welcomed with open arms by the shelichim,
Rabbi Arie Zeev and Shaindel Raskin. “Only” 1,500 of the group went to Chabad
because some of the other groups had split off and found arrangements.
Rabbi Rivkin describes the scene
at Chabad: “They were amazing. They shut down the restaurant that is normally
open and made food just for us. They had to bring in more workers and set up
many extra tables. The place was crawling with people everywhere.” People were
sleeping on the floor, in the classrooms, in the hallways, sitting in the
air-conditioned shul and rooftop cafe. At this point, Rabbi Rivkin’s group no
longer had a plan.
However, by 1:00 a.m., Birthright had chartered an Arkia
plane to Milan, Italy, leaving five hours later that day. Rabbi Rivkin’s group
and three other groups, including a Yachad Birthright group, consisting of
staff and special needs kids, were on the same flight.
From Milan, they split into five
different flights from there to the U.S., with some stopping in Dubai or Rome.
Their flight went from Milan to JFK. When they landed, all the relieved parents
were sitting there waiting.
“It was weird to
be running away in the middle of a war,” said Rabbi Rivkin. “It’s not what
Chabad people do. We don’t run away; we go to a place of crisis to strengthen
people who are there.”
Barry Weiss
Travel agent Barry Weiss had been
planning a family trip to Israel for the past three years. Because of the
situation last year, they decided to delay the trip until this summer. Rabbi
Posner of Beth Tfiloh was planning a shul trip at the same time, so Barry
arranged all the flights.
The Weiss group had 21 people, and
the Beth Tfiloh trip had 28. They all met in Tel Aviv on the evening of June 12th.
The El Al flight most of the group took was actually the last plane out of the
U.S. to arrive before the airport shut down. The plane after them was forced to
turn around mid-flight.
That night, everyone was staying
at the Carlton in Tel Aviv when the first sirens went off. A few days later,
Barry’s group was scheduled to go to the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem, and the Beth
Tfiloh trip was to go to the Dead Sea, but that had to be canceled. The Inbal
was very accommodating and arranged for the additional 28 people to stay there.
They have a fabulous shelter down below but, as in Tel Aviv, they were not
allowed to go outside, and there was not much to do. Barry can’t express his
gratitude enough to the Inbal Hotel, which bent over backwards for them and
even let them arrange entertainment. The only time they ventured out was to
participate in the installation of a new mezuza at the renovated Tower of David
Museum.
A few days into the trip, through
contacts in the Jewish Agency, Barry’s group was offered various options to go
through Athens or Aqaba, but that did not work out. Another travel agent he
deals with was able to arrange visas and buses for them to cross the Allenby
bridge into Jordan to get flights from Amman. Barry had booked Emirates flights
from Amman to Dubai and then Washington. When they arrived in Jordan, they
could not go straight to the airport because it would not be opened for a few
hours. A guide had therefore been arranged to take them to Mount Nebo, from
where Moshe was able to view the Land of Israel before he died, an awesome
experience for his group – although Barry said, “All I wanted to do was get to
the airport and get these people home!” As much as they made the best of
the situation, Barry says “Our hearts were broken” after all the planning and
hopes for this long-awaited trip.”
Aliza Statman
After the return
flights for Aliza Statman and her two friends were canceled, their husbands, at
home in America, were able to arrange their departures from Israel. They left
Jerusalem for Ashdod by train at 8:30 a.m. on June 24th and waited
for about an hour for the bus to take them to the dock. There they took a Mano
18-hour cruise to Cyprus. Although it was a cruise ship, unlike the Birthright
group, no one on their ship was enjoying any of the amenities. They were “all
in the same boat,” literally and figuratively, just eager to get home to their
families.
From Cyprus, the women took a
two-hour flight to Athens, where they had to retrieve their luggage since the
next flight was not a connecting one. From Athens, they flew to Newark, where a
driver waited to take them home to Baltimore. Their journey took around 50
hours. Aliza says, “Thank G-d we got home safely and settled in around 2:00 a.m.
Thursday morning. We all got home in time to see our kids, who left for
sleep-away camp that morning, which was our goal.”
Laura*
Laura* arrived in Israel on
Thursday, June 12th to attend her nephew’s bar mitzvah. She planned
to fly back motzei Shabbos. With the war breaking out on Friday,
the restrictions on gatherings went into effect, and the bar mitzvah Shabbos
davening in shul was canceled; they davened in a private home instead with a
minyan of 12 men, including the bar mitzvah boy. “It was kind of like a Covid
feel,” said Laura. “We had a kiddush in my sister’s dining room. It was small
but beautiful.”
About eight days after she had
planned to go home, Laura left with her father and sister using the services of
a company called Lalechet Tours, which arranged the whole trip back. There were
seminary girls, yeshiva guys, and families that had to get back to America in
their group. A coach bus brought them from Jerusalem to Eilat, about a two-hour
ride. They crossed the border to the Egyptian side and got on different buses,
which drove them for about four hours to the Sharm El-Sheikh airport. From
there they flew to Romania and then to JFK, where they rented a car and drove
to Baltimore. The journey took around 41 hours “door to door” getting home
around 11:15 p.m. Tuesday night.
Rivka Meister
Before the outbreak of the war
with Iran, Rivka Meister, along with five family members, had been trying to
get to Israel, but their Swiss Air flights were cancelled due to the Houthi
missile attack on Ben Gurion. After more delays, they were able to fly to
Switzerland and then to Athens, where they had an Aegean Air flight to Tel
Aviv. They arrived in Israel on June 12th with scheduled return
flights on June 22nd. Once in Israel, they had to deal with a
damaged suitcase claim. Twenty-four hours after their travel began, with no
sleep the entire time, they were finally able to settle into their rented
apartment in Kiryat Sefer late that night. However, there was to be no rest for
the weary. At around 3:00 a.m. they were awoken by the first siren. During
the sirens, Rivka felt concerned but not overly nervous. “It’s similar to a
lightning storm. You have to take precautions, even though the chances of being
struck by a lightning bolt are small.”
During the next few days, like
many people in Israel, they felt a bit Zombie-like from lack of sleep. However,
Rivka felt blessed to be able to enjoy being with her family and grandchildren
in Israel, who were all off from school due to the war.
Rivka tried getting on the rescue
flight lists of the U.S. and Israeli embassies. By then, the main concern was
the unknown: When would they get back? In a few days, weeks, or months?
She was more concerned for her married children, who had jobs in the States,
and her elderly mother, whom she helps care for. Fortunately, in the end they
only had to stay eight extra days and were able to leave on July 1st.
El Al took them to Cyprus, where
they spent seven hours before boarding an Austrian Air flight to Vienna. With 15
hours until their flight to the States, they slept overnight in a hotel, eating
at Vienna’s Chabad House. The next day they landed in Dulles. The total return
journey took them 48 hours, but Rivka felt it was better than going by boat or
through Jordan or Egypt.
Sara Devora Aronovitch
Sara Devora Aronovitch and her
mother, Mrs. Bailke Blumberg, formerly of Baltimore, flew United Airlines to
Israel on June 8th to attend her niece’s chasana that
Wednesday night and planned to return home on June 15th, a week
before her own son’s chasana. However, that Thursday night, Iranian
missiles began to fall, and their flights home were canceled. Sara Devora had a
lovely visit with her sister, but now they had to find a way home before it
became too late for her son’s wedding.
Sara Devora’s
children asked their rav on two occasions, as the date got closer and closer,
whether they should attempt traveling through an Arab country as many others
were doing, but the rav was adamant that they not go that route. He also said
they should not push off a chasana. They asked the rav what to do as a zechus
for making it on time. He said the women should say Tehillim, and
the men should learn an extra 10 minutes a day.
They tried all known means
possible to get a flight but found no solution. Then, Sara Devora’s daughter in
Passaic saw on a local chat group that, although the Arkia website said there
were no flights out of Israel soon enough, if you reserved for July 1st,
you could then switch the reservation to June 25th for a flight to
Rome, from where they could take a United flight to Newark. They took the Arkia
flight, and while in the Rome airport, Sara Devora overheard something which
caused her to check with United again. It turned out that United was willing to
honor their canceled tickets that night!
“We learn two things from this,”
says Sara Devora: “First, always listen to daas Torah, and second,
Hashem can change everything in a blink of an eye!”
