Our Town

I am on an interfaith trip to Israel with a group of 28 people led by Rabbi Mitchell “Mitch” Hurvitz of Temple Sholom and the Reverend Jim Lemler of Christ Episcopal Church. This is the first of what will be a series of postings from Israel over the next ten days.

The day we left for Israel – Thursday February 11 – was a picture perfect day in Greenwich. Wednesday’s snowstorm had brought a beautiful winter scene that was clear with blue skies and a bright sun on the day of our departure.

The group gathered at gate 31B in the departures terminal at JFK, prepared to board El Al flight 002 for Tel Aviv. We assembled for the first time as a group around 5 p.m., the blinding oblique rays of the setting winter sun creating sharp contrasts of brightness and dark in the terminal.

We began with prayer. Josh Altman, Temple Sholom’s youth director, read a Hebrew prayer for safe travel, followed by the Reverend Lemler who recited an Episcopal prayer, also for safe travel.

Members of the group introduced themselves. For many this is a first trip to Israel. Others have been before, some of us many times. The Reverend Lemler has been on a previous interfaith trip. Rabbi Mitch, the immediate past president of the Greenwich Fellowship of the Clergy, has done much work in interfaith dialogue, but this is his first such interfaith trip.

I am traveling with my husband, Don Snyder. We both have been to Israel many times before. This is my tenth trip and my second interfaith trip. Exactly 20 years ago, on February 11, 1990, I arrived in Israel with an interfaith group led by Rabbi Rob Lennick of Greenwich Reform Synagogue, the Reverend Ed Deyton of Diamond Hill Methodist Church and the Reverend Art Kauffman of the Methodist Church across from the Greenwich YMCA.

How will the interfaith dialogue on this trip compare with that of 20 years ago, I am wondering as I board the plane.

We arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport at 12:40 p.m. on Friday, February 12, an hour later than scheduled due to a departure delay. My watch is still set to New York time, 5:40 in the morning. As we come in for a landing everything below looks green. It is a sunny day, if a bit hazy, and warm, almost summer-like, in sharp contrast to the winter scene we left behind in Greenwich.

We depart for Jerusalem, stopping at the lookout point in Talpiot, with its magnificent view of this ancient city that is holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims. Looking out over Jerusalem, an hour before sunset and the start of Shabbat, we stand together in a circle, holding hands while Rabbi Mitch gives a short Torah commentary and the Reverend Lemler offers a prayer.

And the we return to the bus, rushing to get to the David Citadel Hotel in time to prepare for Shabbat.