They were never in immediate danger but seven members of Temple Israel Center of White Plains related their harrowing experiences of being in Israel during the war with Iran and their difficult route, mostly across the Egyptian border, to eventual safety back in New York.
The one hour dialogue transpired after Sabbath services and kiddush reception ended Saturday morning. The panelists included two of the 54 Leffell Hebrew high school seniors on a months-long program in Poland and Israel, two mothers, a school administrator, and two congregants visiting Israel independently. With writing and audio taping prohibited inside the sanctuary, their accounts are based on my memory, which Gilda would tell you is far from perfect (and since she could not be present for the conversation could not be vetted by her).
The overwhelming consensus was that Israelis support the war and have adapted into their daily routines appropriate responses to Israel’s sophisticated multi-level alarm warnings. A first siren gives a five to ten minute alert of incoming projectiles, followed by a 90 second warning to immediately seek shelter, either in a personal safe room in one’s home or a communal shelter often three or four levels underground. With missiles and rockets targeting Israel from Iran, Lebanon and now Yemen, alarms have been a constant background buzz.
Visitors to Israel have been advised that if an alarm goes off while driving, even on a highway or hilly road, one should immediately stop and shut off the car, exit and quickly move 30 to 50 feet away and lie flat on the ground.
Modern hotels and newer apartment buildings have safe rooms built from reinforced concrete. Hotels, apartment houses, office buildings and shopping malls with underground garages have shelters three and four levels underground. Some families set up tents in communal shelters, no doubt to create a more festive environment for children.
Older buildings, on the other hand, lack communal shelters as well as individual apartment safe rooms. Nor are bathroom facilities to be found in older community safe rooms. Moreover, elderly Israelis sometimes cannot descend by stairs to the community safe room in the suggested time. So they stay in their apartments. A couple in central Israel were killed when debris from an Iranian missile pierced their top-floor apartment.
Extracting 52 Leffell seniors and two faculty members from a war zone operating under restricted commercial flights was not easy. El Al postponed their travel by more than a week. An alternate flight plan through Egypt was hastily pieced together.
To get to the Cairo airport, the students had to travel by bus from Jerusalem down to Eilat where they would cross the border into Taba. About halfway to Eilat they had to stop because rain storms had washed out the Negev desert roadway. After conferring with authorities, the trip resumed.
At Taba they passed through border checks, boarded two older buses and were joined by Egyptian security officers. There are two main roads across the Sinai Desert. The northern route was not considered as safe, so they took the longer, southern highway which afforded them the opportunity to stop at a security checkpoint at the foot of Mount Sinai!
They were waved through security stations along the way. But near the tunnel entrance under the Suez Canal they had to disembark, show their documents and have their luggage checked. Egyptians are careful no one can carry a bomb beneath the Suez Canal.
The trip from Eilat to Cairo took about 14 hours. After another dozen hours in the air, they landed at JFK Airport Friday morning.