Our trip to Israel is finally going to happen! We have been waiting a long time for this special family trip. My wife, Ellen Halfon, and I have both been to Israel before, most recently in the summer of 2008 with the Fairmount Temple Israel trip. We went without our kids, while they were at summer camp. Throughout the experience, Ellen and I would comment to each other that we wished the kids were with us. We wondered how they would respond to different things we saw. We knew that we wanted them to experience Israel; in fact we began saving for this trip over 10 years ago, when our oldest daughter, Shaina, was in kindergarten. Now she is 15, and Adin and Mira are 13 and 11. We feel this summer is the window of opportunity when all three are the right age to appreciate the significance of what they will see in Israel.
We are also excited about the other families who will be joining us on the trip, with children of a broad age range. This will give our children the chance to share this experience with their peers. My parents will also be joining us for their first Israel adventure. We are grateful that we were able to participate in the Gift of Israel program, which allowed us to save a significant portion of the trip cost for our children. The Gift of Israel is a matching funds program; the family puts money into a savings account every year, which is then matched with funds from Fairmount Temple and the Jewish Federation of Cleveland. Now the time is right. Although this is my fifth trip to Israel, including a yearlong experience after college, I imagine that, in some ways, it will feel like the first time, as I experience the trip through the eyes of my children.
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