With names like Eataly; Fare by Chef Alex Guarnaschelli; Franks and Fries; King Souvlaki; Crabby Shack; and Korilla BBQ, tennis fans enjoyed a variety of foods at the recently concluded (August 22-September 10) Grand Slam event, while sipping drinks from Baseline Cocktails; Aperol Spritz Bar; and Heinekin Bar. The US Open even had an official drink, the Honey Deuce (Grey Goose vodka, lemonade, and raspberry liqueur).
Thanks to PKS’s (Prime Kosher Sports) Kosher Grill, kosher-food-loving tennis fans enjoyed an assortment of hot and cold kosher foods, located in close proximity to non-kosher food, as well as great tennis. If their timing was right, observant fans were also able to participate in a Mincha and Maariv minyan.
“Having kosher food at the US Open means you don’t feel excluded. You are part of the crowd,” reported Eli Feit of Brooklyn, who was attending with two grandsons and their friend Chaim Fruchter of Passaic, New Jersey.
Feit, who enjoyed the brisket sandwich, was helping count to make sure there were enough men for Mincha, which was to take place at the exit to Court 12 as a four-hour, seven-minute five-set men’s singles match was letting out. Fruchter raved about his hot dog.
AT THE US Open: Tommy Paul (US) returns a shot against Roman Safiullin (Russia) during their Men’s Singles Second Round match, in Queens, New York, Aug. 30. (credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
Steven Davidson of Stamford, Connecticut, carefully held two hot dogs (one dressed in sauerkraut), wrapped in US Open monogrammed paper, as he participated in the minyan.
“Having kosher food at sporting events is pretty standard. It is nice to have a minyan when you have to say Kaddish,” he added.
Israeli David Danino, who lives in Karnei Shomron and is in the US through Sukkot as part of his job with Sukkot Depot, approached when he saw the crowd gathering for Mincha. He was racing to Court 17 to see No. 14 Tommy Paul in action versus Roman Saflullin. He planned to return to the kosher stand later in the evening for dinner. While excited about having kosher food at his first US Open, he enjoyed a kosher hot dog a few years back at a New York Knicks pre-season basketball game.
Julie Feinberg of Woodmere, New York, spoke with The Jerusalem Post as she balanced two cardboard containers of kosher sausage with peppers and onions, as well as a brisket sandwich, which she noted was “new this year.”
“I know we are spoiled New Yorkers [since kosher food is so plentiful], but having kosher food here makes the whole day easier and more enjoyable, – and you don’t get jealous of others [who don’t keep kosher] who have hundreds of choices.”
She was excited to sit and enjoy dinner before watching more tennis. “My daughter and I are starving!”
While the kosher items were tasty, they came at a price. A BBQ brisket sandwich or a hot pastrami sandwich set fans back $23, while wraps and sandwiches cost $19; Italian sausage with peppers and onions were $13.50; and a potato knish – $8.
Kosher food, and affordable too!
But for the first time in most kosher consumers’ lives, the kosher food prices were actually comparable to the prices of non-kosher food at the Open: Crispy chicken sandwich at Crown Say was $19.50; a gyro sandwich at King Soulvaki was $20, and spanakopita cost $18. The signature chicken and eggnog waffle cone at Melba’s American Comfort was a whopping $26; a single scoop of ice cream at Van Leeuwen was $9.50; and a Heineken or Amstel Light draught beer was $15. The US Open’s signature Honey Deuce was $22 – keep the glass!
ELI ARJE, in his second year operating Kosher Grill at the US Open (though there was a kosher vendor for several years before he took over), loves the opportunity to provide kosher food at this and other sports venues. “The experience is amazing. To see how many people are in and out of the venue all day is remarkable. Our line is always consistent. We serve over 2,500 products per day.”
Arje believes that all stadiums should offer kosher options, and noted that he is currently located in Maimonides Park (Brooklyn Cyclones), Citi Field (New York Mets), Yankee Stadium (New York Yankees), and Prudential Center (New Jersey Devils). “Baruch Hashem, we have [Jewsih] communities everywhere, and I think it’s so important to follow the laws of kashrut and give the Jewish fan an outlet to enjoy the full ballpark experience. We have a passion for sports, food, and seeing smiles on faces enjoying. I feel blessed that I am able to make a dream into reality. Every time I walk into a stadium, I feel like I’m a kid again, and I’m in awe of everything around me.”
Kosher consumers not willing to pay the steep prices for prepared food were able bring in sandwiches and other food items in a single-compartment drawstring knapsack or bag or they were able to enjoy small containers of kosher-certified yogurt, given out as free samples by Fage, a US Open sponsor.
Other kosher-certified, though pricey, items available throughout the grounds included bags of potato chips, popcorn, and bars of Van Leeuwen ice cream. Lavazza coffee was also on hand, along with soda and water.
The 43-year-old Sasson shared the very emotional experience of playing on such a big stage as equals with such tennis greats as US Open finalists Djokovic and Danil Medvedev.
On the same day that tennis greats Coco Gauff and Novak Djokovic were battling it out against opponents in Arthur Ashe Stadium at the US Open, other tennis greats, including Alfie Hewitt, Diede De Groot, Niels Vink, David Wagner and Israeli Guy Sasson were competing fiercely on Courts 4, 5 and 6.
These lesser-known, but similarly talented and determined, athletes competed in the expanded wheelchairs tennis events at this year’s US Open Tennis Championships. Many tennis fans and sports fans in general are unfamiliar with this highly competitive event.
Wheelchair tennis has been a part of all four Grand Slams since 2007, and at the Summer Paralympics. There are two divisions – open and quads. Quads is for players who use wheelchairs and also have loss of function in at least one upper limb.
Israel’s only tennis player in any main draw event at this year’s US Open, Guy Sasson, was recently reclassified and participated in the mens’ singles and doubles quads division. Sasson spoke with The Jerusalem Post in the media garden at the US Open following what appeared to be an easy 55-minute first-round win where defeated Tomas Masaryk of Slovakia 6-1, 6-2.
The 43-year-old Sasson shared the very emotional experience of playing on such a big stage as equals with such tennis greats as US Open finalists Djokovic and Danil Medvedev.
Novak Djokovic of Serbia hits a forehand against Daniil Medvedev of Russia (not pictured) in the men’s singles final on day fourteen of the 2021 US Open tennis tournament at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, in Flushing, New York, on September 12, 2021. (credit: DANIELLE PARHIZKARAN-USA TODAY SPORTS)
“It may have looked easy but it wasn’t! This is the biggest tournament I’ve ever been in. This tournament is different since we are involved with able-bodied tennis players and they treat us as equals with the able-bodied players. We are in the same locker room. You sit in the locker room and Djokovic is coming your way and says, ‘hi, how are you doing? How did you do today?’ Or Medvedev says, ‘sorry I am in your way. Or [Frances] Tiafoe – I almost ran over Tiafoe with my wheelchair.”
Sasson was also impressed with the organization of the tournament and stressed the incredible feeling of being included as equals with world-class pros.
“The chance to do it altogether with the able-bodied – keeping in mind that there are 50,000 people inside watching – even if they are not here to watch me – is incredible.”
A long journey
It has been a long journey for Sasson who grew up non-disabled and became a reluctant wheelchair tennis player. Sasson grew up in Ramat Gan, served in the IDF, traveled after his army service and attended the University of Michigan for college. While in the US, Sasson started and sold several businesses. He returned to Israel, married Aya Mohr, and founded a real estate company.
In 2015, the father of two young children at the time, went snowboarding in France.
“I didn’t see the cliff. I fell off the cliff and hurt my spine,” Sasson recounts. “They flew me to Tel Hashomer Hospital in Israel, I had a big surgery on my spine and hand, and the doctors told me I won’t walk again. It didn’t sound real. Of course I will — I’ll be out of here in two weeks. It turns out, I was in a rehab hospital at Tel Hashomer for one year and did walk out – with braces and canes.
Sasson knew he would need to find something to keep physically active.
“I promised my kids I would get out of the chair,” said Sasson. His initial choice was swimming.
When Sasson viewed tennis, he met a new Israeli coach, Ofri Lankri, an Israeli professional tennis player who played on Israel’s 2014 Fed Cup team. Sasson began to quietly consider it.
The two hit it off and Sasson’s love for wheelchair tennis began to blossom.
“At first, I didn’t tell anyone – not even my wife. No one! When I started to get better, I had to tell my wife!”
Lakri, who coached Sasson during all of his US Open matches, feels similarly connected to Sasson. She is proud of his progress and has high hopes for his future.
“Guy always loved individual sports and tennis was a good fit for him. He got good quickly. He is super serious and loves the mentality of tennis”
Sasson began competing in 2007 and aspired to participate in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games (which were rescheduled to 2021 due to COVID-19).
He reports that he began to experience some changes in his upper body and was recently reclassified for the quads wheelchair division.
Sasson is currently ranked No. 7 in the world for quads singles and 40th for doubles.
Sasson got off to a good start with his first-round win at the US Open. A few fans and family members of both players cheered on the players. Sasson’s four children – ages 13, 11, 7 and 5 – were in the first row waving mini Israel flags and calling for their “Abba.” Sasson’s parents were also there cheering.
Sasson’s wife and children did not have to make the long flight from Israel as they are spending several years in Houston Aya’s medical fellowship.
One day after his singles victory, Sasson played doubles with partner Koji Sugeno. The match was against top-seeded Sam Schroder and Niels Vink, and Sasson and Sugeno lost 3-6, 6-1, 10-6.
One day later, Sasson had one more opportunity to advance in quads singles. He lost to the world’s No. 2 seed, Schroder of the Netherlands, 7-5, 6-2.
For now, Sasson and family will return to Houston. The children are back to school, Aya is back to her fellowship and Guy will be up at 3 a.m. each morning to work with his real estate team in Israel.
From October 9-13, Sasson will have a chance to play in front of friends, family and Israeli fans at the Israel Open in Ramat Hasharon.
Yuval Wagner was an IDF pilot who became paralyzed after a helicopter crash. Now he runs the NGO Access Israel with the goal of making the Jewish state more accessible to people with disabilities.
A group of 29 adults with disabilities stood near a Cobra helicopter at Palmahim Airbase in Israel, mesmerized as Yuval Wagner recounted that fateful day in 1987 when the helicopter he was piloting abruptly crashed and left him paralyzed and his commander dead.
Wagner also explained how his new life as a paralyzed man with a desire to embrace life, travel and make his beloved country accessible for all, led to the creation of Access Israel, the Israeli NGO he founded nearly 25 years ago.
The former pilot, used to navigating Israel from the controls of a helicopter, now gets around with the help of a sophisticated electric wheelchair he operates with a joystick. He moves so quickly that it is hard to keep up with him. The community members from Chapel Haven in New Haven, Connecticut, Wagner’s guests at Palmahim, had to work hard to follow the fast-moving Wagner as he showed them the ins and outs of the base.
The group first toured the hangar housing Black Hawk helicopters and listened to mechanic “H” explain how engines are repaired and replaced. When the group later met young pilot “D,” they had a chance to board a Black Hawk and experience what it feels like for 18 people to cram into such a small space usually used to transport crew members, including pilots, mechanics and medics on rescue missions.
Wagner led the group from the Black Hawk hangar to the Cobra helicopter replica, which serves as a memorial to the events of March 18, 1987. Wagner began by giving the group a sense of what it means to be a pilot serving in the Israel Defense Forces and of the centrality of one’s aircraft.
Wagner holds the Access Israel logo. (credit: YUVAL WAGNER)
“It was my dream to fly Israel’s most advanced helicopter,” he told the group. “The time you become a pilot, you learn that you live not only with your wife or girlfriend, but with your aircraft too.”
The group gathered around Wagner in front of the helicopter as he recounted the story of the helicopter’s unexpected crash.
“We were eight helicopters – four pairs of two. It was a beautiful day, and we took off from Palmahim on a training mission. We flew to the Dead Sea and from there made a turn north. A little before Beit She’an, the helicopter began shaking wildly, and suddenly we crashed in the fields.
“We fell from 400 meters [1,300 feet]. Lt.-Col. Zion Bar was killed immediately. He had a wife and three kids. I could not feel or see anything. There was mud in my eyes and I didn’t know if I was blind. I broke my neck and was taken by rescue helicopter to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem and was between life and death. I eventually went to a rehabilitation hospital.”
The large group, standing around Wagner on this hot day didn’t make a sound as he recounted the impact of the crash on his life.
“This is the second that life changes for you and your family. You have options. Where do you take your life from here? I chose to make the most of the situation and become stronger, to take a second that is terrible and make a life that is better, to make the most out of our lives, to enable people with disabilities and their families to live and do. It is tough. You can’t hide it.”
Wagner then recounted the issues he faced day to day in the aftermath of becoming paralyzed.
The sudden challenges of becoming disabled
“The first challenges are medical. Then, how do I live with myself as a disabled person? How do I live my life with the thoughts, reactions and stigmas of others?” He then began to tell the story of how and why he created Access Israel.
“I didn’t know about accessibility,” though he acknowledged having some experience, as he spent his life living with a disabled IDF father who also used a wheelchair.
“The next challenge was how to go out of the house. I got married and had three kids and wanted to go to a hotel in the Galilee.”
Yuval begins to tell the well-known story of how Access Israel got its start.
Wagner and family prepared for their first family vacation by taking steps to ensure the accommodations were fully accessible. They were in touch with the guesthouse about elevator size, door sizes of the room and bathroom and more. They were reassured it was accessible. Wagner stops the story mid-sentence and promises to tell the whole story later that evening when the group will gather for dinner in his home.
CHAPEL HAVEN community member Jonah Sabol found Yuval’s talk at Palmahim to be the highlight of a 10-day Israel trip.
“That was an inspiring story. I can’t imagine what he must have been feeling,” he said.
Later that evening, at a poolside dinner at Wagner’s fully accessible Hod Hasharon home, Access Israel’s CEO Michal Rimon welcomed the group and told the longer version of the story of Wagner founding Access Israel.
“Twenty four years ago, Yuval went on vacation, and the door of the bathroom was too narrow to get his wheelchair in,” Rimon explained. “He had to make a choice between disappointing his family and going home or staying. The staff told him to go get a cup of coffee and worked to make the door frame bigger. When Yuval went home, he wrote a letter to Israel’s then-president Ezer Weizman.”
Wagner explained to the president and former pilot what had happened and expressed disappointment about Israel’s lack of accessibility.
“A day later, I got a call back from the President’s Office. They said the President read the letter and wants to speak to me,” Wagner said. “After talking, he gave me the responsibility for starting an organization that would make Israel accessible in every way possible. And he told me to come back in six months to the President’s House with a report on the status of the organization.”
Rimon, who has heard and recounted this moving story dozens of times, succinctly shared Weizman’s message to Wagner with the group.
“He said, ‘I apologize on behalf of Israel. Do something – establish an NGO and stop kvetching. And you have a six-month time table for the launch!” Access Israel was launched on the lawns of the President’s Residence in June 1999.
Wagner returned to the army to complete his service – now focusing on coding over flying – and worked with friends and colleagues to come up with a business plan to show the president. They began with work on a website to identify accessible and non-accessible places in Israel. They have continued in three areas: awareness, consulting to organizations, and legislation.
While Access Israel’s vision has always been to create a world where people with disabilities can live their lives with respect, equality and independence in all areas of life (including work, education, culture, travel and leisure, commerce, health and transportation,) the scope of their work has expanded over the years.
They work to raise awareness among decision-makers and engage the Knesset to initiate new legislation and regulations regarding accessibility. The organization also manages projects to implement accessibility.
A Feel Accessibility 2023 family event took place May 12 to raise awareness around accessibility, disabilities, sports, and people with disabilities in general. The educational and experiential event included a flotilla of sailboats and yachts, and helicopter and aircraft flights over the beaches of Tel Aviv, Jaffa and Herzliya.
In Israel, Access Israel has hosted international conferences on inclusion and accessibility and has rolled out the Purple Vest Israel initiative, which provides a toolkit for implementing preparations to evacuate and assist individuals with disabilities in emergency situations.
This initiative has expanded beyond Israel and has been implemented effectively at the Ukraine-Poland border. Since February 2022, participants have helped rescue 4,000 people with disabilities and the elderly, while providing support to 10,000 people by providing essential equipment and medications.
Online initiatives with an international focus include webinars on topics around disabilities, access and inclusion. Their May 24 webinar on Accessible Tourism, their 13th such event, attracted more than 200 people from 80 countries.
Despite Wagner’s extremely busy schedule, he finds time to keep up his connection to the air force and flying – and to connections with his comrades. In December 2021, Wagner had the opportunity to return to a helicopter – this time as a passenger – along with Noam Gershony, a fighter pilot and Israeli wheelchair tennis star who was also paralyzed in a helicopter crash.
Each Remembrance Day, Wagner joins the family of Zion Bar, his deceased comrade, on the beach for brunch. Bar left behind his wife, Naomi, and three children – Yaeli, Assaf, and Michali, all in their 20s now.
“He loved the beach,” Wagner said. Each year on the anniversary of Bar’s death, Wagner visits the cemetery in Tel Aviv where Bar is buried.
Wagner’s professional colleagues are impressed with his drive and dedication. James Lassner, executive director of Accessibility Accelerator, an Access Israel partner, reported, “One who has the opportunity to meet Yuval gets to see the focused and dedicated commander of Access Israel that he is. As his collaborative partner, I get to see the same and I am blessed to see deeper into his golden and very caring heart. This mission we are on with him is to make a focused effort each day better than the day before for people with disabilities and the elderly.”
Catherine Sullivan-DeCarlo, vice president of admissions and marketing at Chapel Haven Schleifer Center, Inc., who got to know Wagner on her group’s recent trip to Israel, added, “I was deeply impressed with Yuval’s story and his determination to make his country more accessible. He turned a personal tragedy into a lifetime of advocacy and it is evident throughout Israel. We saw many historic sites that are being made accessible for people across the globe. I also was impressed that Yuval is still active with the Israel Air Force. Visiting the airbase and his home and experiencing the depth of his commitment was a deeply moving part of the trip for me.”
While Wagner runs a complex and very ambitious organization, it is all pretty simple.
Wagner noted, “I came to a moment of acknowledgment that my life story, my fortune and luck to stay alive after the accident is for a reason – to make Israel fully accessible and inclusive for people with disabilities and their families and to share knowledge and best practices to the world.” ❖
The Ramah Bike Ride and Hiking Trip: Five days through the Golan Heights in support of the camp’s Tikvah disabilities inclusion programs.
When Timna Rockman completed the course to become a certified tour guide, she assumed she would be sharing her love of Israel with tourists from around the world. Instead, she found herself delivering fast food for the well-known Finnish-based Wolt food-delivery company.
In the process of delivering food on her traditional, non-pedal-assist bike, she got into better shape and decided to begin offering personal training services to students near the Ben-Gurion University campus in Beersheba. She held out hope that she would one day return to tour guiding.
As tourists have begun to return to Israel, Rockman found a way to incorporate all of her strengths and interests. She recently spent five days guiding bikers through the Golan Heights as they participated in the Ramah Bike Ride and Hiking Trip, in support of the camp’s Tikvah disabilities inclusion programs.
Ramah and the trip
Ramah is a network of summer camps in the US, Canada and Israel, founded in 1947. Tikvah, founded in 1970, provides meaningful camp experiences for children, teens and young adults with disabilities. The Golan and Galilee Ride and Hike, which took place in May for the sixth time, started as a bike ride-only event in 2011. It has expanded to offer participants a logistically complex smorgasbord of choices that includes three levels of bike riding, two levels of hiking, guides, medics, mechanics, bus drivers and many volunteers.
Due to the pandemic and frequent border closings, the Ramah event had been rescheduled several times. Other charity bike rides in Israel have also been postponed and rescheduled rides due to the pandemic. Both Alyn Hospital’s Wheels of Love cycling event and Hazon’s Israel Ride benefiting the Arava Institute and Hazon, are scheduled to take place in November 2022.
SOME OF THE Ramah hikers take a break for a group photo. (credit: National Ramah Commision)
Ramah’s 150 riders and hikers were happy to not wait until November to come to Israel. It has been a long time since most had been to Israel, been on vacation or flown at all. Ethan Corey, a returning hiker, and parent of two children who have participated in the Tikvah Program at Camp Ramah in New England, had hoped to come to Israel in March, 2020 but his trip was canceled due to the pandemic.
“Over the past two years, seeing Israel closed to non-Israelis was very frustrating,” he says, and is thrilled to be back. “Compared to the US and the northeast, it feels is if people are past COVID. There are no masks on the trains, in the stores or on the streets.
“As I walk down the streets, I close my eyes and think back to the pre-COVID days. It is nice to hear Hebrew and to walk down the streets and see a minyan meeting in a Jerusalem playground,” he adds. “It is a good feeling being in a place where being Jewish is a normal state of affairs.”
“Being in Israel is coming home!” says Josh Charlat, a dentist and board president of Camp Ramah in Canada who last visited Israel in 2019. “I would have been here sooner – when my daughter was here in seminary,” notes Charlat. “It was a challenge as a North American parent not seeing a child for so long, but being here keeps Israel at the top of my mind.”
“It was a challenge as a North American parent not seeing a child for so long, but being here keeps Israel at the top of my mind.”
Josh Charlat
Michael Bodner was last in Israel three years ago to visit his daughter. He reports that three previous trips he had planned to Israel were canceled. “Now I’m finally here. It is great to be back in Israel!” Bodner attended the Camp Ramah in Nyack day camp in 1963. Being on a trip will fellow lovers of Ramah helped him relive his camp days and recall the lyrics to the musical Porgy and Bess which he performed in Hebrew as a camper.
Mark Meskin of California has traditionally been a frequent traveler to Israel to visit a daughter and her husband, and their two grandchildren in Jerusalem. He was one of the lucky ones to visit Israel during the pandemic when first-degree relatives were permitted to apply to travel to Israel. The four-time biker-turned-hiker visited and hiked in nearly a dozen US national parks during the pandemic. He has welcomed the opportunity to again hike in Israel.
“I have personally been a lover of nature, and until Ramah did this physically challenging fundraiser, I had no ideas how diverse nature is in Israel,” he says.
“I have personally been a lover of nature, and until Ramah did this physically challenging fundraiser, I had no ideas how diverse nature is in Israel.”
Mark Meskin
He was struck by the “unbelievable amount of water” he had never witnessed before.” Meskin was referring to such sites as the Black and White waterfalls of Nahal El Al, the Banias springs and the Devora and Gilbon waterfalls.
He is pleased that, as COVID numbers go down, travel to Israel is more accessible. “I am thrilled it is getting easier!”
FOR SOME, like non-Jewish riders Charles and Michelle Smith from Philadelphia, this was their first Israel experience. Smith came with two Jewish bike-riding friends and playfully notes, “I was a little nervous when I learned some had been to Israel 20 or 30 times and it was my first trip.”
He and his wife spent a few pre-trip days exploring Jerusalem and Christian holy sites. After biking in the North, Smith had a better sense of, and appreciation for Israel.
“Biking on the Golan showed just how close Syria is. And the descent to the Sea of Galilee, and the chance to take a dip, were not the same as passing [the area] on a tour bus. It was refreshing spiritually and a change to take a break from pedaling!” he mused.
Participants ranged in age from 13 to mid-80s and included seven doctors, 10 rabbis, 17 lawyers, board members of various camps, a Tikvah participant from 1971 – the program’s second summer – and several parents of Tikvah participants.
Medic Chaya Ben-Yehuda, 24, of Givat Mordechai in Jerusalem, was pleasantly surprised by the group she escorted on the advanced and moderate hikes. “They said it was old people and I figured it would be short hikes!” she reports, referring to the overview of the group she was given when assigned to the Ramah group. She admits this couldn’t have been further from the truth.
“I was impressed with their hiking skills. You are all amazing!” she adds, impressed with the group’s willingness and ability to hike for eight or more hours per day.
At the final evening program of the trip, several camp directors, organizers and participants had a chance to share remarks. Debbie Albert, board president at Camp Ramah in Pennsylvania’s Poconos, noted: “This felt like a week at camp. We met new friends, challenged ourselves, prayed together, learned together, pished together, and formed new friendships that will last a lifetime.” Albert was playfully referring to the inevitable lack of bathrooms throughout the dozens of miles of hiking trails in the North.
Longtime Ramah hiking trip tour guide Dolev Arbaieter, who was pleased to return to guiding after a two-year hiatus, was fond of reminding the hikers that there are “thousands of bathrooms” all along the sometimes strenuous hiking routes. The good-natured Arbaieter, who occasionally brewed fresh coffee on the trail for his hikers, shared the fascinating history of such places as Tel Saki and such important figures as Eli Cohen, the Israeli spy who was caught in Syria and publicly hanged in 1965. He also provided a wealth of information about nature, geology, geopolitics and ancient synagogues throughout the five-day hike.
Fellow guide Ariel Lisman, owner of Finjan Travel, also lost business during the pandemic, but was able to guide students and new olim when mandatory lockdowns were lifted. He acknowledges how difficult it has been for the travel industry.
“Since June 2021, we have had no government support, so we are living off of our savings. Many lost money they had been saving for buying homes,” he says. Lisman concedes that “people in tourism are used to living life in the balance” and that tourism to Israel often fluctuates given periods of war and heightened tension. “It is nice to see things back!”
While guides are returning to work, actually finding a guide can be a challenge. Biker Marc Schlussel notes, “It was hard to find a guide for a tour in Jerusalem on a recent Friday. They were all booked!”
The tourism industry is indeed recovering, but it is very much in flux, according to Prof. Yaniv Poria at the Department of Hotel and Tourism Management in the Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management at Ben-Gurion University. “Many tour guides had to find other jobs and were settled in elsewhere. When tourism started coming back, they felt the urge to return to guiding,” he observes. “Some are quitting those jobs to go back to guiding. They chose this lifestyle and love being with people and wanted to get back.”
He notes that other parts of the hospitality industry including hotels and airports are still having difficulties finding workers. “Even the high occupancy Hilton Tel Aviv is having a hard time finding workers.”
WHILE SOME riders and hikers did experience long check-in lines at airports, they did not notice a shortage of workers or a reduction in services. They enjoyed comfortable rooms, superb services and sumptuous meals at Merom Golan, Kfar Giladi and at the Jacob Hotel in Hadera. Yet, they never lost sight of the reason they came to Israel – to raise $613,000 to support Ramah programs for participants with disabilities.
Albert and fellow participants appreciated the opportunity to learn more about Tikvah. Most participants chose to attend an optional Friday evening session with Tikvah graduates and parents who shared the impact of Tikvah. Tom Henig was one of the Tikvah Program’s first participants. The program started in Glen Spey, New York in 1970 and soon relocated to Camp Ramah in New England in Palmer, Massachusetts.
Henig, who lives independently and has worked for the town of Oyster Bay, Long Island for 32 years, spoke about how moving it was to celebrate his bar mitzvah at camp in 1972. In fact, two hikers, Donald Skupsky and Anne Schneider were at Henig’s bar mitzvah. Henig reports, “I had such great memories and wanted to give back.”
“Hearing [fellow hiker] Tom Henig’s story of being a Tikvah camper himself in the 1970s really hit home for many of us. Tom’s courage to come here this week and, as he said, ‘pay it back,’ was heartwarming,” adds Albert. “Their stories will inspire all of us to focus on these programs, ensuring that every Jewish child who wants to go to camp has an opportunity to do just that.”
As the bike mechanics disassembled and boxed bikes for riders, and as participants said their goodbyes to each other and to Israel, many were already making plans to return to the country for the next Ramah Bike Ride and Hiking Trip in two years. Some lucky riders and hikers will spend a few more days in Israel.
And Rockman, now fully back in business as a guide, was delighted to take 14 participants on a special foodie tour of Tel Aviv – some much-deserved pampering for tired bikers and hikers – and for her, a long way from delivering food for Wolt!
The writer, a social worker and special education teacher, has been affiliated with Ramah’s Tikvah Program since 1984.
