Joint trip to Israel seeks to build community in Pittsburgh
'I think the true benefit of bringing the Jewish community together across multiple congregations is the opportunity to form relationships before, during and after the trip that will make this more than a singular experience'
An upcoming trip to Israel will enable Pittsburghers to increase connections abroad and build community at home. Conceived of by Rabbis Daniel Fellman and Aaron Meyer, the mission is slated to include members of several local congregations and is open to other interested parties.
Dates for the trip have not been set — organizers are considering either November or December 2025 — however, a general itinerary has been established: Participants will visit Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, the Gaza envelope, and Karmiel and Misgav (Pittsburgh’s Parthership2Gether sister region) in an effort to understand various realities affecting the Jewish state.
Whereas traveling south will feature insights into the events of Oct. 7, heading north will provide opportunities to learn about “the geopolitical situation in Syria,” Meyer, the senior rabbi of Temple Emanuel of South Hills, said. Additionally, in Tel Aviv, visitors will explore “not only historic but modern-day Zionism and what that means when there is an extant nation-state.”
Whether in Jerusalem — where the group is slated to spend Shabbat — or elsewhere, there will be countless ways to connect and reflect, he added.
Meyer said he’s excited for travelers to see SOULdier Recharge, an Ashkelon-based weeklong educational program that provides soldiers with a space to process their experiences and increase morale.
The past several years have been “excruciating,” he said. This opportunity enables “members of our Pittsburgh Jewish community to reconnect with people and place and hopefully spend a few dollars.”
Before the pandemic, Israel’s tourism peaked in 2019 with 4.9 million annual visitors; despite bouncing back in 2022 and 2023, according to Statista, tourism plummeted after Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, launching the current war.
Fewer than 1 million travelers entered the Jewish state in 2024, Israel’s Ministry of Tourism reported.
The upcoming journey to Israel should be “an experience that the Pittsburgh Jewish community savors,” Fellman, the senior rabbi of Temple Sinai, said. “Rabbi Aaron Meyer can speak for himself, obviously, but Aaron and I share a deep commitment to Zionism and to connections between American Jews and the state of Israel. And since Oct. 7, in particular, those connections have become more important and also more challenging. Whatever we can do to help build those connections between Jews and Pittsburgh and the Land of Israel, we’re going
to do.”
Both Meyer and Fellman have promoted the mission within their pews, but the rabbis also have conversed with and welcomed interest from other colleagues and congregants seeking to share the experience, including Rabbi Alex Greenbaum of Beth El Congregation of the South Hills and Rabbi Sharyn Henry of Rodef Shalom Congregation in Shadyside.
Along with Fellman and Meyer, “Rabbi Amy [Greenbaum] and I are excited to continue our exploration of a combined synagogue trip to Israel in 2025,” Alex Greenbaum said in an email to congregants.
“We think it’s a great idea for this kind of collaborative trip,” Henry told the Chronicle. “We fully look forward to learning more about it and participating.”
Fellman, who has led previous trips to Israel, said the mission will be an “exploration of the land and its history and its future.”
“We’ll have interactions with leading political thinkers and writers. We’ll have interactions with Palestinians … and we are doing our best to encounter the land as fully as we can to help explore the nuances and the challenges that are faced, but also the extraordinary miracles and blessings that are coming out of there every day,” he said.
Numerous details, including dates and cost still need to be determined, however, the trip’s value is clear, Meyer said: “I think the true benefit of bringing the Jewish community together across multiple congregations is the opportunity to form relationships before, during and after the trip that will make this more than a singular experience.”
“As Jews, we share an awful lot and we can choose to concentrate on the divisions and the differences, or we can choose to concentrate on that which we share,” Fellman said. “I think the world is better when we concentrate on that which we share.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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