American Jews Feel Effects of War in Middle East

Twenty-year-old Olga Bergelson and 22-year-old Michelle Zotman took off for Israel just after the fighting began with a group called "Mayanot Birthright," and they saw more of the war than Arielle. Besides a stop at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, the Birth Right group went to Tiberius, where a Karimov rocket landed not far away.

OLGA BERGELSON, Traveler to Israel: When we woke up, we saw people running down the stairs, children in bathing suits, and all of us were gathered in one single room. And it was supposed to be the safest room, something like a bomb shelter. We were told to get away from the windows. We were not allowed to go back into our rooms to have lunch. And we sat there for a couple -- I think two hours.

MICHELLE ZOTMAN, Traveler to Israel: When I heard the missiles had landed within a mile of us -- there was five Katyushas that had fallen -- and almost instantaneously, I got a phone call from my mother. I swear that we have a sixth sense between one another.

And she's like, "Is everything OK?" And I didn't know what to tell her, but I knew she knew where I was, and I knew I had to tell her before she heard it off of CNN, because then my father's hair would fall out and she'd have a heart attack. And I told her everything was fine.

SPENCER MICHELS: The group of 40 left the area immediately after the all-clear. Their experiences strengthened their commitment to Israel which was a major aim of the trip.

MICHELLE ZOTMAN: We have maybe five, six countries surrounding us that do not want us. They don't want us to exist. They want to obliterate us. And they take every measure that they can to do so, and we fight back, and we fight back. I'm getting all teary-eyed, but it's just -- it's very powerful to be there.

DEBORAH MINTZ, Traveler to Israel: Many of whom had elderly relatives or friends who couldn't be moved from places like Kiryat Shmona, places like Haifa. And I began to understand that a half-a-million Israelis were living in refugee -- you know, as refugees, in schools, hotels, friends' and relatives' homes, and that many were living in bomb shelters. And at that point, I began to realize that something very serious and very frightening was going on.

TRAVEL GUIDE: You can see the northern wall...

SPENCER MICHELS: For several groups of American Jews, the fighting was actually a reason to travel to Israel, to provide what help they could, financial, material or even simply moral support. Berkeley mortgage broker Samuel Fishman is an official of the pro-Israel group the American Jewish Committee and decided on the spur of the moment to join a mission.

SAMUEL FISHMAN, Traveler to Israel: I knew Israel was the place that I needed to be. I needed to offer my moral support. We went to visit a family whose home had just been bombed the day before. We, I think, all came to recognize how hard it is for us to even begin to imagine from the tranquility of our homes what it must be like to have bombs facing us and our families.

SPENCER MICHELS: Fishman's group visited a refugee camp on a beach and met with high Israeli officials. They were in Haifa when they saw bombs go off.

SAMUEL FISHMAN: We ourselves had to be escorted into bomb shelters at least three times just in one afternoon. It's a city where both Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews have lived in harmony for many, many decades, and yet it's essentially a ghost town.

TRAVELER TO ISRAEL: And we were in the north...

SPENCER MICHELS: Such stories from American Jews of all ages have spurred on fundraising efforts across the country. This event was to benefit teens in northern Israel.

The United Jewish Communities, America's largest Jewish fundraising group, has already raised $150 million, part of an emergency campaign to collect at least $300 million, and perhaps much more, for humanitarian and social needs.