At long last, a trip to holy sites

MASADA, Israel - Sadie Hankin, 90, long regretted a decision in 1967 not to take a trip to Israel, fearing she would never see the holy sites.

But on Thursday, Hankin stood with nine other elderly travelers at Masada, a cliff overlooking the Jordan River where Jewish rebels defended a fortress from Roman soldiers in 73 A.D.

"This is a good memory to end my life," Hankin said. A day earlier, she wept at the site of ancient Jewish Temples in Jerusalem's Old City.

The eight-day "chutzpah mission," organized by the Hebrew Home for the Aged at Riverdale in the Bronx, N.Y., is unprecedented because of the age of its participants, most older than 80 and three older than 90.

Organizers named the trip "chutzpah" for their determination to tackle such challenges as maneuvering wheelchairs along cobblestones in Jerusalem's Old City and finding bland food among spicy Mediterranean fare at restaurants - while dealing with the precarious security situation. Three years of Palestinian-Israeli violence has frightened most tourists away.

Hankin said that in 1967, she choose to tour the United States with her husband instead of visiting Israel.

Three of the travelers have never been to Israel before. For Hankin, it's the first journey out of the United States - she got a passport only a few weeks ago.

Daniel Reingold of Scarsdale, N.Y., executive director of the nonprofit nursing home, said he had a hard time persuading tourism officials his idea could work.

"Aging is not a time to wait for death," Reingold said. "It is a time for new channels in life."

Even the trip doctor, Zachary Palace of Monsey, N.Y., was skeptical at first. Palace carries the medical records of the participants, some of whom have heart conditions or have suffered strokes.

Tour guide Yaakov Sivek, 63, said he planned the trip to allow enough time for walking, choosing sites with few stairs and making sure the hotel serves food that is easy to digest.

One participant, Bela Friedman, 74, survived Nazi death camps in World War II and sought refuge with her husband, Zelig, in Israel in 1948. The couple fought in the war that broke out after Israel's establishment that year. They left in 1954, establishing a life with three children in Brooklyn, N.Y. Zelig Friedman died in 1993.

"We always said that we could come back, but my husband didn't make it," Friedman said, beginning to cry as she pushed her walker up a hill to an ancient synagogue at Masada.

Helen Obler, 91, who retired to Aventura before she moved to the Bronx home, walked with a cane over the rocky Masada site, saying her philosophy of "sink or swim" had kept her from using a wheelchair.

Another Holocaust survivor, Rosa Tatz, 77, said the trip gave her great inspiration to go on, despite a stroke she suffered a few months ago.

"This is like a new life for me," Tatz said as she watched 82-year-old Arthur Rosenberg climb aboard a camel.

Rosenberg, like others, collected bags of pebbles to bring back to those at the nursing home who were not able to make the trip.

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