New York Hillel School's class of 1974 reunites 50 years later in Israel

The boys and girls who started first grade in 1966 at the Hillel School in Lawrence, New York, blossomed into a typical mix of jocks and jokesters, brainiacs and bullies, embracing differing lifestyles, religious outlooks, and political affiliations.

In short, the Hillel School’s eighth-grade class of 1974 exemplified the usual range of students in any Modern Orthodox day school in America.

However, one aspect stands out: About a third of those pupils would end up making aliyah, an unusually high proportion. Several left years before 59 of their classmates graduated in 1974. Others have followed their children to Israel in recent years.

Thirteen of them gathered in the Hashmonaim home of Faith (Fruma) Elfenbein Cohen on June 23, while a simultaneous reunion was taking place in the gym of their former school, now called the Hebrew Academy of Five Towns and Rockland (HAFTR). Several others Zoomed in from distant points. Two additional Israeli classmates were present in the HAFTR gym because they happened to be in New York at the time.

Against a video backdrop of old photos set to the iconic music of their era – i.e., Elton John, Seals & Crofts, and Billy Joel – they took turns updating one another on their lives, careers, and families. They reminisced about dodge-ball and playground injuries; selling chocolates and magazine subscriptions door to door; their eighth-grade trip to Washington; marching in the Salute to Israel Parade; demonstrating for Soviet Jews outside the UN; enjoying a concert by Shlomo Carlebach on Yom Ha’atzmaut; and an incident when the school’s art room caught fire – possibly an accident, possibly not.

They mentioned unforgettable adults like the gym teacher who bewildered the boys with his cryptic lecture about “protecting the family jewels,” and the fifth-grade teacher who read to her class from books such as The Phantom Tollbooth and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

Threaded throughout the evening’s conversation was an undercurrent of Zionism. The group jointly sang “Hatikvah” from both sides of the ocean, and together they mourned the loss of three of their children who have been killed in combat in Gaza since October 7.

A deep sense of Zionism

WHAT INSTILLED such a strong love of Israel in the Hillel kids?

“I think a lot of it had to do with timing,” said Rob Zenilman, a graduate living in Ma’ale Adumim since 2005. Their elementary school years, he pointed out, were bracketed by the Six Day War at the end of first grade and the Yom Kippur War at the beginning of eighth grade. The 1967 war in particular spurred a global aliyah movement.

Furthermore, many Israelis went to America in the 1960s to teach in Hebrew day schools like Hillel.

“I had first- and second-grade teachers who literally did not speak English,” Zenilman said. “It was an ivrit b’ivrit [Hebrew taught in Hebrew] school. And a lot of us went to Zionist camps with a Hebrew-speaking environment, like Camp Moshava and Camp Mossad, and were involved in Bnei Akiva,” a Religious Zionist youth movement.

Dov Ganeles of Ra’anana, who made aliyah in 1995, didn’t join the youth organizations or go to the sleep-away camps. However, he said, “Aliyah was just something that was inculcated by our school and our parents. I can remember from fourth or fifth grade being excited about the idea of moving to Israel. It was more or less dormant in my adolescence, but it was always the main thrust of the school and synagogue communities I belonged to.”

Nachum Stone of Ma’ale Adumim said that for his family, making the move “was just so obvious. It wasn’t a question. But I’m still shocked at how many of our cohort made aliyah. It’s a very impressive bunch of people.”

Cohen, who married a fellow Bnei Akiva-nik and made aliyah in 1986, observed that even given the events of those times, their class had an extraordinary rate of immigration.

“My sister was two years below me at Hillel, and she was the only one in her class who made aliyah. What made us different? The truth is, I don’t know. We had the same Israeli teachers, the same very Zionistic school,” she said. “We all came [here] for different reasons. About seven of us came during elementary school together with families, so that wasn’t a choice. About eight or nine came because of Bnei Akiva programs in Israel after high school. Many of us went back to the States for college, got married there, and then came back to Israel. A few came to Israel on their own as singles; a couple of people have gone back.”

BatSheva (Beth) Hashkes Pomerantz of Jerusalem was the youngest of the group to move to Israel, arriving after third grade in 1969.

“My parents made the choice for me, and it was difficult for me at first,” said Pomerantz, a journalist in English and Hebrew who used to write a column called “Chosen People to the Chosen Land” for OU-Israel’s Torah Tidbits weekly circular.

Pomerantz said her eventual acclimation “was greatly informed by the fact that I was part of a greater picture: the miracle of kibbutz galuyot [the ingathering of the exiles]. And from a young age, I’ve been inspired by olim [immigrants to Israel] from all over.”

Her new book, Mi’Hamishim Kokhavim Le’Kokhav Ehad (From Fifty Stars to One Star), tells stories of early pioneers and Jewish personalities, such as her grandmother’s first cousin, Devorah Drachler, who fell with Joseph Trumpeldor in the battle of Tel Hai in 1920.

“I don’t judge people who didn’t make aliyah or people who returned [to the States],” she said. “But it never entered my mind to return.”

Shifra Osofsky Friedman, a Beit Shemesh resident since 1995, said she and her husband had harbored the ideal of aliyah since their marriage in 1982. But she isn’t sure they would have moved if not for the fact that her mother, after being widowed, remarried and relocated to Israel. “I’m the only daughter, and I don’t know that I could have left her if she’d stayed in America,” she said.

Adina Kolatch of Beit Shemesh, whose father, David, was an administrator at the Hillel School, made aliyah in 1997. She noted that her four children are all married and settled in Israel.

“From the time I was 10 years old, I was aware of the State of Israel. I felt that God gave us a place, and we should be here. It was always a given; it was only a question of when,” she said.

Tzvi (Heshy) Loewenstern, who arrived in 1993 and also lives in Beit Shemesh, echoed that thought: “Hillel certainly did its part, but I also grew up with the value that Israel is the place for Jews.”

Nevertheless, he is the only member of his immediate family who made aliyah, and he feels that his circle of friends has become like family.

A FEW years ago, Cohen started a WhatsApp group for Israeli Hillel alumni and former students. She noted that the 18 members of the group (out of a total of 21 classmates who made aliyah) are exceptionally tight-knit, “maybe because it’s a smaller country and maybe because most of us stayed Torah observant.”

It was clear during the reunion that the former classmates, regardless of whether or not they were close during their Hillel years, relished their evening together.

“I feel, more than just nostalgia, maybe connected to the war that’s going on, a desire to get together with my classmates and just appreciate who they are for what they are without any accompanying growing-up baggage,” said Ganeles.

As expected, the class of 1974 has suffered losses over the years. The first was a graduate who died of AIDS in the 1980s. Among others who have passed away since then, one died of a heart attack while in Uman for Rosh Hashanah in 2021. In the past five years, two alumni in the United States lost children to illness.

Ganeles’s nephew Elan Ganeles, 26, was visiting Israel for a friend’s wedding when he was killed in a terrorist attack on Highway 90 in the Jordan Valley on February 27, 2023. He is buried near his uncle’s home in Ra’anana.

“Unfortunately, loss makes you more deeply woven into the fabric of this country,” said Ganeles.

The current war has been especially tragic for this small cohort. Within three days of each other last Hanukkah, Zenilman’s son Ari, 32, and Loewenstern’s son Elisha, 38, fell in the line of duty in Gaza. The following month, Susan Schlacht Adani’s son-in-law, Eliran Yeger, 36, fell in combat as well.

The three classmates were invited to light memorial candles in the Cohens’ living room, acknowledging their grief within the warmth of a group whose ties go back more than 50 years.

Adani, a Jerusalem resident since 1972, said she found it “very uplifting to see how many of us made aliyah and to see how we’ve all developed. Obviously the Zionist values of the Hillel School, which my father helped to found, rubbed off on many students. It’s always fun to meet and get filled in on what we’ve missed.”

Above all, each attendee was firmly focused on the future every one of them has built for his or her family in Israel.

“We have planted roots here and are very proud that we are now on the third generation in our homeland,” said Cohen.

Kolatch asked all the Israeli citizens among them to tally up their grandchildren. The total was 202, with a few more on the way.

When one of the American participants remarked, “I hope we don’t have to wait 50 years until we see each other again,” Kolatch responded, “Make aliyah, and you won’t have to. It’s not too late.” 