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Chris and Cindy Shelton on their Birthright trip. (Haaretz) Last update - 21:18 29/07/2008 Jewish World / Parents get the Birthright experience By Haaretz Staff Tags: birthright-taglit  'Let my parents go!' cried the young Taglit alumni. And so they did. Sixteen parents visit in honor of Israel's 60th. It is a quite a conceptual distance from unicycling around a Ringling Bros' Big Top, to climbing up Masada. Yet that is, at least part of, the journey taken by Chris Shelton, past police officer, present professional clown and perennial father of Birthright alumnus Emily. Normally Birthright-Taglit devotes itself to bringing young Jews aged 18 to 26 from the Diaspora to Israel for a 10-day trip. Begun in 2000, the program's purpose is not necessarily to encourage aliyah. Rather, it aims to give young Jews a personal understanding of their roots and community, to introduce them to their Israeli peers, to strengthen the sense of solidarity among world Jewry and to create a lifelong dialog. This year, in honor Israel's 60th anniversary Taglit held a contest - "Let My Parents Go!" The winners were eight couples from all over the United States - parents of Birthright alumni who submitted the best videos arguing that they should be brought to Israel for their first ever visit. Advertisement The parents were given the opportunity to share in the experiences that made such an impact on their children. They visited Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, hiked Masada, swam in the Dead Sea and went to the Western Wall. They also participated in a Taglit-Birthright Mega-Event in Caesarea on July 22, where they joined thousands of participants from all over the world. Clowning is a very serious business for the Sheltons, and their Taglit adventure began with the infectious enthusiasm of one of their children. "My daughter came on a Birthright trip and she told us how wonderful it was," says Chris Shelton. "We said that some day, after our kids finish college, we'd like to go." At the time, he and wife Cindy, also a clown by profession and a therapist too, thought of that as a distant dream. But then, daughter Emily, who had visited Israel in December 2007, read about the contest. So they did what any pair of parents from Newark, Delaware might do: "We're professional clowns and did a video with our three kids, why we really want to come interspersed with the kind of comedy we're best at." Somehow their entry stood out and the Sheltons hope that their other two children, Carl ? who's in college ("Temple University in the Media Arts Department," says his proud father and Jacob (starting high school) will visit Israel too. Cindy, 50, today is a professional with the Reach Program, working with mentally challenged children. Chris, also 50, went through a few metamorphoses before adopting big feet for the Big Top. "A family that clowns together stays together, and maybe even wins a fun trip. We are so excited to travel with [Birthright] to Israel!" Chris says. The experience was an emotional one for the jesting duo. Cindy's grandmother lost most of her family in the Holocaust; she herself survived by pretending to be another man's wife, but her three sisters and seven nieces and nephews all perished. "And many other once removed and distant relatives were victims of the Holocaust," Chris somberly adds. He was struck by how different it feels to hear a dissociated report on television, and to be part of the Israeli experience. The group was in Israel on July 16, 2008, when the bodies of reserve soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were returned two years after their capture by Hezbollah. "On CNN, a thing can have one spin, but have a completely different spin if you're here in Israel. We were here during the return of the bodies and saw how the whole community comes together." Visiting the Western Wall was also a watershed moment. "I had this divine revelation, I was blown away," Cindy says. "I went to the end of the universe at the Wall. It as like I went into a different time and space, a different dimension. It was like a holy experience... I feel as though I've been here before, like Oh my God, I've been here. I feel that I'm full of energy. It is exhilarating." "[It] affected me differently than I had thought it would," Chris describes. "It was a personal thing. I couldn't hear anybody around me even though there were hundreds of people there on Shabbat. I felt like I was moving in slow motion." He also leaves with another, more immediate impression, after visiting Kibbutz Zippori near the border with Lebanon. The Birthright visitors were told stories from the Second Lebanon War and Chris was struck by the construction of the houses: they are made of stone. "My house is wood with vinyl siding. Your homes are all stone because there's always the chance of an attack," he says. "We are all vulnerable. We have 9/11 but we don't live with it on a daily basis. Here it never goes away. That is something I will take with me." Cindy's own parents are planning a trip as early as next year ("How about a 'Let My Parent's Parents Go' trip," Chris quips.) "It has been a wonderful opportunity," he says. "I would really like to thank Taglit and all the donors who make this possible for our kids. We're just so lucky to be here." Renee Feinman, 49, a biology teacher at Gibbs High School in St Petersburg, Florida, follows two children, Rachel and Mark, on Birthright programs. She and husband Alan, 50, also arrived thanks to an eagle-eyed child ? Rachel ? who saw the Taglit announcement about the contest for parents. Renee and Mark Feinman at the Taglit Mega-Event "Visiting Israel is like giving birth," Renee provides an analogy, which she then explains. "It's almost like reading 50 books about childbirth and then actually giving birth. You can't possibly understand childbirth until you go through it." During the parents' visit to Kibbutz Zippori, the Feinmans spoke with a woman who described being under mortar shell attack. "'How can you stay here?" we asked. She says, 'If I'm having a bad day, I take off my shoes and dig my toes in the soil and realize, that this is my home. I dig in my feet.'" She and Alan felt they shared a sense of cohesiveness in Israeli society. "We have to seek out Jews in America. To walk down the street and realize that everyone is Jewish ? we don't have that feeling back home. Everyone here feels deeply about the country. There's an overwhelming pride in this very young country," Renee says. They heard the story of the driver whose bus blew up. He went to work the next day. How could he do that, they inquired. "This is my living. This is my home," the driver told them. On their last Shabbat they went to services. "I'm a Conservative Jew back home," Alan said. "Here in Israel, I walked in and sat down and it was the same exact service. I'm in Jerusalem and felt like I was with my congregation back home. Maybe the food is different and the language is different and the architecture is different but it's my home too." Related articles: Birthright-Haaretz project Adelson foundation gives $25 million to Taglit-birthright A trip creates a lifetime connection Bookmark to del.icio.us   Internal fighting Human rights groups say torture is widespread in Palestinian lockups. Danger looms Pentagon chief Robert Gates warns: War with Iran would be 'disastrous.'   1.   "Birthright." 05:03  |  Maureen Ann 30/07/08   2.   BOO HOO, Moron Ann 06:43  |  judith 30/07/08   3.   MoronAnn 09:56  |  JaN 30/07/08   4.   To Maureen Ann 10:37  |  Nicole 30/07/08

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