a day ago
Metro Detroit student details evacuation from Israel during conflict with Iran
When the conflict between Israel and Iran erupted, thousands of Americans were stranded in Israel, including 3,000 students attending organized programs.
Adam and Jennifer Fishkind, of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, quickly realized they were in a grave situation when their son Aidan could not return home.
"It was the most helpless feeling I've ever had, having him in there and not being able to do anything but say, 'It's going to be okay. You're going to be okay,'" said Jennifer Fishkind. "But you don't know."
Aidan was in Israel for a two-month-long summer internship through the Birthright Israel Onward program. Jennifer Fishkind said she and her husband didn't sleep when they knew their son was sheltering from salvos of missiles.
Aidan arrived back home in Michigan on Sunday, but the experience is still fresh in his mind.
"You felt it, you heard it," he said, describing the moments he would take shelter in the stairway of his hostel in Tel Aviv during a red alert. "The closest landing, I think, was about two miles away from where we were staying. You hear it, but you also feel the vibrations, kind of like a loud, deep thunder, is kind of the best way to describe it."
He spent the first days of the conflict in Tel Aviv, but his program worked fast to move thousands of American students to the Dead Sea, which was considered to be a safer area.
He said he was overwhelmed with calls and texts at all hours from worried loved ones and friends back home.
"It's difficult to comfort others while trying to keep yourself alive, so sometimes you just have to hope that people will be there for each other while you can't," he said.
Aidan's mother said she booked multiple flights to try to get him home, but they were all promptly canceled after flights from Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport were suspended on June 13. It became a waiting game, and she had to trust that the program he was on would get him home safely.
Birthright Israel Onward and the Jewish Federation of Detroit coordinated an evacuation for the students, which began with a boat from Israel to Cyprus. Aidan said that at one point, the internet on the ship was disabled so the students could not reveal their location for security reasons.
"They took care of things," said Jennifer Fishkind. "I mean, they moved heaven and earth to get him home."
The students traveled from the port of Ashdod to Cyprus, then to various airports in Europe, where they boarded flights to their hometowns.
Jennifer Fishkind described the moment she felt she could finally breathe again.
"Really, truly, when he walked out of international customs and I could get my arms around him," she said.
