By Michael Sudhalter
Micah Bernstein traveled to Israel to meet his newborn nephew. Kim Zoller went to visit her children and granddaughter. Howard Haber and Jamie Wise-Haber planned a honeymoon of a lifetime. Minna Goldminz extended a family visit.
Instead, all found themselves navigating a war — and a far more complicated journey home. Their experiences came during weeks of heightened tension and missile fire between Israel and Iran. A tenuous ceasefire has since taken hold, though uncertainty remains.
These North Texans were able to experience what they traveled to Israel to do, but their plans were significantly altered by the ongoing war with Iran. They said they are grateful for both the extended time they spent in Israel and their safe return home.
In the safe room, bonding with the baby
Bernstein, 21, now lives in Austin but has strong North Texas roots, having grown up in Dallas and graduating from Akiba Yavneh Academy in 2022.
His older sister, Rosie, made aliyah about a decade ago. His parents, Jordana and Josh, and younger sister, Shaya, followed in September 2023, and his older brother, Zach, made aliyah recently after graduating from The University of Texas at Austin.
Bernstein is the only member of his immediate family who does not live in Israel. He is not ruling it out, but for now is focused on working as a realtor, rap artist and in the restaurant industry.
Bernstein, who has traveled to Israel several times, left Austin on Feb. 15 with plans to return home on March 4.
“I heard the first sirens go off at 8:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning and from then, until I left on March 16, it was sirens, non-stop,” Bernstein said. “After a while, it felt like a quarantine. There were four or five sirens a day at random times.”
Bernstein downloaded an app on his phone that showed the location of missile warnings. He still follows that app now that he’s back in Texas.
“First you get a warning, and your phone goes off,” Bernstein said. “It’s a warning. It means in the next 5-10 minutes, you may get a siren because they’ve detected a missile that’s just been shot. You can get a warning and not a siren but most of the time you will.”
Bernstein’s older sister lives in Tel Aviv, but the family stayed with his parents in Modi’in-Maccabim-Re’ut, where he said it was safer.
When at home, the family enters a mamad — or reinforced safe room — in the house. When out, Israelis must find the closest available mamak (bomb shelter) at a moment’s notice. The average stay in the mamad or mamak is about 10 minutes each time.
Bernstein, who goes by the musical name MYQE and is also known by the title of one of his popular songs, “The Hotboy Hebrew,” had to communicate his extended stay in Israel to clients and business contacts in Texas.
“They were supportive for the most part — people were texting and checking up on me,” Bernstein said. “I was there 12 extra days, and I consider it a blessing.”
Only Israeli airlines were flying in and out of the country, and options were limited.
Bernstein was eventually able to book an El Al flight to Greece with help from the United States Embassy in Jerusalem. The flight home stopped in Switzerland and New York, and he paid for the final leg of the trip.
“All of the rockets made me think about all of this stuff we are dealing with and how it’s tough to be a pro-Israel Jew in today’s age,” Bernstein said.
Up and down with the sirens
Dallas resident Kim Zoller, a leadership development executive and author originally from South Africa, traveled to Israel to see her sons, granddaughter and daughter-in-law. She is a member of Congregation Shaare Tefilla.
Her sons, Benji and Sammy, both in their 20s, are graduates of Akiba Yavneh Academy who made aliyah and joined the Israel Defense Forces. One lives in Jerusalem and the other in Tel Aviv.
Zoller travels to Israel frequently to visit her children and baby granddaughter.
She experienced more sirens and warnings during this trip with her boyfriend, Adam Sheer. They arrived in early February with plans to return to Dallas at the end of the month.
“It was definitely unsettling,” Zoller said. “We were lucky to be all together. We stayed at an Airbnb in Tel Aviv. We just kept going up and down, up and down. We had no idea when the next siren would come. You’re in a building with a lot of people. Everyone is serious, and everyone is freaked out. They’re asking ‘How long do we have to stay in?’ It’s serious business, but you can’t freak out every time it happens, otherwise it’s constant freakout.”
Zoller and Sheer were able to find a flight home on March 13 on Israir.
“The process was a little crazy — you go online and start searching, searching, searching for a flight,” Zoller said. “My sons, thank G-d, know Hebrew and were able to communicate with Israir to confirm our flight. We thought we’d be there longer. You just don’t know until you’re actually on the plane and it’s taking off.”
The return flight included stops in the Czech Republic and Great Britain, but the couple was grateful to return.
Not the honeymoon they expected
Howard Haber, a Benbrook firefighter, had twice traveled to Israel as part of Emergency Volunteers Project, a program in which American firefighters volunteer in Israel. The Texas Jewish Post profiled the Fort Worth native in its Feb. 12 edition.
Haber and his wife, Jamie Wise-Haber, were married by Rabbi Andrew Bloom at Congregation Ahavath Sholom in Fort Worth on Feb. 21.
Two days later, the Parker County couple flew to Israel for a two-week honeymoon. Their trip ultimately lasted more than a month.
The first few days were fairly normal, including a tour of the Old City of Jerusalem and a visit to the Western Wall. The Habers stayed in both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Wise-Haber, a recent convert to Judaism, was making her first trip to Israel. The couple said they look forward to returning, despite spending much of this trip in bomb shelters.
“The Israelis are incredible people and resilient,” Wise-Haber said. “It’s amazing to watch, for them to make their lives as normal as possible, with chaos around it.”
Once the war began, sirens sometimes sounded hourly, though Haber said there was often a pattern around 2 a.m., 6 a.m., 10 a.m., 2 p.m., 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. He described it as “psychological warfare.”
“You can’t sleep,” Wise-Haber said. “Just the minute you calm down and close your eyes, you’re running to the shelter again. It’s a constant cycle.”
As their stay extended, the Habers found an Airbnb in Tel Aviv. Haber began volunteering for EVP, and Wise-Haber, who works in sales and marketing for a pharmacy company, worked remotely. They still found time to walk about four miles per day.
“Jamie said ‘go help’ because you feel so helpless in that situation,” Haber said. “We responded to some fires, and one was a missile that left a 10-foot crater in the ground. The only thing it destroyed was a tractor. We also responded to a missile that set an apartment complex on fire, and another one was a house.”
The Habers, who originally flew to Israel on United Airlines, explored options to return home. They considered traveling through Egypt or Jordan, based on guidance from the United States State Department, but encountered logistical challenges and were advised not to wear items identifying themselves as Jewish.
Ultimately, they coordinated with Ahavath Sholom President Martis Herman, who helped them secure an Israir flight to Athens on March 24. They were then able to use their original United flight from Athens to Dallas-Fort Worth, via Germany and Houston.
An exit through Egypt
Minna Goldminz of Plano, a member of Congregation Anshai Torah, traveled to Israel for the first time with her husband Mitch, son and daughter-in-law Jonathan and Pam in mid-February for about a week. They visited her grandson Zach who is in Israel on a Young Judea gap year program.
Her husband, son and daughter-in-law returned to North Texas, but encouraged her to stay a few extra days with relatives. Goldminz’s mother was born in Israel and she said she has deep roots there.
“It was an amazing feeling to be there,” Goldminz said. “I saw the house where my grandmother grew up.”
During those additional days, the war with Iran began. She went into a shelter nine times the first day and eight times the second. After that, it ranged from three to five times per day.
“I got used to what my family’s lifestyle is in Israel,” Goldminz said. “I wasn’t nervous or anxious. What can you do? It wouldn’t help. I went with the flow and did what I was supposed to do. I believe I was calm because I was with my cousin. She said, ‘no, it’s who you are.’ We were still able to go out and do things.”
Goldminz, who is retired, stayed in Israel for an additional five weeks. She attempted to find a flight home, but it was canceled.
In late March, a cousin arranged for her to travel to the southern Israel border with Egypt. She took a bus to Taba, Egypt, then boarded another bus to the airport.
Goldminz returned to the United States via Greece and New York on March 31, the day before the first Passover Seder. She visited her daughter in New Jersey before returning to Texas.
Leaving Egypt the day before Passover was not lost on her.
“We talked about that at the Seder,” she said.
