When Harriet Schendlinger went to Israel in late 2002, friends and family worried for her safety.
But it was a couple weeks after her return, in December, when Glendale-resident Schendlinger came under attack: She was mugged in broad daylight while walking with two friends in her own neighborhood.
While walking at Walgreens at Teutonia and Good Hope Avenues, the 79-year-old was assaulted by a man she cannot remember seeing and knocked unconscious. She suffered a broken rib and significant emotional trauma. Her house keys, purse and all its contents were stolen.
“When I go to Israel I don’t worry; I don’t fear anything will happen to me. I do take some precautions; I didn’t ride many busses on my last trip except in the Old City [of Jerusalem],” said Schendlinger during a recent interview.
Schendlinger returned last month from her 38th trip to the Jewish state. She spent about four weeks working in a Jerusalem soup kitchen through an organization called Livnot U’Lehibanot, which translates in English to “to build and be built.”
“I was looking for a volunteer program where I could be in touch with Israeli citizens who needed help. I had worked, a number of years ago, as a volunteer in an IDF program. I studied at an ulpan, taught an [English as a second language] course at Tel Aviv University and had been on many organizational tours.
“I had taken my family, all 14 of us, on a family tour and had come simply as a single visitor to reacquaint myself with people I had met. But I wanted to do something where I really felt useful — where I could make an impact,” said Shendlinger.
Calling herself the savta (grandmother) of the group, Schendlinger said that she loved being part of the Livnot group. “I loved everyone there and really felt wonderful among the 18-30 year olds [who made up most of the volunteer participants],” she said.
“The kitchen I worked for served 15,000-18,000 meals a week. Watching the people come in for their meals and then take them home to sick parents, wives, husbands and children who would otherwise not have nutritious meals, was a real heartwarming and depressing feeling at the same time. In addition to meals for civilians, hundreds of meals were prepared for the military personnel.”
‘Snaking up the mountain’
Schendlinger first went to Israel in 1960 on a trip for Hebrew teachers — she taught at Congregation Emanu-el B’nei Jeshurun — sponsored by the Jewish Agency for Israel.
“On Tisha B’Av we walked up Mt. Zion to King David’s tomb wearing shoes made without leather and carrying candles. When [I] saw so many people snaking up the mountain with candles, it melted me…. I cried. I have experienced many moving events in Israel, but this was the first. I still cry when I think of it,” Schendlinger added.
Between 1960 and 1965 she took three trips to Israel — once on a mission and once with her late husband of almost 40 years, who died 19 years ago — and since then “I have gone almost every year. I have missed some years, but then I have doubled up.”
Schendlinger comes from a long line of “Israel lovers,” she said. As a child she remembers standing on street corners in a little blue shirt and a blue skirt collecting money for the Jewish National Fund and Habonim, the Labor Zionist Youth Movement.
“My mother was a Zionist and was very active in everything Jewish, including Congregation Beth Israel, which was then on Teutonia Avenue,” she said.
A retired Milwaukee Public Schools teacher, she has not stopped working. She teaches Hebrew privately and is active and engaged in life. On the day of this interview she shopped and cooked for an event at the Wisconsin Society of Jewish Learning. Israel, however, remains her passion.
“I like to go [to Israel] and see everything that is happening…. I feel [Israel] is my home; these are my people. All of Israel is my family. I love Israel,” said Schendlinger.
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