East sider Lynn Stram was stuck in the Jewish homeland she loves
Back in early February, East Side Milwaukee resident Lynn Stram headed to Israel.
Then, in a quandary faced by many Americans during the war, she found herself stuck in the Jewish homeland that she loved.
“The purpose of my trip was tourism and also to visit friends — I used to live here — and to reassess whether I am ready to come back here to retire,” Stram said, in one of two interviews from Israel over several weeks. It was meant to be a month-long trip, spent in both Jerusalem and the north of the country.
“And then the war happened, two days before I was supposed to depart,” she recalled.
At the end of February, the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes in Iran, which not only led to missile attacks launched at Israel but also made air travel out of the country much more difficult. On multiple occasions, she had flights scheduled that were subsequently canceled because of the war.
The U.S. government at one point raised the possibility of a chartered shuttle bus from Israel to Amman, Jordan, to fly from there, though Stram opted not to pursue it, as she wasn’t sure how to get some questions answered about what seemed like a challenging trip. The State Department ultimately suspended that service. She also considered another option, through Egypt. “As a single woman – and I’m 66-anda-half years old – I walk with a cane. I am not crazy about making my way to Egypt by myself,” she said.
Stram remained in Israel throughout March and most of April. She even had a flight out after the ceasefire but fell ill and decided not to board.
At the time of her most recent interview with the Chronicle on April 20, Stram was planning to fly back to the United States on April 26.
While stranded, Stram reached out to the State Department and various elected officials representing Wisconsin; she singled out the offices of Sen. Ron Johnson and Rep. Gwen Moore for their especially helpful responses.
Stayed with friends
While stranded, Stram stayed with friends at first but later started staying in a hotel.
“Before the war, I was a tourist, and a friend of mine and I wanted to see the northern part of the country, the part of the country I wasn’t as familiar with, and we went to a number of the places that subsequently were bombed severely,” she said.
“During the war, I spent a lot of time going to bomb shelters if I was in a public place,” Stram said, noting that residences in Israel have fewer shelters and safe rooms than Americans probably assume.
While it was harrowing, Stram says she didn’t feel unsafe, noting that Jerusalem, where she spent most of her time, didn’t get “the brunt” of the missile attacks.
“At no point did I feel in danger,” she said. “I did see the smoke trails of the defensive systems when they shot down pieces of missiles… You could see smoke trails. You could hear explosions, often very loud.”
Stram first visited Israel when she was in high school, and she had taken a couple of “touristy” trips there over the years. Then, in 2007, she made Aliyah and lived in Jerusalem for nine years before returning to the States in 2016 when her mother needed care. After her mother died last year, Stram decided that “now it’s time for me to assess what I want to do.” So one of the purposes of the Israel trip was to decide whether she wanted to live there again.
“It’s very difficult for me to admit that I decided not to,” she said. “Before the war, I was ready. Before the war, I said yes, I’m going to do this.”
“I think is more a personal one than a result of the war,” she said. “I could still change my mind, obviously, but I need some distance after the experience of this trip to think about it again. My inclination at this point, I don’t feel I have the wherewithal to come back here. I don’t have family here, which is a very important component in anybody’s life.”
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