When you have children and grandchildren living far away, you tend to always be planning or waiting for the next trip. As our daughter, son-in-law and their five children live in Israel, my husband and I are definitely among those who are always either planning or knowing when the next trip will be happening.

Last April, while everyone was in the midst of the Passover holiday, our tickets to Israel for Sukkot (celebrated in October) were already purchased. All that we were left to worry about was whether there would be a worsening of the fighting with Hamas, which might cause our flight to be canceled.

Since the war with Gaza began in October 2023, the only airline that could be counted on to consistently fly to Israel — with the exception of a few days during the “12-day war” with Iran — was El Al.

Ever since our “kids” moved to Israel four years ago, my husband Marc and I began traveling to Israel twice a year. As a result, we tried to be as economical as possible when buying tickets to visit them. Unfortunately, the price of tickets on El Al has skyrocketed, so Marc spends hours (and hours and hours) searching for flights that are reasonably priced, even if it means including a short stopover somewhere.

Our trips to Israel most often take place during Passover and Hanukkah — times when flying to Israel costs even more. These holidays are also when our Israeli grandchildren are off from school and we are able to actually spend time with them!

Our most recent trip in October was different for us. Although I’ve been in Israel more times than I can count —including a semester at Hebrew University during college and two, six- week summer tours during which I worked as a counselor — I have never been in Israel for this joyous, fall holiday.

While I looked forward to this new experience, what made planning this trip even more exciting was that we were going to celebrate the bat mitzvah of my granddaughter, Aliza, just two days after the holiday ended.

My daughter, her husband and children live in Efrat, a religious community established in the Gush Etzion area in 1983 by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, along with a group of Americans and Israelis. Many of the young families who live in Zayit —........

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