The promise of Israeli food, song, and dance might have been the main attraction at the Israel Day program for about 48 seniors gathered at Congregation Beth Israel in Scotch Plains last Wednesday, July 25.

But what came to the fore was their passionate concern for Israel's well-being.

The event was part of the Sensational Summer 2007 program offered to people over 60 by the Jewish Community Center of Central New Jersey. It was hosted by Nan Statton, the JCC's director of senior adult services, and Michele Dreiblatt, its director of cultural arts and education.

The stars of the event were three young Israelis, Shiran Ben Yehuda, Gal Torgmann, and Lidor David, all shlihim — Israel emissaries — working for two months as counselors at the JCC's Camp Yachad.

It was a decided change of pace for them. Only a few brave souls stepped up for the dance lesson offered by dance specialist David; the other guests preferred to watch. But when it came to asking questions, hands shot up all over the room and people were arguing for the chance to be heard. David, Torgmann, and Ben Yehuda found their English stretched to its limits as they answered questions that ranged from the personal to the political and economic.

They were asked how they feel about fervently Orthodox people who don't serve in the army ("They think they are also protecting the country — by praying and studying," Ben Yehuda said) and whether it is "verboten" to date Arab Israelis ("It's not forbidden, but we live very separate lives so it doesn't happen a lot," answered Torgmann).

But the most urgent questions focused on the conflict between Israel and its neighbors and the Palestinians and what it is like to live with such tension. "Do you think there will ever be peace?" volunteer Marilyn Kurtzman of Westfield asked. Later, she said, "We hear what the older people have to say all the time. I wanted to hear what these young people think."

The three Israelis hesitated, trying to be diplomatic, and then agreed that they are hopeful but not optimistic. "We live all the time with the chance of a kind of 9/11," Ben Yehuda said.

They were all grilled about their military experiences. Ben Yehuda spent three years in the military rather than the standard two for girls so that she could work as a pilot trainer, updating seasoned pilots often many years her senior on the workings of F15 fighter jets. David was a gunner in a tank unit. Four men from his unit were killed last year in the fighting in Lebanon. Asked about the experience, he said, "It makes you more mature. You look at life differently."

"They are so different from our young people here," said Rose Kohl of North Plainfield, who first visited prestate Israel 81 years ago with her parents, and has returned a number of times since. "They've been through so much more."

"If there's a problem, could you be redrafted?" asked Fay Pell of Westfield, who was celebrating her 94th birthday that day. Torgmann, who was involved in support efforts like building up soldiers' morale, said that when fighting is under way, her kind of work falls away. "The actual fighting is the boys' job," she said.

Pell's son, Barrett King, and his wife, Barbara, who live in Saddle Brook, were with her. They had offered to take her anywhere she wanted to celebrate her birthday, and she chose to come to the Israel event. "I'm interested in Israel — and I knew I would see people I know," she said.

Pell has a special connection to Israel; her late husband was born there. So was 101-year-old Judah Titkin of Westfield, though he pointed out, "It wasn't Israel then." His grandparents, fleeing pogroms in Russia, settled in Jerusalem in the late 1800s. His mother was born there, and so was he. He came to the United States with his parents at the age of 14.

After the dance lesson, the counselors led the audience in singing, starting with "Yom Huledet Sameah," "Happy Birthday" in Hebrew for Pell. When they went on to "Hatikva," everyone stood up. "I'll tell you what the words mean in English," Ben Yehuda said, expecting to take the crowd through a line-by-line lesson. But when the three counselors started singing, they found the whole crowd was singing along with them. "You all know the words," Ben Yehuda exclaimed.

The Israelis acknowledged that the seniors had been a tougher audience than their usual, but they appreciated the intense interest in Israel.

"Being here makes me love Israel even more," Torgmann said. Part of that feeling came simply from missing home, she said, and part was from this kind of discussion, focusing on just what makes the country so special.