TZFAT, Israel — A newly repaved crater in the main street of Tzfat. A tree split in half near a Haifa sidewalk. Shards of metal as a keepsake in a synagogue.

For recent New Jersey visitors to this town in northern Israel, these were the few bits of evidence of the war that ravaged northern Israel just three months ago.

In fact, most of the visitors didn’t even catch a glimpse of any of the sites of conflict, and some left disappointed that they didn’t get to “fully experience postwar Israel,” as one put it.

For most of the participants in the Zahav Statewide Mega-Mission, sponsored by the state Jewish federations in the Partnership 2000 consortium, the visit was testimony to the rebuilding effort that began the moment the war ended.

And while they noted that the physical damage of the war has been almost entirely fixed, the emotional damage inflicted upon northern Israelis remains an open wound.

“It feels very good coming here after a war,” Howard Gases, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Monmouth County, one of the federations participating in the mission, told NJJN in an interview at the Tzfat artist colony. “I just spoke to an art gallery owner who said he only reopened recently, and he was thrilled that we were here. I am glad we could come here to the North, because it’s important to show our solidarity at all times, especially after a war.”

The 77 mission participants heard horror stories from shopkeepers in Tzfat’s artist colony and people they met on a visit to Haifa. An Ethiopian immigrant in Afula told them that children who live in her neighborhood are frightened by school bells because they sound too much like the sirens that warned of impending rockets.

The mission was especially moving for David and Sheri Tarrab of Holmdel, because he was raised in Beirut, Lebanon, but had never been to Israel. He said touring Tzfat (also known as Safed), Afula, and Tel Aviv all reminded him of his former home in better days.

“They cleaned up Safed, but I don’t think Lebanon can be cleaned up in three months,” Tarrab said. “It’s difficult emotionally to be here because of my attachment to my family and friends who were on both sides of the war. But even though I am here for the first time, it feels like home or even more than home because it’s Jewish.”

Tarrab, a pediatric dentist whose emotional ordeal during the war was profiled in the July 25 edition of NJJN, said he felt no fear in visiting Israel and that on his return to Holmdel he would work to convince his friends to visit the Jewish state.

“Growing up in an environment of war, you learn it doesn’t mean the entire country is burning,” Tarrab said. “In the U.S., they don’t understand that.”

Sheri Tarrab said the trip was also special for her because she had been to Israel before and was excited about introducing the country to her husband; the couple also celebrated their wedding anniversary there.

Federation president Bob St. Lifer said he had been to Israel 15 times and is “addicted to the place.” He said he would make a personal effort to bring more Monmouth residents to Israel on subsidized missions.

“Monmouth has been very supportive of Israel,” St. Lifer said. “We always want to bring more people from Monmouth here. We need to get the word out that it’s safe. You can’t explain what it’s like here. Something moves deep inside your heart when you get here.”

Before traveling north to Afula, Tzfat, and Haifa, the mission went to Tel Aviv and Kibbutz Ein Gedi, which is part of the Tamar Regional Council, Monmouth federation’s sister community in the Jewish Agency’s Partnership 2000 program.

In Ein Gedi, the participants attended a celebration in honor of the anniversaries of the partnership and the founding of the Dead Sea-area kibbutz. Gases met with students from Ein Gedi who will be coming to Monmouth next month as part of the federation’s Living Bridge program. He said he was glad he got to see how federation funds were improving the lives of children in Ein Gedi.

“It’s all about building people-to-people connections that support the Jewish people,” Gases said. “It has been wonderful to celebrate together and see the fruits of our labors.”

The mission visited Afula’s Gvanim Elementary School, where a storage room was converted to a high-tech study center and play-room. Gideon Herscher of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee contrasted the sounds of schoolchildren during this mission to the silence in the empty school during the war.

A local resident named Yafit described her difficult journey from Ethiopia to Israel via Sudan in 1979 at age seven. She said her family had always dreamed about coming to Jerusalem, where her father had told her there was no war or sickness.

St. Lifer said he is always touched by stories from Ethiopian immigrants, and Yafit’s experience particularly moved him to tears. He said that “meeting people who care so deeply about being Jewish makes Israel special.”

At the school, the group observed language workshops with children whose families had immigrated from Ethiopia, Morocco, and the former Soviet Union. The children drew a hamsa (good-luck charm or amulet) for their visitors from New Jersey.

On the last day of their trip, on a visit to Hadassah Ein-Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem, the group surveyed another program that helps children. Kav-Or is a long-distance learning program designed to assist children who miss school due to illness and help them communicate with peers who have gone through similar circumstances.

Rafael Yudasin, the head of Hadassah’s pediatric unit, said that through the program, children and parents learn about medical procedures the youngsters are facing so they will know what to expect. UNESCO has endorsed the program, which has been presented in Tunisia and Qatar.

Gases said the mission was a success because it introduced participants to the many programs funded by federation contributions.

“We are doing wonderful work in Israel thanks to the people who give to federation, and we saw how their contributions really save lives,” Gases said. “You give to one place and it goes to hundreds of wonderful programs. The people of Monmouth have to come here on a mission to see how important it is to support Israel and the federation campaign.”