Travel Turmoil: Many Americans’ Holiday Plans Canceled, Others Find Path Home
War-driven chaos leaves some stranded, others rerouted through Egypt and Jordan, and many with ties to Israel forced to celebrate apart from their families
By Felice Friedson / The Media Line
A Californian could not celebrate her daughter’s bat mitzvah in Israel, a New York Israeli is not going to share Passover with her parents in Jerusalem, and a Texan made it home to be with family for the holiday. They are all victims of the abrupt cancellations of flights, the collateral damage of a war that America and Israel are fighting against a common enemy.
Lily Feinstein was still catching her breath from an exhausting scramble through Egypt and Greece when she finally stepped up to the customs counter at the airport in New York. “My biggest fear throughout the whole war was getting stuck outside of the country rather than in the country,” said the 20yearold Dallas native, now a secondyear communications and marketing student at Reichman University in Herzliya. “There was never a moment where I felt scared or something was going to happen to me. But rather, if I had to leave, what was going to happen then?”
She left Israel anyway. With Passover approaching and her family expecting her at the Seder, Feinstein tried the normal routes first. “I had a couple of flights booked with El Al. My flights kept getting canceled,” she recalled. Flights were still officially coming and going from Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport, but “just really not a lot,” and each new booking carried the risk of being stranded in transit. “I just didn’t want to risk booking another flight and maybe getting stuck again. I just made the decision to go through Egypt.”
Her detour through Cairo’s airport captured the chaos now defining Israel‑related travel. “It was an experience for sure. I definitely wouldn’t recommend it,” Feinstein said. “It’s not a good feeling when you don’t have the IDF behind you, and you’re alone.”
She described an overwhelmed terminal that seemed to exist solely for Jews trying to get out of the region. “There was nobody else in the airport there. It was literally just Jews. There was not even one Egyptian person in the airport other than the staff and security, but it was chaos. Lines at the door. Their airport’s not equipped to handle what they’re doing.”
Tziril Yurman, raised in Israel until age 27 and now living on New York City’s Upper East Side, where she works in admissions and marketing for nursing homes, was set to fly El Al on March 25 to spend Passover with her elderly parents in Jerusalem, but her 6 pm flight was canceled.
“Complete and utter devastation,” Yurman said, describing her reaction at the time. “I felt like I could not get home. I grew up there. But besides that, it’s home for every Jew, and I still feel stranded.” She had traveled freely during COVID and after Oct. 7, but this was different: “This is the first time where an Israeli, a Jew, who’s holding an Israeli passport, cannot get home.”
Instead, she will join her sister at a large Pesach program in Cancun, Mexico—over 1,500 people strong. Security weighs heavily, she said, as tourist spots are “definitely being looked at.” Organizers are ramping up escorts and patrols, though she could not confirm if costs have risen.
On the other side of the world, Melissa Cohen in California was experiencing a very different kind of disruption. Cohen, an attorney and mother of three girls, had spent more than a year planning what she calls “the trip of a lifetime” to Israel for her middle daughter Alexa’s bat mitzvah. “We actually hadn’t, I hadn’t been to Israel in over 30 years before last year for our spring break,” she said. As a teenager in Houston, she had gone with her Jewish community and again for her brother’s bar mitzvah, but only after October 7 did she feel an urgent need to return.
With Israel “being vilified for everything” in the media and the war in Gaza dominating headlines, Cohen and her husband decided to show their daughters the country themselves. “We wanted to take our family for the first time last year, so that we could see for ourselves, so that we could be there, so that we could support Israel, and give our tourism dollars to Israel, and give our children a sense of connection,” she said. The springbreak trip worked: “All of my girls, 16, 12, and 10, fell in love with the country, and felt so connected.”
They left Israel last year, already planning the bat mitzvah return. “Before we touched down on American soil, we sent a note to all of our friends saying next year in Jerusalem,” Cohen recalled. This time, the focus was supposed to be joy and normalcy: beaches in Tel Aviv, the desert, a Bedouin tent, and, on the second‑to‑last day, a bat mitzvah ceremony at the Western Wall. “This was really going to be the trip of a lifetime, in a way,” she said. “Being there with all of these people together, our family and friends traveling together, having one experience together, might not ever happen again.”
Then came the war with Iran. As Israel’s campaign intensified and missiles flew, the government imposed severe limits at Ben-Gurion airport: only one flight an hour leaving to a limited number of destinations, such as Athens and New York, and just 50 passengers allowed on any plane departing Tel Aviv. “The vast majority of future bookings, both incoming and outgoing, has ground to a halt,” said Mark Feldman, CEO of Ziontours Jerusalem, describing a tourism sector “paralyzed by uncertainty.” Tens of thousands of Israelis remain stuck overseas, primarily in North America and the Far East, while missions and group tours have all but disappeared.
Cohen watched those developments with growing unease. “Starting with the moment we attacked Iran,” she said, “I thought, OK, well, this will be just like the 12‑day war last year. They’re even weaker than they were then, and this should be over soon, and this is good news, because this gives us time … and we’re good to go.” But each passing day eroded that optimism. She and the roughly 40 relatives and friends coming from Houston, California, New York and Boston experienced what she calls “whiplash”—one moment thinking “maybe this is going to happen,” the next that “there’s not a chance.”
In the end, the airlines made the decision for them. As foreign carriers halted Israel routes and remaining seats vanished, Cohen saw her carefully planned celebration disintegrate. “They canceled flights, and then it just became very clear, I would say, seven, maybe 10 days ago, it became very clear that this was not going to happen,” she said. Passover and Easter itineraries like hers, often booked a year ahead, “have crumbled,” Feldman noted, either because airlines stopped flying or “because they have chosen not to be in Israel during a war.”
Yurman shares Cohen’s determination to support Israel despite the chaos. “Support the Jewish economy, the Jewish Israeli economy,” she urged. “Support any Israeli thing, anything you can, if it’s something online.” She orders flowers and gifts for family there, and calls on visitors to buy local—falafel, ice cream, or bigger items—to help stores and tourism rebound.
The financial fallout has been uneven. Cohen’s tour guide assured her that hotel reservations were refundable, a rare bright spot. But her attempt to save on airfare by using a third‑party ticket agency backfired. “That is not refundable,” she said. Instead of a straightforward airline credit, the company imposed “a $400 processing fee, plus a $300 commission fee on each ticket that they’re going to take.” Looking back, she admits, “In retrospect, I probably should have just gone directly through United. … I was overly confident that nothing was going to happen.”
Cohen’s miscalculation reflects the broader sense that, until very recently, the skies over Israel had cleared. “Since the war last year in the summer, everything has been great,” she said. Tourism surged, hotels imposed sevennight minimums over Passover, and prices climbed sharply as if the crisis had passed. It felt like the country had moved on and that tourists were no longer scared to visit.
For now, much of the travel system has seized up. Feldman says the government has offered no direct aid, while the “one flight an hour” rule leaves a glut of travelers with “no ability” to get home. Arkia, one of Israel’s domestic carriers, now routes solely from JFK to Larnaca, Cyprus, for lack of landing slots. The US Embassy is busing American citizens to Amman’s airport in Jordan. “Short of a death certificate or a highlevel El Al frequent flier number, just getting out this week is almost a miracle,” Feldman said.
Feldman noted pockets of gouging amid the chaos: El Al’s $999 NYC economy tickets sell out instantly, with “finding space more than one or two days in advance … not possible,” while Amman’s Royal Jordanian demands $2,900 one-way to JFK, “way more than their normal fare.” Oil spikes from the war haven’t landed yet, but “will affect future ticket prices, when the system reboots,” he added.
The alternative routes that Feinstein and others used—Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus—have become lifelines. Foreign journalists slip into Israel via land crossings, and Feldman reported “zero reports of any problems (other than a request for tips).” Yet the path is hardly comfortable. Feinstein said she “definitely felt safer in Israel” than in an Egyptian airport thronged with anxious passengers. She is now heading to Florida to meet her family and is already worried about the return journey. “I don’t want to have to go through Egypt or Jordan again,” she said. “I’m hoping I don’t have to do that again.”
Yurman plans to return right after Passover, no matter the obstacles. “Without a question,” she said.
Cancellations have transformed sacred family milestones. Instead of celebrating in Jerusalem at the Kotel, Cohen will now celebrate her daughter’s bat mitzvah at home. “I’ve spent the past week to two weeks planning a new bat mitzvah for April 11, the same day it was supposed to be,” she said. The venue has shifted from Jerusalem’s Old City to the family backyard in the Bay Area.
“Our whole family that was coming to Israel is coming here,” Cohen explained. “Everyone had tickets, they took the time off, they were planning to be away. And we’re going do it here,” she said. “…It’s going to be a very different experience. But I think it will be special, nonetheless.”
Cohen recognizes that rising antisemitic incidents and anti-Israel sentiments have heightened fears around Jewish communal gatherings. She notes “a lot of concern” about attacks on Jews, but says, “I don’t think it’s going to change how I live my life. That’s just not how I operate daily.” Some of her friends are “very worried, very concerned,” and “don’t like going to synagogues now for bar mitzvahs” or to events with Jewish speakers. “I just can’t live that way,” she said. Yurman echoed those worries abroad but remained resolute.
The war itself remains hard for Americans to grasp, the women say. As a communications student, Feinstein believes many in the US see only missiles and mayhem. “They think that Israel is a scary place, with missiles all the time, and there’s no fun,” she said. Most “don’t even know you can study in English in Israel,” or that young people like her can lead ordinary lives between sirens. She uses her modest Instagram platform to “showcase Israel in a positive light and all the fun and everything that you can do in Israel,” hoping to make it feel “not so far away and foreign.”
Yurman said the public misses the constant reality of sirens and shelter runs. “Just turn on the alarm on your phone, … just feel it with them,” she said. “You don’t have to run to a shelter, but just think that that many times people with children, old people, young people, babies have to run into shelters.”
Feinstein sees the conflict with Iran in sweeping terms. “Without being too political, I would say that Iran has been given too much military power,” she said. In her view, Israel is “fighting a war on behalf of the whole world and protecting the whole world,” including Americans who may not realize they are being defended. “Iran having any sort of nuclear weapon is terrifying for the world,” she added. “Even right now, in this exact moment, it sucks that we have to deal with the consequences of war and fighting and all that. But in the long term, being able to fight this war now will protect the Jews, and honestly, everybody around the world, hopefully for forever.”
Yurman agreed the war is “definitely necessary” and overdue, calling Iran a global threat that could lead to another 9/11. “I definitely think it’s doing what it should,” she said. “It’s a legit threat, not only to Israel, but to the world.”
Cohen is skeptical of the messaging coming from Washington. “I don’t think Americans understand it. I don’t think anyone understands it,” she said of the war with Iran. “The messaging that is coming out of our administration is inaccurate, and untruthful, and bombastic. And so, I think it’s hard to know what’s real and what’s not.” Still, she believes the stakes could justify the campaign. “This could create a Middle East that is safer, not just for Israel and Jews, but safer for the world,” she said, while adding, “as to whether or not that is actually going to come to fruition, I don’t think anyone knows.”
Back in Israel, the shockwaves of grounded planes and empty tour buses will last long after the holidays. Feldman predicts that outbound travel will rebound within “one or two months” after a ceasefire, but inbound tourism will take “a solid six months” to recover. Hotels and guides, he warns, will hurt the longest, as many leave the industry “for stability, just as before.” Nothing will normalize “until the war has ended in Iran and missiles stop being fired from Lebanon,” he said. Yurman called on supporters to help speed that recovery: “When you end up taking a trip to Israel, you end up buying things in Israel. … Just support them.”
Feinstein is already thinking beyond this Passover, balancing her activism and her studies with her desire to stay rooted in Israel. After October 7, she co‑founded Mini Mitzvahs, a nonprofit that has “fed 60,000 soldiers on the front lines and visited injured soldiers in the hospital.” She and her friends have fulfilled “about 500 to 600 personal wish list requests” for wounded troops from Gaza and Lebanon and organized three barbecues on an air force base, feeding “over 100 pilots and 400 F‑16 plane technicians.”
For now, though, her focus is more personal: spend Passover with her family in Florida, then somehow get back to school without another harrowing detour. “I think anyone who wanted to get out was able to get out,” she said, noting that most students leaving Israel now are doing so for spring break, not out of fear. “They’re not running away. They’re not fleeing. They just want to be with their families for this time.”
After Passover ends, Feinstein will face her biggest worry: repeating the grueling trip back to Israel. “I definitely felt safer in Israel” than on the road, she said. The challenge, for now, is not the desire to be there—but finding a way to get back without another “experience” she hopes never to repeat.
PHOTO – Janie Levitan, Noa Haron, Michal Shabi, Tali Fiske and Lily Feinstein celebrate Shabbat at their apartment in Herzliya, 2025. (Courtesy Lily Feinstein)
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