Elaine Chan | NY Daily News

For Lee Greenberg and Jonathan Fiskus, the flight they took from Kennedy Airport to Israel at the end of May was no ordinary trip. In fact, it was more like a sentimental journey.

Greenberg, 24, was one of 29 people with mental and physical disabilities to go on a 10-day trip to Israel co-organized by Taglit-Birthright Israel and the National Jewish Council for Disabilities.

He made the trip despite suffering excruciating pain from reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome, a rare nervous condition characterized by severe chronic pain that may spread to other parts of the body.

Nevertheless, said the schoolteacher and South Jersey resident, he wouldn't have missed the trip.

"On a scale of 10, my pain would be 8. A gust of wind will set off horrible agonizing pain in my body," Greenberg said. "Israel was an amazing escape. Sometimes I got caught in the moment ... and it distracted me from the pain. It became tolerable for a while."

The journey took place from May 30 to June 11, covering Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Tiberias and the Golan Heights, and stopping at such attractions as the Dead Sea, the Western Wall and Mount Masada.

Fiskus, a life-long Jamaica resident and a graduate student majoring in psychology, volunteered as adviser and was one of 13 staff members on the trip. He helped take care of the special needs of the physically and mentally challenged participants, some of whom needed assistance with such everyday tasks as showering and changing clothes.

"We had three participants in wheelchairs," Fiskus said. "They've probably never been to the ocean before, but [there they were] lounging and floating [in the Dead Sea]."

They were able to do that, he noted, because the Dead Sea's high salt content allows people to easily float in its waters without having to tread water.

Even though he spent a good portion of his time helping others, Fiskus said that the voyage deepened his own connection with Israel.

"As a Jewish person from America, you get a spiritual feeling knowing you're in a place that God has given you," he said.

Greenberg, too, expressed a stronger interest in his heritage in the wake of the trip.

"I'm not religious, but this trip was absolutely amazing and I've been reconsidering my faith," Greenberg said. It's become important to me now ... partly because of my condition."

To date, 145,000 young adults from 52 countries have visited Israel under the auspices of Birthright.