Temple Judea Israel Adventure -- Final Post

Well, last night we had our goodbye dinner at the wonderful Olive and Fish restaurant. I am writing these words sitting outside on a cool, beautiful Jerusalem Wednesday morning, overlooking King George Street, at Cup o Joe Cafe. We all had a great time on the trip and people want to go back. We decided a better name for the trip is "adventure" then "excursion" since there were plenty of adventures, such as climbing down mountains and exploring ancient tunnels with knee-deep water. But everyone was a trooper and would not change a thing!
So make plans to join your temple for another Israel adventure in a couple of years, unless you can come here before.
Shalom from Jerusalem!

Temple Judea Israel Report #6

The last couple of days have been filled with activity! On Sunday morning Dr. Reuven Hazan of Hebrew University gave us a lesson in Israeli political science, a few hours before the foreign policy speech of the Prime Minister. We then went to a soup kitchen that feeds many hungry individuals in Jerusalem and helped make lunch for them. Afterwards, we toured the Israel Museum’s model of the ancient city of Jerusalem and looked at the Dead Sea Scrolls. Most of the group then visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial, while I went with one of our tour members, Josh, to the terrific Jerusalem zoo.

Today we left very early and many of us climbed the fortress Masada. There we had many of our bar-mitzvah age youngsters read from the Torah. We also took a hike to a beautiful spring in the middle of the dessert and everyone jumped in from the cliffs. After floating in the Dead Sea we have returned home. Tonight many of us will visit the special Jerusalem light show. We are told there is nothing else like it in the world.

Tomorrow we visit the Old City of Jerusalem as well as the new city’s market. I eagerly anticipate the best chocolate rugelach in the world!

Temple Judea Israel Report #5

We have spent a beautiful Shabbat in Jerusalem. The key word for our trip has been “chick-chack” – which means “hurry up” – but thankfully Shabbat has been a little slower. Yesterday we challenged gravity by climbing down a steep cliff near the town of Tiberius. We saw caves where Jews hid from the Assyrians more than two thousand years ago. We also went for a swim in some natural pools and made our way to Jerusalem. On Shabbat we visited the Old City of Jerusalem and quickly learned about more than two thousand years of Jewish life in this sacred city.
Everyone is having a terrific time and the kids are great troopers! Tomorrow (Sunday) we will visit the Holocaust Memorial, Yad Vashem. We will be going to Masada on Monday (race, anyone?) and – believe it or not – the closing day is Tuesday!

Report From Israel #4

Today we had a lot of adventure and fun. We started in Safed, one of the four holiest cities in Israel. We visited holy synagogues, shopped, and I had a great vegetarian lunch. We then went hiking in the Dan Nature Preserve (a little bit of Colorado) and afterwards took a bumpy but fun jeep ride in the Golan Heights. Tonight we will relax at the luxurious kibbutz and prepare to ascend tomorrow to Jerusalem for Shabbat.

Report #3 from the Temple Judea Israel Excursion

This Wednesday was very busy. We began the day by visiting Rabin Square in Tel Aviv. It was here that the late Prime Minister was murdered by an orthodox Jewish student as he was leaving a peace rally. The site has become a place of pilgrimage for people who wonder what might have happened if this peacemaker had lived. In Central Park people visit John Lennon’s memorial and ponder the word”imagine”. At Rabin Square they see the graffiti left on the wall next to wear he was gunned down. The word is “forgive us”.
Our travels then took us to the ancient ruins of Caeseria and, seventeen miles away, a water system built by the Romans to carry water to Caeseria. We walked through long tunnels in ever-higher water. Last I checked everyone survived.
A highlight of the trip was a kayak/raft race down the “mighty” Jordan River. I have no pictures because I left my camera on the bus, knowing I would get extremely wet, or at least try to get everyone else wet! (I can report that both happened.)
Tonight we are at a beautiful Kibbutz/Spa and relaxing.

Report #2 from the Israel Excursion

Today was a very busy day. We began with a delicious breakfast by the Sea. Half of Florida seems to be here, at least half the Reform rabbis, leading congregational trips between school letting out and camp beginning. Our first official stop was the site of the home of the first mayor of Tel Aviv, aptly named Meir Dizengoff. Tel Aviv is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. One hundred years ago, a group of Jews living in Jaffa, including Dizengoff, decided to start a suburb north of the city. They called it Ahuzat bayit and used sea shells as a lottery system to determine where people would build their houses. The city quickly took off. A few years earlier the founder of political Zionism, Theodor Herzl, had written a book about life in the new Jewish State. The German title translated as "The Old New Land" but the Hebrew edition used the biblical term from Ezekiel, Tel Aviv. A tel is an ancient archeological site, and Aviv is the Hebrew for springtime. Hence, old and new. The novel inspired the renaming of the city Tel Aviv, and the rest is history. Meir Dizengoff gave his house to the city, where it became the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. In May 1948, when the State of Israel was declared, Jerusalem was under siege and even Tel Aviv was not safe from Arab attacks so they had to pick a relatively safe place to declare the state. The old Dizengoff house was the perfect place. And the rest really is history.

Our group also visited a kibbutz where, underground and unbeknownst to the British, Jews made bullets to fight in the eventual War of Independence. After a lunch at a great coffee shop, Cafe Aroma, our group joined an archeological dig and discovered pottery that had not been touched in 2200 years. We also explored some other caves before returning to Tel Aviv for a night on the town!

Report #1 from the Israel Excursion

Israel is beautiful (and much cooler than Miami)! By Monday evening our entire group of twenty-three had arrived. We were joined by our guide, Renee, and a representative of Arza World Travel, Arin, for a delicious dinner. We were then told we were free to go to sleep and rest up for an exciting day but none of us went to sleep. Instead we all took cabs to Jaffa to walk around one of the world's oldest cities by the light of a full moon. The place was hosting a big corporate party and it was strange to see young Israeli executives in sleek evening wear amid the ancient hills.

This morning we are having breakfast at the hotel on the beach and then visiting Independence Hall, the cite of the signing of the Israeli Declaration of Independence in May, 1948. Will also visit a factory that made secret arms for the Jewish fighters under the nose of the British in 1946 and we will take part in an archeological dig.