American Guild of Judaic Art

• Departure from the United States.

• Individual arrivals.
• 5:00 pm Meet your guide/educator David Zechariya at Ben Gurion Airport Terminal 3, Arrivals level (1) in front of the Steimatzky Bookstore.
• Proceed north toward the Sea of Galilee.
• Check in to the hotel.
• Welcome dinner at the hotel.
• Jewish Art, Israeli Art – Where Do They Connect? Introductory program at the hotel.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Compare and contrast the architecture and art of Galilean synagogues, focusing on the synagogues at Capernaum and Hamat Tiberias to explore how the motifs in both synagogues are manifested in Jewish life during the periods when the synagogues functioned as well as today.
• Drive to Safed.
• Lunch on own in Safed.
• Guided tour of synagogue architecture and art in Safed, including the Abuhav, HaAri and Caro synagogues.
• Counterparts I: The Artists of Safed:
  • Avraham Lowenthal: focused on universal spiritual concepts of the Kabbalah
  • Canaan Gallery (Orna and Yair Mor): handwoven fabric art, such as tallitot
• Return to the hotel.
• Dinner at the hotel.
• An artists’ dialogue with Galilean artist Ruth Kestenbaum Ben Dov, who says about her art: “Painting is a lifetime commitment, a source of inspiration and a continual challenge. Observation of reality keeps me focused, providing a foundation for journeys exploring multilevel identities, histories, and even languages, with text playing a role in many of my works.”

• Breakfast at the hotel and check out of the hotel.
• Short visit to the Kinneret Cemetery, for a glimpse into the trials and triumphs of the early Zionist pioneers, through the lives and poetry of Rachel Bluwstein, poet of the 2^nd Aliyah, and Naomi Shemer, author of Yerushalayim Shel Zahav.
• Continue to Kibbutz Gvat in the Jezreal Valley and visit the studio of Meirav Sudai for a special program on photographic art and learn how both Sudai and photographic artist Adi Nes use photography to explore identify, particularism and universalism in the context of Israeli society.
• Counterparts II: Drive to the Ein Hod Artists’ Colony for counterpart visits to artists in their studios (the group will split up into pairs or small groups of three). http://ein-hod.info/artists/artists.htm
• Drive to Jerusalem.
• Stop at the Haas Promenade for a welcome ceremony and an opportunity to recite the traditional Shehecheyanu blessing overlooking the Old City.
• Check in to the hotel, followed by a free evening and dinner on your own.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Yad Vashem: The Holocaust in Art: Guided visit of the Art Museum and sculpture garden, featuring works done during the Holocaust, by Holocaust survivors and contemporary artists about the Holocaust.
• Lunch on own.
• Step into another world and visit the quaint neighborhood/artists’ quarter of Ein Karem,
  tucked into the hills of Jerusalem, and meet with artist and herbalist, Hadar Kleidman, who engages in a variety of ancient crafts and who started the “BeChefetz Kapeha” (Willingly with her Hands) ancient crafts house, with the goal of teaching and preserving ancient knowledge designed in the spirit of bygone days. Enjoy demonstrations using ancient/folk techniques of basketry, wool, weaving, knitting, natural cosmetics, and herbalism.
• Our Jewish Journeys, a dialogue with artists Dov Abramson and Arik Weiss on their art, their Judaism and the paths they are traveling. https://www.arikweiss.com/ http://www.dovabramsonstudio.com
• Return to the hotel for free time and dinner on your own.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Guided visit through the Old City, including both the Christian and Jewish Quarters
• Optional tours: (additional fee)
  • Option I: Art in Jerusalem
    • Visit the Conegliano Veneto Synagogue and U. Nahon Museum of Italian Jewish Art, housed in what used to be The German Catholic Institution.
    • Guided walk through Nachlaot, one of Jerusalem’s most eclectic neighborhoods, including a visit to an artist’s studio.
    • Visit the Wolfson Museum of Jewish Art, located in Heichal Shlomo, the seat of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate. The conceptual narrative of the museum is “the One and the Oneness”, showing Jewish life as a delicate and intricate tapestry of relations between the individual and the community.
      

     

  • Option II: Day trip to the Dead Sea and Masada.
• Lunch on own, followed by free time for personal exploration and meeting colleagues and friends.
• Kabbalat Shabbat at one of Jerusalem’s synagogues or the Kotel (Western Wall).
• Shabbat dinner at the home of Hebrew calligrapher Eliahu Misgav, with his family.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Opportunity for Shabbat services at various synagogues, maps and directions will be provided.
• Lunch on own (lunch will be available at the hotel for an additional cost).
• Jerusalem is unlike any other city in the world, where many design patterns of diverse national, religious and ethnic cultures blend harmoniously in a cosmopolitan melting pot. Guided walking tour of Jerusalem’s multicultural design motifs in the Old City and west Jerusalem neighborhoods.
• Havdalah overlooking the Old City.
• Dinner on own, followed by a free evening in Jerusalem.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• The Israel Museum: Full morning in-depth visit to the Mandel Wing of Jewish Life that presents the religious and secular material culture of Jewish communities worldwide, spanning from the middle ages to the present day, and explore the open and closed collections, as well as meet with some of the artists involved in re-construction and display.
• Lunch on own en route.
• Drive in to the Judean Lowlands to explore the Yoav Yehudah Wine Route and visit Tzuba to hear about the transition of the Israeli wine industry into a center of award winning wines.
• Return to Jerusalem.
• Dinner and evening on own.

• Breakfast at the hotel and check out of the hotel.
• Workshop with Kol HaOt, which imparts Jewish values, texts and history through a creative synthesis of the visual and performing arts, with David Moss and Matt Berkowitz, in Hutzot HaYotzer.
• Lunch on own in Machane Yehuda open air market.
• Meeting with New Spirit (Ruach Hadasha) at Beit Alliance, located right near Machane Yehuda, and meet some of Israel’s future sources of creativity in this home for art, intellect, and ingenuity.
• Visit the Bezalel School of Art and Design for a special program with faculty and staff on new directions in Israeli and art and art education.
• Proceed to Tel Aviv.
• Check in to the hotel.
• Free time in Tel Aviv with dinner on own.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Guided visit through the Israeli Art wing of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, with the chief curator of the Museum.
• Guided visit to the Old City Hall, which is now an interactive museum space dedicated to past, present and future of Tel Aviv.
• Lunch on own in Nachalat Binyamin, which, over the past two decades, has become synonymous with quality Israeli crafts and folk art. The market is comprised of over 100 stands representing specialty crafts and folk art in virtually every medium imaginable: wood, stone, sand, glass, ceramics, various metals – with most if not all containing materials or themes found only in Israel.
• Tel Aviv: the First Hebrew City and the Bauhaus Gem, guided walk down Rothschild Blvd, a quasi “open-air Bauhaus museum” lined with many buildings designed by 1930’s European immigrant architects influenced by the work of the architectural “International Style,” overlaid on top of Ahuzat Bayit, the foundations of modern Tel Aviv.
• Dinner on own, with a free evening in Tel Aviv.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• The Jewish Yemenite Art & Culture Museum is part of a whole complex, consisting of a gallery that exhibits the original, hand-crafted, traditional Yemenite Jewish filigree jewelry and Judaica pieces made by Ben Zion David
• Creative Faces of Jaffa, visits in Jaffa that show different aspects of its aesthetics.
  • Guided walk through the Jaffa art galleries, including dialogues with leading Jaffa artists.
• Lunch on own.
• Free time and dinner on own.

• Breakfast at the hotel and check out.
• Free time for personal exploration.
• Return to Tel Aviv for Art as a Social Force, with artist and art historian, Shirel Horowitz.
• Lunch on own and free time for personal exploration and meeting colleagues and friends.
• Drive to Raanana to visit the gallery of Judaica Silversmith, Rachel Rowen.
• Festive farewell dinner TBA.
• Proceed to Ben Gurion International Airport for return flight to the United States.

• Return flight back home.

*All programs and speakers are subject to change, pending confirmations.