Beth Sholom Teaneck

• Departure from the United States.

Note: The first day’s itinerary is subject to change depending on the flight arrival.

• Arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport, with assistance by a Makor Educational Journeys representative.
• Proceed to Tel Aviv.
• Check in to the hotel.
• From the Four Corners of the Earth, a welcome program overlooking the Mediterranean from the Jaffa overlook, which for centuries was the gateway to the Land of Israel.
• Guided walking tour through the Old City of Jaffa, tracing its story from the days of the Bible through the Jaffa Port.
• Welcome dinner and introduction to the program in a Jaffa.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Text analysis and discussion of the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah, with Rachel Korazim.
• From Hebrew City to Hebrew State: Walk the Tel Aviv “Independence Trail,” which begins with the founding of Tel Aviv in 1909 and ends with the establishment of Israel in 1948. Visit the first homes of Tel Aviv built on sand dunes, the mosaic of Jaffa’s history created by Nahum Gutman, the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium, the Great Synagogue, the Haganah Museum, the first branch of the Bank of Israel, the monument commemorating Tel Aviv’s founders, the statue of the city’s first mayor, Meir Dizengoff, and the site of Independence Hall.
• Lunch on own.
• The Peres Center for Peace and Innovation presents the journey from the early days of the State to the Startup Nation of today and beyond and promotes peacebuilding between Israel and its neighbors (particularly between Israelis and Palestinians), and between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel.
• Travel to Or Yehuda.
• Meet with Ranan Hartman, President of Ono Academic College, and students at the college’s academic campus for men and women from ultra-Orthodox backgrounds. Ono College provides opportunities to acquire a high-level academic education and empowers its students to seek positions in businesses, accounting firms, law offices and the public sector. Its students learn to provide for their families and become productive citizens of Israeli society.
• Return to Tel Aviv.
• Dinner and evening on own.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Led by BINA participants, enter the “Belly of the Beast” at the New Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv to examine the unique subculture that has evolved in the empty spaces of the station and the communities which it serves, while raising issues of social, financial, and racial gaps in Tel Aviv, the “White City.”
• Guided tour in Florentine, Tel Aviv’s most bohemian and upbeat neighborhood and learn about contemporary Israeli culture through urban art: writing on the wall, graffiti, bumper stickers and even painted garbage bins.
• Lunch on own in the Levinsky Balkan Spice Market.
• At the Nalaga’at Center, home to the Deaf-Blind Theater, explore the worlds of sound, background noise, rhythm, musical instruments, mix and melody. Rediscover both the sense of hearing and the act of listening through various experiences of musical expression in total darkness. Blind or visually impaired instructors’ inspiring life stories are interwoven with the music.
• Dinner and evening on own.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Check out of the hotel.
• Grain, Wine, Oil: The most beloved and well-known Shabbat home rituals are based on Deuteronomy 11:14: “… then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil.” Using:
  • Grain – Bake challot for a “Kabbalat Shabbat” with a nursery school
  • Wine – Wine-tasting in a local boutique winery or with a professional wine expert
  • Oil: Visit an visitor’s center and learn about olive growing and the olive oil production process; taste the different olive oil species
• Continue to Zichron Yaakov.
• Lunch on own en route.
• Check in to the hotel.
• Kabbalat Shabbat with Kehillat Ve’Ahavta.
• Shabbat home hospitality dinner with members of Kehillat Ve’Ahavta.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Shabbat morning services with Kehillat Ve’Ahavta.
• Study session with Rabbi Elisha Wolfin.
• Lunch at the hotel.
• Guided walking tour along the Zichron Ya’akov pedestrian walkway and main street.
• Optional late Shabbat afternoon walk through Ein Zur, a spring that flows year round through a tunnel that was hewn in the rock; a shaded brook; observation points overlooking vistas of Hanadiv Valley and the hills of Samaria; prehistoric agricultural areas (reconstructed); an ancient bath house; a rich archaeological complex; and the remains of a farmhouse from the Ottoman period.
• Dinner and evening on own.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Check out of the hotel.
• Guided tour of the First Aliyah Museum, which tells the story of the young pioneers who journeyed from the Diaspora to settle the Land of Israel during the “First Aliyah” (1882-1903).
• Travel to the Druze village of ‘Isafiya.
• Guided tour with Rajaa Keis Mansur, whose vision created the Carmel Heritage Center and the Development of the Druze Woman and meet with Gen. (res.) Amal Assad to discuss the place of the Druze in Israel today. Enjoy a Druze hospitality experience.
• Lunch on own in the neighboring Daliyat el Karmel market.
• Proceed to Kfar Kana.
• Meet with the leaders of Sindyanna of Galilee, a non-profit organization led by a team of Arab and Jewish women who are creating social change with the production of high-quality olive oil and other premium food products. Sindyanna enhances Arab-Jewish cooperation, promoting Fair Trade, creating economic opportunities for Arab women, and assisting local growers and producers.
• Continue to the Kinneret.
• Dreams and Realities: Visit the Kinneret Farm, considered one of the cornerstones of the early Zionist movement and its pioneers.
• Conclude the afternoon with a visit to the Kinneret Cemetery where Rachel, the visionary and poet, and Naomi Shemer, the writer of Yerushalayim Shel Zahav, are buried.
• Proceed to the hotel and check in to the hotel.
• Dinner at the hotel.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Nature walk through the Tel Dan Reserve, along the Dan River, concluding at Tel Dan itself, one of Israel’s most significant Biblical sites.
• Putting Zionism into Historical Context, with Danny Gutwein of the Tel Hai Academic College.
• Jeep ride ascending the Golan Heights, with both nature and stories from the Six Day and Yom Kippur Wars.
• Lunch on own.
• Ascend Mount Bental, overlooking Syria, for a wider look and perspective on the events and aftermath of Israel’s wars of 1967 and 1973 and the issues confronting Israel and the Middle East today.
• Return to the hotel.
• Dinner at the hotel.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Check out of the hotel.
• Building Dreams in the West Bank, depart for the northern West Bank and Rawabi, the new Palestinian city north of Ramallah, for a glimpse at one man’s vision of translating the Palestinian hope for statehood into a concrete reality. This visit could include a meeting with developer Bashar al Masri, to discuss the vision behind one of the more significant Palestinian responses to its sense of peoplehood and desire for statehood.
• My Home in Judea and Samaria, visit the settlement of Psagot, which overlooks the Palestinian town of Al-Bira, and meet with a local resident for an understanding of the movement to settle all parts of the Land of Israel.
• Lunch in Psagot.
• Continue to Jerusalem.
• Stop at Mount Scopus, overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem, for an opportunity to recite the traditional Shehecheyanu prayer.
• Check in to the hotel.
• Dinner and evening on own.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Guided visit to the Old City, beginning at Jaffa Gate. Walk along the rooftops of the Old City for a glimpse at the multi-ethnic weave of the city, followed by a guided visit through the Jewish Quarter including the Cardo, Hurva Square and the Herodian Mansions, concluding at the Jerusalem Archaeological Park-Davidson Center.
• Lunch on own in the Jewish Quarter.
• Time for meditation and reflection at the Kotel.
• Guided visit through Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center, the Jewish national memorial to the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
• The Wall and the Mountain: Mount Herzl and the Kotel, ascend Mount Herzl for a visit to the military cemetery, using A.B. Yehoshua’s text HaKir VehaHar (“The Wall and the Mountain”) to delve into the role played by Mount Herzl in the “Civil Religion” of the State of Israel.
• Religion and State in Israel — Needed: A New Vision, meet with Ariel Picard, Director, Kogod Research Center for Contemporary Jewish Thought, The Shalom Hartman Institute.
• Dinner and evening on own.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Guided walking and bus tour, beginning in the earliest Jerusalem neighborhoods where Jews began to reside outside of the Old City walls, and winding through some of the most picturesque neighborhoods. Finish in the neighborhoods built after the Six-Day War.
• Lunch on own.
• Heavenly and Earthly Jerusalem through Art, a special workshop with Kol HaOt and its artists David Moss and Rabbi Matt Berkowitz.
• Rest of the afternoon at leisure.
• Farewell dinner at a Jerusalem restaurant.
• Depart for Ben Gurion Airport for return flight home.

*Program is subject to change, pending confirmations.