Shalom Austin

• Depart the United States.

• Arrive at Ben Gurion Airport.
• Arrival assistance.
• Drive along the coast to Haifa.
• Stop behind the Dan Carmel Hotel for a welcome ceremony overlooking the Haifa Bay.
• Check in to the Dan Carmel Hotel.
• Festive Mission Opening Dinner at the Dan Carmel Hotel, with representatives of the Western Galilee Partnership Region.

• Breakfast at the hotel and check out.
• Full morning with the Partnership.
• Lunch with the Partnership.
• Depart hotel for Givat Haviva.
• Israel’s Arab Citizens After October 7: Where do We Stand, with Mohammad Darawshe, director of the Givat Haviva Center for Shared Society.
• Continue to the Tel Aviv Museum Plaza, now renamed as Hostage Square, which is the focal point of the family’s efforts to BRING THEM HOME, including a conversation with a hostage family.
• Continue to the Carlton Hotel and check in.
• Free evening with dinner on your own.

• Early breakfast at the hotel.
• Depart hotel for the South.
• Agricultural volunteering at a Southern kibbutz.
• Drive to Sderot.
• Tour of the town of Sderot, a symbol of Israel’ s longstanding conflict with Hamas, stopping at the once-famous-now-demolished police station.
• Lunch on own.
• Visit Kibbutz Kfar Aza, one of the kibbutzim that was brutally attacked by Hamas on October 7.
• Stop and pay tribute at the site of the Nova Festival at Re’im Park.
• Drive to Laqiya, a Bedouin town.
• Short tour of Laqiya by one of the locals.
• Bedouin Society and October 7:  Leadership and Coping during Crisis with Desert Stars.
• Traditional Bedouin Dinner and home-hospitality.
• Return to the hotel.

• Breakfast at the hotel and check out.
• Israel’s Security and Long-Term Solutions, with a representative of Commanders for Israel’s Security, a group of retired senior IDF officers advocating for a two-state solution, with Israel’s security as its top priority, to ensure Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state.
• Check out of the hotel.
• Visit ANU, the new Museum of the Jewish People on the campus of Tel Aviv University for a special mission program using the creativity of the present, explore the story of the Jewish People, with our past as a map toward the future.
• Visit Beilinson Hospital, which played a significant role in receiving the returned hostages to Israel.
• Lunch on own.
• Visit Ahim Laneshek – Brothers and Sisters Civil Coordination Center, that has become one of the central civil society relief and social welfare organizations, both for civilians and soldiers.
• Graffiti and October 7 – A guided walk to see how Tel Aviv’s remarkable street artists responded to events of October 7 and its aftermath.
• Drive to Jerusalem.
• Check in to the hotel.
• The State of the Jewish State, with a scholar from the Hartman Institute and dinner at a Jerusalem restaurant.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Depart for Gush Etzion.
• Visit Roots-Judor-Shorashim that promotes dialogue with Settlers and Palestinians who have chosen to find ways of living with each other.
• Continue to Machane Yehuda Market.
• Lunch on own and free time for personal exploration.
• Return to the hotel.
• Optional visit to the Western Wall as Jerusalemites and guests welcome in Shabbat.
• Return to the hotel for Kabbalat Shabbat followed by Shabbat Dinner at the hotel.
• Late night optional walk into Meah Shearim.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Optional Shabbat services.
• Optional walk into the Old City of Jerusalem.
• Shabbat lunch at the hotel, in the main dining room.

Afternoon Options

• The Poet and the Windmill – Guided walk to the Montefiore Windmill and Yemin Moshe using the Poetry of Yehuda Amichai as a guide, while exploring the first neighborhood built outside the Old City’s Walls.
• The German Colony of Jerusalem – Walk through the German Colony, built by the German Templars in the late 1800s’s, with their unique buildings and stories that have become part of Jerusalem’s lore.
• Independent option: The New Israel Museum – Visit the newly renovated Israel Museum, its large-scale Model of Ancient Jerusalem during the days of the Second Temple and the Dead Sea Scrolls, followed by an opportunity to visit the Jewish Life and Living, Archaeology, Israeli Art and Design exhibits and much more.

• Free time for rest and relaxation.
• Havdalah overlooking the Old City.
• Check-out of the hotel.
• Wrap-up conversation and closing dinner at a Jerusalem restaurant.
• Depart for Ben Gurion Airport.

• Return flight to the United States.

*Program is subject to change, pending confirmations.