The Temple’s Multigenerational Adventure in Israel

We are on our way!

• Depart USA for Israel.

• Arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport, with assistance from a Makor Educational Journeys representative.
• Proceed to Tel Aviv
• Like so many Jews in the past, while overlooking the Tel Aviv shoreline, recite the traditional Shehecheyanu prayer of thanksgiving upon arrival to the Land of Israel.
• The Visitors Center of Old Jaffa enables the visitor to experience 5,000 years of history in one the most ancient port cities in the world with a virtual performance that brings past heroes to life.
  • Walking tour of Jaffa, including Biblical vignettes, the role of Jaffa as a gateway to the Middle East, the great return of Jews to Israel’s shores beginning in 1881, and the challenges faced by two peoples living together. (time-permitting, depending on arrivals to TLV)
• Check-in to the hotel
• Opening dinner at a local Tel Aviv restaurant

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Guided tour in the Florentine neighborhood, Tel Aviv’s most bohemian and upbeat neighborhood and learn about contemporary Israeli culture thorough urban art: writing on the wall, graffiti, bumper stickers and even painted garbage bins.
• Lunch tasting tour at the Levinsky Balkan Spice Market which specializes in spices and delicatessen products, such as pickles, herring, cheeses, smoked fish, wines, Turkish burekas and many other regional delights from Balkan/Mediterranean countries.
• Guided visit through the experiential Palmach Museum, covering the Palmach legacy through the stories of individuals and soldiers.
• Visit the Nachalat Binyamin Arts and Crafts Market, with its many street artists and entertainers
• Leisure time on the beach, shopping, or enjoy the “Sounds of Summer, or “Be an Israeli and learn to play “matkot,” Israel’s unofficial national sport, on the beach.
• Dinner on own

• Breakfast at the hotel and check-out.
• “The issues behind the headlines:” Social historian, Paul Liptz will discuss Israel Today.
• Hadera -P2G mitzvah/social justice project
• Guided visit through Caesarea, with its Roman theater, hippodrome and palace, followed by a walk along the beach to the renovated Crusader city.
• Lunch on own en route
• Dor HaBonim Beach Nature Reserve including a sandy beach, walking trails on the kurkar (calcareous sandstone) ridge and the remains of an ancient city and harbor at Tel Dor

And/or

• A za’atar-making workshop at the Spicy Way Farm Visitor Center in Bethlehem of the Galilee, with over 700 different types of spices and herbs along with dried fruits.
• Check-in to the hotel
• Dinner at the hotel

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Enjoy a 4X4 Jeep Ride through the Golan Heights, with its green fields, farmlands and volcanic mountains, alongside borders and former battlefields.
• Lunch on own at Kibbutz Ein Zivan
  • Adults: wine-tasting workshop
  • Youth: chocolate -making workshop
• Join a river adventure, rafting by and under riverside foliage, down the clear Hatzbani stream, later merging with the Banias stream.
• Dinner at the hotel

• Breakfast at the hotel and check-out.
• From the highest point in town, the strategically placed 12th century Crusader Citadel (Metsudah), begin a walking tour of Safed. The descent to the Old City is Interwoven with tales and sites of mysticism and Israel’s War of Independence.
• (Time permitting) Water Walk through an aqueduct to the lagoon of Nahal Hakibbutzim, which is filled with water all year round.
• Lunch on own en route
• Travel to Jerusalem
• Shabbat services in a Jerusalem Reform synagogue
• Dinner at the hotel

• Breakfast at the hotel (optional Shabbat services at…?)
• Late morning: Stand at the Haas Promenade overlooking Jerusalem for an introduction to the city – 3000 years ago and today
• Enter through the Zion Gate to explore the Jewish Quarter and discover the layers of history beneath the surface, including finds from the First and Second Temple Periods, the Byzantine-Crusader Cardo and the Hurva Square.
• Lunch –Tastes of Jerusalem: Walk through the Old City “suq” (market) to enjoy tastes of authentic coffee blends, local special herbs and spices, sweets such as Halva or kanafe, hummus, falafel and “beigeleh Yerushalmi.
• (optional) Conclude at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, containing the last 5 Stations of the Cross, traditionally believed where Jesus was crucified.
• Havdalah
• Dinner on own

• Breakfast at the hotel
• Guided visit through the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center complex, the Jewish National Memorial to the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, including:
  • The Avenue of the Righteous
  • The Holocaust History Museum
  • The Children’s Memorial
  • Life—affirming ceremony in the Valley of the Communities.
• Continue to the Machane Yehudah open air market, and visit the old bastas (stalls) alongside new businesses and hear the story of the market from its inception to the present day. Smell and taste the best of it all.
  • Lunch on own in Machane Yehuda
• The Boundaries and Borders, Bridges and Connections of Jerusalem: travel on the bus along the “seam-line” path of the wall that separated Jerusalem 1948-1967
• “Ammunition Hill” is more than just a memorial to the soldiers that fell there during the War of Independence and the 6 Day War. It tells stories of bravery, heritage and leadership
• Adjacent to Ammunition Hill is the Jerusalem Ropes Course that includes 3 different stations of varying difficulty, focused on unique themes related to the history of the location and the soldiers who fought there in 1967.
• Dinner on own

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Proceed to the Dead Sea
• Ascend Masada via cable car for a guided visit through the site and an exploration of the symbolism and questions that arise from the Masada story and their implications for Jewish life today.
• Ride the cable car down and continue to Ein Bokek for an opportunity to float in the Dead Sea and swim in the hotel pool, followed by lunch.
• Hike up to and cool off in the refreshing pools and waterfalls in the Nahal David (David’s Stream) of the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve, a unique ecosystem of springs, waterfalls and pools surrounded by lush greenery in a desolate desert setting.
• Return to Jerusalem

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Descend the City of David for a water walk in Hezekiah’s Tunnel, dug during the reign of the biblical king Hezekiah (2,800 years ago), who, fearful of an Assyrian siege, blocked the spring’s water outside the city and diverted it through a channel .
• Drive to the Ayalon Institute in Rehovot, a clandestine, underground munitions factory from the War of Independence, for a look into some of the ingenuity used to create the State of Israel.
• Lunch on own in Rehovot or Ramla.
• The Pool of the Arches in Ramla was built 1,200 years ago as a roofed water reservoir for the residents of Ramla by Abbasid caliphs. Today, travel in row boats in the underground historical space.
• Drive to Beit Guvrin to participate in an active dig at Tel Maresha, exploring human-made caves from 2,200 years ago, followed by spelunking through the caves and tunnel system.
• Return to Jerusalem
• Dinner on own
• (Optional)  Chumus-making experience at Abraham Hostel

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Conclude the Israel journey by “Mapping the Journey” with Kol HaOt educators who impart Jewish values, texts and history through a creative synthesis of the visual and performing arts.
• Lunch on own and rest of the afternoon at leisure. Time for last-minute shopping.
• Farewell dinner TBD
• Depart for Ben Gurion International Airport for return flight home

“Next year in Jerusalem!”