Beth Jacob of Mendota Heights

• Departure from the United States.

• Arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport, with assistance by a Makor Educational Journeys representative.
• Ascend to Jerusalem via the Judean Hills.
• Stop at the Haas Promenade overlooking the Old City to recite the traditional Shehecheyanu blessing.
• Behind-the-scenes guided tasting tour of Mahane Yehuda Market with culinary expert, Avigail Kuperman, comparing and contrasting Jewish culture and customs through the foods, the people and the life of the market.
• Check in to the hotel.
• Festive welcome dinner and orientation.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Overview of the multicultural and multiethnic life in Israel with the Tour Educator.
• Depart the hotel.
• Azarat Yisrael: What Now?, with Yizhar Hess, Executive Director of the Masorti Movement.
• Short visit to the Kotel Plaza and Azarat Yisrael. (time permitting)
• What is a Model for Jewish Leadership? Guided text study while walking through the Davidson Archaeological Park at the base of the Temple Mount.
• Lunch on your own.
• Visit the Bilal fabric shop in the Old City, which sells imported Syrian fabrics to Hasidic Jews, Christian clergymen and Muslim imams.
• Return to the hotel.
• Meet with Fishman Fellowship recipient Yehuda Greenfield-Gil’at on his vision of how Jews and Arabs will share the future Jerusalem.
• Dinner on own in Jerusalem.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Jewish Responsibility in a Jewish State, meet with Elan Ezrachi, community activist and the author of “Awakened Dream – 50 Years of Complex Unification of Jerusalem” (in Hebrew).
• Visit the Melabev Center in Givat Masua, for a morning with staff and residents, exploring some of the cutting-edge methodologies developed and implemented at Melabev for the support of Alzheimer’s patients and their families.
• Free afternoon to explore Jerusalem as residents prepare for Shabbat, with lunch on own.
• Kabbalat Shabbat with the Conservative Yeshiva.
• Home hospitality Shabbat dinner at families’ homes in the Conservative community.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Optional Shabbat services at one of Jerusalem’s synagogues.
• Lunch at the Fuchsberg Center, with Executive Director, Stephen Arnoff.
• The Poet and the Windmill, a guided walk through Yemin Moshe using the poetry of Yehudah Amichai as a guide.
• Havdallah overlooking over the Old City.
• Dinner on own and a free evening in Jerusalem.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Drive north to the northern West Bank, Samaria.
• Visit the current capital of the Palestinian Authority, Ramallah, and meet with Palestinian political and business leaders, as well as local students.
• My Home in Samaria, visit the settlement of Psagot for a discussion with settlement representatives about their lives and dreams in the Judean and Samarian Heartland, followed by lunch and wine tasting at Psagot Winery.
• My Home in Palestine, visit Rawabi, the new Palestinian city north of Ramallah, for a glimpse at this unique project, a synthesis between private enterprise and public resources to create a new urban reality in Palestinian society, and meet with developer Bashar el Masri.
• Return to Jerusalem for a processing session at the hotel.
• Dinner and evening on own.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Depart for Lod.
• Visit the Ramat Eshkol Jewish Arab Community Center for a special program with Faaten el Zinati, the community center director, and staff for a glimpse into the challenging relationships between Jews and Arabs in Lod, including home visits.
• Continue to Tech Career, a special program designed to help new immigrant and second generation Ethiopian Israelis enter the innovation and high tech arena.
• Depart for northern Israel via the Trans-Israel Highway, with lunch on own en route.
• Visit the Yemin Orde Youth Village in the Carmel Mountains, which has become home to both new immigrant child Israelis and children of asylum seekers.
• Continue to Tiberias.
• Check in to the hotel.
• Dinner at the hotel, followed by a free evening in Tiberias.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Full-day visit to the Tiberias Partnership2Gether region including visits to:
  • the Poriah Hospital
  • special partnership projects
  • one or more of the Arab villages in the region
• Lunch at Kinneret College with college president, Professor Shimon Gepstein.
• A Tale of Two Graves, visit the graves of Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess in Tiberias and Rachel the Poet in the Kinneret Cemetery for a glimpse into two of Israel’s populations (ultra-Orthodox and secular) and how they view Jewish tradition, the Land of Israel and the State of Israel.
• Return to the hotel.
• Dinner at the hotel.

• Breakfast at the hotel with Mayor of Tiberias, Yosef Ben David.
• Drive through the Lower Galilee to Kibbutz Hanaton.
• Leadership and Commitment in the Jewish World: Israel as a Case Study, participate in a Beit Midrash program with the Masorti Mechina (pre-army academy) at Kibbutz Hanaton, led by Rabbi Yoav Ende.
• Visit Zippori for a guided visit through the site, both above and underground, exploring where the great Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi led the codification of the Mishna.
• Continue to Tel Aviv.
• Check in to the hotel.
• Dinner on own, followed by a free evening in Tel Aviv.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Guided walk through Neve Zedek, exploring some of the origins of Tel Aviv while walking through the gentrified neighborhood with its stories and galleries, concluding at the Neve Shechter Center and synagogue of Neve Zedek for a discussion on the unique role played by Neve Shechter as a non-Orthodox center in the heart of Tel Aviv, with Rabbi Roberto Arbiv.
• Continue to south Tel Aviv for a visit to the Eliphelet Center, which cares for children of asylum seekers, and speak with both staff and parents for a glimpse into the challenges and small triumphs of Israel’s asylum seeking community.
• Optional guided walk from Ahuzat Bayit, where the city of Tel Aviv began, through the UNESCO White City and concluding in one of Israel’s global innovation hubs – all along Rothschild Blvd.
• Return to the hotel
• Dinner on own and a free evening in Tel Aviv.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Defining Identity in Israeli Society—The Israeli and the Jew: Who Are We?, a discussion with scholar Rachel Korazim, at the hotel.
• Visit Independence Hall, site of the signing of Israel’s Declaration of Independence.
• A Tel Aviv Shabbat/weekend, walking tour exploring graffiti in the alleyways of Tel Aviv, galleries, beneath-the-surface in Florentine, the American Colony, and the people who make it all happen.
• Free time to enjoy Tel Aviv as residents prepare for Shabbat.
• Shabbat candle lighting time.
• Kabbalat Shabbat at one of the Conservative synagogues in Tel Aviv or on your own as a community at the hotel.
• Festive Shabbat dinner at the hotel with special guest and St. Paul native Jessica Fishman, whose Aliyah experiences she published into the witty novel “Chutzpah and High Heels”.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Optional Shabbat services at a local Tel Aviv synagogue.
• Optional Shabbat lunch at the hotel.
• Day at leisure or optional walking tour along Bialik St., including a visit to the Reuven Rubin Art Museum and the old Tel Aviv City Hall.
• Ben Kodesh Lechol, group Havdallah, followed by a wrap-up discussion.
• Festive farewell dinner at a Tel Aviv restaurant.
• Depart for Ben Gurion Airport.

• Return flight to the United States.

*Program is subject to change, pending confirmations.