Har Sinai – Oheb Shalom Congregation

• Arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport, with assistance from a Makor Educational Journeys representative.

• Proceed to Tel Aviv

• Check-in to the hotel

• Meet with Dr. Rachel Korazim,  Framing Yom Hashoah: “Akedat Yitzchak” (Sacrifice of Isaac) in Israeli Literature

• 8:00 pm Beginning of Yom HaShoah commemoration ceremonies

• Dinner at the hotel

• Breakfast at the hotel

• Travel to Ashkelon, The Associated’s (Baltimore Jewish Federation) Partnership sister-city for an encounter with local leaders and Partnership projects.

• 10:00 AM. Yom HaShoah siren

• Lunch in Ashkelon with Baltimore-Ashkelon leaders

• Travel to Kibbutz Yad Mordecai

• From Destruction to Rebirth:  Kibbutz Yad Mordecai, named after the leader of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, Mordechai Anielewicz.   Visit the kibbutz, starting with the large statue of Anielewicz and concluding with a simulation at the site of the 1948 Battle of Yad Mordechai against the Egyptians.

• 1948: Establishing the State; 2023: Maintaining the State. Overlook from Israel into Gaza, with a discussion of this peripheral region’s current challenges and opportunities.

• Return to Tel Aviv

• Celebrating Life:  Dinner and evening on own in Tel Aviv with free time to walk the beach, the Tel Aviv Promenade, and to take in the sights and sounds of one of the liveliest cities in the world.

• Dinner on own

• Breakfast at the hotel.

• 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.

• Dual Narrative Walking Tour of Jaffa. Join two tour guides, one Jewish and one Arab, with commentary that will provide an experience that deepens understanding of the different stories we tell ourselves and each other and also point in the direction of future reconciliation and hope.

• Visit Kuchinate, a collective of African asylum-seeking women in vulnerable situations who design and create crocheted products for the home, to partake in a traditional Eritrean/Ethiopian coffee ceremony and light meal.

• Walk in the Florentin neighborhood, Tel Aviv’s most bohemian and upbeat neighborhood to learn about contemporary Israeli culture through urban art: writing on the wall, graffiti, bumper stickers and painted garbage bins.

• Travel to the Azrieli Tower Observatory platform.  Meet with editor, publisher and former director of the government Israel Guide School, Yadin Roman.  Discuss how the dream and vision of the Jewish State meet today’s reality and view the development of Tel Aviv-Jaffa.  Talk about the future of Israel’s “Big Orange.”

• Dinner on own

• Breakfast at the hotel and check-out

• Proceed to Jerusalem

• Stop at the Goldman Promenade, overlooking the Old City, for an opportunity to recite the Shehecheyanu blessing, upon arrival in Jerusalem, followed by a short introduction to the city.

• In Neve Ya’akov, Jerusalem’s northernmost neighborhood, participate in an interactive tour to explore how the security, socio-economic, socio-religious, political, and diplomatic processes of Jerusalem are playing out.  Visit the adjacent Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Hanina to compare and contrast the history and development of these neighborhoods in post-1967 Israel.

• The Boundaries and Borders, Bridges and Connections of Jerusalem: ride the light rail through the northern Jewish and Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem, with their Arab, Haredi, national religious and secular populations, getting off at specific stops to meet individuals who represent the mosaic of Jerusalem.

• Already on Thursday, there is the sense that Shabbat is in the air in the Machane Yehuda open-air market where one can see Jerusalem’s human tapestry as people of all nationalities, religions and ages crowd the market’s streets.
• Lunch on own in the market with “Shuk Bite” meal tickets.

• Walk along Rehov HaNevi’im (The Street of the Prophets) that still bears witness to an eclectic cornucopia of architectural eccentricities and wonders: historical personages as diverse as the Christian renaissance man, Konrad Schick; the sickly poetess of the Second Aliya, Rachel; the Ethiopian Empress Zewditu and Baron de Rothschild all left their imprints on this street that was once known for housing many foreign consulates and hospitals.

• Visit the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center:  Guided visit through the Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations, the Holocaust History Musuem and the Children’s Memorial

o   Concluding program in the Valley of the Communities.

• Check-in hotel

• 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.

o   Ride the cable car down

• The Salt Sea: Starting at the top of Mt. Sodom which is made entirely of salt deposits, hike down “the Fish Trail” past stunning geological formations such as “moon valleys” and natural sculptures carved by wind and rain. Meet “Lot’s wife” on the way.

Or

• Nature’s Revenge: Meet with a representative of EcoPeace to walk along the shores of the Dead Sea, which recedes about a yard every year, leaving behind a lunar landscape whitened by salt and perforated with gaping holes.

• All: Continue to Ein Bokek

• Parshat Tazriya in the Desert: The Dead Sea region is the world’s first health resort. Participate in a “mudslinging” activity while learning about the healing properties and benefits of this unique natural source of health & beauty for skin, body and mind.

• Float in the Dead Sea and/or swim in the hotel pool, followed by lunch.

• Return to Jerusalem to prepare for Shabbat

• Kabbalat Shabbat (at a Jerusalem synagogue/Egalitarian Kotel/on own)

• Shabbat dinner at the hotel with journalist Matti Friedman

• Breakfast at the hotel

• Time on own for leisure or to attend morning services

• Kiddush at the hotel

• Three Faiths Tour: Guided tour of the patchwork of religious life in Jerusalem.  Visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, overlook the Dome of the Rock with time for meditation/reflection at the Kotel (Western Wall).  Conclude the afternoon on Mt. Zion, significant to all three monotheistic religions.
• Leisure time for a Shabbat schluf

• Havdalah

• Dinner and evening on own

• Breakfast at the hotel and check-out

•  Is the Israeli -Palestinian Peace Process Over? Dr. Tal Becker

• The West Bank Is Not My Home, meet with a representative of Peace Now, for an understanding of the fervently-held opinion to not settle all parts of the Land of Israel

• My Home in Palestine: Visit Ramallah, the current capital of the Palestinian Authority, for a glimpse at the Palestinian infrastructure for statehood, including a meeting with a representative of the Palestinian Authority.

• My Home in Judea and Samaria, visit a Jewish settlement (Psagot or Shilo) in Samaria and meet with a local resident for an understanding of the fervently-held opinion to settle all parts of the Land of Israel.  Lunch at the settlement.

• Continue north

• (Time and light permitting) Stop at the Kinneret Cemetery for a glimpse into the world of the early and contemporary Zionist pioneers, using poetry and music at the graves of Rachel, the poet, and Naomi Shemer, the songwriter of Yerushalayim Shel Zahav

• Check-in to the hotel

• Dinner at the hotel

• Breakfast at the hotel and check-out

• Accompanied by Lt. Col (res.) Sarit Zehavi, CEO, ALMA, ascend the Golan Heights by jeeps for a security tour of Israel’s northern border. Continue to Mount Bental, for a view into Syria to gain an understanding of the Mideast’s delicate geopolitical situation which can affect and be affected by world events.

• Lunch at the ecological dairy restaurant, entirely built from recycled materials Belle Offri – Ein Nashut Winery.

• Proceed to the Golani Junction

• Guided tour of the Golani Brigade Museum and Memorial. The 12-arched statue represents the tribes of Israel, symbolizing the integration and unification of the Golani Brigade, whose soldiers are drawn from all ethnic groups and walks of Israeli life.

• Proceed to the hotel and check-in

• Early dinner at the hotel

• Travel to Kfar Yedidya to participate in Yom HaZikaron commemorations

• 8:00 pm Siren signaling the beginning of Yom HaZikaron

• Breakfast at the hotel

• Meet with high-school seniors (or “mechinistim”), participants in academic pre-army leadership program, to discuss their outlooks and feelings about their future and preparation to be Israel’s leaders.

• 10:00 am Yom HaZikaron siren

• Travel to ‘Isifiya

• At The Carmel Heritage Center, established to fulfill the vision of a Druze woman, Raja Case Mansour to bring to the public the Druze culture, learn the story of ‘Isfiya and the Druze woman, and meet with Druze residents of Israel as they commemorate their sons who have fallen in defense of the Jewish state.

• Lunch on own.

• Women of Valor:  In Zichron Ya’akov at Beit NILI and Kibbutz Sdot Yam at Beit Hana, pay tribute to two “women warriors” of pre-State Israel, Sara Aarohnsson and Hana Szenes

• Return to the hotel

• Dinner TBD

• Travel to Kfar Yedidya to participate in Yom HaAtzma’ut celebrations

• Breakfast at the hotel

• In the Footsteps of the Fighters:  Stories and songs of heroism, sacrifice and vision during visits to sites in the area that were part of the 1948 War of Independence

• The rest of the day will be planned in conjunction with celebrations at Kfar Yedidya

• Concluding Dinner

• Depart for Ben Gurion International Airport for the flight home.