Kehillat Ma’arav

• Depart USA for Israel.

• Arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport, with assistance.
• Tour Old Jaffa, the ancient port city once known as Zion Gate through which Jonah tried to flee and where Solomon brought the Cedars of Lebanon on the way to Jerusalem. Jaffa is also the site of Peter’s Vision which deeply impacted the relationship between Judaism and Christianity.  Today paintings and sculptures have been installed in its ancient alleys.
• Sheheheyanu – Welcome ceremony on ancient Tel Jaffa, overlooking modern Tel Aviv.
• Check-in to hotel on Tel Aviv’s Mediterranean Coast.
• Welcome dinner and speaker: Israel@April 2026: ‘It’s Complicated’ with Allison Kaplan Sommer, a journalist for Haaretz, a leading Israeli daily, over dinner at a local restaurant.
• Optional after-dinner walk along coast.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Walking tour of historic “Little Tel Aviv” – Discover the quaint Neve Tzedek neighborhood that gave birth to the “first Hebrew city in 2,000 years”, once home to Zionist cultural pioneers such as Eliezer Ben Yehuda, S. Y. Agnon, Nachum Gutman and Rabbi Kook.
• History transcribed in Art: View a series of modern mosaics portraying the history of Tel Aviv, including Nachum Gutman’s City of Sand and Sea and the Shalom Meyer Tower mosaics, enroute see Louis Mittelburg’s Dreyfus Statue.
• Hear about the establishment of Tel Aviv at the Founders’ Monument. Then stroll down Rothschild Boulevard to view the Bauhaus architecture for which central Tel Aviv was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• Lunch on your own and free time to explore the Nachalat Binyamin Crafts Fair and check out great street food in the nearby Carmel Market.
• Walk down serene Bialik Street with the possibility of visiting either Bialik House, home of Israel’s late poet laureate Chaim Nahman Bialik, or the Beit Rubin Museum, home of the late painter Reuven Rubin, to see and hear how their homes reflect their artistic endeavors.
• See buildings nearby which were destroyed by Iranian missiles during June 2025 Iran war, depending on the state of reconstruction.
• Free evening with dinner on own.

• Breakfast at hotel and check out.
• Depart for northern Israel.
• Look out at Israel’s Coastal Plain from Alfei Menashe in the ‘near’ West Bank for a special perspective on the close quarters of Israel’s political geography.
• Guided tour of Caesarea National Park, including its Roman Theater, Amphitheater, Hippodrome and Promontory Palace, and discuss the encounter between Jews and the Roman world as seen through the artifacts on site.
• Lunch on own.
• Look out from the roof of the Mukhraka Monastery on Carmel, identified with where the Prophet Elijah challenged the Priests of Baal, for a geographic perspective on this Bible story.
• Guided walk in Nazareth to the Church of the Annunciation, followed by a conversation with a local Christian about being Christian in a changing Middle East.
• Check in to hotel in northern Israel.
• Dinner at the hotel.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Jeep tour to the Golan Heights for a special perspective on Israel’s complex geopolitics, while visiting former Syrian bunkers overlooking Israel. Then look out over the Syrian border from strategic Bental.
• Tour and tasting at the boutique Pelter Winery near Kibbutz Ein Zivan.
• Lunch and discussion at the home of Naseeba Samara in Bukata, a Druze village in the Golan Heights, to hear about the impact of the regime change in Syria on her community.
• Guided walk in the Banias Nature Reserve, site of ancient Caesarea Phillipi from the New Testament, and one of the sources of the Jordan River.

OR

• Guided walk in the lush Tel Dan Nature Reserve, one of the sources of the Jordan River, to discover biblical intrigue and one of the oldest arches in the world.
• Gourmet dinner at the home of Gadi Elias on Yesod Hama’ala.

• Breakfast at the hotel and check out.
• Visit important Christian sites around the Sea of Galilee, including the Mount of the Beatitudes, Capernaum and Tabgha, site of the Miracle of the Fish and the Loaves.
• Travel south to Jerusalem.
• Lunch on own en route.
• Look out over the Old City of Jerusalem from of Olives.
• Free time to relax and get ready for Shabbat.
• Kabbalat Shabbat.
• Festive Shabbat dinner at the hotel.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Shabbat morning services.
• Shabbat Lunch at the hotel.
• Shabbat afternoon walking tour.
• Havdalah with Rabbi Gotlieb.
• Free evening and dinner on own.
  • Recommendation for the evening: Check out the First Station Compound – Jerusalem’s old Ottoman Train Station which has been converted into a restaurant- café area.  It’s a short walk from your hotel.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Guided tour of Yad Vashem Israel’s national Holocaust memorial and museum, including the Holocaust History Museum and Children’s Memorial.
• Visit the Herzl Military Cemetery with an emphasis on the graves of soldiers who fell since October 7^th, 2023 – The Silver Platter.
• Lunch on own.
• Visit the Garden of Gethsemane at the base of the Mount of Olives.
• Guided walk in the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem with free time to shop and explore on own.
• Continue to the Western Wall with possibility of visiting Robinson’s Arch and the Southern Wall Excavations.
• Return to the hotel.
• Free evening and dinner on own.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Travel to the Western Negev (Gaza Envelope).
• Overview of the northern Gaza Strip from the Lookouts’ (Tatzpitaniot) Observation Point.
• Guided walk in a Kibbutz facing the Gaza Strip and hear testimony from a kibbutz member about their experiences on October 7, 2023.
• Visit the Nova Festival Site, where young revelers were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists.
• Lunch on own.
• Drive through Sderot to see the town which has been the target of Hamas rocket attacks for nearly 20 years and see the site of the demolished former Police Station, where a fierce battle with terrorists took place on October 7.
• We came back: Meeting with local resident in a Gaza Envelope community to hear about returning home.
• Return to Jerusalem.
• Dinner at a local restaurant and processing discussion.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Israelis and Palestinians: A Glimpse into a Complex History, with Haviv Rettig-Gur, political correspondent and Senior Analyst at The Times of Israel at hotel.
• Guided Geopolitical Drive across Jerusalem to explore the relationship between Israelis and Palestinians in the context of neighborhoods, former and current borders and the Seam Zone Barrier.
• Lunch at the Etzion Winery.
• Visit the new Shorashim-Judur-Roots Dialogue Center in the Etzion Bloc, which brings together Palestinians and Israeli West Bank Settlers for dialogue and reconciliation, including meeting with co-existence activists Belal Arar, a Palestinian from nearby Beit Umar and Rabbi Shaul Yudelman, a settler from the neighboring Alon Shevut settlement.
• Enter Bethlehem to visit the Church of the Nativity and a guided walk along the graffiti covered walls of the Seam Zone Barrier with a local Palestinian guide.
• Return to Jerusalem.
• Guided visit in the Israel Museum, including the Dead Sea Scrolls and Model of Ancient Jerusalem, followed by free time to explore additional exhibits on own.
• Dinner and evening on own.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Struggling for Israel’s Future and Soul: A conversation with an activist (TBD) about the campaign to preserve Israel as a liberal, democratic and Jewish state (at hotel).
• Walk in the quaint village of Ein Karem, now a neighborhood of Jerusalem and revered as the birthplace of John the Baptist.
• Guided tour of the new Israel National Library, including its Rare Manuscript Exhibition, which includes original handwritten works by Maimonides, S.Y. Agnon and Franz Kafka.
• Lunch on own.
• Remainder of afternoon free to pack, relax and get in last minute shopping.
• Check out of the hotel.
• Farewell dinner at a local restaurant.
• Transfer to Ben Gurion Airport for U.S. bound flight.

All program elements are subject to change, pending confirmations.