Ohavi Zedek Synagogue

• Departure from the United States.

• 10:00 am Arrival at Dan Panorama hotel and meet your Makor guide.
• 11:00 am Tour Neot Kedumim, the Biblical Landscape Reserve, a living museum of Israel’s “green archaeology” as an expression of the heritage tied to the Land and the People of Israel.
• Return to Tel Aviv.
• Check in to the hotel.
• 5:00 pm Welcome ceremony at the Jaffa Promontory, with a view of the Jaffa Port that was the gateway to Israel and the Middle East for the past three thousand years. Brief orientation to the lay of the land and a chance to hear the story of Jaffa, one of the oldest cities in the world, featuring, among others, Jonah the Prophet.
• 6:00 pm Tel Aviv as a Jewish City, Tel Aviv as an Israeli City…Tel Aviv as a City of the World, with scholar Paul Liptz.
• Welcome dinner at Goshen restaurant and trip orientation.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Guided tour in south Tel Aviv for an encounter/exploration of the situation of African Refugees/Asylum-Seekers, with Jean Marc Liling.
• Visit the Independence Experience, a recreation of where the State of Israel was proclaimed, and take in a re-enactment with the actual sound track of this historic event.
• Lunch on own.
• The bi-weekly Nachalat Binyamin Market is comprised of over 100 stands representing specialty crafts and folk art in virtually every medium imaginable.
• Tasting tour of Levinsky Market, one of the finest in Tel Aviv, specializing in spices and Mediterranean delicacies.
• Tour Florentine, Tel Aviv’s most bohemian and upbeat neighborhood.
• Dinner and evening on own, with free time to explore Tel Aviv.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Visit the Palmach Museum for a multi-media journey back to the days before the founding of the state and a chance to follow a small platoon of teenage fighters fending for their country and laying the groundwork for the establishment of the Israel Defense Forces.
• Drive north to Caesarea for a guided visit, with its excavated Roman Theater, Hippodrome and Bath House, including a walk on the shores of the Mediterranean to the renovated Crusader City.
• Home hospitality lunch in the Druze village of Isifiya to learn about this Arab minority, whose religion remains secret to all but a select elite. Discover also the complexity of their loyalty to Israel, the sacrifices of young Druze men who serve as soldiers and officers in the IDF and their struggle to maintain ties with relatives in neighboring Arab countries.
• Visit the Reish Lakish olive workshop with Ayala Noy-Meir.
  • Visit Tzippori, the most important city in the Galilee in the first four centuries CE, a spiritual center, seat of the Hebrew academies, and home of Talmudic scholars. (time permitting)
• Drive to Kibbutz Lavi and check in to the hotel.
• Dinner at the kibbutz.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Tour at the Kibbutz Lavi furniture factory.
• Proceed to Tsfat.
• Guided exploration through Tsfat, the city of mysticism and secrets, including a dialogue with Kabbalistic artist Abraham Lowenthal.
• Continue to the Golan Heights.
• Ascend to the top of Bental for a view into Syria and a short security update on the latest developments in Syria.
• Lunch on own in modern Katzrin.
• Visit the ancient village and synagogue in Katzrin.
• Wine tasting at the world-famous Golan Winery.
• Return to Kibbutz Lavi.
• Dinner at the kibbutz.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Check out of hotel and proceed south.
• Drive to the Kinneret Cemetery, where Zionist pioneer poet laureate Rachel (Over there are the Golan Hills…) is buried, as well as modern Israel’s Naomi Shemer (Jerusalem of Gold).
• Drive down the Syrian-African Rift Valley towards Jerusalem.
• Guided walk through the Old City of Jerusalem, beginning on the rooftops of the Old City and continuing into the Jewish Quarter, concluding at the Kotel (Western Wall).
• Continue to Shuk Machane Yehudah and witness Jerusalemites shopping for Shabbat, enjoying the sights and sounds and smells of this historic market, with lunch on own in the shuk.
• Check in to the hotel.
• Drive to Kabbalat Shabbat services at Kol Haneshama Reform Congregation.
• Shabbat of a Lifetime Shabbat dinner at the home of Rabbi Bill and Batya Berk.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Morning: Choice of free time, synagogue hopping, attending services in one of Jerusalem’s synagogues, or meandering through Jerusalem on this most special of days.
• Shabbat lunch at the hotel.
• Afternoon: Personalized walking tour in the footsteps of Elan Ezrachi’s new book, Awakened Dream – 50 Years of Complex Unification of Jerusalem, with the author.
• Havdallah overlooking the walls of the Old City.
• Dinner on own.
• Experience the Jerusalem Night Spectacular sound and light show on the walls of the Old City at the David Citadel Museum, narrating 3,000+ years of Jerusalem’s history.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Israelis and Palestinians: Two Narratives, One Land: framing the day with Tal Becker, at the hotel.
• Depart Jerusalem for the northern West Bank.
• My Home in Palestine – I am Here to Stay: Visit Rawabi, the new Palestinian city north of Ramallah, for a glimpse into one man’s vision for translating the Palestinian hope for statehood into a concrete reality on the ground, including a possible meeting with developer Bashar El Masri to discuss the driving vision behind one of the more significant Palestinian responses to a new sense of peoplehood and desire for statehood.
• Lunch at the Psagot winery, with My Home in Judea and Samaria – I am Here to Stay: a dialogue with Neve Zuf resident Miri Maaoz Ovadia and Rabbi David Marcus, director of the Binyamin Medical Center, for an understanding of the fervently-held opinion to settle all parts of the Land of Israel.
• Return to Jerusalem.
• Optional processing conversation.
• Dinner and evening on own at the Tachana, the old refurbished Turkish Railroad Station.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• What You Need to Know About the Holocaust to Understand Israel, preparing for a visit to Yad Vashem with Rabbi Bill Berk.
• Visit Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center, the national Holocaust memorial.
  • First-timers: Visit the Holocaust History Museum, the Children’s Memorial, and the Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations
  • Returnees: Visit the Art Museum and Center for Major Questions
• Concluding memorial ceremony.
• Visit the Herzl Military Cemetery and pay respects to Israel’s fallen, with reflections on heroism and the role of the military in Israeli society.
• Lunch on own.
• Yehudah Amichai’s Jerusalem, with his wife and daughter, Chana and Emmanuella Amichai. (pending confirmation)
• Visit the Shalom Hartman Institute for a short guided tour with Rabbi Amy Small and a learning session with Bitty Roi at this most important think tank and leadership training institute.
• Dinner and evening on own.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Early morning visit to the Temple Mount – Haram al Sharif, the most highly contested real estate in the world and the place where King Solomon built the first Temple.
• Drive to the northern edge of the Gaza Strip.
• Visit the Erez Border Crossing.
• Stop at the Asaf Siboni Memorial Overlook into Gaza for a geopolitical overview of the situation between Israel and Hamas.
• Continue to Kibbutz Nahal Oz or a nearby moshav for a dialogue with residents about resiliency and continued community building in light of their proximity to one of Israel’s most volatile borders. (pending security situation)
• Lunch on own.
• Drive to the West Bank for an encounter with settlers and Palestinians and a special visit with Shorashim—Roots—Judour, a grassroots effort on the part of Palestinians and Jews to work together to build new life in this ancient land, and meet Noor Awad and Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger, two of the founders, and hear the story of this effort at transforming the situation on the ground.
• Return to Jerusalem.
• Dinner on own.
• Evening program on Israeli/Palestinian co-existence with veteran dialogue activist, Gershon Baskin.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
  • For those going to Eilat/Petra: check out of the hotel and load luggage on the bus.
• An encounter with New Spirit at Beit Alliance and meet CEO Inbar Weiss for a tour of their historic building and explanation of the efforts of a new generation to breathe life into the old heart of ancient Jerusalem. Meet some of the artists and thinkers who are part of this initiative.
• Drive to Ein Karem, one of Jerusalem’s most beautiful and rarely-visited neighborhoods, and meet Niflaot Ein Kerem, a group of women from across the Middle East who take you into their homes and invite you into their stories, their culture, their music, and on tours of the historical houses they call home.
• Summary discussion and festive closing lunch in Ein Karem.

For those returning to the United States and remaining in Israel

• Return to the hotel for free time to explore, pack and relax.
• 7:30 pm Depart for Ben Gurion Airport for all late night flights.

Overnight: Flight or the Herbert Samuel hotel

For those continuing to Petra

• Drive to Ben Gurion Airport.
• 4:10 pm Flight to the Ramon-Eilat Airport

Overnight: Queen of Sheba Hotel, Eilat

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• 6:30 am Early morning departure for the Yitzhak Rabin Border Crossing.
• Cross into Jordan and drive through the Araba Desert to Petra.
• Guided visit through the Nabatean City of Petra, a 2,000- year old city carved out of stone, which once served as one of the main cities on the Nabatean Spice Route, including a walk through the Siq, a viewing of the famed Treasury, and a walk in to the Basin, past the Roman Theater and Monastery.
• Drive through the Araba Desert to the Yitzhak Rabin Border Crossing to re-enter Israel.

Option 1

• Proceed to Ramon-Eilat Airport for return flight to Ben Gurion Airport.
• Depart on flight for the United States

Option 2

• Return to Eilat hotel.
• Dinner on own in Eilat, overnight Eilat, free day the following day (Friday) and return to Tel Aviv late Friday for return flight to the United States.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Day of activities in Eilat, possibilities include: (cost on own)
  • Underwater Coral Reef Observatory
  • Eilat Dolphin Reef (possible to swim with dolphins from age 8)
  • Half day on a Yacht in Eilat Bay
  • Full range of water sports – parasailing, water skiing, banana boating, etc.
• Late morning/early afternoon flight to Tel Aviv.
• Lunch/dinner on own in Eilat and/or Tel Aviv depending on flight times.
• Drive to Ben Gurion Airport and departure flight to the United States.

*Program is subject to change, pending confirmations.