Explore Israel with Shaare Tefila

• Departure from the United States.

• Arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport, with assistance from a Makor Educational Journeys representative.
• Proceed to Tel Aviv.
• Check in to the hotel.
• Walking tour of Jaffa, one of the most ancient cities in the world, including Biblical vignettes, the role of Jaffa as gateway to the Middle East, the great return of Jews to these shores beginning in 1881, and Jaffa as a microcosm of the challenges of two peoples striving to live side-by-side.
• Welcome dinner in Jaffa at a restaurant and introduction to the program.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Visit the ANU Museum: the Museum of the Jewish People, located on the campus of Tel Aviv University.
• Using literature, songs, newspaper clippings and photos, “meet” thinkers, writers, artists, musicians and politicians at Tel Aviv’s “pantheon,” the Trumpeldor Cemetery, which contains the graves of the leading figures in Israel over recent generations, including those who laid the foundations for the new Hebrew settlement in Jaffa and builders of the city of Tel Aviv.
• Explore the Neve Tzedek neighborhood, founded in 1887 to escape the crowded living quarters of Jaffa. Within a decade it became the center of Jewish Jaffa’s public and cultural life; many of the neighborhood’s turn-of-the-century houses can still be seen.
• Lunch on own at HaTachana, the old Jaffa railway station that has been renovated into a stylish and open, pedestrian-only complex that houses shops, restaurants, art shows and classes, two weekly markets and lots of other events – while preserving the original design of the buildings.
• Guided walk through the Kiryat Hamelacha, the heart of the local art scene, a visit to galleries and exhibitions for a view of the dynamic contemporary Israeli art scene that reflects local temperament and issues alongside current trends in world art.
• Visit to Hostage Square.
• Dinner and evening on own.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Stop at a Leket field in Rishon Lezion for a volunteering opportunity with Leket.
• Travel to the Western Negev/Gaza Envelope.
• Guided walk through Kibbutz Netiv Haasara that was attacked by Hamas on October 7 with a survivor of the Hamas cross-border ambush and brutalities.
• Continue to Sderot.
• Geopolitical landscape – look out from in Sderot at the northern Gaza Strip.
• Drive through Sderot to see the town which has been the target of Hamas rocket attacks for nearly 20 years and see the new memorial at the site of the former, and subsequently demolished, Police Station, where a fierce battle with terrorists took place on October 7.
• Lunch on own.
• Visit the Tekuma Car Cemetery, where many of the destroyed vehicles were brought after October 7.
• Visit the NOVA Festival site, where over 400 people were murdered, while others were taken hostage.
• Return to Tel Aviv.
• Dinner and evening on own.

• Breakfast at the hotel and check out.
• The Strangers Among Us: Refugees, Immigrants and Others – a tour in Neve Sha’anana and south Tel Aviv neighborhoods, which have seen a significant rise in non-Jewish immigrants, such as migrant workers, asylum-seekers and refugees, presenting new challenges to the Jewish State.
• Travel to
• Stroll through Machane Yehuda, Jerusalem’s open-air shuk, where Shabbat grocery shopping has already commenced.
• Tasting Tour with lunch in Machane Yehuda.
• Visit the National Military Cemetery at Mount Herzl, including the new sections that were opened as a result of the October 7th War.
• Check in to the hotel.
• Dinner and evening on own.

• Breakfast at the hotel
• Descend to the City of David for a guided visit through some of the newest excavations in Jerusalem, including the dry water tunnel, the Siloam Pool and the drainage tunnel, which goes under the walls of the Old City to Robinson’s Arch.
• Meet artists and peruse the crafts in the Bezalel Crafts Market.
• Lunch on own.
• Rest of the afternoon at leisure.
• Kabbalat Shabbat as a group in a nearby hotel.
• Festive Shabbat dinner.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Morning at leisure or time for prayer/attend a local synagogue for Shabbat morning services.
• Shabbat lunch at a nearby hotel.
• A Window on Mt. Zion: Mount Zion is a microcosm of Jerusalem – sacred, complex and multicultural.  While there are other spaces that are holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims, today’s visit to Mount Zion will concentrate on a single building that houses King David’s Tomb / the Room of the Last Supper/ Nabi Daud –sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims.
• Havdalah overlooking the Old City walls.
• Dinner and evening on own.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Visit the newly re-opened National Library, which strives to collect, preserve, cultivate and endow the treasures of knowledge, heritage and culture in general, with an emphasis on the Land of Israel, the State of Israel and the Jewish people in particular.
• Geopolitical drive, stopping along the way for vantage points long the Seam Zone Barrier, including the Tomb of Rachel, for a glimpse into some of the complexities of Israeli-Palestinian realities.
• Lunch on own en route.
• Drive to the Gush Etzion Junction and meet with the founders of the Shorashim – Roots project, Ali Abu Awwad and Shaul Judelman, for a grassroots dialogue and activism project with Palestinians and settlers.
• Return to Jerusalem.
• Participate in Candle Lighting – First Night of Hanukah, followed by a walk thought the Nachlaot neighborhood to view the Hanukiot lit in the windows and alleyways.
• Dinner and evening on own.

• Breakfast at the hotel and check-out.
• Drive to the Bedouin village of Lakiya for a peek into Bedouin society. Meet with women from the Sidreh–Lakiya Weaving Initiative to learn about the independence movement for Bedouin women, with a chance to see how the weaving is done and participate in dying some wool.
• Proceed to Be’er Sheva.
• Lunch on own in Be’er Sheva.
• Walk along part of the Beer Sheva “ring trail” that encircles Be’er Sheva. It leads visitors to the various spectacular landscapes and sites around the city, such as the Negev Brigade Memorial, designed by internationally-renowned urban artist Dani Karavan.
• Learn about Israeli cybersecurity at CyberSpark–the Israeli Cyber Innovation Arenain Be’er Sheva, where -in the heart of the Negev Desert- many high-tech and innovation companies develop their ideas.
• Continue to
• Meet members of the community of Black Hebrews, a spiritual group that began in Chicago and is based on a long tradition in Afro-American culture, which holds that they are descendants of ancient Israelites. Sample a bit of their music culture which ranges from gospel to rap.
• Continue to Mitzpe Ramon.
• Check in to the hotel.
• Candle Lighting – Second Night of Hanukah
• Dinner at the hotel.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Walk in the beautiful white Canyon of Ein Avdat to discover hidden springs in the Zin Valley
• Proceed to the Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research in Sde Boker: Winning the War Against Desertification.
• Overlook from the graves of Paula and David Ben Gurion with a brief discussion about Ben Gurion’s dream for the Negev and the challenges it poses.
• Lunch on own.
• Intertwined with wine and cheese-tasting along the Negev Wine Route “lone farms,” visit galleries and artisans who take inspiration from the desert landscapes.
• Return to the hotel for rest and relaxation.
• Candle Lighting – Third Night of Hanukah.
• Dinner at the hotel.
• Star-gazing in the first recognized Dark Sky Place in the Middle East.
  The International Dark Sky Places (IDSP) program certifies communities, parks, and protected areas around the world that preserve and protect dark sites through responsible lighting policies and public education.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Descend into Mahktesh Ramon (Ramon Crater) on
• Return to the hotel to freshen up and check out.
• Lunch with the Kitchen Queens, a social project in which women in the development town of Yerucham host visitors in their homes for a meal of ethnic delicacies accompanied by stories about their community for a rich human, cultural and culinary experience.
• Continue to Rehovot, for a visit to the Ayalon Institute, a clandestine pre-State Haganah bullet factory, to experience how Israel’s nascent military operated during the last years of the British Mandate over Palestine.
• Travel north to Neot Kedumim.
• Step back in time with an interactive lantern tour at Neot Kedumim, the Biblical Landscape Reserve, a living museum of Israel’s “green archaeology,” that illustrates Jewish heritage tied to the Land and the People of Israel, with a chance to connect with the sounds and smells of nature and will learn about the ancient world, long before the invention of electricity.
• Farewell dinner at Neot Kedumim, with Candle Lighting – Fourth Night of Hanukah.
• Depart for Ben Gurion International Airport for return flight home.

Next Year in Jerusalem!

*Program is subject to change, pending confirmations.