Temple Emanuel of Winston Salem

Note: the first day’s schedule is subject to change depending on the time of arrival.

• Arrival at Ben Gurion International Airport.
• Meet your guide and proceed to Neot Kedumim, the Biblical Landscape Reserve, a living museum of Israel’s “green archeology”, for an interactive introduction to ecological awareness as expressed in Jewish tradition and heritage tied to the Land and the People of Israel.
• Proceed to Jerusalem.
• Shehecheyanu overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem.
• Check in to the hotel
• Enter Jaffa Gate and, using readings from traditional and modern texts, encompass the Old City of Jerusalem by following the Ramparts Walk along the 16^th walls for a glimpse at the weave of people and places that make up the Old City, as well as the New City spreading out on the surrounding mountains outside the walls.
• Opening dinner at Darna Restaurant, boasting authentic Moroccan Berber cuisine.

• Breakfast at the hotel
• Begin the day at Shorashim – Judour – Roots, where Settlers and Palestinians work together to create paths of cooperation and friendship, at the Gush Etzion Junction.
• Hike a circular route along the Sataf springs that water agricultural terraces, reminders of an almost-vanished ancient Hebrew culture, and where irrigated vegetable gardens grow alongside vineyards, olive groves and almond orchards that need no artificial irrigation and color the countryside green all year round.
• Travel to a moshav in the Judean Foothills for a home hospitality Moroccan/Kurdish/Yemenite lunch, prepared as part of a women’s empowerment project.
• Tour and tastings at a local winery or
• Bible in hand, tour the Ella Valley, the scene of the famous battle between David and Goliath, and view the blue-purple flowers of Givat HaThurmosim (Lupine Hill) near Tel Socho.
• Return to Jerusalem.
• Dinner and evening on own.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• First & Second Temple: Hezekiah/Shiloach Tunnel, walk up through the excavated drainage canal from the Second Temple period from the Shiloach Pool that runs beneath the main street Silwan and the walls of the Old City and reaches the area of the Western Wall.
• Proceed to Ramla.
• Islamic Period: The Pool of the Arches, built 1200 years ago as a roofed water reservoir for the residents of Ramla by Abbasid Caliphate, and today you can take row boats and enter a unique historical space.
• Lunch on own at one of Ramla’s famous humusiot.
• Continue to Lod for a different kind of underground experience and visit the Ramat Eshkol Jewish/Arab Community Center to meet with Fatten el Zinati, the community center director who transitioned from underground activist to respected community leader.
• British Mandate: Guided visit to the Ayalon Institute in Rehovot, a pre-state clandestine munitions factory, for a glimpse at the ingenuity and creativity of Israel’s pre-state armed forces.
• Return to Jerusalem.
• Dinner and evening on own.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Travel to the Dead Sea Basin.
• Visit the Palestinian village of El Ujah and the EcoPeace Middle East Sustainability Center in the heart of the village, which has become the first center of sustainable energy and environmental awareness in Palestinian society.
• Drive along the Great Rift Valley to Masada.
• 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.
• Ride the cable car down and continue to a Dead Sea Hotel for an opportunity to float in the Dead Sea, followed by lunch.
• Return to Jerusalem.
• Dinner and evening on own.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Check-out and depart Jerusalem for the Ruchama Forest.
• Darom Adom (Red South): stop to see the natural red “carpets” of bright red
• Meet Negev Bedouin, Israel’s poorest community with the fewest resources, and participate in a special tour of Rahat and its context in Israel today, led by young Bedouin women trained by the New Dawn in the Negev NGO, which strives towards grassroots social change in the Bedouin community.
• Lunch and tour at the Kornmehl Farm that places emphasis on keeping the traditional values of their antibiotic- and hormone-free goat cheese making, while adapting them to the local environment.
• Travel to Tel Aviv with a stop at Lake Yerucham, a man-made lake in the middle of the desert surrounded by green groves.
• Check in to the hotel.
• Dinner on own.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Visit the Independence House Visitors Center “We Hereby Declare” for a tour and discussion on the Declaration of Independence and its values and the dramatic events surrounding the establishment of the State.
• Situated in working-class neighborhoods, Tel Aviv’s markets marry regional produce with the ancient traditions of the city’s many immigrant communities from Iran to Yemen to the Balkans to Eastern Europe. Tour, taste, including lunch, and shop in 3-4 of the following Tel Aviv markets, as examples of how Tel Aviv has developed:
• Jaffa Flea Market
• Carmel Market
• Levinsky Balkan Spice Market
• Nahalat Binyamin Arts and Crafts Market
• Sarona Market
• Afternoon at leisure.
• Travel to Rosh HaAyin for Shabbat home hospitality with the Rosh HaAyin Reform community.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Proceed north.
• Hike through the trails in the Ramat Menashe Biosphere Reserve, the “Tuscany of the Middle East”, which has grazing areas, farms, planted forests, natural oak forests, and abundant vegetation, including rare plants and many historical and heritage sites, such as ancient Tel Megiddo and the Haganah Museum at Juara.
• Home hospitality lunch in a Druze village located in the Carmel Mts.
• Return to Tel Aviv.
• Rest of the afternoon and evening on own.
• Havdallah

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Walking tour of off-the beaten-track sites in
• Lunch and afternoon on own.
• Farewell Dinner TBA
• Proceed to Ben Gurion International Airport for return flight to the USA.

*Program is subject to change, pending confirmations.