ISRAEL Tuesday day 5

Today is friday and I'm writing about Tuesday, which at this point feels like a month ago. Between now and then, we've had quite the desert adventure, which I'll write about when I get to those days.

Our morning began at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum. Daniel and Shayna hung out with Itzik, because you have to be at least 12 to enter the museum. This museum brings you thru the story of the holocaust with personal stories, photographs, and artifacts – such as a large pile of shoes that the prisoners took off before being gassed to death. Before the main building, there is a maze of walls with the names of European cities where jews were taken from carved into the walls. The shape of the maze is the shape of Europe. The museum building is a triangular prism that cuts thru the mountain. There is a sliver of glass along the top edge that represents the fact that this all happened while the world was watching.

As you can imagine, this is a very moving place. As you walk from room to room, the story depicts the psychological and physical degradation of the jewish people. First, the Nazi’s took their homes and their belonging and moved them to ghettos, where they were poor and starving. Imagine being a very smart and successful lawyer and having your home and personal belonging taken and being forced to live in a ghetto. Then the Germans destroyed the ghettos, placing the jews on hot crowded buses, to the concentration camps. Here, the Germans took their clothing, hair, and lastly, their names, branding them with numbers instead. You had to show your number in order to receive food. The somber mood of this museum continues to get darker and darker and at the end, it brings you to a circular room with walls that are lined with black binders, starting lower than the floor and reaching higher than the ceiling. These are filled with the names of people who died during the holocaust.

In this room, Ben participated in a twinning program where they pair him with a child his age, from a town in Russia that my great grandparents lived. We all had tears in our eyes.

From here we drove to Tel Aviv and spent some time at Carmel Market. We love seeing markets in different cities all over the world. We took lots of photos and bought olives, figs, dates, brazil nuts, etc.

We ate dinner at Maganda (Daniel, Shayna, Max and Dave at chicken hearts). 

ISRAEL day 4 Ben's Bar Mitzvah

Today's event is the entire reason we came to Israel - Ben's Bar Mitzvah at the Western Wall. Anne and Howard planned a few surprises, starting with 2 musicians, a drummer and a clarinet player who escorted us with song thru the gates of the City of David. They really added to the festive happy feeling of the occasion. Ben walked under a chuppah held up by his brother and cousins (Max, Anna, Joey, and Daniel). We all danced our way to the wall! 

Once we arrived at the wall, we had to split into 2 sides - the men's side and the women's side. Women must stand on teetering plastic chairs to peek over a divider wall in order to watch the Bar Mitzvah. We grabbed a table and wheeled it over to the divider so the women could see the ceremony. Ben put on Tefillin (a small box containing prayers that is strapped to your forehead, along with a strap that wraps around your chest, or the heart, and around the forearm and wrist) and did a wonderful job reading his Torah portion. The scene at the wall (and it is a scene) is filled with people praying and celebrating Bar Mitzvahs and the spiritual energy is very strong and tangible. Some of us touched the wall and added our notes alongside hundreds of others doing the same.

The energy of this place is pretty overwhelming. Thousands of years of prayer have left an indelible imprint here, and you can’t help but feel the spirit of the area. It is certainly a one-of-a-kind location for an event like this.

Daniel and Shayna took a liking to Rabbi Weiss, who performed Howard’s Bar Mitzvah 33 years ago. Needless to say, he’s been around a while. It made it feel so special.

 

After the ceremony, we went to Itzak’s house for lunch. He lives on a kibbutz in the Gush Etzion  section,  a pretty important area in the struggle with the Arabs. After lunch we went on a zip line over this massive canyon. It was an amazing view while soaring through the air. Daniel was so brave, not hesitating for a moment. I think he had a little something to prove to his cousins.

Since we didn’t have to many activities planned this day (sarcasm), we decided to try to squeeze a stop at the Holy Sepulcher in before dinner. This is the site where Jesus was buried in the cave where he rose from the dead. It’s so surreal to visit sites that came right out of the bible. Unfortunately Brenda was the only one who could actually get into the cave, since we were not dressed appropriately. There was a very angry guard at the gate who yelled at us all (and others in line).

ISRAEL Sunday day 3

We were picked up this morning by our wonderful guide, Itzik, and David, our driver. This bus is very comfortable (I just found out this bus has wifi! The world feels so small when wifi is so readily available). We can all have our own seats if we want, however Daniel and Shayna always sit together, as well as the 3 musketeers in the way way back (Max, Ben, and Joey).

Our first stop was in the old city of Jaffa to hear some history and overlook Tel Aviv

Our next stop was at a Children's Museum where we participated in a fascinating exhibit about communication. There are 2 sections, a deaf section and a blind section. We went to the deaf section and were put in situations that allowed us to experience how it feels to be deaf, like going into a cafe and introducing ourselves and trying to order something to eat and drink. We really enjoyed it.

From there, we drove to a goat farm for lunch. The fresh goat's milk was delicious. Helps you understand why the taste of goat's milk cheeses taste so different than cow's milk. After feeding the goats (and washing our hands!) we had salads with several varieties of cheese, and the kids had cheese ravioli. 

After lunch, we planted Cypress trees at the Nachson Forest. You can see entire hillsides with full grown trees, so it is obvious that the work we did will one day pay off. 

Continuing on to Jerusalem, we stopped at the cemetary where Dolly's aunt and uncle are buried. Just before entering the city, we had bread and grape juice overlooking the city. 

ISRAEL Sat day 2

Saturday is shabbat and the thing to do in Tel Aviv on Shabbat is go to the beach. Our hotel is right across the street from the Mediterranean, the water is warm and beautiful. After a great afternoon on the beach, we wandered thru Neve Tzedek again, up Rothchild Boulevard, and over to Cafe Noir for a lovely dinner with Gail and Jordan.

ISRAEL friday day 1

We are in Israel. First, I'll report about our flight. As my friend Ellen says "Alitalia Airline is no Armani." Planes are not new. Food was pretty bad. Seats are kinda uncomfortable and the attendants aren't the friendliest. Other than that, the flight was easy and we're here :)

We arrived in Tel Aviv Friday afternoon and went straight to pool, where we found Anne & Howard and the whole family. A little swim refreshed us and then we stayed awake long enough to have a very delicious dinner in a beautiful restaurant in the Neve Tzedek neighborhood. Neve Tzedek was one of the first neighborhoods in Tel Aviv. It is charming with windy streets and cute boutiques.