Well, December 26th we packed up and left the hotel in Jerusalem at 7 am. As the kids say -- that's earlier than we have to leave for school! What kind of vacation is this? The adults feel the same, but we had an appointment to walk through the Western Wall Tunnel -- and you can't change that. Some groups have to go at 9:30 at night. We saw an amazing stone that's estimated over 500 tons. (David will try to post a photo). David was impressed with the women who go into that tunnel and sit at the stones closest [View Full Entry]

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Debby is back today on the blog. Thanks David for yesterday. I'll add more tomorrow night when I have time to catch up, but briefly today began for some of us (others slept in another hour) with a wonderful talk by Prof. Hazan from Hebrew University on politics and Israel -- describing three stages of political life from the start of the State. And the challenge now. I'll try to add some detail later to the blog. Put the war the past summer into political perspective. And put an interesting spin on the relationship of right to left, and hawk to [View Full Entry]

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David here. Rabbi Hachen will be back tomorrow. Today was another incredible day with sunshine all day long. We were on the run from the very start. We heard speakers about the success and struggles of Reform Judaism and I was very proud as Rachel received a mounted certificate acknowledging the Butterflies she collected from our Religious school. There is a program here where they are trying to collect 1.5 million drawn paper butterflies, decorated by children to remember that same amount of children who perished in the Holocaust. While this is not a pleasant subject it is gratifying to [View Full Entry]

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Shabbat has ended, very full day. It began at Ben Gurion airport in Lod (near Tel Aviv). I arrived first, and then waited for the two other families from Temple Beth El. They flew from Newark; me -- from JFK. Won't bore you with flight details, suffice it to say that I made it along with 4 duffels of stuffed bears and children's clothes which are donations for children in Israel. The bears were collected by Amanda B., the clothes by temple members (thanks Nursery School!) And in spite of some last minute fooling around by Continental Airlines, the whole Paster [View Full Entry]

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Just a few days to go and another group from Temple Beth El will be heading off to Israel for a tour. As we did back in February of 2005, we hope to have access to internet and post entries so friends and family can follow us on this journey. We will arrive just in time on Friday, December 22, for the last night of Chanukah! There are 9 of us from here in New Jersey; we are meeting up with three other families - a couple from Baltimore, a mother/daughter from Alexandria, VA, and a family of four from Prince [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday. Up early again. Today we move on to Jerusalem. Suitcases outside the door at 7 am, down to breakfast. And everyone made it to the bus at 8 am and we’re off! Our first stop was at the Kinneret Cemetery (just south of Lake Kinneret, also known as the Sea of Galilee.) Many early Zionist pioneers are buried in this cemetery - including the poetess Rachel. She was so famous that she is know simply by her first name. Zvi, our guide, talked about the early pioneers who prided themselves on their physical labors, and had no room for those [View Full Entry]

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Good morning! We had a late morning -- didn't leave Kfar Blum until 8:30 pm. Great breakfast. The fresh croissants and marmalade were yummy.... We had a jeep ride in the Golan Heights -- close by but up the hill. Saw some of the spots that were Syrian outposts before the 67 war. In addition to great history of 1948 and 1967, we also came at the right time of year to see the wildflowers. So beautiful -- the kalaniyot/anemones and much more. Missed the lupines by a few days. After the jeep tour and a talk by Roi (the main [View Full Entry]

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Mon. Feb. 21 Slept through the night - so jet lag must be fading finally. Had "toast" for breakfast - in Isreal that means cheese between two pieces of bread, then pressed and cooked, like a panini sandwich back in the U.S. Yummy. With tomato, cucumber and avocado salad on the side. A little after 8 am Dan (my brother) driove me out to the main road from Yahel to meet the tour bus bringing our group back up from Kibbutz Lotan where they spent the night. In general, they found the accomodations spartan. No accolades. Enough said. So we headed [View Full Entry]

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Had to pause this morning to set off on our Tuesday adventure, but let me finish up Monday's diary first.... We were driving by the Dead Sea in my last entry. Came past Mount Sodom; though it turns out the real Sodom from the Bible is on the other side of the Dead Sea -- where Jordan is today. And of course, the destruction in this area was caused by a great earthquake, since there are earthquakes along this rift every 100 years or so. Well, the hills changed to real mountains and we came up to the bottom of Masada. [View Full Entry]

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Shalom! So last night I finished my diary by telling you about our morning service on the beach. Well, we then met back at the hotel with Zvi, our tour guide/educator, and headed out on the bus for a tour of Tel Aviv. First stop was Rabin Square where we viewed the memorial to Itzhak Rabin z"l, the prime minister assassinated following a peace rally just a few years ago. So sad. We then headed out to the Ayalon Institute: the site of the clandestine operation just prior to the War of Independence in 1948. The secret operation was a munitions [View Full Entry]

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