The End

Well, our time in Israel is coming to an end. We enjoyed the last day in Tel Aviv at the spa, on the beach and in to pool.

Todah to everyone who made this trip possible. We are especially are especially appreciative of Muki, Daniella, Eli and Rabbi Spilker. This trip created many memories for each and everyone of us.

Also, Todah Rabbah, to everyone who participated in the blog, both at home and on the trip. It was truly a success!

Here are a few of the thousands of pictures that we took collectively. Enjoy!

L'hitraot,
Laurel

Day 13

Day 13- Ben Gurion’s Dream

Shabbat shalom!Our group was well aware that this was our last day of
sightseeing together so it was a bittersweet day, starting with a view
of amazing works of God, followed by the incredible ingenuity of man,
and ending with welcoming Shabbat.

We left Kibbutz Lotan which we appreciated as an amazing idealistic
communal kibbutz. We drove north through the mountains of the Negev to
the bottom of the Ramon Crater ( Machtesh Ramon). The Negev between
Lotan and the crater was very barren because it received so little rain
even by the definition of desert. Sometimes the only precipitation was
winter snow from the high Negev mountains, as high as those in the Galilee.

One of the touching moments on the drive occurred as we were singing
Naomi Shemer’s “Jerusalem of Gold”. Eli, our driver for the whole trip,
had fought in the 6 Day war in 1967 and since Shemer added a verse to
celebrate the winning of that war, he said it always brought tears to
his eyes. It reminded us that the history of the State of Israel is
young but intensely impacted so many. (Interesting to us was that later
at services, the congregation sang it to honor her yahrzeit.)

The Negev is sparsely populated with dramatic wide open spaces. Our
first stop was to view the amazing natural crater with its spectacular
cliffs around the rim. Muki explained the theory of the geological
formation of the crater over millions and millions of years. Most
craters are formed by meteors hitting the earth, or by volcanoes, or
glaciers or rivers. Makhtesh Ramon came from a different process.
Horizontal layers of microscopic shell fish were deposited over millions
of years. Eventually the layers were compressed into flat limestone. The
volcanic pressure from below pushed the layers up, forming sharp peaks.
Rain falling on those tall peaks ran off, washing away and eroding the
mountains with canyons. The process of the flash floods and sand filling
in occurred again and again so the sides of the canyon would collapse,
leaving a huge crater. It is possible to view geologic layers on the
sides of the cliff—a window into geologic time. There are lots of
fossils in the sedimentary rocks left by the marine animals dying and
then the pressure smooshing them into rock.

We climbed a set of stairs up the side of the crater to the top of
Carpenter’s hill, called that because the rocks look like wooden posts (
or bricks ). Muki read from the Bible and had the group listen to the
wind and hear “the still small voice.”

When we left that site, we saw wild ibex standing on its hind legs
eating leaves on a carob tree. Our bus then drove further north and we
learned we were passing through the wilderness of Zin, where our
forefathers spent much of the 40 years they were wandering. Frequent
road signs: Beware of camels near the road.

Our next stop was to honor the story of David Ben -Gurion, the first
Prime Minister of Israel who had such a big influence on the founding of
the State. We went to the Ben-Gurion Burial National Park. to the graves
of David and his wife Paula Ben-Gurion.

As an aside--Unlike American sites, the Israeli sites have the parking
lot many hundreds of yards away from the site and out of sight and sound
of whatever you are going to see. This one was a particularly love
entrance with the rocks and trees from the desert flora. If there were
such a thing as a desert Japanese Garden, this was it—a great sense of
slowing down on the passage and turns in the path to new views until you
came to the grave on a plaza overlooking the crater with further views
of all of the Negev!!

David Ben-Gurion is one of the great personalities and certainly one of
the most influential people in the founding of the State of Israel. Muki
had us focus on his natural nation building instinct by learning that
his grave not only had the dates of his birth and death ( 1886-1973) but
also the year 1906 which marked his Aliyah to Palestine. Upon his
arrival, David Green took the name of David Ben-Gurion, a new family
name, to show that he was changing his identity, language and that
indicated his part in the Zionist revolution. As evidence of how
important this new kind of identity was, many of the people we recognize
as giants in the history of Israel also did the same ( Peres, Meir etc)
and Ben Gurion only put people in his cabinet who had changed their
identity!! Muki shared with us that he too had changed his first name
when he immigrated from South Africa based on an experience when he was
visiting as a teen and the group had created new names for each other.
So instead of Mark, he is now Muki, still Michael as his Hebrew name.

We also talked about Ben- Gurion’s Dream—that the Negev had great
potential for Jews to live and build there and relieve the density of
the North. What other saw as wasteland, he saw as potential. The current
vision also has added that whatever building has to respect the fragile
ecosystem. So when we headed further to Beersheva, where the major
Israeli University bears his name, we learned this is the fastest
growing area of Israel and that the University and hospital, which when
founded were second rate, now are very respected. It was obvious when we
stopped in a mall to eat in the food court that we’d left the open
spaces, the quiet winds of the wilderness for the hustle and bustle of
this modern city. Shocking! Despite all the Hebrew we’d learned on the
bus, the purchase of lunch required the quick intervention of Muki,
Daniella and Rabbi Spilker!

We got back on our bus for the last long drive to Tel Aviv where we
started our trip. The vegetation increased the closer we got . Tel Aviv
flora looks like Los Angeles. We had a hard time getting our heads
around the fact that it was almost erev Shabbat, another week had
passed. We attended services, along with several other Reform
congregations at Beit Daniel, the Center for Progressive Judaism in Tel
Aviv and Jaffa. The Executive Director talked with us before services
about the issues facing Progressive ( Reform) Judaism. David and I both
commented to each other on how the Reform movement had grown in Israel
since our first trip here with Rabbi Lerner 23 years ago!! Just as
example, the Education Department of the Daniel Centers run 3 Elementary
schools (including 1 in the poorest area of Jaffa), and 16
Pre-school/Kindergartens in the Tel Aviv Jaffa area..Just from the
services we have attended this trip, it is obvious that there are native
Israeli rabbis in the movement (as memory serves, there were only 1 or
two 23 year ago and.a rabbi from St. Paul had headed the World Union for
Progressive Judaism then!) The service used familiar tunes, but for us
the choreography was quite different as was the order of the service.
The sermon, for example was before the Sh’ma and the congregation stood
for candlelighting. The sanctuary was full with about 400 of us—half
visitors. Rabbi Galia Sadan was considerate in providing an English
translation of her sermon, The male cantor (yes there are still male
cantors!) had a gorgeous full, deep voice and again I was struck with
the power of all the male voices in the congregation. Following Kiddush
in the social hall, we took the bus to the Mishkenot Ruth Daniel in
Jaffa where we dined in the rooftop restaurant with Rabbi Sadan members
of her Kehillat Beit Daniel. So each of us had a chance to talk with
Israelis.

It was beginning to sink in that our trip was nearing the end because we
said L’hitraot to Daniella , the youth worker and Eli our bus driver.
Ken and Bobbie Glick were leaving the group tonight as well.

If you have been following this blog, you will know that “next week
in St. Paul”. While we are sad to disperse our group, we do look forward
to sharing our adventures and learnings with you. We know we will be
reflecting on all the varied experiences for a long time. We have so
appreciated the thoughtful planning of this trip on which Rabbi Spilker
brought us to many places where he had personal connections to share
them with us. We’re tired, happy and looking forward to a restful
Shabbat on the beach!

Mary Ann and David Wark

Day 12

Day 12 Petra and Eilat

Splitting up the group definitely felt odd. Half of us took a side trip into Jordan today, and the rest did their thing in Eilat (diving, snorkeling, touring). But what fun to be able to share our varied experiences!

I hope that these impressions help to jog the memory of those that were there and paint a bit of a picture for everyone else.

We entered a kingdom….yes, a kingdom with pictures of the monarch everywhere and an official stamp in our passports.

Just before we crossed the border, our perky English border helper warned, “You can get a free horse back ride, but you’ll have to pay a tip to get off.”

Our guide, Husseiya, stuck to his script, and only his script. How we missed Muki’s explanations (and his impeccable English!).

We climbed 5000 feet into the Edom mountains, covered with brilliant strips of minerals. So very rugged!

On the two hour journey to Petra we saw snapshots of life—Sunni women carrying young children; a group of boys running up a hillside with the dust flying; two goats following each other out of a store that was filled with chickens; a boy cleaning a rooftop with water and a broom and his mother appearing with her arms crossed; a herd of goats crossing the road. The poverty was evident, but so was the beauty--trees in every courtyard, rolling hills covered in rock and scrub, vistas and valleys, camels and sheep.

The cooler mountain air surprised us all. Our walk, we thought, wouldn’t be so bad after all. Down, down, down we went. Those holes aren’t caves, they’re ancient tombs, tombs, and more tombs. If you were rich, a tomb to yourself, if not, up to nine people shared your final resting place. Oh, but the beauty! Red rocks laced with yellow, black and brown. Carvings graced the walls as we continued down the path.

We went through the Siq (narrow canyon), went around a corner, and, just like Indiana Jones, beheld the spectacular view of the treasury. Wow. It really is as cool as it seems—just bigger. Those Nabateans were amazing!

Horses and horse drawn carriages helped some of us make it back up the hill (it was hot after all!), and Allison even had an adventure of her own, riding double along the hillsides with Mischa. We were all pleased she made it back safely.

A quick, yummy meal later, we were back on the bus. Two hours later we were at the border crossing—and home. Home. Yes, home. Israel.
After we arrived back at the kibbutz, we had a lovely dinner, and afterwards, some listened to a resident of the kibbutz talk about the kibbutz while others of us went out and played soccer.

The Red Sea is perennially listed as one of the best places to scuba dive in the world, and five of us took a wonderful opportunity to dive in Eilat. Three Glicks and two Schiffs did three dives and spent nearly three hours underwater. With 80-foot visibility and a huge amount of sea life, the experience was full of discoveries! Many of the species are similar to what one sees in Florida or the Caribbean: parrotfish, butterfly fish, wrasses, and sergeant majors, but the colors were often quite different. A cobalt-blue butterfly fish with concentric white circles around its whole body provided a gorgeous example. Then there were lots of species that were less familiar: lionfish, a stonefish, and large schools of two-inch bright orange fish with sky-blue eyes. Classic views of clownfish in anemone made us think of Finding Nemo!

At one point near the end of one dive, a family of parrotfish, including a male, female and a couple adolescents (identifiable by different colorations), entertained us by swimming in circles around us a mere arm’s length away. We just relaxed on the sandy bottom, watching, taking pictures and enjoying their choice to interact. I think they would have kept the show going all day, but unfortunately, we had to continue to shore.

Like everything else on this trip, we feel like we got a taste of what Red Sea diving has to offer, and only whetted our appetite for more! I guess we’ll just have to come back soon!

An evening soccer game was EPIC! Players accumulated over the course of the game until we had about seven or eight players on a team. In order to score a goal, you had to actually hit a specific tree with the ball, which proved to be very difficult. We were playing on grass (it was very cushy), so some of us went barefoot, which felt spectacular! Satchel was on the field the whole time and acted as the mediator, which was a good thing. There were a bunch of kibbutz kids who also played with us and were so much better than us for the most part. One of the things that was most fun to see was this tiny little kibbutz kid, Amos, totally whupping everybody. It was TONS of fun!

Sally, Dave, Rachel and Daniel Glick

Special update from Julia, Rachel and Laurel

Day 11

As we left the cool city of Jerusalem we experienced a wonderful refreshing mountain breeze. It was our coldest morning of the trip. Many of us were sad to leave the city that we had just begun to know in all its complexities and many layered history. Some of us also did not take full advantage of the awesome pool facilities at Mt Zion Hotel. Even Zach had to agree it was a five star hotel. As we drove south from Jerusalem, we descended 450 ft below sea level, to the Dead Sea Basin. Of course the temperature quickly rose to 39*C, around 100 F. As we descended we drove through part of the Territories and witnessed first hand the changes in the Bedouin communities. Very few of them are truly nomadic, they have started to settle down and build permanent structures. We saw camels, goats, and sheep grazing on the side of the highway. Despite incentives from the Israeli government, the Bedouins are living at the lowest SEC in all Israel. They have they highest infant mortality rate, the lowest literacy rate, and highest overall mortality rates. As we descended we also were able to see first hand the greening of the desert by the different Kibbutz communities, many of which grow Date palms because the date tree can handle a certain amount of salinated water. Our first destination was the hill top fortress of Masada. Unfortunately, we were unable to climb up due to the late hour and the weather, but we did see many youth groups walking back down. Once again our luck held and we experienced a cool breeze at the top, which Muki our guide said was extremely rare. Despite the breeze, it was very hot at the top and we mostly tried to stay in the shade. At around 650 meters long the majestic mountain of Masada captured the admiration of the group. During the days of King Herod (who was more roman than the Romans themselves) he built himself a luxurious summer resort on Masada. It took from 37 BCE to 4 BCE to complete. Of course it was on top of one of the more defendable mountains of the area because of his paranoia. After we got an overview of the entire complex, we first explored the western palace structure, complete with private Roman bath house with 5 separate rooms- apoditerium, with frescoes on the walls, the tepidarium, the frigidarium with a stepped pool, and the caldarium (a steam bath). The caldarium had a raised tiled floor and domed roof that prevented the steam from dripping straight down, instead the steam could recycle within the room. Quite extravagant given the fact that we are on a desert mountaintop. You might be wondering where they got water. Herod devised an ingenious system to collect the winter rainwater via channels dug into the mountain side that diverted these flood waters into a series of large cisterns. some of them as large as 4 tour buses. It is still debated if Herod ever actually visited his completed palace. Of course Masada is famous for its place as the last stronghold of a group of Jews led by Eleazar ben Yair, who revolted against Roman rule. This group of zealots fled from Jerusalem to Masada in the year 70 CE. They numbered close to 1000 people, and they were able to survive until 73 CE. One of the sayings that epitomize the difference between the two groups and their use of the palace is “Romans worship beauty, and Jews find beauty in worship.” The Jews built a kitchen right on top of the Roman’s mosaic tiled floor. We also followed in their footsteps by adding a water bottle and a rock to the mosaic floor. A large group of us were able to walk to the far southern edge and yell the saying “Masada will not fall again” Each word came back to us as an echo from the past. Eleven brave members of our group ran/walked down from the top! The rest of us took the cable car back down.

As we drove further down the coast, we saw acacia trees, and small oasis along the Dead Sea. We then had a wonderful few hours floating in the Dead Sea with its 30% salt content, except for a few of us who had cuts and scrapes. In comparison, Ocean water is 3% salt, and sea water is 3.3% salt. The salinity of our blood is 0.9%. We then drove two hours further south towards the Red Sea to Kibbutz Lotan, an Eco-Friendly Reform Kibbutz. The kibbutz has 150 people a combination of members and volunteers. We got a tour of the facilities by two volunteers who are working at the Kibbutz
They built and teach others to create geodesic domes made out of straw and mud, they utilize their trash as building materials for a playground, art and sculptures and they turn their waste water into irrigation water by a series of hydroponic plants, and their food/human waste into compost. They are planning to build a solar field which will eliminate the power grid needs for the guest houses. They served us a wonderful dinner made from all their own products.

Susan and Allison Benfield

Day 10

Waking up in Jerusalem. The is a vertical city. Eyes closed, listening to the birds around us, the traffic, mostly below, the church bells across. So much sound from so many directions. And then to open your eyes and look, in just one slice one can see the grass and flowers around the pool of the hotel, the bottom of the valley of the shadow of death, the traffic moving up the hill, the walls of the old city; just off to the right is Mount Zion and behind that more hills and the barrier fence.
The heat wave has continued on this day, even early in the morning it can be felt.
We begin our programming with a presentation by Colonel Bentzi Gruber, one of the commanders in Gaza. He talks to us about “ethics in the field”. Really he tells us of the challenges of this conflict, of how to protect Israel from the incomprehensible concept of suicide bombers. Eight seconds. In a dramatic sequence of footage we see a smiling young man from Gaza sitting in the front seat of a car. We see his jeep begin to drive across the field that is the barrier, the Israeli guards distracted by gunfire in the other direction. We see him being too late for the bus he was aiming for, heading for the town, the road blocked by a hummer, an explosion, a Palestinian young man in a thousand pieces, a young Israeli soldier from behind the HumVee without a leg. Eight seconds.
To be clear, this talk was not about the “why” of this conflict. This was about the how, how to protect Israel, how to fight this and cause as little damage to Palestinian civilians as possible. It was also about how to get this message out, that Israel and the territories are a tiny spit of land, that Israel needs to defend herself, that rockets and suicide bombers flying into neighborhoods are not the same as carefully, selectively trying to find combatants that hide in the population.
From here a part of the group went to the Hartman Institute to discuss the conflict further. A crew of us went off to the zoo, a diversion to fun and a beautiful spot. It is a wonderful zoo – goats happy to chew on your back pack straps; a poor little mole rat trying for many minutes to unsuccessfully negotiate an uphill glass tube; two amazingly big rhinos in an exhibit with graceful long eyelashed giraffes and zebras; monkey yelling, a cacophony of birds calling, their sounds echoing against the hills of Jerusalem.
After lunch, the group went to Yad Vashem. Yad Vashem is the museum and memorial to the Holocaust (Shoah in Hebrew). The physical structure of the museum is both incredibly beautiful- imaging walking through a triangular tube of Toblerone chocolate to come out the far end to a magnificent view of Jerusalem- and incredibly stark. Just cement walks, not Jerusalem stone.
The Shoah is so many stories, the visit is the same. I want to just relate just two, they will be more important than the whole = terror and hope
Terror - I have been through and read much about the Holocaust. Something always gets me. The whole is too much. But this time it was on a small screen, a speech written by the President of the ghetto in Lotz Poland. This man worked with children, but did not have children of his own. The speech explained that he was commanded to have all the children under age 10 report to the square the following day for deportation. He explains that he pleaded and begged, but the Nazi’s insisted. This order and participating in its execution was incomprehensible to me – to be this man and say these words or to be a parent in this ghetto. I could not have been that man. I do not believe I could have been one of those parents. I do believe that for me, it would have ended here, that night.
Hope - We have been blessed to have Charles Fodor with us. Charles was a young boy when he was in the ghetto in Hungary. He and his father survived. He did not see his mother after she was deported from the ghetto. This is his first visit to Israel, and hence his first visit to Yad Vashem. I will long remember his reaching out to his wife, to holding her hand as they started to visit the museum; to the courage it must have taken to come here. It was an honor to share this visit with Charles; for my kids, for all the kids, to learn about this in his presence. While he might have been held up by Vicky, his wife, we were all held up by being here with him.
A few days earlier, at Havdala, as the kids where all standing against a wall overlooking the Temple mount, I remember Charles looking over the crew of youth and saying “Am Yisrael Chi” “The Jewish People live” Remarkable, to so clearly feel the link from the terrible past to this rich present, to the future. Remarkable.

Jeff Schiff

Day 9

Hello friends,

Greetings from our third full day in Jerusalem!

Today began differently than most—I sat in the front of the bus. This provided an excellent view through the windshield as we drove through the valley of the shadow of death, past where the three valleys of Jerusalem meet, to the old city.

To anyone who has the opportunity to meet someone from South Africa, I recommend asking them to say the words ‘valley’ and ‘tomorrow’ as they are both what separate a South African accent from the British. Our route to the old city provided many opportunities to hear our excellent tour guide, Muki, say the former.

We entered the walled Old City through the ‘Dung Gate’ (where garbage used to exit the city) and immediately walked toward the Southern Wall (an archeological park adjacent to the Western (wailing) wall to watch our tour mate, Daniel Glick become Bar Mitzvah.

It was a beautiful ceremony. Daniel ROCKED it! We were all lucky to have the chance to participate and share that with Daniel and his family in such an important location. Mondays are popular for Bar Mitzvahs in Jerusalem and in the distance we could hear drums and shofars coming from others celebrating their own B’nai Mitzvah. I like to think of it as free DJs, their joy and enthusiasm encouraging Daniel and celebrating his special day. Another tour mate Isaac Schiff was called for an aliyah.
(Note from Sally Glick: It was even more than I expected. Can you imagine turning around for t’fillah, seeing the wall, knowing that your son is about to chant Torah in the spot where generations and generations of people have done the same? It was an amazing morning—from helping lead to passing the Torah from generation to generation to watching Rabbi Spilker and Daniel jump up to a rock in front of the Wall for a blessing. Wow!)

After the ceremony, we walked further along the Southern Wall to learn about and see the Ancient steps leading up to what once was where the Second Temple stood on the Temple Mount.

We continued into the Davidson Center where we watched a video titled ‘Life During the Times of the Temple’ which some of you may have seen when the Dead Sea Scrolls were exhibited at the Minnesota Science Museum in St. Paul.
sidenote: the narrator of the video looked strikingly like a Herodian version of the Geiko cave man which amused some of the younger (at heart) members of the tour.

After the video we made our way toward the Western Wall. In order to gain access we passed through security that would have made our friends at TSA in the MSP Airport proud.

As is required by our Orthodox brethren, we separated by gender, covered up (hats/kippahs for men, skirts and sleeves for women) and stepped up to the crowded wall—a/the most sacred site to Jews for its proximity to the past temples on the Mount, which contained the Holy of Holies.

After a few minutes at the wall, many of us followed Rabbi Spilker as he led us through the Arab Quarter to a lesser-known spot to access the wall—a profound moment indeed to be alone with friends at such a sacred site.

Oh, did I mention it was hot? It reached at least 100 degrees but everyone managed to stay beautiful and kept a good attitude while drinking plenty of water and taking many Shirutim (bathroom) breaks.

We continued to see important archaeological sites in the Jewish quarter such as the broad wall and the recently discovered Herodian mansions.

After lunch, our group split. A large portion of the group went to Christian East Jerusalem while many of the youngsters (at heart) and I were led by Muki through Hezekiah’s 2,600+ year old Water tunnel.

Then we took a well deserved break.

After a touch of shopping and dinner on Jerusalem’s hip Ben Yahuda area, (where I was able to get my daily fix of world cup action) we regrouped for a late-night tour of the Western Wall Tunnels. These tunnels, like Hezekiah’s were simply astounding for revealing unbelievable engineering feats, their mere size (bricks weighing nearly 550 tons (TONS!!!), age, historical significance, and the political complexities that arise from them.

BED TIME! LONG AMAZING DAY!

Jerusalem is a city where the juxtaposition of old and new holds the ancient and the totally modern in a degree of hyper-relevance. Every new thing we see is astounding and I can’t imagine should anyone see any of them hundreds of times that it could possibly become anything less than unbelievable.


Layla tov,

Satchel Borow Moore