Tracing Israel Independence

I am not sure that we realized the fight involved in Israel becoming a state. Before and after the 1948 declaration, a covert and overt war raged between various Jewish forces and the British colonial government (sound familiar?) and various Arab interests. We learned about the fight for independence at Independence Hall and the Palmach Museum, dedicated to an elite fighting force.

Independence Hall, site of David Ben Gurion's declaration.

Serena and Ethan Newburger find buys at Nachalat Binyamin craft fair.

The Tel Aviv beach scene.

The Newburger family at sunset (Shabbat) overlooking the Mediterranean.

Making our Way to Tel Aviv

Our Thursday included a few nice stops on the way to Tel Aviv.

We took a dip in the natural spring pools at Sachneh National Park...did Rabbi Caruso add this stop to our itinerary?

The Wexberg/Rothschild family above a waterfall.

The scene at the Sachneh pools.

Next we visited The Jaffa Institute, a social service agency in Jaffa/Tel Aviv serving poorer school children and their families. We helped with a mitzvah project and also visited one of their after school facilities and met some lively children!

Our group at The Jaffa Institute.

Rabbi Caruso and others help to back food boxes for the needy.

On our way to Tel Aviv, we took a few moments of reflection on an Old Jaffa hillside overlooking the Tel Aviv beach...let's get there already!

The view of Tel Aviv from Old Jaffa.

The Bonder family finds falafel at Jacky's on Ben Yehuda Street.

Visiting the Heights

A brief summary of our Wednesday activity:

We spent the morning in the Old City of Tzfat. (There are many old cities in the Holy Land!) Tzfat is built on a hill (cliff) with many winding alleys and archways made of stone.

The Old City of Tzfat has many shops and historic synagogues.

The women pose in front of Falafel Queen.

We took a nature hike in Tel Dan, one of the headwaters of the Jordan River. This was similar to a hike in one of our Metroparks, but also very beautiful, oh, and surrounded by ruins from the Caananite period, the biblical period as worship center of the Dan tribe, and also from the Byzantine period. Pretty cool!

Our tour guide David Solomon at Tel Dan

Israel is not all desert!

Next we drove to one of the peaks of the Golan Heights called Mt. Bental, which overlooks Syrian territory on one side and Israel's Galilee valley on the other. One visit gives you an idea of how important this area is for Israel's security. It is mostly home to military bases and one city, with a mall and food court...like home!

Military memorial on Mt. Bental.

Our touring day ended with a visit to the Golan Heights Winery, which was educational and fun. What happened after that is a little fuzzy...

Ellen Halfon and Rick Leibovich oversee barrel aging.

Wine tasting with winery guide Shalom in the Golan Heights.

Our last two nights will be spent in Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean coast. Hard to believe our trip is almost over. Start shopping!

Visiting Old Ruins, Preventing Future Ruins

Our first stop on Tuesday was to the ancient Roman ruins of Beit Shean, excavated between 1986 and 1996. The town featured a large semicircle theater and streets lined with columns. After Roman control, the town served many other masters, but was abandoned after a large earthquake in the year 749 AD.

Adam Bonder reverses the effects of a large earthquake on the ruins of Beit Shean.

Next we embarked on a family rafting trip down the “mighty” upper Jordan River, which was very similar to canoeing down the Mohican or similar river…more relaxing than adventurous.

A long drive up mountains took us to a kibbutz on the northern border with Lebanon for a lesson from the kibbutz’s security director. He then took us to their outer orchards overlooking the actual borderline, where we stopped a military envoy for a long discussion about their mission and the need for heightened security, considering the war with Lebanon in 2006. Most soldiers are fairly young, since military service is required after high school. (Men serve 3 years and women serve 2 years.) Our conversation was watched by UN observers across the border. Rabbi Caruso read a prayer for the soldiers and literally stood in solidarity with them.

Rabbi Caruso meets IDF troops at the Lebanon border.

United Nations observers keep an eye on our border meeting from the Lebanon border.

Our day ended visiting a Kabbalistic artist studio in the mystical city of Tzfat.

It's Getting Hot In Here: Climbing Masada, Exploring the Desert

Please forgive us…it has been two days since we last blogged. We have been through the desert and Jordan River valley, with brief one-night stops at hotels.

We had no trouble with the 4 am wakeup call on Monday morning to board the bus for the ride down winding roads to the desert floor, below sea level. It was hot, but not too hot, as we started the climb to Masada, taking the easier Roman ramp path, following the crowd to the top. In about 20 minutes we reached the top and joined in brief prayer, then toured the somewhat restored ruins of Roman structures that served as a defensive outpost in the Jewish resistance to Roman rule in the year 70 AD. We took the cable car ride down for breakfast and gift shopping.

The climb up Masada draws a crowd.

Dan and Joanne Bonder climbing Masada.

A brief prayer on Masada.

Restored ruins on top of Masada.

By now, we were hot as can be, so hiked up the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve to a lush waterfall to cool off.

Ein Gedi waterfall (above) is enjoyed by Ethan Newburger (below).

Our last stop in the desert was a dip in the Dead Sea. The sea is shrinking due to interrupted water flow, light rainfall and evaporation, so we had a long walk to the shore. And yes, we floated! This stop also included a chance to rub Dead Sea mud all over ourselves, apparently for some cosmetic benefit.

Aden Wexberg applies Dead Sea mud to his mother, Anita Rothschild.

Serena Newburger floats in the Dead Sea.

We then took a long ride north through the Jordan River valley to the sister city of Cleveland called Beit Shean. We learned about a Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland project called Partnership 2000 that links residents in both communities, followed by dinner in private homes.

The Newburger family enjoyed an interesting visit to a kibbutz family.

Big Day, Big Dig...Can You Dig It?

On Sunday, we visited with Anat Hoffman, Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC). Ms. Hoffman explained that there is no Hebrew word for "pluralism", which speaks to Israel's parochial views on religious and civil matters. There is no separation between "church" and state here, and religious matters are governed by Orthodox officials. The IRAC works to advocate for non-Orthodox Jews in Israel, as well as for gays and lesbians.

Our next and last stop in Jerusalem was the Theodore Herzl Museum, which is a multimedia experience that puts visitors in Herzl's place in late 1800s Vienna, where we felt the anti-Semitism he did. We then traced his steps in establishing the World Zionist Congress that led to the State of Israel 50 years later.

We file in among World Zionist Congress participants.

We left Jerusalem behind, on winding roads down mountain passes, and saw the millions of trees planted by JNF over many years. Still, the central and southern parts of Israel are stony and arid. Next was the "big dig," and hands-on opportunity to explore underground rooms holding many artifacts from the ancient city of Maresha, from the Hellenistic (Hanukah) era 2,200 years ago. Like a good day fishing, we quickly came up on broken vessels and hards of pottery, followed by a tunneling adventure.

Serena Newburger digs for ancient artifacts.

Ellen Halfon (above) and husband Rick Leibovich (below) climb through underground tunnels in the Maresha archaeological dig.

We discovered that Sally the Camel has one hump, when we alighted these biblical vehicles at Kfar Ha-Nokdim in the Judean Desert. Later, we learned about the Bedouin lifestyle, and feasted on a delicious communal meal sans silverware!

Steve Wexberg and Anita Rothschild ride a camel.

Dinner, Bedouin style.

Off to bed, as we will wake up at 4:00am, when we make our way to a sunrise climb up Masada.

A Jerusalem moment

We marked the end of Shabbat with Havdalah in a courtyard at our hotel. As Rick Leibovich and I were searching for wine, spices, and a candle for the service, a young Israeli woman, Racheli, asked me in Hebrew if she could join us (she hadn't yet made havdalah for herself). Racheli had no idea who we were, and probably assumed we were Israelis. We made a circle, and Racheli was surprised when we shared highlights of the trip (in English!) between the singing of the blessings for Havdalah. When it came time for Racheli to share, she told us (in broken English) how it "warmed her heart" to hear our stories, and invited us to visit at her home in Ma'ale Adumim.

There is no better example that symbolizes the phrase "am echad im lev echad" (we are one people with one heart).

A Quiet Shabbat, Then Adventure

It has been a few days now since our last falafel and it shows.

Yesterday we all spent a quiet Shabbat at the hotel, by the pool, and staying at the lunch table until 4 pm getting to know each other. We ended the afternoon with a walking tour past a few government buildings and through a newer (1880s) neighborhood (Kiryat Moshe/Nachlaot) constructed in a similar fashion as the old city. It looked somewhat run-down but quaint, and apparently very trendy and expensive. Some older houses have been replaced with new, modern versions.

After dinner, we took the bus back to the Old City for a nighttime visit to the Kotel (Western Wall), mainly for a tour of the Kotel Tunnel, a fairly recent (since 1980) excavation of the base of the entire length of the Western Wall, heading north from the well-known exposed portion. Did you know that the Western Wall was not part of the temple itself, but a retaining wall for the temple mount that held up a flat platform for the second temple and plaza? The experience was like exploring rooms in an Indiana Jones movie. Hardest to believe is that workers were able to move such large blocks of stone into place. The oldest (lowest) stones are the largest.

Rabbi Caruso inside of the Kotel tunnel.

Eric Bonder, Bryan Bonder, Rabbi Caruso, and Adam Bonder at the Kotel.

From Holocaust to Modern Day Life

Our day started solemnly with a visit to Yad Vashem, the newly rebuilt Holocaust museum that juts out of a dramatic mountaintop near Jerusalem. Our guide, David Solomon, led a very moving tour of the museum. Even though David has led this same tour dozens of times, we all felt strong emotions when got choked up retelling stories of how families were separated upon arrival at the death camps.

Entrance gate to Yah Vashem.

Yad Vashem's main corridor, photographed from outside the building.

Next our tour bus drove us out of the State of Israel proper and just into the West Bank to a very modern town called Ma'aleh Adumim to visit the home of Adina, an Ethiopian immigrant to Israel. We heard her stories, translated from Hebrew to English, of her family's decision to leave their village life in Ethiopia to participate in the 1985 airlift to Israel. Did they leave because of famine or persecution? Not at all, but because they felt the calling from G-d. We learned of Adina's struggles to learn Hebrew and fit in with modern Israeli life.

Adina shows an image of a typical Ethiopian village. At left is our guide and transalor, David Solomon. At right is Rick Leibovich.

Ma'aleh Adumim is a lush and modern West Bank settlement.

Our next stop was Macheneh Yehuda, Jerusalem's outdoor market (shuk)...very chaotic on the afternoon before Shabbat. In this sea of faces was one familiar one, Ruchama, the former JCC caterer, who is now retired and living in Israel. She was also shopping there.

Serena, Ethan and Lisa Newburger visit a shop at Macheneh Yehuda.

Former Clevelander Ruchama (center) is reunited with the Newburger family.

We greeted Shabbat with early services at congregation Kol HaNeshamah, a reform congregation that welcomes visitng groups from around the world. Here we found a very familiar face, former Fairmount Temple congregant, Edith Paller, now living in Israel.

Tracing the Roots of Jerusalem, Underground and Above

The rabbi will comment soon, but I am providing some details in the meantime. Bruce Newburger

Thursday (not sure exactly what day it is!) was our first full day in Israel, and we spent the entire time exploring ancient Jerusalem, starting the the City of David, a city that preceded the walled city of Jerusalem as we think about it now. This city was built by King David 3,000 years ago and preceded the first temple. After watching a very cool 3D movie, we trekked through a 600 yard water tunnel (in very shallow water) that was more like being in a very narrow cave. It was built by Hezekiah 2,700 years ago to protect the city's water supply from invaders. This gave us a great perspective on how Jerusalem evolved over time.

Our entire group at City of David.

We descend into Hezekiah's water tunnel.

We then entered the walled Old City, we finally ate delicious falafel in an outdoor food court. Ordering your falafel was not unlike a certain Seinfeld episode you are likely familiar with.

Rabbi Caruso finds a falafel!


Bryan Bonder, Steve Wexberg, Aden Wexberg and Joanne Bonder also find falafel!



Typical alley in the Old City.

It seems that the entire Old City is populated by tour groups of teens and adults from every country. One very interesting moment happened when we were leaving an ancient reservoir after our tour guide explained its importance in Jewish history of 3,000 years ago. We passed another tour group whose guide was telling them of the exploits of Jesus at this same spot 1,000 years later. (Giving sight to the blind, I believe.)

Our touring day ended with our first visit to the Kotel (Western Wall), which is actually a retaining wall of the Temple Mount, and is the closest most Jews will ever get to the location of the first and second temples, which is now covered with the Dome of the Rock. The Kotel area was very crowded with soldiers preparing for a swearing-in ceremony, aggressive tzedukah hounds, and even a bride. We all placed into the wall's cracks prayers written by Iris Edelman's temple preschool class.

The Kotel from a distance.

Ethan Newburger inserts a prayer into a crack in the Kotel.

Our entire group in front of the Kotel.