After being rudely awakened by a mandatory 6:30 a.m. wake-up call, we were mollified with a breakfast buffet that could probably feed an entire Bedouin tribe and their camels. I don’t even know what to call this “spread”—it was breakfast, brunch, lunch, snacks, dessert and dinner all in one. This made me very happy as one of the main tenets of any of my travels is to be nourished often and well; after all, world travel takes a lot out of a person.
We all boarded the bus at the designated time to make our way to our appointment at the Palmach Museum which depicts the development of the State of Israel as an independent nation and homeland for the Jewish people in the most extraordinary way. It focuses on the enormous efforts and sacrifices made by the military starting with assisting the British forces during World War II with the development of the Haganah and the creation of the special forces, the Palmach, after the war. It showed not only the struggle for independence, but the harrowing crusade to bring all of the refugees from the Holocaust to their new home. The museum took us through different rooms and told the story through the eyes of an actual Haganah troop interactively through sights, sounds and even smells. It is amazing what these young volunteers accomplished with the very limited weaponry and resources, often sharing one rifle between the 12 men and women in the troop.
The museum was powerful and, for me, brought all the bits and pieces of information that I had heard about into one comprehensive story. There was everything from action to romance to drama; something for everyone. I got caught up in the comraderie and passion for a united cause, and it had me wondering if I would have been brave enough to sign up had I lived during that time.
Time to eat again! Falafel, shwarma, salads, oh my! After lunch, the group had two options of what to do in Haifa.
In our family, Nathan and I visited the Wadi Nis Nas neighborhood and the Beit Hagefen Arab Jewish center. We learned about the center’s efforts to promote partnership and understanding between Jews, Arabs and Christians and the different cultural and political conflicts that make the cooperation so difficult. The center uses the arts—music, plays, writings—to cross some of the boundaries. As we strolled through the narrow, meandering streets, our guide pointed out beautiful works of art that were randomly installed right onto the buildings and homes, many carrying meaningful messages about this struggle to live better together.
My other half chose Option B, a tour of the Technion. Technion could be considered the MIT or CalTech of Israel. A sophisticated, high energy school devoted to electrical engineering and aerospace, process and industrial design, architecture and civil engineering. The quick tour was reminiscent (for any of you who have done the college circuit) of a campus tour although without the dorm or food questions invariably asked. Technion also has a separate section of the school called “Rafael” that concentrates on government defense and security issues, designs and planning. In the Yom Kippur war, with missiles raining down on Israel, this group went onto the battle field, collected parts of exploded rockets, figured out how they were guided and developed jamming systems to stop the enemy from using the rockets with any accuracy. At this point, the adults and kids split up and while we went on a short tour, the kids played games with Reut and Sruli…definitely a good choice! We walked through one of the computer “farms” with cubicles set up and students working on all sorts of…G-d only knows what. Fortunately for them, Steve saw a flaw in one of the more complex formulas. Fortunately for us, he kept quiet about it until we left! When attempting to leave the cubicle area, we were locked in since no one’s key card would unlock the door. Go figure, we are in a high tech, secure area devoted to engineering and electronics and the electronic lock doesn’t work. Later, we noticed that they had a high tech door hold open (otherwise known as a chair) which had been pushed out of the way. Fortunately someone came from the outside and opened the door to let us out. It could not have been the design in such a high tech space, blame it on the contractor!
We all joined as one and relaxed on the bus ride from Haifa to Tzfat witnessing the changing scenery from the coast, through farmland and up into the mountains. This is one of the most amazing things about Israel. One can see ocean, dessert, forests, mountains and seas in a span of about nine hours from North to South. Heck, it takes five hours just to drive across Ohio. On our first evening in Tzfat, we visited with an artist who taught us a little bit about Kabbalism and his spiritual journey. It was an awwwww-sommme day.
Even rabbis have to nap sometimes!
And now....Lev Aryeh Caruso's Thought of the Day:
if you are ever in Israel and you get to choose one attraction in Tel Aviv, choose the Palmach museum.
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