Jerusalem & Goodbye!
Day Eight, Nine, Ten & Eleven – Thursday to Sunday | 2/21 – 2/24
Time for the city of gold! We spent our first day in Jerusalem exploring the old city’s Jewish quarter.Andras led us first to the Tower of David for a magnificent lookout of the city to see what we will be exploring over the next three days. From there, we walked atop the ramparts to the Jewish quarter of the city and began our insider’s tour. The students ate lunch in the old city, mostly the classic falafel and shwarma. We departed from there to the Egalitarian side of the Kotel to engage in singing, prayer and held a discussion around the modern-day politics of the wall. We descended below ground to a tour of the tunnels of the wall and see where it’s roots began. After our inner exploration, we ascended up to observe the Orthodox side of the wall and continued our discussion of what the wall means to us today. We left the old city and got our outdoorsy boots on to learn about green spaces and agriculture in Jerusalem at the Urban Gazelle Park Nature Project. The hotel served as the perfect place to rest and catch our breath before we went back out for the students to have free time to get dinner at the Mamilla shops. The night ended with a light show at the Tower of David, offering a timeline of the development of Jerusalem from its origins to today.
Friday morning brought us to Mt. Herzl to pay our respects and learn about some of the past leaders of Israel, including Theodor Herzl, Yitzhak Rabin and the beloved poet Hannah Senesh. We stayed on Mt. Herzl and continued to Yad VaShem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial museum. Andras took us to the Avenue of the Righteous to learn about the individuals that put their lives on the line persecuted during the Holocaust. After, Andras led us through a tour of the first half of the main museum to learn about the years that led up to the Holocaust and provide framing of how did this tragedy occur. The students had time to go off on their own to in the second half to learn about what happened during the years of the Holocaust. Our time at the museum ended with a walkthrough of the beautiful and tragic Children’s Memorial. Our emotional and thoughtful morning day took a turn when we left to the Machaneh Yehudah Market, famously known as “The Shuk!” Whether the students were eating falafel, rugalech or halva, everyone was eating their share. Not to mention, the students found incredible gifts to bring home. We left the bustling market and had down time at the hotel to get ready for Shabbat. Rabbi Epstein and Sarah led a beautiful Kabbalat Shabbat service in the hotel. To represent each day of the trip, seven students shared a highlight for one of the days and summarized our time in Israel at that point beautifully. The evening ended with Shabbat dinner at the hotel joined by two Lone Soldiers sharing their stories with the students. Since the night ended early and we had a late morning planned for the next day, the students enjoyed plenty of free time in their hall’s corridor and got extra sleep for the day ahead.
To bring in Shabbat morning we attended a beautiful ceremony at Kol Neshamah Synagogue. The community welcomed us with warm and open arms in prayer and honored us with an aliyah. Towards the end of the service, the shul divided up and we participated in an engaging discussion led by a community member around the ethics of being humble. Following the service, we stayed for a lovely kiddish and returned back to the hotel for lunch in the area. We headed from there to the famed Israel Museum to see the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Shrine of the Book and saw a model of Jerusalem in the time of the Second Temple. Students had the opportunity to roam around the museum and art exhibit and explore the history themselves. After a brief hotel pit stop, we headed back out for Havdallah at the windmill in the gorgeous neighborhood of Yemin Moshe. We took a brief ride to Picollino, an incredible Italian restaurant where we dined on fresh bread, salad, pizza, pastas and cakes. Since it is award season, we held our own exclusive ceremony: the 2019 CBE 8th Grade Israel Trip Paper Plate Awards. Categories included National Geographic’s Future Archeologist Award, Best Cardboard Recycler Award, and the Golda Meir Award. Our night concluded with free time on the hot Ben Yehudah Street!
Our final morning began bright and early with breakfast and bags packed and ready at 6:30 A.M. We swiftly left and set ahead for the airport. Once we moved through check-in, we said our goodbyes to Andras and left for the journey ahead. Even with a slight delay in our flight, we made it back with good timing and were warmly greeted by our families. Thank you to all of the students for a wonderful trip! We are so excited for your next adventures to Israel!
