When the tour was being planned and I saw that we were going to use Continental to Newark and then to Tel Aviv, I thought back to the numbers of times Judith and I had taken a similar route to Berlin, and once to Ireland, and had gotten screwed. At least half the time we took that route we lost a day or had major anxiety making the flights.
We drove to Tel Aviv, about a 40 minute drive, and met Ayesha,
Barbara and Reggie at Independence Hall.
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At Independence Hall we were treated to a very moving presentation of the events surrounding the day May 14, 1948 when David Ben Gurion declared the Establishment of the State of Israel in the very hall where we were sitting. The presenter set the scene perfectly, telling about the events that preceded and the events that followed. Just before Ben Gurion read the statement, which is reproduced in the booklet, those assembled broke out singing Hatikva, "The Hope", the anthem of Israel "In the Jewish heart/ A Jewish spirit still sings/ And the eyes look east/ Toward Zion/ Our hope is not lost,/ Our hope of two thousand years./ To be a free nation in our land,/ In the land of Zion and Jerusalem". I was very moved by the experience, and gained a great appreciation for Israel, even with the trip hardly beginning!
After leaving Independence Hall we spent some time in a Market which I
think is the HaCarmel Market, stretching from Alenbi Street toward the
Mediterranean Sea. The pomegranates have to be seen to be
believed... bigger than grapefruits!
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One of the tour members thought we spent much too much time at markets and shops, but I didn't feel that way. I was happy the shopping stops were fewer than they could have been.
Following the market we took a long ride north to Mount Carmel, which
is a long ridge that starts inland and terminates at Haifa. We made a
stop at the Mukrachah, the Carmelite Monastery on Mount Carmel, where
it is believed that Elijah had his battle with the priests of Ba'al.
Reb. Moshe gave a talk there.
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Then we re-boarded the bus and drove to the end of Mount Carmel to enjoy the marvelous view of Haifa viewed from the top of the Bahai'i gardens.
Finally we arrived at our Hotel, The Palm Beach Hotel, in Acco, rested
a bit and then enjoyed a welcome dinner at a local shish kabob
restaurant. A word to the wise... don't do a lot of eating at these
things. There is one course after another. It ain't over till you
get huge skewers of shish kabob.
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The next stop was Rosh Hanikrah on the Lebanese border, white chalk
cliffs with many caves. The story is told how during WWII the British
built a railway through the chalk cliffs to facilitate the movement of
goods from Egypt to the port of Beirut. When the British withdrew in
1948, Israeli forces took over Rosh Hanikrah, and the Palmach blew up
the railway bridges in the grottoes to prevent the Lebanese army from
invading when the War of Independence began
(3).
As we left several bus loads of Israeli Arab kids from Cana arrived to
view the grottoes.
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Our next stop was the Druze village of Peki'in. We visited the cave where according to tradition R. Shimon bar Yochai hid from the Romans in 161 CE for many years, and wrote the Zohar. The cave now is too small to enter, but tradition has it that an earthquake caused the roof to collapse. The cave is in a beautiful shady grotto, assessable by stairs on the side of a hill. After visiting the cave we made a stop at the shop of a local Druze merchant who gave us a brief introduction to his people and sold us some products. We then spent some time, and money, at the soap factory of Savta Jimalya.
The road between Peki'in and Zefat, our next stop, is truly
spectacular. We drove through a beautiful country side with large
rolling hills, which reminded me a bit of Ireland. Ha Galil, The
Galilee, is truly beautiful, and you can appreciate how it was the
setting for so much history in the Tanakh and the Christian Bible, as
well as the ages of the Rabbis.
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In Zefat we had lunch, and did some shopping. We visited the synagogues of Yosef Karo and Ari z''l, and did some meditation. We visited the shop of a local Kabbalist artist, Avrahom Loewenthal. One of the four Holy Cities (along with Jerusalem, Hebron and Tiberias) even though it was of no real Jewish importance until the 16th century, Zefat was home to the first printing press in the middle east in 1577. Rabbi Yosef Karo codified the disputes of the Talmud in the 'Shulchan Aruch'. Rabbi Issac Luria developed the Kabbalah here. The poem 'Lecha Dodi', and the Kabbalat Shabbat service of Friday night originated from the Kabbalist community in Zefat.
During the day we caught glimpses of the Sea of Galilee. We ended the day at Hotel Lavi, a Kibbutz based hotel. That evening we had a meeting with one of the Kibbutz leaders.
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Our first stop of the day was the Golan Archaeological Museum in Katzrin. "It displays various findings from the Golan heights, including Hebrew inscriptions from ancient synagogues in the area. There is a special hall devoted to the heroic history of Gamla." (4) The history of Gamla is presented in an audiovisual shown in an auditorium. The siege and fall to the Romans of Gamla had been documented by Josephus. "He describes Gamla as the city situated atop a hill resembling a camel, surrounded by high cliffs. On its steep slopes houses were built very close to one another, and the city seemed to be hung in the air at a sharp summit, ready to fall down on itself. In 66 CE the residents of Gamla joined the Jewish Revolt against the Romans. Under the direction of Josephus, they expeditiously constructed a wall. In the eastern side of the city, the wall descended from a circular watchtower on top of the hill, and continued downward until it approached Nahal Daliot. It encircled the city's eastern buildings, including Gamla's magnificent synagogue." (5) In 68 CE when Josephus was already a prisoner of the Romans, Gamla fell to the Romans after a bloody siege. "In 1968, Itzhak Gal -- a participant in a Sites and Landscapes Survey in the Golan -- first suggested that an isolated cliff near Nahal Dalyot is a site of Gamla. In 1976, the archaeologist Shemaryahu Gutmann, together with Gal, began to excavate here. His excavations not only verified that this was Gamla; they also uncovered many amazing finds. Gutmann discovered the remains of the wall from the time of the Great Revolt; the place where the Romans breached the wall; the city's exquisite synagogue; several houses from one of Gamla's residential neighborhoods; and evidence of the fierce battle that took place here". (5)
The next stop was a visit to the Golan Heights Winery, which was
founded in 1983 in Katzrin. It is the largest winery I have visited,
and we enjoyed the request wine tasting. Judith and I bought some
bottles, some of which we shipped to Berlin for the kids. For a brief
review of some of its product, see (6).
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We had lunch at a restaurant run by an IDF Reserve Colonel who gave us
a briefing in sight of the Syrian border. He didn't say anything I
didn't know. After that we visited a local artillery fire base, which
had no guns, only some shells. There were three soldiers who we left
loaded down with our gifts. I and a couple of others had gotten
baseball caps with "Red Sox" logos in Hebrew lettering. I had thought
"Red Sox" was in Hebrew, but actually it was Yiddish! It took a while
for the three soldiers to materialize, and Judith Cohen exclaimed "We
could have taken over the entire base!"
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We made a stop at the Na'ot factory
store in a Kibbutz, and then had an hour's free time in the town
of Tiberias on the
Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret). We got there as night was falling.
Tiberias is a party town with a glitzy center and lots of young
people... I'm not clear what the town is for! Most people felt that
the stop at the Na'ot factory was a waste of time.
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Tonight we spent our last of two nights in Kibbutz Lavi Hotel.
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"The city of Zippori (Sepphoris), described by the first century CE
Jewish historian, Josephus Flavius, as "the ornament of all Galilee,"
is located on a hill in the Lower Galilee, midway between the
Mediterranean and Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), with abundant spring
water and a fertile valley around it. Zippori is mentioned in many
Jewish sources of the first centuries of the Common Era. Founded in
the Hellenistic era, it was named the administrative capital of
Galilee by Gabinius, the Roman governor, in the mid-first century
BCE. The city did not join the revolt against Rome in 66 CE; it opened
its gates to the legions of the Roman Emperor Vespasian and was thus
saved. On coins minted in Zippori at that time, the city is named
Eirenopolis, "city of peace." Later, its name was changed to
Diocaesarea in honor of Zeus and the emperor. By the second century,
Zippori had become the center of Jewish religious and spiritual life
in the Land of Israel. The Sanhedrin (supreme Jewish religious and
judicial body), headed by Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi, was located in Zippori
at the beginning of the third century; at this time Jews constituted
the majority of the town's population. Even after the seat of the
Sanhedrin was moved to Tiberias, Zippori remained a center of Bible
study and notable sages taught in its numerous academies. The
discovery of rich, figurative mosaics during excavations at Zippori
provide evidence of the Roman character of the city's pagan
population, which coexisted in harmony with the Jews during the period
of economic prosperity in the late Roman period. Zippori was destroyed
in 363 by an earthquake, but was rebuilt soon thereafter, retaining
its social and spiritual centrality in Jewish life in the Galilee."
(7)
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Much remains of the ruins of the old Roman city with many beautiful
tile floors, and a small but very solid Crusader fort at the top. The
main town street is evident with its wagon ruts in the heavy stone
pavement. There are ruins of an old 6th century synagogue with very
beautiful mosaic floors showing many of the symbols and Hebrew texts
that we are familiar with today.
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The bus then took us to Kibbutz Ein Dor (recall Saul's visit to the
witch of Endor), where we had lunch and then a visit with Aryeh
Malkin, one of the founders. On the road to Ein Dor, we passed Mount
Tabor, "believed by many to be the site of the Transfiguration of
Christ and site for the battle between Barak and the army of Jabin,
commanded by Sisera" (8).
Aryeh told us the stirring story of his
adventures going to Israel at the end of WWII, which involved learning
how to be a sailor on a British destroyer that was purchased by the
Hagannah to run the British blockade into Israel. He talked for an
hour, and I recorded it on my Palm Tungsten T3. I hope to transcribe
parts of the talk. Aryeh also told of contacts that the Kibbutz is
having with their Arab neighbors in workshops where all work together.
"The atmosphere at the meetings of adults and children is one of
study, working together, playing together and building things
together...". See (9).
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After our stay at Ein Dor we took the long drive to Jerusalem. The bus took us west to the coast roads, then south, then east to Jerusalem along the Tel Aviv to Jerusalem connecting roads. Apparently there are no safe or good roads that go directly south through the West Bank to Jerusalem. The natural way to go would have seemed to be to follow the course of the Jordan River.
We were greatly slowed down by a long traffic jam just south of Tel Aviv. When we got to the cause, we found a completely burned out bus sitting in the right lane. Surely it wasn't terrorism, else we would have heard of it. Probably just another New York to Boston Fung Wah bus.
Because of the traffic jam, we were late getting into Jerusalem. It
was nearly dark, and we didn't visit the Western Wall that day. We
did stop at Mt. Scopus though, and said 'Shehechiyanu'. Our
Yellow guide book has several poems to Jerusalem that I am tempted to
reproduce here, but won't. In the book that we are currently reading
for the TBZ book club the dedication is to a person who died in a
terrorist attack on Mt. Scopus in 2002. Makes me appreciate that we
had an armed guard.
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We stayed for the next three nights at the King Solomon Hotel. That evening at the hotel we had a visit from R. Levi Lauer, Founding Executive Director of ATZUM in Jerusalem, a network of volunteers who give assistance to survivors of terror, support to righteous gentiles, those who helped Jews during the Shoah, and the combating of human trafficking.
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We then made a visit to the "City of David", an archaeological dig (10) (11) on the southeastern side of the plateau on which the Old City lies. We were given a talk by (Danny Erlich ?), one of the directors of Keshet. His parents met at Temple Beth Zion! Below us was the Gihon Spring and below and to the right the Kidron Valley, and across from us a bit to the left was the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives seems to be a mass of grave sites, not surprising, since legend has it that here is where the dead will rise first at the Second Coming. This archaeological site seems to be in part an attempt to discover traces of the kingship of David. Many local residents are upset because of the disruption to housing, this being now a very heavily populated Palestinian area.
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We then walked to the Old City, entering through the Dung Gate, passing the El Aqsa Mosque, and on to the Western Wall. I felt cheated because I had left my kippah and prayer shawl at the Hotel, not knowing we were going to make this visit. I had to make use of one of the cardboard kippot that are kept at hand for novices. The Western Wall has a section for men and a much smaller section for women. I think the woman's section is smaller because of some construction project that is ongoing. While I was close to the Western Wall, thinking of each of my brothers and sisters, I was approached twice by well dressed schnorrers, and I must confess I gave a little bit each time. After the visit we walked to the Cardo for a little shopping time in the Jewish Quarter. The Cardo is the reconstructed main street of Byzantine Jerusalem from the 6th century. There is both Jewish shops, and down at an end that goes into a maze of streets, Arabic shops.
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That evening we celebrated Kabbalat Shabbat at the Western Wall. The place was crowded with people celebrating, and there were emergency vehicles parked nearby in case of any trouble. The tour held a brief service outside of the segregated area, then Moshe, John and I joined with a group of young men who were praying, singing and dovening... quite a festive affair! I used the 'Siddur Hadash' from the Temple which I had been using at home. I have returned it to TBZ with an inscription saying that it had been used for Kabbalat Shabbat at the Western Wall. Afterward we had a great dinner at the Hotel, followed by singing. It was funny to see that the dining hall seemed to be separated into two parts; one with big tables for groups which seemed to want to sing, and the other with tables for four with quiet diners. There were many Christian groups touring Jerusalem, and maybe they were the ones at the tables for four.
Then we walked to the Italian Synagogue on Hillel Street (14) spending some time there. Again, men were in the sanctuary, and women in the balcony, but in this case the balcony was almost enclosed... only some panels opened downward to allow viewing by women of the sanctuary. The synagogue, which was built in the early 18th Century in Congeliano near Venice, was moved to Jerusalem stone by stone in the 1950's. There is a museum across a plaza from it, the U. Nahon Museum of Italian Jewish Art, which is supposed to be spectacular, but it isn't open on Shabbat.
Finally we walked back to the Hotel where there was a very delicious Shabbat luncheon. There was a walking tour in the afternoon to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Christian Quarter of the Old City which Judith and I didn't go on, because I was sick with the cold, and we were both exhausted. We slept through the afternoon.
During the British Mandate a municipal ordinance was passed, which
remains in effect, requiring all new buildings in Jerusalem to be
faced with stone. As far as I can see, Jerusalem stone is used
exclusively, giving the city a romantic cream-colored or golden
appearance.
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The Hall of Names (17) is an imposing circular space... "The main circular hall houses the extensive collection of short biographies of each Holocaust victim. Over two million pages are stored in the circular repository around the outer edge of the Hall, with room for six million in all. The ceiling of the Hall is composed of a ten-meter high cone reaching skywards, displaying 600 photographs and "Pages of Testimony" -- short biographies of each Holocaust victim. This exhibit represents a fraction of the murdered six million men, women and children from the diverse Jewish world destroyed by the Nazis and their accomplices. The victims' portraits are reflected in water at the base of an opposing cone carved out of the mountain's bedrock." The space is truly awe inspiring.
Another breath-taking exhibit is the Children's Memorial (18). It consists of a totally darkened space in which hundreds of candles can be seen in many mirrors, as a voice recites the names of young victims. The senses go beyond claustrophobia into eternity. See reference (19) for a You Tube experience of the Memorial.
After Yad Vashem we drove a short distance to Mount Herzl, the
cemetery for national figures. We visited the graves of Theodor
Herzl, Yizhak Rabin and Ze'ev Jabotinsky.
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Then we boarded the bus for the long drive to the Dead Sea. The route
went straight eastward through the West Bank. We stopped at a place
to do a little shopping and to visit a bored looking camel. Many
pictures were taken of those of us who were brave enough to mount up.
Shortly after, we passed Jerico on our left. Leaving the West Bank we
passed through a check point and proceeded south along the Jordan
River Valley. On our left was the valley and then, after a while, the
Dead Sea. On our right were cliffs and hills of various heights going
up to the Judean Heights. Occasionally we would pass the tents and
shacks of Bedouin. Once I saw caves cut in the cliffs on the right,
and I imagined they might be like the ones where the Dead Sea scrolls
were found. The left, toward the river, was quite barren, except for
an occasional plantation, until we started driving next to the Dead
Sea, when vegetation became as sparse as on the right near the cliffs.
The Dead Sea is divided into two parts, and an impossibly regular
channel connects them. Perhaps the channel is dredged.
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As we approached our stop the air became less blue and more yellowish, no doubt due to sandstorms to the south. Spring is the time for the sands storms in Egypt and southern Israel, and the southern part of Dead Sea is due east of the northern most part of the Egyptian border with Israel.
We stopped for the night at the Prima Oasis Hotel at Ein Bokek on the
Dead Sea. It is one of a dozen or so hotels that pop up out of
nowhere on the Dead Sea coast, probably based on an oasis. We checked
in, donned our bathing suits and plunged into the Sea. 'Plunge'
probably isn't the word... I definitely feel you can't get below the
surface because the water is so buoyant. The water is 30% salt
compared to the oceans, which are 3%. I have a photo that someone
took of Barbara, Ayesha, Judith and I, and we look like we are lying
in water that is only a few inches deep! The water feels silky (some
might say 'slimy'), and was very clear; it was easy to see the bottom.
It was also very easy to swim in, since swim stokes took you a great
deal further and faster than in the ocean.
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The Dead Sea lies 1400 feet below sea level in the African Rift Valley, the lowest point on the surface of the earth on dry land. The Mountains of Moab are visible across the sea in Jordan. There is a wealth of information in reference (20).
The Prima Oasis Hotel is a little strange. It seems to be inhabited mostly by Russians, and in the lounge the woman behind the bar didn't know what scotch was. John Powell said it was like a bad Russian bar in Brighton; I'll take his word for it. I had to make do with ouzo, which was in one of the few bottles that I could see on the shelf behind her. John told me that they also had vodka... of course! My Israeli friend at MIT told me that I should have asked for whiskey, then I would probably have gotten scotch. Also a request for American whiskey would have produced bourbon.
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At the top, we spent time walking about the ruins of the old Herodian
fortress, built between 37 and 31 BCE. "Herod, the master builder
'furnished this fortress as a refuge for himself.' It included a
casement wall around the plateau, storehouses, large cisterns
ingeniously filled with rainwater, barracks, palaces and an armory."
(21)
In 73 CE Masada was the scene of a famous Jewish resistance against
Roman rule (22).
"The Romans established camps at the base of Masada, laid siege to it
and built a circumvallation wall. They then constructed a rampart of
thousands of tons of stones and beaten earth against the western
approaches of the fortress and, in the spring of the year 74 CE, moved
a battering ram up the ramp and breached the wall of the fortress." (21)
Two survivors told Josephus the story of how the defenders decided to
burn the fortress and end their own lives.
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We saw many storerooms, armories, a mikva and a room with the remains
of a Roman fresco. We visited the remains of a synagogue. We saw
ruins of an ancient dove cot, and ballista stones. All quite well
preserved because of the two thousand years in the dry climate. Below
on the face of the northern projection of the plateau was Herod's
Palace. We didn't descend to see it, but we took pictures from above,
and there was a model of it that we viewed. We walked down a path
next to the Roman siege ramp, a ridge of earth piled up by the Romans
built to reach the fortress from its lowest side. The walk is lovely,
and the views were great, despite the dust in the air. We passed a
group of kids coming up the other way. Many of them were Ethiopian
Jews.
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We then drove up and out of the rift valley to the Negev Desert, and
to the desert development town of Yeruham. The film "The Band's
Visit" was shot in Yeruham, and the film shows an extreme example of
the dusty haze that was accompanying us in the Negev. At Yeruham we
were given a presentation by the Mayor, Mitzner. Mitzner had been a
very popular elected Mayor of Haifa, and had governed there for 9 or
10 years. He was assigned to Yeruham by the Ministry of Interior to
clean the place up after a period of governmental corruption and
failure. We had lunch at the house of a resident of Yeruham, a
Moroccan Jew, one of the original settlers, who had immigrated there
(I think) in 1953.
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We then visited the grave of David Ben Gurion at the house he had
built to promote the colonization of the desert (23... this reference also has a bio of Ben Gurion). It
overlooks the Wilderness of Zin, a spectacular view. "The kibbutz
[Sede Boqer] has close associations with David Ben-Gurion, Israel's
first prime minister. When Ben-Gurion resigned in 1953 he joined the
young kibbutz in order, as he said, to do 'what was really important':
that is, to develop the Negev. Fourteen months later, however, he
returned to politics, first as minister of defense and then as prime
minister for a second time. In 1963, at the age of 77, he finally
retired to Sede Boqer, which then became a focal point of Israeli
political life. He died in 1973 and was buried in the kibbutz." (24)
The grave of Ben Gurion had a wreath of Flowers that had been placed
there the day before by Angela Merkal, the Chancellor of Germany. We
also met Mark, a cousin of Susan's, who is a scientist working there
on desert agriculture.
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We finished the day with a drive to Mitzpeh Ramon ("Ramon Lookout"), the southern most point of our tour, a town built on the rim of Maktesh Ramon ("Crater Ramon"). There we stayed at probably the nicest hotel of our trip, the Pundak Ramon. Judith and I had a lovely suite of rooms that we stayed in. The hotel was created by converting two 1960s development town apartment blocks (see "The Band's Visit" for an example of these), and has a nice indoor pool. The evening's event was a desert stargazing and a talk by R. Moshe on Elijah and the desert. I enjoyed the second event, but the first was made impossible by the dust in the air.
Maktesh Ramon (25) is a smaller
version of the Grand Canyon, and we peered over the edge at a lookout
spot, but much of its spectacular beauty was obscured by the dust.
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Back in Tel Aviv we visited Rabbi Roberto Arbib in Neve Tzedek. Neve
Tzedek (26) is
an artsy neighborhood in Tel Aviv which is becoming gentrified. The
neighborhood was established outside of Jaffa in 1887, 22 years before
the founding of the City of Tel Aviv, and it was the home of Novel
prize laureate Shmuel Yosef Agnon and Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. We
saw their houses. R. Roberto is raising money to build a 1,300 square
meter "Schechter Institute Neve Tzedek Center", which should be ready
for the public in two years. The goal is to create a
"cultural-spiritual center" which would be the basis of a religious
community of Conservative Jews. "the new center will joint the quiet
revolution that is already underway in Tel Aviv, evident in
institutions such as Yakar, Bina, Alma College, the Secular Yeshiva,
Reform Judaism's Beit Daniel, and Arbib's own synagogue and midrasha,
which are sprouting up and steadily expanding throughout the city."
(27)
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After our visit with Rabbi Roberto we spent time shopping at the
Nahalat Binyamin weekly arts & crafts fair. That evening, the
last evening for the tour in Israel, we held a Summary discussion of
the tour, then went for a farewell dinner in Tel Aviv's Yemenite
Quarter.
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(1) Keshet website:
http://www.keshetisrael.co.il/index.htm
(2) "Archaeology in Israel - Acco (Acre)" by Jacqueline Schaalje
http://www.jewishmag.com/30MAG/acco/acco.htm
(3) "Virtual Israel Experience: Rosh Hanikrah"
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vie/Hanikra.html
(4) "Israel Museums: Golan Archaeological Museum"
http://ilmuseums.com/museum_eng.asp?id=89
see also
"Helium reviews: Golan Archaeological Museum, Israel"
http://www.helium.com/items/889701-golan-heights-looks-bulge
(5) "Israeli Links, The Unofficial Guide: Gamla"
http://mosaic.lk.net/g-gamla.html
(6) Queen Anne Wines Website:
http://www.queenannewine.com/golheigwin.html
(7) "The Jewish Virtual Library: Zippori"
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Archaeology/zippori.html
see also
"The Jewish Virtual Library: Zippori National Park"
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/geo/Zippori1.html
(8) "Wikipedia: Mount Tabor"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Tabor
(9) "Mid East Web: Two Cultures Meet at the Ein Dor Museum"
http://www.mideastweb.org/eindormus.htm
(10) "BiblePlaces.com: Jerusalem's City of David and Area G"
http://www.bibleplaces.com/areag.htm
(11) "The Jewish Virtual Library: Jerusalem: -- The City of David" http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Archaeology/jerdavid.html
(12) "Wikipedia: Great Synagogue (Jerusalem)"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Synagogue_(Jerusalem)
(13) Website: The Jerusalem Great Synagogue
http://jerusalemgreatsynagogue.com/TEST/mezuza.htm
(14) "Gems in Israel: The Conegliano Veneto Synagogue and The U. Nahon Museum
of Italian Jewish Art"
http://www.gemsinisrael.com/e_article000047896.htm
(15) Website: The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority
http://www.yadvashem.org/
(16) opcite: "The New Museum"
http://www1.yadvashem.org/new_museum/overview.html
(17) opcite "The Hall of Names"
http://www1.yadvashem.org/new_museum/Galleries/gal10Hall.html
(18) opcite "Children's Memorial"
http://www1.yadvashem.org/visiting/temp_visiting/temp_index_children.html
(19) "YouTube: Jerusalem - Yad Vashem - Children's Memorial"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU0e-egwLWo
(20) "Wikipedia: Dead Sea"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea
(21) "Jewish Virtual Library: Masada: Desert Fortress Overlooking the Dead Sea"
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Archaeology/Masada1.html
(22) "Jewish Virtual Library: Masada"
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/masada.html
(23) "Department for Jewish Zionist Education: David Ben Gurion"
http://www.jafi.org.il/education/moriya/negev/DavidBenGurion.html
(24) "Planet Ware: avda - entry on Sede Boqer"
http://www.planetware.com/negev/avdat-isr-st-av.htm
(25) "Wikipedia: Makhtesh Ramon"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramon_Crater
(26) "Wikipedia: Neve Tzedek
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neve_Tzedek
(27) The Jerusalem Post: "Conservative Movement hopes to build Tel Aviv center"
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1199964914218&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Additional Resources for this paper: