Shalom from Israel

We made it to Israel! Even Josh Levey, the last to arrive has now joined the group! Along with Rabbi Siegal and Sharon Israel, our ten students have now all made it to the Promised Land, and everyone is happy and tired!

Here is tonight's report from a very sleepy Raychel Feldman:

Today was a very long day. We spent a few extra hours in the airport last night and on the tarmac today, which set us a little behind. But we made it, and couldn't be happier! We arrived in Israel after a long, but worth while 12 hour trip at 3. We then headed out to baggage claim and the soda machine, converted some money into Shekels, and met outside in front of the bus. We met our wonderful tour guide, Orit, and medic Matan, who took us to Old Jaffa where we were able to see spectacular views of the Wishing Bridge and the gorgeous Mediterranean Sea. We then drove into Tel Aviv and went down to the old port which was used back in the day of the first Aliyah in 1882 for arriving immigrants. We later came down to the hotel, took a nice break, ate dinner and completed the day with a scoop of ice cream and a nice walk on the soft sanded beach.

We also learned Hebrew words today:

Yala - Let's Go

Todah - Thanks

Slicha - Excuse Me

Glida - Ice Cream and our favorite:

Sababa - Awesome!

Tuesday, June 15th Report from Matthew Eisenberg about Tel Aviv:

Today began at Kikar Rabin, or Rabin Square, where Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated after giving a speech at a demonstration for peace. We visited his memorial site. Then, we did a scavenger hunt type activity, where we broke into two groups. Our tasks included asking a random person for his keyboard/laptop and taking pictures with a "goth" and IDF soldier. We had to make our own petition and get ten signatures, and we walked for approximately 10 billion miles. We got to know Tel Aviv very well! Then, we had our first schwarma of the trip, which we enjoyed very much! After that, we went to the Palmach museum, which is a museum of the underground militia before Israel was a state. That was a very interesting multi media experience. Then, we drove to the Negev, which was about 2 1/2 hours. It was the quietest our group had been, because everyone was sleeping! We stayed overnight at the Masade Youth Hostel and complained about having to wake up at 3:30 next morning, but did it with smiles on our faces in the morning!

Laila Tov - Good Night!