Our Journey Nears its end

Today was our final full day in Israel and we made the most of it. We started out with a visit to Masada. Originally built by King Herod as a getaway palace, the mountain was later used by a group of Jews hiding out from the Romans during the first century revolt against Rome. According to the historian Josephus Flavius, as they were about to be defeated, the holdouts on Masada decided that rather than risk being taken captive by the Romans they would draw lots and and undergo a mass suicide.
While on the mountaintop, our Israeli guide Elkana shared with the students this story and its place in the national consciousness of Israel and especially its important legend among the Israeli Defense Forces. He shared with the students that the IDF uses the story as motivation to create a generation of Jews who will never be victims but rather be able to fight and defend themselves. Indeed in an ironic twist we witnessed several air force flyovers as part of their training.

We closed at Masada by sharing the historic difficulties of accepting Josephus' as fact because he was not an eyewitness to the events, and he was also a traitor to the Romans.

After Masada, we drove to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on Earth, where our students floated in the mineral rich waters and caked themselves in the mud of the Dead Sea. On our way back to Jerusalem we stopped for an ice cream break at a Bedouin rest stop where Evan and Anna enjoyed a camel ride.

Yom Haatzmaut

Last night we celebrated Yom Haatzmaut in Tiberias with a disco boat ride in the Kinneret (Sea of Galiliee) and today we marched in Jerusalem from City Hall to the Western Wall (where we even saw New Haven's own Mendy hecht) to celebrate Israel's 62nd birthday. We finished our day with a mega concert at Latrun a fort that played a pivotal role during the war of Independence in 1948 and that today is a tank museum.

Yom Hazikaron

Yesterday (Monday) was Yom Hazikaron and we began the day with a fabulous iverlook of the Jezreel Valley from the top of Mount Gilboa. While there, our guide Chen gave an overview of the period of Israel's independence as well as Israel's shift in fighting terrorism and protecting its citizens in recent years. From the mountain we could see Jenin in the West Bank as well the security fence that was constructed along parts of the green line, the cease fire line of the 1948 War of Independence.

In addition to our more recent history lesson, we also shared with the students that Mount Gilboa was also the sight where King Saul was defeated by the Phillistines. After his defeat, during which his son Jonathan was killed in battle, Saul fled to Mount Gilboa where he elected to fall on his sword rather than be captured and tortured by the Phillistines.

Following our trip up Mount Gilboa, our bus went to Kibbutz Beit Hashita, one of the Kibbutzim in our partnership region of Afula Gilboa for the Kibbutz's Yom Hazikaron ceremony. The Kibbutz is well known throughout Israel becuase it lost 11 members during the Yom Kippur war in 1973 in addition to other members who have fallen throughout the Kibbutz's history. After the ceremony Keren, a member of the Kibbutz brought us to the grave of the first Kibbutznik to fall defending the Kibbutz in the 1930's. The legend of the Kibbutz is that when this man fell he wrote using his own blood, "It's terrible to die so young."

After the ceremony we joined with 50 teens from Afula Gilboa, including many who will be working as Young Emissaries for felafel and a facillitated program. It was a great experience for our teens to spend some meaningful time with their Israeli counterparts.

Our third stop of the day was at the Emunah Center in Afula. The Emunah Center is a center for at at risk youth, many of whom cannot live at home with their parents for a variety of reasons. The center has a mix of residential and day children. Our kids spent time with the young children and enjoyed a performance by the center's singing group the Emunotes (who have preformed numerous times in New Haven). While we were there we also saw Ariel Demri who was an Emissary in New Haven in 2007/08.