Nov. 6 – Monday – Bruchim Haba’im - Welcome to Israel

Day 01

(itinerary subject to change)

 

• Arrival at Ben Gurion airport. A representative will wait for you just before the passport control. He/she will assist you through all the arrival procedure and will then see you to your awaiting guide and driver.
• Transfer to Azrieli Center for icebreaker activity and a view from the observation deck
• Lunch at a restaurant
• Drive to your hotel and enter the meeting room for a discussion on Israel’s challenges and opportunities led by Neri Zilber
• Meet the Israelis activity led by Rabbi Moshe Zeldman
• Check into your hotel room to freshen up
• Enjoy a festive welcome dinner at a restaurant at the Tel Aviv Port
• Overnight – Tel Aviv

 

 

Nov. 7 – Tuesday – Tel Aviv – the first Hebrew City

Day 02

(itinerary subject to change)

 

 

• Optional: Early morning walk around the Tayelet, the beachside promenade
• Breakfast at the hotel
• Walking tour of Old Jaffa, Jaffa Flea Market, and overlook of Tel Aviv, and learn what makes Tel Aviv’s Bauhaus architecture, declared a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site, unique through a tour with the Bauhaus Center

-OR-

• Have a special “Shuk & Cook” activity. In the morning you will walk through the Carmel Market to get fresh products, and visit the studio of celebrated chef Jon Elias for a special cooking experience (costed separately). Enjoy lunch of your own cooking​

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• Explore Tel Aviv’s neighborhoods and attractions, including the museums on Bialik Street, Carmel Market, Nachalat Binyamin Art Fair, Rothschild Boulevard, Levinski Market, Neve Tzedek, and Florentin, including cash lunch

-OR-

• visit ANU Museum of the Jewish People at Tel Aviv University with cash lunch on campus
   
• Tour of Independence Hall
• Visit Rabin Square to learn about Yitzhak Rabin’s life, leadership, and tragic death
• Cash dinner at the bustling and modern Sarona Market
• Optional: Street Art Night Tour of some of Tel Aviv’s most “hip” neighborhoods OR attend performance at Habima, Israel’s national theatre (pending performance availability – not costed)
• Overnight – Tel Aviv

 

 

Nov. 8 – Wednesday – A Mosaic of Israel

Conflict and Coexistence

Day 03

(itinerary subject to change)

 

• After breakfast at the hotel, check out of hotel
• Travel to the “balcony” overlooking Tel Aviv in the settlement of Alfei Menashe for a political topography tour to understand one perspective on the future of Israeli/Palestinian relations with Dr. Danny Tirza. In the years 2003 – 2007, Dr. Tirza led the IDF military unit that planned and excecuted Israel’s “Security Fence”
• Learn about Palestinians, Israelis, and Palestinian-Israelis in the town of Barta’a, which strattles both sides of the Green Line, including packed lunch
• Drive to the beautiful city of Haifa and visit the world-famous Baha’i Gardens
• Arrive in the Western Galilee

 

• Explore the grottos of Rosh HaNikra on the border with Lebanon. Hear from an expert about the security situation in the north as the sun sets over the Mediterranean

-OR-

• Experience the impact of your Campaign gift: Visit the YOUniversity program run by ORT

 

• Check in your hotel to freshen up
• Partnership2Gether Mega Event and dinner with local Israelis and P2G staff
• Overnight – Western Galilee

 

 

Nov. 9 – Thursday – The Western Galilee and Our Toledo Connection

Day 04

(itinerary subject to change)

 

 

• After breakfast at the hotel, check out of hotel
• Meeting with Partnership2Gether staff at the Partnership Center to learn about our special connection​

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• Experience the impact of your Campaign gift:
  • Learn about an employment program for Haredi men run by JDC
  • -OR-
  • Visit to the Galilee Medical Center with a focus on coexistence

 

• Tour of Akko’s Old City and souk (market) surrounded by Crusader walls
• Cash lunch at the famous Uri Buri fish restaurant, OR Hummus Said

 

• Experience the impact of your Campaign gift:
  • Visit the Akko Educators’ Kibbutz
  • -OR-
  • Meet a family served by the Jewish Agency’s Youth Futures program

 

• Drive to Jerusalem
• Dinner at a restaurant at the First Station, Jerusalem’s original railroad station
• Hotel check-in
• Optional: Explore Jerusalem’s night life with visit to Machane Yehudah after dark
• Overnight – Jerusalem

 

 

Nov. 10 – Friday – Jerusalem – Cradle of Faith

Day 05

(itinerary subject to change)

 

 

• Breakfast at the hotel
• Visit Yad Vashem, the National Memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, including the Avenue of the Righteous, the Historical Museum and the Children’s Memorial, on the 85^th anniversary of Kristallnacht
• Lunch at Machane Yehudah market (“the shuk”) with tasting card/map
• Prepare for Shabbat
• Tour of Old City followed by joining thousands welcoming Shabbat at the Kotel (Western Wall) with prayer, song and dance
• Candle Lighting Time: 4:03 p.m.
• Walk from the Western Wall to “Shabbat of a Lifetime” home hospitality Shabbat dinner with Israeli families. After dinner, walk back to hotel
• Overnight – Jerusalem

 

 

Nov. 11 – Saturday – Shabbat in Jerusalem

Masada and the Dead Sea

Day 06

(itinerary subject to change)

 

 

OPTION 1: (Shomer Shabbat)

• Breakfast at the hotel

• Optional: Jerusalem has hundreds of synagogues representing dozens of ethnic and liturgical traditions that converged here from all over the world. Walk to a synagogue (or late wake-up)

• Q & A with Khaled Abu Toameh, a leading Palestinian-Israeli journalist and political commentator, at the hotel

• Sabbath lunch at the hotel

• Optional: Walk to the Israel Museum, OR Machane Yehuda street art tour and walk to Old City

• Havdalah – ceremony concluding Shabbat at the hotel (the Sabbath in Jerusalem ends at 5:20 p.m.)

 

OPTION 2: (Not Shomer Shabbat)

• Breakfast at the hotel

• Take the cable car or climb Masada to tour this mountain fortress and learn about one of the most dramatic stories in Jewish history, its meaning for modern Israelis and for us. Packed lunch at Masada

• Float in the Dead Sea at Kalia Beach

• Return to Jerusalem in time for Havdalah – ceremony concluding Shabbat at the hotel (the Sabbath in Jerusalem ends at 5:20 p.m.)

 

AFTER SHABBAT:

• Tower of David Sound and Light Show depicting the history of Jerusalem, OR Western Wall Tunnel Tour

• Cash dinner

• Optional: Guided nocturnal walk on the rooftops of Jerusalem’s Old City

• Overnight – Jerusalem

 

 

Nov. 12 – Sunday – Israel’s Northern Periphery

And Security Challenges

Day 7

(itinerary subject to change)

 

 

• Breakfast at the hotel
• Drive through the Jordan River Valley and around the Sea of Galilee to the mystical city of Tzfat, famous for its history and art. Cash lunch and shopping in Tzfat
• Enter the Golan Heights

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• Take a Jeep tour in the mountains passed abandoned Syrian military bunkers

-OR-

• Visit Ancient Katzrin Park, a Talmudic village for a pita bread making workshop, and visit a winery for a local wine tasting

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• Visit Mt. Bental for an assessment on the chaos that has overcome Syria in recent years overlooking the Syrian border with Dr. Nir Boms, a leading expert on the Syrian civil war and an advocate for humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people
• Falafel or shwarma cash dinner in the Golan Heights
• Return to hotel in Jerusalem
• Overnight – Jerusalem

 

 

Nov. 13 – Monday – Israel Southern Periphery

And Security Challenges

Day 8

(itinerary subject to change)

 

• Breakfast at the hotel
• Tour of Erez Crossing into Gaza and visit the Path to Peace in Netiv HaAsara
• Experience the impact of your Campaign gift: Visit Kfar Silver, a youth village and school operated by ORT and supported by your campaign contributions, including lunch
• Tour Sderot, a small Israeli city located along the border with Gaza. Get a glimpse into Gaza from an overlook and listen to a briefing on the political issues followed by meetings with residents of Sderot and the surrounding area

​

• Visit to the SodaStream Factory and Visitors Center to learn about integrating Israel’s diverse workforce

-OR-

• Visit the Bedouin Arab city of Rahat to meet with social activists confronting the challenges of life in a society undergoing radical social and economic transition

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• Traditional Bedouin campfire Hafla dinner at Kfar Nokdim in the desert
• Return to hotel in Jerusalem
• Overnight – Jerusalem

 

 

Nov. 14 – Tuesday – Contemporary issues

And Possible Solutions

Day 9

(itinerary subject to change)

 

 

• After breakfast at the hotel, check out of hotel

 

• Tour of The Knesset, Israel’s parliament

-OR-

• Tour of the Supreme Court, Israel’s highest court

 

• Visit the new Palestinian city of Rawabi and meet with the town’s developer Bashar al-Masri (pending security situation) with packed lunch

-OR-

• Stay in Jerusalem to tour a Haredi neighborhood to learn about the issues facing this growing community followed by a visit with Shevet Achim, a Christian organization helping children from Gaza, Iraq and Syria come to Israel for open-heart surgeries, with lunch

 

• Visit the Ayalon Institute, a former bullet factory hidden beneath a laundry room, that was pivotal to 1940s Israeli war efforts

-OR-

• Tour the Weizmann Institute of Science

 

• Encounter a discussion on the role of extremism and incitement in regional political cultures with Itamar Marcus, CEO of Palestine Media Watch, and Tag Meir chairman Gadi Gvaryahu at the Weizmann Institute
• Learn about Israel’s challenge of being a Jewish and Democratic State with Daniel Gordis at the Weizmann Institute
• Farewell dinner
• Drive to Ben Gurion International Airport
• Arrival in Detroit on November 15^th