Don’t Rock the Boat | Shorashim - Israel with Israelis

Don’t Rock the Boat

A second consecutive 7 AM meet-up had us on the bus and on the way to the Shalom Peace lookout in the Golan Heights. The view was absolutely incredible as we were able to see the entire Sea of Galilee (Kineret) and other landmarks we had visited the previous day like the city of Tiberias. We all snapped some photos and headed to the bus to make our way to Tzfat, a city in northern Israel.

Tzfat was much different from anything we had seen. The city is 900 meters above sea level making it the highest city in Israel. We visited a Sephardic and an Ashkenazi synagogue and had to be dressed appropriately for the visits. Afterwards, we had an inspired talk with Avraham Lowenthal, a Detroit man who relocated to Tzfat to study Kaballah.

The day ended with a visit to the Atlit Detention Camp. For many of us, we were unfamiliar with the detaining of Jews in the time before Israeli independence in 1948. It was gut-wrenching to hear about families surviving the Holocaust and coming to Israel only to be detained in similar camps or to be deported to Cyprus. The tour ended with a simulation of a boat ride the displaced Jews faced trying to enter the nation. For many of us, it brought to life the atrocities we had learned about on the tour. By the end, we were all much better informed of Israeli history up to 1948 and were more sensitive to the horrors our ancestors faced.