Thursday, December 29
On Thursday, December 29 Bus 166 started the day with a bus ride from the Golan Heights into the seaside city of Haifa. While on the bus one of our Israeli friends pointed out Haifa University, the largest club in northern Israel, her high school and her home where she grew up.
We arrived at the Gabrelli Elementry School just in time for recess. The school caters to the impovershed Ethiopian community. The students were shy at first but as soon as the soccer game started they were ruthless! Many of the students were expectional at the sport. Following recess the group gathered in the school's library and were broken up into four groups. Each group was rotated with their preassigned group of students through activities such as soccer, bingo, Israeli folk dancing, and a reading popular US children's books in English to the students. A few of the books were Curious George and the Tortoise and the Hare.
This amazing school runs on funds donated by the same organization that aides us to get to Israel! This great organization is called the Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP). CJP started an exchange program called the Boston-Haifa Connection. This was truely a great and once in a lifetime experience. The morning was truely meant something to everyone involved, even for our American tour guide who has been to the Gabrelli School many times before.
After having an amzing time at the Elementary School, the time came to continue our journey. The next stop was a shopping mall called the Grand Canyon, where we had an activity created by our Israeli Friends. We all split up into groups and had to perform several missions. Some of these missions included going to "Art Tatoo" and ask where we can buy a bible, dancing with a stranger, dressing up a boy into woman's clothing, taking a picture with a soldier with there hat on us and asking tot take a course of English at an English school called "Wall Street". The winner is to be determined soon, hopefully, so we are all waiting to know.
Soon after our Grand Canyon mall experience we arrived in Tel Aviv - a beatiful city full of life and dreams. We arrived at Yitzchak Rabin Square, where we learned about his beliefs in Peace and democracy, and his assasination. We stood in the exact spot where Yitzchak Rabin was shot in the back three times. On the floor we saw markers of where everyone was located. We could not imagine that the murderer could get so close to his victim - within 2-3 feet. The only reason why he was alowed to get so close was not because they knew each other, but because the murderer was wearing a kippa. The police never suspected that someone in a kippa - a jewish man - would be able to commit such a horrible crime. On the place of Yitzchak Rabin's assasination there was also a memorial site and a piece if the wall with grafiti covering it. On that wall the first words that grabs your atention is a Hebrew word that reads "Slicha" which means "Sorry".
After learning about Yitzchak Rabin and his life, we walked to the Independence Museum, where not only Tel Aviv, but also the State of Israel was born. We learned that the museum used to belong to the Mayor of Tel Aviv, and he donated it to the city as long as it was kept as a museum. In his will he asked the people of Tel Aviv to keep this museum running and take care of it. In this museum we watched a video that helped us better understand how a dream can become reality - the creation of Tel Aviv, we sat in the room where the 66 families stood with a dream of forming a homeland for the Jews all over the world and where the independence of the State of Israel was declared. The declaration of the independence of the State of Israel was a very emotional moment for people all over the world, and it was an honor to stand in the place where this incredible moment happened.
In order to better understand the Israeli culture, we experienced it through the music of a Rock star Udi Krauss. He played music for us and told us a little bit about his life in Israel. Our Israeli friends knew most of the songs by heart and sang along, as did we. But the night did not end on this amazing miniconcert. We actually got to experience the night life of Tel Aviv by going out to a place on the beach for some fun!
