Day 4-Tel Aviv!

Today the 50 or so travelers on Bus 158 left the high cool air of Kibbutz Afik, traveling once more past the Kinneret on our way to that urban oasis built on desert sands and orange groves--Tel Aviv! Tel Aviv, where, Ariel tells us, “everyone wants to be, and anyone who is over 25 is a grandpa.” We started the day in Yitzhak Rabin Square, where the late prime minister was assassinated in 1995, and asked passersby on the street where they were at the time of the assassination, and whether the political shockwaves from that event were still felt today. Four of our new Israeli friends sang three melancholy and majestic songs that were written in the aftermath.

After lunch, we went to a large outdoor flea market, multicolored like Jacob’s coat with all manner of rugs, scarves, bracelets, charms, mezuzahs, and much, much more. We met up afterwards at a clock tower near the ancient city of Jaffa, upon which Tel Aviv was built and expanded after being founded in 1901. Jaffa contained one of my favorite pieces of Israeli art: A real-life orange tree suspended by cables and held in a large maroon pot in a courtyard between three buildings, meant, perhaps, to remind us from whence Tel Aviv flowered.

Finally, we visited Independence Hall, where the state of Israel was founded on May 14, 1948, in the midst of a civil war for independence being waged against the Arabs and the threat of imminent invasion. The historical impact of Israel’s creation could hardly be more at odds with the lack of pomp and circumstance of the actual ceremony, which lasted only 32 minutes, or the building itself, which is small and plain and tucked away almost discreetly in Tel Aviv‘s financial district. Even with a recording of his voice played for us by our guide, it is hard to imagine David Ben-Gurion banging his gavel, calling to silence the thousands of Jews on hand who were invited to witness what was, for many, the fulfillment of a 2,000-year-old promise.

Kyle Berlin