Day 9
Despite the unexpectedly cold and rainy weather, we spent our last full morning in Israel paying our respects to those buried at Mount Herzl. We started our tour at the military graves where we learned about the countless soldiers, our age and younger, who had given their lives protecting the state of Israel. We visited the grave of Yonatan Netanyahu and heard the story of his bravery and valor in the rescue mission of the Entebbe hostages in 1978. We then moved on to the grave of the young American soldier, Michael Levine, who died in the second Lebanon war. It was fresh with tokens of respect, military emblems and Phillies paraphernalia from Israeli and American visitors alike. After, we traveled through the tunnel that commemorated those who perished in the Jewish Quarter during the War of Independence in 1948 and the underground to the memorial for the Dakar submarine that disappeared in 1968. Next was the grave of the Hungarian paratrooper Hanna Szcnesh, who was tortured by the Germans during World War II for refusing to divulge to the details of her mission and those involved. At our last stop, a respite from the rain, near the graves of Golda Meir, Teddy Kollek, Yitzak Rabin, and Theodore Herzl, one of our Israeli participants, Hadas, sang a moving song by Ehud Manor about a brother’s grief at the death of a young Israeli soldier. We left Har Herzl feeling that the cold and bitter rain was almost appropriate for the somber setting.
After a much needed change of clothes and socks, we boarded the bus again to head for an afternoon of shopping, haggling, and noshing at Machne Yehuda, the Jerusalem shuk. Guided by our Israeli friends, we made our way through the chaotic shabbat shoppers, sampling tasty baked goods, dried and fresh fruits, and shopped for some last minute souvenirs. On the way, we each picked up a treat for the evening’s oneg shabbat. Back at the hotel, we gussied up for the shabbat service and enjoyed a delicious Friday night meal. We then dug into our shuk oneg purchases, snacking on passion fruit, halvah, rugelach, challah, dates, pomegranates, and much more. Full and glad to be warm and dry, we ended the evening with a stimulating discussion program surrounding our opinions and feelings on controversial Jewish issues. Our last full day in Israel didn’t stray from the precedents of busy days packed with stories, discussions, and new experiences.
