What is a Gojo?

We began our morning in Safed, a beautiful and holy city. The streets were made of cobblestone and you got a European feeling right away. We visited a few different synagogues and learned about the history of Kabala and the difference between Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews.

Kim and Matan involuntarily brought good luck to the entire group, as they were chosen to be the target for the bird flying overhead. We got to crash a Bar Mitzvah, listen to an Israeli band and Leo got a chance to blow the shofar! As one trekker said, she “didn’t change her money to buy water,” and we were finally able to get some retail therapy. Our haggling skills were put to the test and some of us came out on top!

We went to a mall for lunch (and some more shopping) before heading to Yamin Orde, the first of four schools we will be visiting. Racheli of the Yamin Orde School was an inspiring teacher who told us about how the youth village operated. The view was breath-taking, like all the views we have seen so far, and we could see the Mediterranean Sea. We sat in a gojo(?), the Ethiopian hut style synagogue, and talked about how they try to incorporate Ethiopian culture to make the transition into Israel more seamless was truly touching. As a teacher, I felt that this was so important as I have seen first hand how difficult transitions can be. A small hut, something so simple, became a staple to their lives. So important that it was the first thing to be rebuilt after a terrible fire which destroyed much of their property and thousands of acres in the north of Israel a year and a half ago.

We even got to watch a special “episode” of National Geographic while sitting during a lecture …

Unfortunately, due to high volume Israeli traffic, we were not able to make it to Jasmine and Lior’s base.

Tonight we will do some Israeli dancing, taught by Yossi and P’nina .