Most of you don't know this, but I'm Jewish. Seriously! At least, somebody thinks I'm Jewish, because I qualified for a free trip of a life time. Taglit-Birthright, a non-profit organization, organizes hundreds of trips every year for Jews between the age of 18 - 26 to travel Israel on a 10-day bus tour for FREE. The purpose is to expose as many young Jews to the splendor of Israel, in the hopes that they will return to live and populate Israel with more Jews. My Oma, who is Jewish, told me about this trip and suggested that I look into it further. So I applied online with Oranim (Or- AH - Neem), one of the trip organizers, just to see if I qualified. Apparently being 1/4 Jewish makes you a candidate for a free trip, and I took the opportunity to go. Rather than give you a travelogue of the order of events, I thought I would describe my experience by category. If you'd rather skip the reading, I invite you to check out my web album.
The Trip
I flew to Toronto on December 30 (that bit was not free) and met up with the 38 other participants and the Pearson Airport and our Canadian trip guides, Hindy and Richard. Together we flew to Israel and boarded a coach, which was our main mode of transportation, for the next 10 days. Most participants were from eastern Canada, and some new each other already or had mutual friends. Most liked to party, some did not, but I found the people that I got along with and usually stuck with them. We shared rooms with different people every night, and we stayed in fairly decent hotels that had breakfast and dinner buffets. We only spent 1 to 2 nights in each place and basically traveled the whole country, from Jerusalem to as far north as the Lebanon border to as far south as the Red Sea.
The Participants
I was apprehensive about going on this trip as a non-practicing Jew (okay, who am I kidding, I'm not only non-practicing, I'm Mormon. Practicing quite a bit.), because I thought that I would look stupid or be shunned for coming on the trip. I had nothing to worry about, because most participants were non-practicing. Some were quite vocal about their disdain for religion, actually, and I found myself feeling defensive for religion in general. I think it's safe to say that our trip was more "non-denominational," as there were participants who were Catholic and atheist. Many were brought up Jewish or came from part-Jewish parents.
The Cities
Jerusalem and Tel Aviv - so different and both so beautiful. Our group visited the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, where we saw some sights but I think my favorite part was people-watching all the Orthodox Jews who live there. We learned of some of the history and ended at the Western Wall, where people send their prayers directly to God. In Tel Aviv, we got a bit of warmer weather. We were there over shabbat, when everything is closed, so it was a fairly low-key day where we went on a walking tour of the city and spent time at the beach. I especially loved the art and design in the city - see a picture of this "street lamp" below. We only drove through Haifa, a city built on the side of a mountain where every building seems to have a view of the ocean, and a bomb shelter in the basement. Eilat, on the coast of the Red Sea, has been called the Cancun of Israel - beach and hotels.
The Sights
A few of the major highlights for me included seeing the remains of crazy King Herod's reign. The first were the ruins at the Old City in Jerusalem. He also built the port city of Caesarea on the coast, where the ruins of a roman theatre, a swimming pool and a hippodrome (chariot races) remain. Masada, a palace and fortress on top of a mountain overlooking the Dead Sea was the most magnificent of all. That place blew my mind - Herod was so extravagant and so paranoid of his kingdom being overthrown, he built a crazy palace that was extremely difficult to access, with food storage for soldiers and even a swimming pool - two thousand years ago.
I also learned more about Israeli war history as we travelled through the Golan Heights, taken from Syria in the 6-day war in 1967. We saw an old army bunker that could be put to action in a few hours notice, and a few tanks.
The Dead Sea
When I was very young, I read an article in the National Geographic about the Dead Sea, and I made a goal to float in it one day. This actually came to happen, and was one of the more stressful experiences of my life. Fun facts about the Dead Sea:
1) It is not considered water, it is considered a solution, since it includes about 33% minerals.
2) It is very very cold.
3) The sea floor is created by hardened salt, which is very sharp and difficult to walk on.
4) You cannot splash, because if you get it in your eye it is very painful and you have to rinse it immediately.
5) You cannot stay in longer than 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, your body begins reverse-osmosis to absorb the minerals from the sea - I've been told it's very painful.
So, besides all this it is great because you walk in up to your waist, and then sit back and relax!
The Food
Kosher! No dairy with meat at a meal, so we had our dairy at breakfast, which consisted of yogurt and cheese - excellent cheese. A typical breakfast also included a vegetable salad, olives, bread and a hard boiled egg. At lunch and dinner we could expect to eat fried chicken, beef stew, fish, rice, potatoes and more veggies. No dairy in dessert, so soy ice cream could be found on the menu, I wouldn't recommend it. Israel doesn't import produce, so fruit and veggies that are in season are what is found on the menu.
The People
Crusty yet kind is how I would describe Israelis. And absolutely gorgeous, I have never seen so many attractive people in one place. I found that people weren't overly friendly, but were always helpful. I also had the sense that people took a great deal of pride in Israel, and tension was running high as Israel moved into Gaza on the third day I was there. Everyone knows somebody in the army in Israel, as every Israeli is required to give their service in the army at the age of 19. I didn't meet any Palestinians...
The Conflict
...which leads me to my next topic. On the trip we were exposed to a fair bit of propaganda on Israel, which I expected. We only visited Israeli sites, and we talked about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict very little. On the tour I felt completely safe, even though a war was occurring less than 200 km from where I was most of the time. I left my trip with the understanding that the Jews will continue to fight for the preservation of Israel as a Jewish state, because it is the only place on earth that Jews can live without fear of extermination. A few times I heard people say, "If Israel had existed, the Holocaust never would have happened." I came home with a much clearer understanding on the Jewish-Israeli perspective of this middle-eastern conflict. I also came home with a far greater appreciation for the safety and freedom I experience here in Canada. During our trip a few Israeli soldiers joined us so we could meet soldiers and learn about life in Israel. One of them needed to make a phone call her parents, because she heard that her city had been hit by rockets and she wanted to make sure that her house hadn't been decimated. She told us that they have sirens, and as soon as they hear them they have 45 seconds to get to their designated shelters.
I loved my trip and can't wait for my return, which hopefully will be sooner rather than later. Thank you for reading this very long entry, and please check out my picasa web album for my pictures. http://picasaweb.google.com/jantastic.photos
