Update from Israel #Bus127 – Letter from Israeli Participant
We wanted to share with you an update from Israel Outdoors Bus 127 as they continue their incredible 10 day journey in Israel! They really enjoyed their first week, exploring the Negev desert, Tel Aviv, and then Jerusalem.
Here is a special update from Israel, written by one of the group’s Israeli peer participants:
My name is Tomer and I am one of the Israeli participants who joined the participants on their journey to Israel.
Some of you probably wonder just exactly what we have been up to these past few days.
On Thursday morning, we woke up to a wonderful sunrise in a Bedouin tent, located in the center of the Negev Desert. After enjoying an authentic Bedouin breakfast, we were back on the road to head to the tomb of Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel who declared the establishment of our land. After visiting his grave, we went up North to Tel Aviv. We spent the afternoon enjoying Israel Independence at the beach. We saw the beautiful view of Tel Aviv and the Jaffa shore line. After that we made our way to Jerusalem for the weekend.
The following day we went to the Old City. We learned some of the history of Jerusalem and were honored to read letters from kids from Hillel Day School. After that we wrote our own notes to put in the Western Wall along with the letters from the Oakland and Wayne State University students. Each person was blessed with their own very spiritual moment. We went back to our 4 star hotel and celebrated Shabbat in four different ways: Orthodox (going to a local Orthodox synagogue), meditation, Reform (singing and playing camp games), and discussion (talking about Shabbat).
On Saturday got to sleep in a little and re-energize for the rest of the week. We continued the day at the Israel Museum, where we did a very powerful activity that helped us to be prepared for the Holocaust Museum the next day. Participants walked through the museum and enjoyed the sights of wonderful art and architecture. Then we did “Havdallah” which is saying goodbye to Shabbat and welcoming in the new week. We concluded the night with Neil Lazarus who gave an entertaining presentation to properly inform everyone about the conflict in the Middle East. It was helpful for people who were not informed or have trouble understanding what is going in this specific part of the world.
