JANUARY 26,2013
It’s a small world! Ran into Jason Bornstein & Ben Fine while having a Shabbat afternoon stroll in Tel Aviv…
Shabbat afternoon at the beach in TelAviv.
JANUARY 27, 2013
Tel Aviv restaurant with Jason & Ben. Last time we came close to sharing a meal was their B’nai Mitzvah some 12 years ago!
JANUARY 28, 2013
I spent the morning at the Eretz Yisrael museum in Tel Aviv. Not as interesting as the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, but worth a visit. Moved to the Dan Panorama Hotel where the rest of the group - rabbis from the Bay Area - are staying. Nice view from my room of the shoreline!
Took a walk down King George St. and could not help but take a few pictures of the Bauhaus architecture - elegant and a reminder of the European roots of the builders of Tel Aviv.
JANUARY 29, 2013
Had a very full day in Tel Aviv. Among other places, we visited Binah, an amazing Israeli center of adult Jewish learning for & led by “secular” Israelis, ACRI, an important Israeli Human Rights organization, the Tel Aviv center for Gay life, and Trumpledor Cemetery. The most memorable part of the day was the personal story of an Orthodox gay man and his heart wrenching challenges coming out in the Orthodox community. Having been an advocate for the GLBT community for almost 20 years, I’ve heard lots of hard stories, but this one really moved me.
As a lover of Zionist history it was also meaningful and moving to see the graves of Zionist greats like Echad Haam, Yosef Chaim Brenner, Chaim Bialek & Meir Dizengoff.
JANUARY 30, 2013
Went to Haifa & the Technion today. Inspired by the Zionist vision which as early as 1906 saw the need for a Technical college that in time has become the MIT of the Middle East with 3 Nobel laureates!
JANUARY 31, 2013
Fullest and most intense day yet. Started out at the Foriegn Affairs office for a “political briefing.” From there we went to Hebron and the Cave of Machpelah, a place I had never been, holy to Judaism, Islam and Christianity and at the center of the conflict between Jewish settlers and the Palestinians living in the West Bank. After that we took a tour of the security fence and other realities of East Jerusalem. And, after a sumptuous dinner out, we ended the night with a concert: Mosh Ben Ari. Amazing! At times I thought my heart would break, torn between the narrative of the Jewish people finally coming home and the Palestinians being displaced and oppressed. Could not one be true and the other false? Does our re-entry into history have to also mean the mortally wounding of another people? I thought I would hate Hebron because of all the conflict there; 500 soldiers guarding 90 Jewish families 24/7, but in spite of the tension and the constant reminder of conflict, I could not help but be moved by the cave where the Torah tells us Abraham and Sarah, Jacob, Leah and Joseph are buried .. How could I not be moved? How could one’s heart not break seeing the price we all - Jews, Muslims and Christians, pay for this holy space…
FEBRUARY 2, 2013
Picture of the rabbis from NorCal on our trip.
Check out this New York Times Op-Ed from last week “Sitting Down With Amos Oz” by Roger Cohen. Erudite and surprisingly optimistic take on Israel’s future. Big”thanks” to my old friend Peter Obermark for turning me on to it!
FEBRUARY 4, 2013
The rabbinical tour is over. Laura is with me now. We had a great day walking the streets of Tel Aviv. Highlights were the Florentine neighborhood - south Tel Aviv - and Yafo.
I enjoyed reading your blog and having another taste of Israel. I remember well when Irv and I visited the Cave of Mapelech several years ago. We were really moved then and it was not a time of such great tensions as exist now. I’m getting ready to move to Spring lake Village- on Feb 14. Love to you and Laura. Adele