With the snow in Jerusalem, it was questionable as to whether we would be able to travel there on Saturday from Tel Aviv to spend our final day and evening in what many believe to be the holiest city in the world. We took it a bit easy on Saturday morning in Tel Aviv at the hotel and got everything packed and ready to go for the long day and night ahead. We understood from our bus driver that the roads to Jerusalem were back open, and though there was snow on the ground it is

Today we learned the struggles of both setting up the Jewish state and being blind. Although they are unrelated, we explored both of these challenges in the beautiful city of Tel Aviv. AtIndependence Hall, we learned about the ingenious David Ben Gurion, who set up Israel as a Jewish state in 1948. In this historic building, we watched a background video on the difficult situation that the Jews faced in establishing their own state as well as the wars that followed this procl

Wednesday: We slept in this remote, but nice, place on Tuesday night in the desert near Ovdat and woke up to breakfast outside our doors at 8:00 a.m.. By 9:30 a.m., we were all ready to get on the bus and travel to the city of Be'er Sheva where we would go biking in the Negev Desert! For biking we were split into teams and had to try to find different sheets of paper around the area with numbers on them (there were maps to show where they were). While biking, we saw some real

Today we visited our partner elementary school in Haifa called the Alon school and spent time with the students in grade 5 and their teachers. Later we visited the beautiful town of Zichron-Ya'akov and saw a very old Roman theatre, as well as a beautiful garden called the Generous Garden. Generous Garden is the grave site for Baron Rothschild and his wife. We learned the history of how Rothschild helped to establish the Jewish community in the area and donated a lot of money

Happy Sunday! Today we went hiking on Mount Meron, the second highest mountain in Israel. Unfortunately we couldn't escape the snow, but we did enjoy some beautiful views. After we finished our hike, we headed further up the mountain into the ancient holy city of Tsefat (Safed). The history and the architecture of the city was spectacular. The buildings and roads were made out of stone and many of the buildings had been there for a long time. We visited a synagogue where a gr

Happy Sunday! Today we went hiking on Mount Meron, the second highest mountain in Israel. Unfortunately we couldn't escape the snow, but we did enjoy some beautiful views. After we finished our hike, we headed further up the mountain into the ancient holy city of Tsefat (Safed). The history and the architecture of the city was spectacular. The buildings and roads were made out of stone and many of the buildings had been there for a long time. We visited a synagogue where a gr

We all had a restful and wonderful Shabbat in Haifa, relaxing and traveling with host families in and around Haifa and the north. Beginning today, we will have a student blogger each day to accompany the photos who will write from his or her perspective about what we have seen and done the previous day. ~ Rabbi Lisa Eiduson Happy Valentine's Day! Today we had the opportunity to spend the day with our host families, and travel around Haifa. I went to Akko, a city on the s

Our day began with our partners at the Alliance School. When you entered the room it was impossible to distinguish the Americans from the Israelis. We worked in groups and explored together our views of Israel. The remainder of the morning and early afternoon was spent learning about and touring Haifa. We learned about the history and made stops along the way in between jolts of thunder, lightning and hail storms. Even so, we know the weather is much better here tha

I'm happy to report that we are all here with all baggage.... which is a great thing. We arrived on time to the airport in Tel Aviv and were met by a Puzzle Israel representative named Tamar. She took us to our touring bus, helped us load the bags, introduced us to our driver Tzachi, and we got on the road to go to Haifa. Because we arrived at the afternoon rush hour, it took us about 2 hours to get to Haifa. But no worries, Tamar brought plenty of special Israeli snacks for

Theodor Herzl, one of the most surprisingly prescient men who ever lived, called the land of Israel the Altneuland: the Old New Land. What a perfect name for this amazing, beautiful nation! Look on the right. There's a start up incubator with 15 offices producing radical ideas that will change the world. Look on the left and across the street: an 11th century Crusader castle. Everywhere one looks there are signs of this curious co-existence between the past vs the future. Thi