Sunday Update

Bus 830 has had a wonderful first two days in Israel. After arriving just in time for Shabbat in Jerusalem, we got a chance to rest and explore, along with 4 other Taglit-Birthright Israel: Hillel buses staying at our hotel. On Saturday morning, 83 students woke up early to walk to the Western Wall. Back together after lunch, our bus took the lead in expressing thanksgiving through a creative and meaningful birkat hamazon (grace after meals) ceremony. We had our first Hillel conversation about Jewish Memory, walking together around Jerusalem near City Hall and experiencing the sites that hold so much meaning for our ancestors and us. Saturday evening, we were inspired by a talk from Avraham Infeld, the former President of Hillel, who wove his own personal discovery of Jewish meaning together with an inspiring philosophy for us.

Sunday morning we awoke to a packed day. We gathered together to drink a little wine and eat from the longest challah any of us had ever seen on the beautiful Tayelet overlook. As we saw Jerusalem for the first time laid out before us, we said a shehecheyanu , a prayer designated for commemorating important occasions. Then we got a chance to meet with our mifgash participants – 7 Israeli soldiers came onto our bus in full uniform, to spend the next five days with us. All of our assumptions about Israelis were broken down, as we broke up into groups to get to know them – we began to find that they are so much like us, in so many ways. Together we toured the crooked alleys and history-steeped corridors of Jerusalem’s Old City, and we ascended Mt. Herzl, Israel’s national military and political cemetery. We saw the graves of the famous leaders – Herzl, Rabin, Golda Meir – and we heard from our tour guide, Chen, about his own friends who were buried there. It was hard to see the yet-unmarked gravestones of those who have died in Gaza in the past two weeks. We ended the day on a lighter note, shopping for great finds on Jerusalem’s main commercial plaza, Ben Yehuda Street.
Tomorrow, we will continue to explore Jerusalem, giving back at a soup kitchen on MLK day, and remembering the greatest tragedy of our people’s history at Yad VaShem, the Israeli Holocaust Museum.

Next Update: Tuesday Morning