The Executive Director's BLOG

Hebrew is a beautiful language and I wish I knew how to speak it. Of course it would have been extremely helpful on this trip. Although Israelis learn English in school and all of the street signs and other things are in English, there is something about speaking the language of the country you visit. [...]

There is nothing like waking up and knowing that you will get to spend the day in Jerusalem. And that was what was on tap as our itinerary today was focused in the Old City of Jerusalem. And did we ever. To give us a good perspective of the walled city of Jerusalem (now called [...]

I would like to begin today’s blog by wishing you and your family a very restful and enjoyable Shabbat Shalom. I somehow feel better equipped to do that as we arrived in Jerusalem earlier today and have just completed our Shabbat festivities, which included a talk with Dr. David Mendelsson from Hebrew Union College in [...]

Today our travels took us out of Tiberias and away from the Sea of Galilee and headed to the coast. In many ways, we went back in time as we headed to Haifa and Akko. Our first stop was at the old city of Akko, originally developed and built by the 1st Crusaders who called [...]

Instead of the stop by stop blog entry for today (okay… maybe I will at least list where we stopped and what we saw) I thought I would share some insight I have gained while in Israel. First… today’s stops. We started at Beit Shean and saw ruins from the Hellenistic period. From there we [...]

First, let me begin by wishing you a very Happy New Year. It has been an extremely long day here in Israel. It also felt a bit weird being that the country does not make a big deal about New Years. There are no parades, no football games, nothing. While they understand that it is [...]

So… here I am… sitting in the lobby of the Kibbutz we are staying at just outside of Tiberias about to reflect on the experiences of our day as the end of 2012 here in Israel comes to an end. Our day began with many in the group going into the Dead Sea and floating [...]

After three days (only 2 if you don’t count the day we arrived), we left Tel Aviv having seen many sights and experiences, we began our trek down to the Dead Sea. But, on the way we made a few very special stops along the way. The first was just outside of Rehovet at a [...]

It has already been a fantastic start to the trip. After getting up and having an amazing breakfast at the hotel (and when I say amazing… I really mean it.) Our travels started by boarding our bus and heading to Yafo and taking a short walk around the old city of Yafo. During our walking [...]

It has already been a bit of a hectic start of the trip. Before we left LA, we were supposed to be a group of 21 heading to Israel. Unfortunately, due to a freak injury, our numbers were reduced by two. And, while I hope it is not an ominous start to our trip, our [...]