Joining on this trip are:
Carolyn, John, William and Beth Canova
Paula, Michael, Jessica and Ilana Margulis
Andrew Finkelstein, Linda Lebovitz, David Finkelstein and Joanna Finkelstein
Alice and Kenneth Jacoby
Howard, Meg, Zachary and Danielle Kahn
Ronni Kaplan
Susan, Gil, Carrie and Cindy Lipper
Rabbi Alan and Edy Lucas
Marvin and Harriet Rosen
Stacey, Fred and Hannah Rosen
Antonie Samuels
Lisa and Jim Schlesinger
Debra, Gary and Tsvi Weil
Nancy and Jacob Weiss
Mindy, Jay, Jonathan and Andrew Sherman
Wendy, Scott, Evan and Noah Siegel
Ellen and Melissa Walk
Gila Hadani Ward and Eddie Ward
Our Itinerary
TEMPLE BETH SHOLOM
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2007
Welcome to Israel !
Meeting and assistance inside the arrivals hall of Ben Gurion International Airport. (El Al 002).
Meet with your guide, Lyana Rotstein.
Your main luggage will be brought directly to Jerusalem. Be sure to keep your overnight bag with you (with all clothing and personal belongings that you’ll need until tomorrows arrival in Jerusalem)
Drive along the Mediterranean Coast to the town of Zichron Yaakov. The town was founded in 1883 by Baron Edmond James De Rothschild. Zichron Yaakov gained notoriety during World War One for the establishment of the Nili spy ring by Sarah Aaronsohn, her brothers and a friend. They volunteered to spy on Ottoman positions and report them to British agents offshore. In September 1917, the Ottomans caught one of Sarah's carrier pigeons and cracked the Nili code. In October, the Turks surrounded the town and arrested Sarah and several others. A special visit to their home has been arranged for you this afternoon. After this stop, it’s through the Galilee to Tiberias. Arrival to your hotel for check in.
8.00pm - Enjoy dinner at the Decks Restaurant, overlooking the Sea of Galilee
Overnight: Sheraton Hotel, Tiberias
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2007
Early buffet breakfast and check out of your hotel.
8.00am – Departure from the hotel.
A short drive brings us to the town of Safed. Wandering through the lanes and alleyways of Safed today, you may be struck its simple beauty. It is this beauty which inspires the many artists who have settled here during the last decades and have turned Safed into a center of Israeli art. Some of the greatest scholars, spiritual leaders and religious thinkers of the Jewish world, were drawn to this small Galilean village.
From Safed, we head south, driving along the shores of the Jordan River, through the Jordan Valley. After passing the ancient city of Jericho, start the climb to the Golden city of Jerusalem
Arrival and check in to your hotel.
This evening, celebrate our group Kabbalat Shabbat and Traditional Friday night dinner at nearby Beit Shalom.
Overnight: Inbal Hotel, Jerusalem
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2007
Buffet breakfast
This morning enjoy visits to various shuls and have a taste of the wide variety of religious experiences available in Jerusalem. From Sephardic to Masorti to an Orthodox minyan that tries to incorporate women. This afternoon will be at leisure to enjoy the special atmosphere of Jerusalem.
11.00am – 1.30pm – Explore with Lyana the Jewish roots of Christianity. Walk to the Old City via the Jaffa Gate. Visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Proceed to Mount Zion to the traditional Tomb of King David and the room of the Last Supper before returning to our hotel.
4.00pm – A seudah Shlisheet and program has been arranged for you at the Fuchsberg Center for Conservative Judaism. We will also have Havdalah at the Fuchsberg Center and then spend a night on the town! Enjoy a walking tour to the Citadel of David at the Jaffa Gate.
Overnight: Inbal Hotel, Jerusalem
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2007
Buffet breakfast
We will begin the day by visiting our “Partner” school, Yad HaMoreh. We will see first-hand the amazing work it does and how the connection of our TBS students and families to both the school and to Israel is strengthened through the Partnership 2000 (P2K) program. This will also give us the chance to see the Israeli educational system up close and to look at its challenges and opportunities.
An unforgettable day awaits us as we board the bus and proceed to the City of David. Explore the new excavations at this exciting site, and walk through the Warren’s Shaft. From here we proceed back into the Old City through the Dung Gate. Visit the Southern Excavations. Enjoy a “Jewish Quarter fast lunch) with some time for shopping and exploring the area.. Explore the Jewish Quarter before we head over to the “Quarter’s coffee house” for dinner. After dinner we have a special visit and tour through the Western Wall Rabbinical Tunnels.
Overnight: Inbal Hotel, Jerusalem
MONDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2007
Buffet breakfast
8.00am - We gather together at the Kotel for services
This morning partake in a tsedaka project with Rabbi Lucas. Then it’s on to the hustling Machane Yehuda marketplace and a quick lunch. This afternoon we visit Yad Vashem, Israel’s newly reopened and updated memorial to the Jewish Holocaust victims.
This evening will be free to visit friends, family or take in one of the great restaurants that we can recommend to you.
Overnight: Inbal hotel, Jerusalem
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2007
Buffet breakfast
In less than an hour, we drive from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.
Tel Aviv is where the action is in Israel. The Mediterranean beaches are clean and white, the sea warm (not necessarily in December), the nightclubs hopping, the shopping plentiful and the restaurants appetizing. Begin the day at Independence Hall, where David Ben Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel in 1948. Drive along Rothschild Blvd. There are over 5000 Bauhaus buildings, the largest number in any one city in the world; a fact that led UNESCO to recognize it as a “World Heritage Site." Tel Aviv is also known as, "The white city", named so in account of the bright colors of the building style: white, off-white, light yellow. On to Rabin Square, the large public square in front of Tel Aviv’s city hall, where, in November 1995 Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated. Enjoy a visit to Nachalat Binyamin, Tel Aviv’s twice a week pedestrian mall. We will then head back up to Jerusalem for an evening at leisure.
Overnight; Inbal Hotel, Jerusalem
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2007
Buffet breakfast
The dress code today is worn and rugged.
This morning we drive to Neot Kedumim, the Biblical landscape reserve of Israel. Our tour today will be based on the miracle of Chanuka (which we celebrated earlier this month) and the art of sheep-herding. From here, we proceed to Beit Guvrin for an opportunity to dig, sift and search through the underground tunnels and excavations with a professional archaeologist. Return to Jerusalem
Overnight: Inbal Hotel, Jerusalem
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2007
Buffet breakfast
Leave your locked luggage (with clear name tags attached) just outside your door. It will be collected and brought directly to Eilat. Only bring your valuables with you (passport, plane tickets, etc etc).
This is a once in a lifetime day as after breakfast we head down to the Dead Sea. Drive through the Judean Desert eastwards until you reach the shores of the Sea. First stop will be Masada. For the adventurous prepare and enjoy the now famous “Lucasada” - you’ve never climbed Masada like this! (Unless you were on previous trips). You have to be in shape for this magnificent 2 ½ hour climb. For the slightly less adventurous, there will be an opportunity to meet us on top via the new cable car. After touring this mountaintop fortress, we continue driving south along the shores of the Dead Sea to Fata Morgana at Moshav Neot KaKikar. Enjoy a sumptuous desert lunch and have a peak at the amazing desert agriculture before the next leg of our journey – to the Red Sea port city of Eilat.
Overnight: Queen of Sheba Hilton Hotel, Eilat
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2007
After breakfast,
9.00am – Meet your caravan of jeeps just outside the lobby of your hotel. (dress warmly as some of the jeeps are open) Proceed by jeep into the Eilat Mountains and Red Canyon. Visit the wadis of Shlomo, Rechavam, Yehoshafat and upper Shlomo. Enjoy an amazing view of 4 countries (Israel, Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia) from Mount Yoash. Walk through the Red Canyon before returning to your hotel. Enjoy the rest of the afternoon at leisure in Eilat.
Evening Shabbat prayers will take place with Rabbi Lucas in the Eden Hall (12th floor)
Shabbat dinner a private section of the Makeda hall (Lobby level)
Overnight: Queen of Sheba Hilton Hotel, Eilat
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2007
Buffet breakfast
Day at leisure in Eilat
This evening enjoy a poolside Bar Be Que farewell dinner at the hotel (Ebony restaurant)
For those traveling to Petra tomorrow, please settle any “extras” you may have billed to your room with the front desk this evening, as we are departing early in the morning.
Overnight: Queen of Sheba Hilton Hotel, Eilat
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2007
Buffet breakfast
For those not traveling to Petra, you have a day to relax in Eilat. Check out time from your hotel room is at 12noon. (feel free to ask the front desk if they can allow you to keep your room for a bit longer – if they can, they will allow it).
Keep your luggage with you – you will bring your luggage on the flight with you from Eilat to Ben Gurion Airport.
6.15pm – Departure from the Queen of Sheba Hilton hotel for Eilat airport
Check in for your Israir charter flight from Eilat to Ben Gurion Airport (domestic terminal)
7.45pm – Israir charter flight
8.40pm – Arrival to Ben Gurion Airport (domestic terminal)
Upon arrival to Ben Gurion airport, you will be met by our airport representative and transferred from the domestic terminal to the international terminal for check in for your flight home.
TOUR TO PETRA
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Don’t forget your passports
6.00am – An early breakfast is waiting for you in the Makeda Hall (lobby floor) Check out of your room and leave your luggage (with a firmly attached name tag) packed and locked just outside your door. At 6.30am the hotel will collect these suitcases and store them in the security room. The next time you will see your luggage is at Ben Gurion Airport prior to checking in for your flight back home.
We suggest you pack in your overnight bag and change of clothes for the flight home. You can leave the overnight bag in the hotel (at the front desk) or bring it to Petra.
6.30am – Departure from the hotel for the 5 minute drive to the Arava/Rabin border crossing. Following Israeli and Jordanian border formalities, meet our Jordanian guide, Mr Yousef Zureikat. Drive through the desert to the Bedouin town of Wadi Moussa. Enter the Nabatean capital of Petra. Walk thru the “Siq”, the immense crack in the sandstone.
Near the end of the passage, take one last turn and out of the shadows appears Petra’s most impressive monument, el Khazneh – The Treasure. Beyond el Khazneh you are surrounded on both sides by hundreds of Petra’s carved and built structures. One should not forget that Petra is not only about the Nabataeans. Within a fifteen minute drive you have the 8000 year old excavated Stone Age village of Beidha and Basta, settlements of the biblical Edomites, not to mention the Tomb of Aaron, Moses’ brother. Enjoy before returning back to your hotel in Eilat.
10 rooms have been kept at the Queen of Sheba hotel for your convenience
6.15pm – Departure from the Queen of Sheba Hilton hotel for Eilat airport – HAVE PASSPORTS HANDY
Check in for your Israir charter flight from Eilat to Ben Gurion Airport (domestic terminal)
7.45pm – Israir charter flight
8.40pm – Arrival to Ben Gurion Airport (domestic terminal)
Upon arrival to Ben Gurion airport, you will be met by our airport representative and transferred from the domestic terminal to the international terminal for check in for your flight home.
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