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"So, how was your trip?" 
The only problem with hearing that question from friends and family after we return from a travel adventure is figuring out where to start! I could say that we enjoyed wonderful weather (we did!) and name all of the museums and historic sites and vibrant communities we visited, but those are just dry facts, a travel agent's itinerary rather than a meaningful description of our experience. Still, basic facts can provide a starting point, so I'll try to include the names of every place we visited as I go along. If any of them particularly interest you, I'm sure you can find them in various guide books or websites about Israel, and learn more there.
However, reading about a place, even in a book with wonderful pictures, is never the same as being there in person. For me, thanks to this trip, the name "Tzvat" will always evoke memories of the beautiful ancient synagogue we visited, the sunshine as we ate lunch in the upper part of the town, and the rainstorm as we shopped along a narrow, winding lane just an hour later. Morem Golan provided an intriguing glimpse into the interior of Israeli army bunkers overlooking the border with Syria…and also is associated, in my mind, with the half hour of power shopping our group engaged in at the nearby Naot shoe factory store. In Tiberius, we enjoyed a tasty dinner but were served, unfortunately, by someone who seemed to be trying to run several restaurants single-handed, which resulted in a long wait for our bill. The happy twist to that story is that, while we waited, the youngest member of our group, 12-year-old Jonah (who was very good at entertaining himself during the trip) left our restaurant and went to listen to the music coming from a café across the street which seemed to be hosting a large, loud gathering of young people on a Birthright tour. The music inspired Jonah to start dancing, and people from the café spilled out onto the street to watch, applaud, and cheer. We're waiting to see if his performance shows up on YouTube one of these days!
A little background before I send you to read my day-by-day summary of our activities: Mike and I traveled to Israel as part of a group of 15 people, most of them members of a suburban St. Paul synagogue, Beth Jacob. We were led by the synagogue's Rabbi Allen, departing Minneapolis/St. Paul on December 25 and returning on January 6. For about half of the group, this was their first visit to Israel; the rest of us had been there once or twice (or, in the rabbi's case, countless times) before. The group included Jonah and his father, Geoff, and Mike's and my young-adult niece Michelle; the rest of us were singles or couples in our 50s, 60s, and 70s. The general intent of the tour was to familiarize all of us with Israel's history, from ancient times to the present, and Rabbi Allen planned each day with educational themes in mind.
It was a pleasure for me to see Israel with this group. Each person provided a unique and valuable perspective and contribution, from Harvey asking just the right question to clarify what our Israeli guide, Shari, was telling us, to Esther describing what it was like to listen to the live radio broadcast of the U.N. vote to authorize the creation of the State of Israel in 1947, to Harold and his ability to find the humor in every situation, to Jonah and his frequent exclamations of delight at all the fascinating sights we saw.
Toward the end of the tour, Rabbi Allen gathered us all together one evening after dinner and asked each of us to describe our "most memorable" moment of the trip. Naturally, the sixteen of us, including Shari, came up with sixteen different answers. I can't repeat all of them here, but I'll offer a few of my observations.
Throughout the tour, I was grateful for the excellent guidance provided by Shari and Rabbi Allen. Shari, educated as a historian and archeologist, was knowledgeable about every location we visited and every subject we discussed, from Roman and Jewish culture at the time of Bar Kochba and Rabbi Yehuda ha Nasi to the details of the British Mandate and the War of Independence to political issues facing Israel today. Better still, on the rare occasions when someone asked a question that stumped her, she cheerfully consulted her resources and reference books to find the answer. During the trip, she told us that she enjoys being a tour guide because she always learns something new from every group she leads, and she clearly meant it; every morning when we boarded our bus, she was as eager as we were to see what the new day's explorations would bring.
As for Rabbi Allen, his observations and insights were the perfect complement to Shari's scholarly knowledge. Thanks to the way they cooperated and shared the leadership of the group, we had the benefit of getting two perspectives on many subjects. For instance, Shari would tell us the historical details of an event, and then Rabbi Allen would help us see its spiritual and ethical causes and consequences. He also did an excellent job of drawing our attention to the common challenges--building and maintaining communities, the lure of assimilation--faced by the Jews of antiquity and Jews today.
Regarding my own "most memorable" moment, I have to say it was the morning that we davened shacharit at a section of the Western Wall that has been set aside for Masorti (Conservative), egalitarian services. Listening with my companions, young and old, men and women together, to one of our (female) members read Torah gave me a sense of connection to all the Jewish people, down through the centuries, who have turned their eyes and hearts toward Jerusalem.
I also have to admit that, for me, visiting Israel is an intense and not always comfortable experience. It boggles my mind that such a tiny country (Shari says it's about the size of New Jersey!) has found itself at the center of so many historical events, and the focus of so much passionate, too often violent, emotion. Is it just an accident of geography that has made this land a crossroads where cultures clash? Or is there something in the air or water that turns people who live there into religious fanatics? There are regions in the country, such as the Galil (northwest of the Sea of Galilee), where residents of neighboring Jewish, Arab-Christian, and Druse villages co-exist more or less peacefully more or less all of the time. If only their comparatively tolerant attitudes would spread!
I've attached my day-by-day travelogue to the pages containing photographs. Feel free to read them in chronological order, or just jump around to places that interest you.
Enjoy!
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