LED BY

RABBI DEBRA LANDSBERG & MARLENE MYERSON

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Day 1- Sunday, May 5, 2019 - TORONTO - ISRAEL

Overnight Flight to Israel

AC # 84 -- YYZ-TLV (Toronto - Tel Aviv) 16:30-10:00 -- 06May

Day 2 - Monday, May 6, 2019 - TEL AVIV

10:00am, arrival at Ben Gurion International Airport, near Tel Aviv - Israel’s main centre of art and commerce. We are welcomed by local representatives, assisted through Customs and transferred by luxury motor coach to the city. We continue to the south end of the city to visit the ancient port of Jaffa biblical Joppa of the reluctant prophet Jonah and explore the many galleries of contemporary art in Israel. Visit the Ilana Gur gallery containing sculptures and paintings of Israel today.

Check in to our hotel. The rest of the day is at leisure, perhaps to dip a toe in the blue Mediterranean or stroll through the streets of the vibrant city!

Welcome dinner at the hotel Overnight: Tel Aviv – The Tal Hotel

Day 3 - Tuesday, May 7, 2019 (Erev Yom Hazikaron) - TEL AVIV

Breakfast at the hotel.

Discussion on the successes and challenges of the Reform movement life in Israel. Explore TEL AVIV visit the Carmel Market as well as Nahalat Binyamin, the pedestrian street adjacent to the market where artists display their work.

We will also visit Levinsky Market and the hip neighborhood of Florentin. Lunch on own.

Tikkun Olam with your own hands as we join the volunteer organization Leket and pick fruit and vegetables that will be donated to the needy.

We will enjoy a panoramic tour of Tel Aviv – UNESCO’s “White City” with its amazing collection of some 4,000 Bauhaus or International style buildings built in the 1930s by German Jewish architects who immigrated there after the rise of the Nazis. Tel Aviv has the largest number of buildings in this style of any city in the world.

Explore the diverse building styles on Rothschild Boulevard and learn how they mirror broader cultural transformations in a city that refuses to stay the same. We’ll see examples of Tel Aviv “eclectic” early architecture.

Return to the hotel for an early dinner.

8 pm: Mark the beginning of Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day) by standing in silent tribute to Israel’s fallen soldiers and civilian victims of terror.

There are thousands of lone soldiers in the IDF, soldiers who came to Israel without their families We will have a talk about why young men and women people come to Israel to serve.

Overnight: Tel Aviv

Day 4 - Wednesday, May 8, 2019 (Yom Hazikaron and Erev Yom Ha’Atzmaut)

Breakfast at the hotel.

We will explore the realities of life for migrant workers in Israel as you walk through the streets of south Tel Aviv.

11 am Moment of Silence.

On to the Diaspora Museum of the Jewish People. Among the highlights are the new Synagogue Exhibition which reveals the great range of synagogues and temples around the world and through the ages while “Inside Out and Outside In” is a funny and insightful celebration of Jewish humor.

Lunch on your own, en route.

On to the city of Rehovot to visit the Ayalon Institute that was a secret ammunition factory that in the last days of the British Mandate produced millions of bullets for Jewish forces fighting for independence.

Return to the hotel.

Later on that day celebrate the joy of Yom Ha’Atzmaut (Israel’s Independence Day). Join the nation as it lets down its collective hair and celebrates statehood with festivities in the streets of Tel Aviv.

Dinner on own Overnight: Tel Aviv

Day 5 - Thursday, May 9, 2019 Yom Ha’Atzmaut - HAIFA - AKKO - SAFED

Breakfast at the hotel.

After enjoying the world famous, sumptuous Israeli breakfast, we leave Tel Aviv. We drive north along the fertile Plains of Sharon, the Mediterranean and the old coastal road that linked Egypt and Babylon, the Via Maris, as we journey to Galilee. Our first stop is Haifa, Israel's busiest seaport on Mount Carmel of the Prophet Elijah. From there, we enjoy a panoramic view of the spectacular Bahai Gardens descending towards Haifa's harbor. Looking north, we see the coast as far as Lebanon with Tyre and Sidon and the hills of upper and lower Galilee inland. We will proceed to visit Acre (Akko) with its romantic minarets, massive city seawalls and palm trees rammed against the sky. We will come to the breathtaking - subterranean crusader city; wander

through Acre’s medieval streets; experience the Bazaar filled with spice shops, delicious Arabic bakeries, fruit and vegetable stalls.

Lunch on your own, en route.

We will end up the touring of today in Safed, some 900 metres high, the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel. Safed is one of the 4 holiest cities of Judaism along with Jerusalem, Hebron and Tiberias – a centre of Jewish mysticism (Kaballah).

Overnight & Dinner at the C'naan Spa hotel, Safed

Day 6 - Friday, May 10, 2019 - SAFED - TEL AVIV

Breakfast at the hotel.

Explore Safed , a center of Jewish mysticism for hundreds of years. we will visit the Ari, Caro and Abuhav Synagogues; its galleries and craft shops, meet some of its artists.

Lunch on own, en route.

Return to Tel Aviv with time to prepare for Shabbat.

Kabbalat Shabbat services at Beit Tefilah Yisraeli and join Israelis from diverse backgrounds in welcoming Shabbat through prayer, song and community.

Shabbat dinner at the hotel will allow us to come together to share experiences and feelings from our journey so far.

Overnight: Tel Aviv – The Tal Hotel.

Day 7 - Saturday, May 11, 2019 -    TEL AVIV

Breakfast at the hotel.

Our visit to Rosh Haayin will begin with an act of great generosity and partnership, the donation of a Sefer Torah to the Bavat Ayin Reform Community. During Shabbat services the first reading from the new Sefer Torah will take place.

Kiddush and light lunch with members of the community. Afternoon at leisure in Tel Aviv.

Dinner on own account. Overnight: Tel Aviv

Day 8 - Sunday, May 12, 2019 -      THE NEGEV - JERUSALEM

Breakfast at the hotel before checking out. Drive south, where we will meet residents from Moshav Netiv Ha’asarah , located near the Gaza Strip, and discuss their lives and security situation and the challenges of trying to create a thriving community in such a contentious area.

Picnic lunch en route.

Continue to ALEH Negev - Nahalat Eran Rehabilitation Village near Ofakim allows young adults with multiple disabilities the opportunity to live a rich and productive life within a safe environment. Meet residents and the dedicated volunteers and professional staff in this place of healing and care.

Meet the Jews of Ethiopia and have a talk about the traditions and history of the Jews of Ethiopia, the happiness and hardship of their modern - day Exodus, and their situation in Israel today. We’ll also visit an Ethiopian synagogue in Beer Sheva, the first established in Israel, and enjoy some traditional Ethiopian refreshments.

We will proceed to Jerusalem – the City of Gold, where we will partake in a special and moving Shehecheyanu, on the Mount of Olives, facing the city.

proceed to the hotel for check-in Dinner on own account.

Overnight: Jerusalem – The Dan Boutique hotel

Day 9 - Monday, May 13, 2019 - JERUSALEM

Breakfast at the hotel.

A dialogue with Anat Hoffman, the executive director of the Israel Religious Action Center and a founder of Women of the Wall.

Discuss the role archaeology plays in Israeli politics and in the Israeli - Palestinian conflict with Yoni Mizrahi, founder of Emek Shaveh . This organization works to protect ancient sites as public assets belonging to members of all communities, faiths and peoples.

Lunch on own, en route.

Explore the City of David, the core of ancient Jerusalem and learn how Jerusalem was administered during the First Temple Period. See the Gihon Spring , the source of the city’s water and integral to its survival and religious ceremonies. Then have fun wading through the 2,700 - year - old water tunnels, an architectural wonder of King Hezekiah’s, before transporting yourself from First Temple to Second Temple Jerusalem.

Visit to the Kotel (the Western Wall), widely considered Judaism’s holiest site, is one of the great highlights of any tour to Israel. We’ll discus s its historical and contemporary importance and experience its unique atmosphere.

Explore the Western Wall Tunnel , the underground continuation of the Kotel and see the important archaeological discoveries that are revising our understanding of daily life in Jerusalem after the Roman conquest.

A Mountain Holy to Many: Experience the overlapping religions and the complexity of inter - religious relations at Mt. Zion. The site is venerated by Christians as the location of Jesus’s Last Supper but was once a mosque while, in a room directly below, Jews pray at the place where King David is believed to have been buried.

Dinner on own.

The Night Spectacular at the Tower of David Museum: The walls of the Citadel serve as the stage for this cinematic celebration of sight and sound that tells the story of Jerusalem.

Overnight: Jerusalem

Day 10 - Tuesday, May 14, 2019 - JERUSALEM

Breakfast at the hotel.

Explore Jerusalem and discussion on the key issues confronting the city today, including the relationship between predominantly Arab East Jerusalem and the city’s mostly Jewish western part.

you will visit Pisgat Ze’ev, a neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem predominantly populated by a mix of religious and secular Jews; The Arab neighborhoods

of Shuafat and Beit Hanina;The ultra - Orthodox area of Ramot Eshkol and Mea Shearim where we’ll learn about the lifestyles and beliefs of Jerusalem’s ultra - Orthodox Jewish population. Then we will continue to Machaneh Yehudah open - air market for a visit.

Lunch on own.