For years my husband, Jimmy, wanted to travel to Israel. He has relatives near Haifa and had not seen them for over 50 years. To be honest, Israel had not been at the top of my list for vacations. However, after the temple announced the trip with a wonderful itinerary plus some of our friends were going, we signed up.

The trip was one of a lifetime!!! It was one of the best decisions we have made. The itinerary was amazing. We were very active, up and out of the hotel usually by 9AM and, at times, back in the evening. When one is in Israel, you want to make the most of it and see as much as possible. The tour guide, Geoff Winston @ Keshet Educational Journey, is very knowledgeable and has a great personality. Jeff and Rabbi Spike both provided such interesting information about the country and the sites we were visiting.  A Youth Counselor was on the trip with educational programming specifically for the children. We traveled to many cities and historical places. We honestly cannot choose a favorite event. We were fascinated by the history of Israel. Some things we knew, some we had forgotten and many new facts were learned.

At Masada we heard the story of the Jewish zealots who were defending themselves from the Romans. At Mt. Bental, were told the heroic stories from the Yom Kippur War.  We met with Israeli soldiers at the Israeli Lebanese border. They were such brave men who are honored to serve in the military beginning at 18 years old. We heard about the dramatic account of Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion and his brave decision to declare the state despite incredible resistance against it. And once the State of Israel was declared, the struggle of the Jews to preserve its existence.

We should all be very proud of Israel. The economy is thriving today.  Many of the world’s largest companies have established R&D centers in Israel including Intel, IBM, Cisco, HP and Microsoft to mention a few.  Most of Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel. We toured the Taglit Innovation Center.  Israel’s economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbor’s combined and it leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians in the workforce.

It was incredible to see what the country has done in terms of agriculture. Many innovative techniques were developed in Israel including irrigation, solar power and cleaning the seas from petroleum pollution. They have turned much of the desert land into beautiful, lush areas. There is continued development in the cities and in the countryside, and construction of high-rise apartments/condos to house the growth in population. Construction/cranes are everywhere. The medical industry is huge with many innovative procedures having been developed in the country.

To close, I must mention the group of people on the tour. They were fantastic! There were 27 people including 9 children. We all interacted so well together and had a blast. Having the kids on the trip was wonderful. They were so much fun to be with. We got to attend the B’nai Mitzvah of two of the children, a beautiful ceremony which we were able to share with the families at the Hebrew Union College. We liked them so much that we even adopted one of them. We now have four sons!! We made friends on the trip. For lunch and dinner, we ate one meal a day as a group and for the other one we typically met up with various people and went out. We found a lot of great things together. I even road a camel with Rabbi Spike!!

When the temple announces its next trip,
I would highly recommend you consider taking it.