Central Synagogue Board of Trustees- February 2024

Activities:

• VIP Arrival - Arrival at Ben Gurion airport. Your VIP agent will be waiting to greet you at the sleeve of the plane. After assisting with arrival procedures and collecting your baggage, you will be taken to meet your driver.

• Transfer to Jerusalem - Check into the Orient Hotel

• Dinner on your own - Recommendations and reservations can be made upon request.

• Jerusalem Orient Hotel

Activities:

• Opening breakfast and welcome at the hotel

• Jerusalem and the Surrounding Area- an in-depth tour with Col. Grisha Yakubovich - Grisha Yakubovich served in the Israel Defence Forces for 30 years, ending his career as Head of the Civil Coordination Department of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT). He now consults and guides educational tours of the Gaza Border and the West Bank.
  
  Col. Yakubovich will discuss a number of subjects:
  -Jerusalem and the surrounding neighborhoods
  -The major events from the Six-Day War through the present day and their impact on the various populations
  -The relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority regarding economics, security coordination, civilian coordination, and the holy places
  -The complexities of the situation in Judea and Samaria/West Bank

• Aruchat Eser-stop for a coffee and snack break Israeli style

• Visit The National Library of Israel guided by Rakele Ukeles, the chief curator - Founded in Jerusalem in 1892, the National Library of Israel (NLI) holds the collective memory of Israelis of all backgrounds and faiths and the Jewish people worldwide. While continuing to serve as Israel's preeminent research library, over the past decade NLI has embarked upon an ambitious journey of renewal to encourage diverse audiences in Israel and around the globe to engage with its treasures in new and meaningful ways. This transformative renewal is taking place through a range of innovative educational, cultural, and digital initiatives, as well as through the construction of a new landmark campus, on schedule to open its doors in 2023.

• Time for lunch on your own in Machane Yehuda Market - In the heart of Jerusalem sits this bustling, multi-ethnic market bursting with life, art, and flavor. Immerse yourself in the world of Middle Eastern cuisine. Learn about the market's rich history, and meet the vendors who bring this place to life, as you experience the vibrant energy unique to this iconic culinary destination.

• Time to prepare for Shabbat

• Before Kabbalat Shabbat, meet with Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum - Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum is the founder of Kehilat Zion; and co-founder of the seminary for Eretz Israeli rabbis of Hamidrasha and the Hartman institute. Her work spans and links tradition and innovation, working toward Jewish spiritual and ethical renaissance. She devotes much of her energy to the renewal of community life in Israel and the struggle for human rights. In 2010 she was named by the Forward as one of the most influential female religious leaders in Israel for her work promoting pluralism and Jewish religious freedom.

• Kabbalat Shabbat at Kehilat Zion - Kehilat Zion is an emerging community of Israeli Jews of all backgrounds, beliefs, customs, and practices, gathering together to re-dream Jerusalem as a meeting point for all.

• Shabbat Dinner with Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum and members of Kehilat Zion

• Jerusalem Orient Hotel

Activities:

• Breakfast at the hotel

• Yoga Synagogue ah - Yoga Synagogue Ah followers find themselves all over Jerusalem practicing yoga in inspirational settings. Join the group's founder, Laura Gilinski, for a session to connect you to Shabbat.

• Shabbat Tefilah with your group at Hebrew Union College

• Shabbat lunch at Feel Beit - Enjoy the variety of classic ethnic foods that are part of the Shabbat day meal. What Shabbat foods did Jews bring with them to Israel? Why were those foods eaten on Shabbat? How have they evolved in the Israeli kitchen?
  
  Lunch will be at Feel Beit, a cultural home for creating art, expanding perspectives, and imagining new ways forward for Jerusalem. "We are a group of Israelis and Palestinians who create art and music to bridge divides in Jerusalem. Everything we present is rooted in love for the diverse people of this place. We are driven by the conviction that when all else breaks down, art and music must break through." Meet staff of Feel Beit and hear about their vision.

• Return to the hotel, time to rest

• Speaker- Gilad Kariv on Parshat Mishpatim- Jewish Law in a Democratic State

• Havdalah

• Free evening and dinner on your own

• Jerusalem Orient Hotel

Activities:

• Breakfast at the hotel

• Study at the Shalom Hartman Institute with Tal Becker - The Shalom Hartman Institute is a leading center of Jewish thought and education. The institute aims to strengthen Jewish peoplehood, identity, and pluralism, enhance the Jewish and democratic character of Israel; and to ensure that Judaism is a compelling force for good in the 21st century. Our visit will include meeting with Dr. Tal Becker and Senior leadership. Dr. Becker is a Senior Fellow of the Kogod Research Center at Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, where he leads educational initiatives on Israel and the Jewish world. In this capacity, he is a leading member of the Institute’s iEngage research seminar which produces the premier educational program on Israel engagement in North America, working to strengthen and re-imagine the relationship between Israel and World Jewry.

• Continue to the West Bank and tour with Rami Nazzal - Begin by considering how the residents of a refugee camp in the West Bank, are able to survive living under the hardest possible conditions. Meet with residents of the camp and walk through the narrow streets and alleys, while learning of their origins and hearing stories of their life under occupation. Gaining memories to last a lifetime, you will also discover that the Palestinians are still optimistic about the future and continue to hope and pray for peace. Walking towards the Separation Wall we will see the Jacir Palace Hotel, Banksy’s courageous artwork and “The Walled Off Hotel.” Standing steps away from the birth place of Jesus at the Church of the Nativity and Manger Square we will make a wish for peace.

• Lunch will be included

• Meet Amy Tohill-Stull, Mission Director to USAID/West Bank and Gaza Mission - Amy Tohill-Stull serves as the Mission Director to the USAID/West Bank and Gaza Mission. In this capacity, she oversees a program valued at an estimated $270 million in FY 2022, aimed at improving the lives of Palestinians and cultivating the conditions for a two-state solution through economic, humanitarian, and peace-building programs. Ms. Tohill-Stull is a career member of the United States Senior Foreign Service, with more than 25 years of development experience in countries characterized by conflict, political transition, and/or humanitarian crisis.

• Drive to Tel Aviv - Check into your hotel

• Dinner at Eyal Shani's HaSalon Restaurant - HaSalon restaurant by Chef Eyal Shani in Tel Aviv, offers a relaxed atmosphere, an open kitchen that provides a show and especially fine & fresh ingredients.

• Isrotel Royal Beach Tel Aviv

Activities:

• Breakfast at the hotel

• Morning at Schneider Medical Center- Medical Innovation - VIP tour and meeting with staff of the hospital (to be designed with the synagogue)

• Lunch at conversation at Battae Ethiopian Heritage Center - Battae Center is devoted to the preservation of Ethiopian culture. "We aim to be a positive force in this world. We tell the mystical story of a people returning home, a story of struggle and perseverance. A story of peoplehood that goes back thousands of years. We tell the story of our family and the story of the Jewish people, history from 2000 years of dispersion, to our miraculous ingathering back home, in Israel. And we tell this story from a very special, unique and often less-known the Ethiopian Jewish perspective."

• Visit a TOM Tikkun Olam Makers Hub - TOM - Tikkun Olam Makers - is a global movement of communities that creates and disseminates affordable solutions to neglected challenges of people living with disabilities, the elderly and the poor.

• Our Generation Speaks - Meet with leaders of this incubator which joins Palestinian and Israeli entrepreneurs to create startups from scratch.

• Meet the Founders of Tishrey Bar - Drink down a story of Israel! Travel the different regions of the country through the drinks. Through local spirits, quality Israeli produce, cultural design, and Israeli innovation, meet the staff of an Israeli cocktail 'start-up' and see how they translate this into amazing cocktails. Cocktails are mixed with Israeli alcohol, fruit in season, and wrapped into the Israeli story. You’ll have a chance to learn to mix the drinks as well.

• Dinner on your own

• Isrotel Royal Beach Tel Aviv

Activities:

• Breakfast at the hotel

• -The Tel Aviv Museum of Art with specialist Shirel Horovitz - In this dynamic tour we'll figure out what makes Israeli art into what it is, and what’s it relationship with the Zionist narrative as well as the international art world. This tour through the extensive Israeli collection at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art is an amazing way to visually explore the Israeli narrative from the early 20th century until today. What is the story the Arts Establishment tells about Israeli Art?

• -Session with Dr. Rachel Korazim in her home - Engage in a session with Rachel to examine War and Peace- Complex Images of Peace and Hope through modern Israeli poetry.

• Tasting tour lunch at Levinsky Market - The Levinsky Market specializes in spices and Mediterranean delicacies. It is, in many ways, the best market in Tel Aviv, known for its variety, freshness, and special atmosphere. Whether you are looking for a rare Indian spice or some good quality saffron - this is the place. Shops offer a cornucopia of excellent cheeses, smoked fish, wines, and other delicacies. Tour the market and have "tastings" throughout.

• Meet the Young Leaders to Emerge From Israel's Antigovernment Protests - Meet Shikma Bressler and other leader of Israel's Protest Movement. Bressler is a physicist at the Weizmann Institute of Science who has become the face of the protest movement in Israel. Discuss the complexity and the engineering behind the Protest Movement and consider how the current situation will play out in Israel's future.

• Final dinner Via Sabra Style- One Hundred Years of Tel Avivian Cuisine - Anglo v'Nina is a stunning space in a historic building from the Ottoman period in the heart of Yafo and was the site of Israel's first bank- Bank Anglo-Palestina. Dinner will be a culinary walk through Tel Aviv's last 100 years, featuring foods from the past and their newer iterations a la Israeli Fusion Cuisine.

• Transfer to the airport for evening flight

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