Our Israel Trail – November 2024

Activities:

• Pick up times - Airport pick up - 1PM
  Tel Aviv pick up - 2PM

• Departure from Tel Aviv meeting place - Welcome to Israel!

• Drive north with a stop - Mark the beginning of the journey with Shehechiyanu and a “Compass Ceremony” looking out in all directions and centering ourselves.

• Orienteering Session - Learn the skills of navigation. In Hebrew the word for “direction” and “intention” are from the same root. We’ll explore the intersection of these two terms both physically and spiritually.

• Dinner at the hotel

• Evening conversation - Why do Israelis walk the Israel Trail? How was the route decided and why?

• The Village Jordan Riverside Travel Hotel

Activities:

• Early breakfast at the hotel

• Opening Ceremony - Drive to the “Gate of the Shvil,” official starting place of the Israel National Trail, for an Opening Ceremony. Learn the coding of the trail marker and get walking!

• Tel Dan - Start at Tel Dan Nature Reserve and hike along the Hatzbani (Snir) stream -a central source of water to the Jordan river, walking through the fresh water to the end of the river at Maayan Baruch.

• Stop along the way for the ritual of the coffee break- enjoy café tourki (Turkish coffee) and ugiot (cookies)

• Lunch in the field

• Shaar Yeshuv Memorial - The Shaar Yeshuv Memorial commemorates the deadliest air disaster in Israeli history which occurred in February 1997 and left 73 IDF soldiers dead after the two helicopters they were in crashed as they were waiting to cross the border into Lebanon. We’ll talk about why we use stones to mark a grave and what this accident did to the country

• Border Briefing - Lookout over the Israel-Lebanese border from Metula and hear about the geopolitics of the area with Lieutenant Colonel (Res.) Sarit Zehavi, CEO and founder of Alma, a non-profit independent research and education center specializing in Israel’s security challenges on its northern border.

• Barbeque and Kumzitz - Dinner at the home of a “Trail Angel”, people who welcome trail trekkers into their homes as they take the journey.

• The Village Jordan Riverside Travel Hotel

Activities:

• Breakfast & Check out from the hotel

• Mount Meron - Hike the Mount Meron and Nahal Meron area where you’ll see the graves and learn the legacy of Hillel and Shammai. Hillel and Shammai were two leading sages of the last century BCE and the early 1st century CE who founded opposing schools of Jewish thought, known as the House of Hillel and House of Shammai. The debate between these schools on matters of ritual practice, ethics, and theology was critical for the shaping of the Oral Law and Judaism as it is today.

• Horvat Shema - See the ancient synagogue at Horvat Shema as well as the geological formation of Kisei Eliyahu. Legend has it that Elijah the Prophet will sit on this ‘chair’ to look out onto the land in all directions and announce the Redemption.

• Druze Hospitality - Visit one of the Druze villages of the Galilee. The Druze are known for their hospitality and warm welcome of visitors. Learn about their fascinating history, unique religion, an ancient tradition, and engage in a fun and delicious culinary workshop, followed by an amazing Druze feast.

• Drive to the hotel

• Evening conversation

• Nachsholim Sea Side Resort

Activities:

• Breakfast at the hotel

• Hiking and the Educational System in Israel - Visit a local school to hear about the the value of Walking the Land is played out in the school curriculum.

• Walk the urban trail in Zichron Yaakov - Established in December of 1882, Zichron Ya'akov was one of the first modern Jewish communities in the country. Due to the massive support of Baron de Rothchild the town was soon named after Rothchild's father (Zichron Yaakov - "in memory of Jacob") and became known for its fine wine cellars, which produce high-quality vintages to this day. The town is also famous as the center of the NILI spy ring, organized by Jews to aid the British in ousting the Turks at the beginning of the 20th century.

• Optional: Continue on the Trail - Hike the Israel Trail in the Ramat HaNadiv area. Walking as Remembering -Each walker will receive the name and photograph of a fallen soldier or victim of terror and will take this person with them as you hike this afternoon. How is walking used to remember?

• Herzliya Marina - Drive to the Herzliya Marina where you will begin to walk towards Tel Aviv, through Tel Baruch, the Tel Aviv Port, and through Park HaYarkon.

• Group dinner at a restaurant

• Port Hotel Tel Aviv

Activities:

• Breakfast at the hotel

• Walk on the Israel Trail along the Yarkon River

• Free time and dinner on your own

• Port Hotel Tel Aviv

Activities:

• Breakfast & check-out

• Begin at Latrun - Walk in the footsteps of the Israeli soldiers that fought for stopping the siege over Jerusalem in 1948. Walk from Latrun to Sha’ar Hagai along the Burma Road, built during the War of Independence to circumvent hostile Arab villages cutting off Jerusalem from critical supplies coming from Tel Aviv.

• Machal Memorial - Stop at the Machal Memorial to foreign volunteers who lost their lives to support Israel's struggle for independence.

• Food Truck - Lite lunch - In the magnificent Jerusalem Hills, enjoy a lite lunch at a Food Truck stop while taking in the breath taking views of the Jerusalem Mountain area.

• Drive to Jerusalem

• Walk through Kidron into the Old City of Jerusalem

• Kabbalat Shabbat at the Kotel

• Check into hotel

• Shabbat Dinner at the hotel

• Shoresh Hotel

Activities:

• Breakfast at the hotel

• Morning Yoga

• Shabbat Tefilot led by participants (optional)

• Touring Options: - • Jerusalem Neighborhoods
  • Jerusalem Hills Culinary Tour

• Lunch at the hotel or during outing

• Conversation with Areyh Green - Followed by time alone in nature.

• Come together for Havdalah to usher out Shabbat.

• Bus to Jerusalem or Abu Ghosh- dinner on own

• Shoresh Hotel

Activities:

• Breakfast at the hotel

• Hike in Park Britannia - From Emek HeEla to Mitzpe Mesuah

• Stop at Tel Azeka. - The pear-shaped Tel Azeka was one of the main Judean Biblical border cities as it towered over the Elah Valley. It was here that the Bible tells us the Amorite kings were defeated by Joshua and their army destroyed by a hailstorm. Looking at the panoramic view from the top of the tel, one can vividly picture the historic battle between the young shepherd, David, and the mighty Philistine warrior, Goliath that took place in the Elah Valley

• Lunch and Arts and Culture workshops - Bread Baking, Mud Building, Dance workshop with the Vertigo Dance Company

• Together, continue to Beit Guvrin National Park - Explore the Bell Caves of which there are around 800 in the area! Many of the caves are linked via an underground network of passageways. The area was a quarry which was used to carve stones for construction. Play with the outstanding acoustics in the cave- you’ll be treated to a short concert.

• Drive to Beer Sheva

• Ethiopian dinner and meeting with Naftali Aklum - Naftali Aklum, an Ethiopian activist who was born in Ethiopia in 1979, the youngest of 12 siblings. His brother Ferede Aklum z”l was determined to reach Jerusalem and set out from Ethiopia in 1978 on a long, dangerous trek through the desert, ultimately reaching Sudan. Naftali reached Israel with his family in 1980, at age one, thus fulfilling a dream that had been kept alive for 2,500 years. Hear his story and that of the Ethiopian Aliyah

• Drive to the hotel

• Mashabe Sade

Activities:

• Breakfast

• Makhtesh Hakatan - Hike in the stunning Negev Desert and get to know the endless variations of the landscape. Explore the area of Makhtesh Hakatan (the Small Crater) and immerse yourself in the details of the land around you.

• Continue to Dimona - Meet the Black Hebrews Community. Begin with a vegan lunch and hear their fascinating story. The African Hebrew Israelite Nation of Jerusalem is a small spiritual group whose members believe they are descended from the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

• Desert Stars Center - Visit Rahat or another Bedouin Village and meet youth who are part of the Desert Stars Program which is building a generation of Bedouin leaders to promote a thriving Bedouin community and a strong Israeli society. The project empowers mission-driven teens and young adults to realize their individual and collective potential as change-making leaders.

• Or Meet Bedouin Tracker soldiers - Meet soldiers or former soldiers from the Gashashim (Trackers) Unit. The IDF’s Trackers Unit is comprised of a few hundred combat soldiers, most of whom come from Israel’s Bedouin community and draft into the IDF as volunteers. These soldiers go through a special course that prepares them to become trackers in the most thorough way.

• Traditional Bedouin Dinner

• Overnight: Mashabe Sade

Activities:

• Breakfast at the hotel

• Two hiking options will be offered this day- half day and full day

• Makhtesh Ramon - Hiking in Makhtesh Ramon (The Ramon Crater) including following the Ancient Spice Route which begins in Makhtesh Ramon to the site of Nabatean city of Ovdat. Learn about the Nabatean winemaking while seeing one of the At least five wine presses dated to the Byzantine period that have been found at the various Nabatean sites in the area such as Ovdat and Shivta.

• Half-day hikers: - Visit Ayalim Village at Ashalim and meet Ayalim students. Ayalim connects the young generation to Zionism, Jewish Identity, pioneering, community life and social involvement. In Exchange for a scholarship and low-cost rent, the students volunteer over 300 yearly hours in different educational frameworks as well as pioneering work in Israel’s less populated and under-developed areas.

• Visit the Mitzpe Ramon Visitors Center - Learn the geological story behind this unique and amazing work of nature through interactive exhibits. At the center, pay tribute to Ilan Ramon, Israel’s first and only astronaut, who tragically died on a space mission in 2003.

• Outdoor dinner at the Ramon Crater - Followed by star gazing

• Ramon Inn Mitzpe Ramon

Activities:

• Breakfast at hotel

• Travel by jeep to the beginning of your trail - Hike in Eilat Mountains and arrive at the end of the trail in Eilat.

• Afternoon on the beach - Lunch on your own

• Evening celebration and closing ceremony

• Eilat Orchid Hotel

Activities:

• Breakfast & check-out of the hotel

• 9:00 a.m. Bus from Eilat to Ben Gurion

• L'hitraot!