Philadelphia Legislators- July 2023

Activities:

• 9:55 a.m. United 84 VIP 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 Tel Aviv

• Drive to Rothschild Boulevard for an introduction to Tel Aviv - Rothschild Boulevard was one of the first streets to be built in the city of Tel Aviv a little over 100 years ago. In the heart of the “White City”, it is lined with Tel Aviv’s iconic architecture, the Bauhaus style, which led to its recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Many of these buildings have been beautifully restored and now house the offices of financial institutions, creative firms, cafes, and luxury residences.

• Start-Up Nation Central - Start-Up Nation Central is an independent non-profit that builds bridges to Israeli innovation. They connect business, government, and NGO leaders from around the world with Israeli innovation, offering Israeli innovators access to high-potential and previously inaccessible markets, through highly customized business engagements, and through Start-Up Nation Finder – an easy to use, up-to-date, free online platform for discovering and connecting with the thousands of relevant innovators.

• Lunch at Asif: Culinary Institute of Israel - Asif is a non-profit organization and culinary center in Tel Aviv dedicated to cultivating and nurturing Israel’s diverse and creative food culture, a joint venture of the New York City-based Jewish Food Society and Tel Aviv’s Start-Up Nation Central.

• Meeting with Eytan Schwartz - At Rabin Center

• The Israeli Museum at the Yitzhak Rabin Center - This museum’s riveting exhibit contrasts the life of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated at a Peace Rally in 1995, with the development of the State of Israel.

• Check into the hotel

• Shabbat Dinner at the hotel with Daniel Shapiro - Former Ambassador Dan Shapiro is Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Tel Aviv University's Institute of National Security Studies

• Crowne Plaza Tel Aviv

Activities:

• Breakfast at the hotel

• Walking tour of Jaffa - Jaffa is one of the most ancient port cities in Israel and the Mediterranean basin. Today Jaffa is a mixed city, where Jews and Arabs live alongside each other. Tel Aviv, Jaffa's younger sister, was established centuries later, in the year 1909, but the two were united into one municipality in 1949, yet each part kept its unique feel and atmosphere. Jaffa has been regenerated in recent years with the old narrow streets and courtyards becoming a highly popular part of Tel Aviv’s urban tapestry.

• Continue to Neve Tzedek - This is the first Jewish neighborhood to be built outside of Jaffa and currently one of the most beautiful and desired locations in Tel Aviv. It was built by some of the dignitaries of the old Jewish community of Jaffa in 1887. Looking to head out of the ever-growing and over-crowded Jaffa, they built, what was considered back then, modern and comfortable housing. In recent years, after a period of neglect, the neighborhood was restored and has become a trendy fun beautiful part of the city and a good place to try some Israeli Gelato!

• Street Food lunch

• Meet with Activists in Lod

• Dinner at Ha'Achim - Haachim, located on Ibn Gvirol offers a spin on the middle eastern cuisine by modernizing classic dishes.

• Crowne Plaza Tel Aviv

Activities:

• Breakfast at the hotel

• Drive north to Pittsburgh’s Partnership city of Carmiel - Through the Jewish Agency for Israel, Israeli cities and regions are paired with communities around the world and are involved in shared projects to mutually strengthen their cities and communities.

• Wine Tasting at Kishor Winery - Wine Tasting at Kishor Winery located in Kishorit, a village for adults with special needs. The members of the community enjoy a full life, including meaningful employment. In conjunction with the professional staff, the members take an active part in the grape cultivation, bottling, and marketing of the wines. The Visitors’ Center also employs Kishorit members who host guests, interact with members of the general community, and give guided tours.

• Talking Walls-Graffiti Project - Continue north to Israel’s border with Lebanon and see the Talking Walls, Talking Walls is a 400-meter-long mural on the cement walls located on the Israeli Lebanese border. This is a corporation of artists from Israel and around the world. The local residents were involved and shared their feelings and thoughts about living on the border, which was translated into art. This is an opportunity to delve into the human perspective of the challenging geo-political reality.

• Meet Sarit Zehavi of the Alma Research and Education Center - 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.

• Stop for dinner on the way back to Tel Aviv

• Crowne Plaza Tel Aviv

Activities:

• Breakfast at the hotel

• Begin the day at the Open University - Have a briefing and see the distance learning labs and production studios.

• Volunteer at Leket- Israel’s food bank. - Learn about this important organization that brings volunteers into the fields to pick and gather fruits and vegetables that were not collected during the commercial harvest. Volunteer at the Logistics Center to help sort and pack the collected produce in preparation for distribution to soup kitchens, food pantries, senior citizen centers, and homeless shelters.

• Netafim at Kibbutz Magal - Visit Netafim, the world-renown agricultural entrepreneurship (irrigation methods) and Kibbutz Magal’s development of its olive and almond agricultural and production center, a global leader in quality and health. As we hear from the experts on the growing process and production, we will taste a variety of olive oils. We conclude the tour having lunch at the Kibbutz's main dinning hall.

• Peres Center for Peace and Innovation - The Peres Center for Peace and Innovation is a leading non-profit and non-governmental organization focused on developing and implementing unique and cutting-edge programs. The center presents the incredible story of Israel, the "innovation nation", and showcases the diverse fields and people behind Israeli innovation.

• Meet Nadav Tamir, Director of the Peres Center

• Dinner on your own in Jaffa

• Orient Hotel Jerusalem

Activities:

• Breakfast at the hotel

• Drive to Philadelphia's Partnership region in the south

• Visit the Netivot Command Center - Meet Tamir Idan- Sdot Negev Regional Council who will lead a security tour with an Iron Dome Visit

• Visit the ITC Emergency Center and meet CEO Tali Levanon

• Local dinner in Netivot at Kaismerman with Yachiel Zohar, Mayor of Netivot

• Drive to Jerusalem - Check into your hotel

• Orient Hotel Jerusalem

Activities:

• Breakfast at the hotel

• ‘The State of the State’ with Journalist David Horvitz - David Horovitz is a British-born British-Israeli journalist, author and speaker. He is the founding editor of The Times of Israel, a current affairs website based in Jerusalem that launched in February 2012. Previously, he had been the editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post and The Jerusalem Report.

• Visit to Israel’s Parliament, the Knesset and meeting with a Member of Knesset - The Knesset, Israel's parliament, was named after “Haknesset Hagedolah,” the Great Assembly of the Second Temple period. Today it stands as a symbol of both Jewish sovereignty and dedication to democracy. In lively, often heated, debates, its 120 elected members reflect the divergence of Israeli public opinion, legislate and oversee the workings of the government.

• Security Briefing with Dany Tirza - Tour the greater Jerusalem area with Colonel Danny Tirza, Security Expert and architect of the Security Barrier. View the city from many angles and engage in a conversation about the complexity of the barrier.

• Or Security Briefind with 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 tour of the Gaza Border and the West Bank.

• Dinner with Ido Moed (MFA) at Hamotzi - Israeli Master Chef winner Avi Levy combines a North African cooking style with a Jerusalem flare to create a rich kaleidoscopic of flavors using local ingredients from the nearby Machane Yehuda market.

• Orient Hotel Jerusalem

Activities:

• Breakfast at the hotel

• Tour the Old City of Jerusalem - Tour Jerusalem’s Old City and meet the people and places that make this place so unique. In the Jewish Quarter, uncover the layers of Jewish history from the time of the First Temple until the present day. In the Christian Quarter, visit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and, if conditions permit, visit the one of the holiest Muslim sites, the Temple Mount. Throughout the tour explore the complexity of a city that is holy to the three major religions - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

• Tour Yad Vashem with a private guide - Visit the museum at Yad Vashem, Israel’s National Memorial to the Holocaust. Tour this memorial to the darkest moment in world and Jewish history, its children’s memorial, and exquisite gardens. Yad Vashem is an unforgettable place of tribute and remembrance. You'll be guided by a member of the Yad Vashem staff.

• The Israeli Narrative at Mount Herzl with a stop at the grave of Michael Levin with Israel educator Danny Dayan - As Israel’s national cemetery, Mount Herzl is the final resting place of leaders of Zionism and Israel, including Yitzhak Rabin and Herzl himself, and of thousands of soldiers killed defending the State of Israel. At Mount Herzl you will find a moving monument to the 28,000-odd soldiers and civilians killed in combat or by terrorism since the founding of the state.

• Meeting with the leaders of the Roots Tent - Roots envisions a social and political reality that is founded on dignity, trust, and a mutual recognition and respect for both peoples' historic belonging to the entire Land. Founded by Rabbi Menachem Froman and members of the politically-prominent Abu Awwad Family, Roots believes that human interaction is the first agent of transformation and creates the spaces and activities for such personal engagement.

• Evening program and dinner with Ambassador Tom Nides at Feel Beit - Feel Beit is 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." Mekudeshet is an award-winning, cultural organization that creates original art and music to reimagine Jerusalem from being a center of conflict into a laboratory for connections between people of all kinds.

• Orient Hotel Jerusalem

Activities:

• Breakfast at the hotel

• Drive to Bethelehem for an in-depth tour - Bethlehem tour led by Holyland Trust
  ○ Geopolitical tour of Bethlehem (Rachel Tomb Area)
  ○ Meeting with the Mayor of the Governor of Bethlehem pending availability

• Meeting with Aviv Ezra

• Final Dinner at Naurah Restaurant in Abu Ghosh

• Transfer to the airport

• Depart UA91 11:25 p.m.