Written by Lila Bales, Yallah! 2024 Participant
Today was a very eventful day! We started with an early wakeup and ate breakfast at the youth village we’ve been staying at. At 7:30, we hit the road and made our way to the Bahai Gardens in Haifa! We learned all about the Bahai culture and why the gardens were built! In a similar way that the Western Wall is sacred to the Jewish People, the Bahai Gardens were built to mimic God’s perfection in creating life.
We
also began learning about the Druze people and visited a Druze temple. We got to see the spot that Abraham hid from enemies and escaped. We hopped back on the bus for a tour of the city and then reached Dalyat el Carmel where we learned more about the Druze culture and even got to witness it, or taste it, at lunch! After that, we spoke with a Druze IDF soldier who told us all about how the Druze people are reflected in Israeli law and in the IDF. It was so insightful to see another perspective from the Druze community. After that meaningful conversation, we headed to a Shuk for our last hour before returning to our Youth Village. We then ate dinner and finally, to end our day, talked with our beloved counselor Almog about military ethics. We watched a short video and discussed it after watching it. Today was packed with activities and we can’t wait for tomorrow. Thanks for reading!
