Last Shabbat in Israel

Dear Families of Yallah! Israel,

As we arrive at our last Shabbat in Israel, it feels like time has flown by. On the one hand, it seems like the days have sped past, while on the other, even last Sunday feels far away given the wealth of experiences we’ve packed into this final week.

In the last few days, we’ve delved into the history and present of the modern state of Israel. Reflecting this week’s Torah reading about the five sisters who approached Moses to demand women’s rights to inherit property, we learned about the beginnings of Zionist feminism at the Kinneret courtyard and the stories of Manya Shochat and Rachel Bluwstein.

After exploring the history of Tel Aviv last week, today and in the coming days, we’ll immerse ourselves further into “The City that Never Stops,” experiencing the vibrant rhythm of Tel Aviv day and night. This week, we also discovered different cultures of the land. On Mount Carmel, we visited the Bahai Gardens in Haifa and the Druze village of Dalyat el-Carmel. Lila Bales wrote about this experience: “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.”

Yesterday was dedicated to exploring the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and relationships. We learned about 1948 from multiple perspectives at Kastel National Park and about 1967 at the Palace of the King of Jordan in Jerusalem. We met a wide variety of Palestinian speakers, Israeli citizens at Ein Rafa, students from East Jerusalem at Hebrew University, and a former member of the Palestinian Authority overlooking the West Bank. At the Center of Middle Eastern Music in Jerusalem, we met students who played the Oud and shared the influence of Arab music on Israeli culture. We concluded by singing together a song written to Arab music by Rabbi Shlomo ibn Gabirol in Spain. The day brought up many questions and mixed emotions among the participants, which we will continue to explore on Shabbat. We were very proud to see how engaged and interested the teens were throughout the day and how deep their questions were.

Although the preferred balance between education, leisure, and fun is a matter of personal preference, it seems most of the group is more than ready for a Shabbat of leisure and the last couple of days focused on fun activities, processing the trip, and closure.

As we now welcome Shabbat with the Reform congregation in Holon, we wanted to wish you all a great weekend.

With much anticipation for the last few days with our community in Israel,

Shabbat Shalom,
The Yallah! Israel Team

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