The Old City and Day 2: Tel Aviv

As promised, this post will be about our visit to the Old City, and the incredible architecture and historical significance within. We started our journey with the Shehechiyanu, the prayer that signifies new experiences, and certainly, we felt very connected to this prayer. The prayer was recited on a plain overlooking Jerusalem, and the view was absolutely spectacular. Soon after, we walked through the old city of Jerusalem, seeing the history that many of us have been studying for most of our lives. After descending through its many corridors, we arrived at the Kotel or the Western Wall. Few words can describe the amount of power that ascends from the wall. A birthright participant quietly whispered to himself as he touched the wall “Finally, I’m home”. The meaning of the wall went beyond the biblical representation, it touched each of us as one of the most sacred places to bless one’s family and have a conversation with “God” about our most inner thoughts and feelings. The comfort that this brought us helped to facilitate the feeling of home that each Jewish member of society oftenfeels when they enter the Western Wall.

On the second day of our journey (as Bruce would say) we visited Tel Aviv, the most populated city in Israel. Our itinerary states that Tel Aviv was “built from the sands” and after a very detailed presentation of Tele Aviv’s origins, the whole group certainly felt the importance of this statement. We learned that Tele Aviv was founded by sixty-two Jewish settlers, who envisioned a prosperous Jewish homeland. Tele-Aviv grew from those sixty-two settlers, to a metropolis with over 3.5 million people, and property values that rival Manhattan (even with the real estate crunch ;). Tele-Aviv is also the birthplace of Israel, the place where the very first leaders declared the land of Israel as the home of the Jewish people.

We started our tour of Tele-Aviv with Rabin Square, and stood in the actual place where Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated on November 4th, 1995. What made the square so powerful is that Rabin was killed just moments after he sang Shir L’Shalom, a song for peace. Our tour guide brought us back to the exact time and moment of his death. We envisioned the thousands of people-Jewish people-filling the streets of Tele-Aviv, holding signs that pushed for peace and to bring an end to the constant violence and divide that weakened the State of Israel. We witnessed him rushing towards his car, waiting for him as usual. He heard the screaming from the crowd, begging for him to greet them. Surprisingly, he breaks from his usual rushed routine, and greets his people, acknowledging their efforts for peace and stability. We stood in the very spot, in the exact place that these events unfolded. Rabin walked to his car, and there, right there, his life ended: An extremist, who could not see the same peaceful state that Rabin envisioned, assassinated him. With this, his legacy and what he stood for lived on, and forever intertwined with the ideologies of Israeli society. Bruce explained the significance of the memorial that was erected in his memory. A pile of lava rocks that lay upon the ground in an uneven fashion.

A participant on the trip stated during a “high point, low point” discussion, initiated by our group leader Arielle, that one of the most profound events that we attended on this Birthright journey was the Na Lagaat. A theater company that provides a stage for the death-blind to interact with the rest of society and communicate what their lives entails. The play went beyond just a story line filled with humorous situations, it very much demonstrated how Israel is not an exclusive state, it allows for, and helps to promote the free expression of every member of society. To witness these people that would otherwise be in a dark and silent world, actually communicate with us was an amazing experience, and shed new light on the deaf-blind people.