The Last Day...

We spent our last day of our trip in Tel Aviv...

In the morning we heard from Rabbi Galia Sadon, one of the rabbis at Beit Daniel, the largest Reform congregation in Israel. Her conversation with our group was interesting and fun...I think it's such a great chance for our group to hear from these amazing Israeli women.

Then we headed over to Independence Hall, which our group really found to be an incredible highlight. To sit in the same room that David Ben-Gurion stood in when he announced Israel's Declaration of Independence..."surrender is not an option..." and it never will be, our guide added.

Then we headed to Rabin Square, where, in 1995, Yitzchak Rabin was assasinated. I was particularly touched by the personal reflections of our guide, Renee, who was in attendance at the rally that terrible night.

We went to the Carmel Market for lunch and some last minute shopping (my mom picked up a cool Golda Meir sweatshirt for me!) while I was so excited to have lunch with Robin from Around the Island!!!! (More on this in a later post...with pictures!)

Then we headed over to Old Jaffa, and went through the Ilana Goor gallery, which was pretty darn cool. She is a famous artist who turned her personal house into an eclectic and interesting gallery that is open to the public. It was pretty breath-taking to see her collection and imagine actually living in this amazing house. Then we browsed through some of the galleries in Jaffa and headed back to our hotel...to rest (although four of us went up to the north part of Tel Aviv, to the boardwalk, and browsed around a bit) before our closing dinner...

We all joined together at Kimmel, a great Moroccan/Turkish restaurant for our closing dinner. We shared wine and good food and a *lot* of laughter as we recalled and celebrated our journey together. "Journey" does seem like a good word to describe the trip -- we travelled together, yes, but I think it was so much more, so much more than just a "trip."

Each time I come to Israel I learn something new. And this time was no exception.

May we all return safely home and may we all return again and again to this amazing land...

Stay tuned for more posts, with pictures....now that I'm home and reunited with my laptop!