Week 6
20191226_123536.mp4Day 36- Thursday 26 December- Holot Kasui & Har Tzfahot
Post by Eitan Vaknin & Aden Hoenig
Today the group engaged in a more relaxed and flexible day, where we embarked on two small journeys, being the Sand Dunes and the Red Canyon. We visited some Sand Dunes and spent time running and rolling down the hill. It was an incredibly windy day. While being completely unable to see due to the masses of sand, the group successfully climbed up a hill and rolled down in an unusual and particularly hurtful manner - with most people filling their mouthes, eyes, noses and ears with sand.
Following the Sand Dunes, the students headed to the Red Canyon for a casual walk through one of Israel’s most unique rock formations. This winding and narrow path led the students to see the remains of a body of water that had diminished, resulting in erosion. The uncovered red ochre was thus visible as a result of this erosion.
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Day 37- Friday 27 December- Kenyon Ha'adom, Snorkelling & Shabbat at Kibbutz Yahel
Post by Lara Fosbery & Harry Schulz
We woke up early in the morning and drove to the start of our hike in the Negev, to a place called Kenyon Ha’adom. We hiked for about two hours, working our way up through the mountains. Before the last hill, Benji told us to hold hands and finish the climb together (captured in the video below). We ran up to the top of the mountain and saw the beautiful Gulf of Eilat. From the peak we could see Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
We then began our descent and made it to the beach, where went snorkelling. We had a great talk by a very knowledgeable lady and then got our gear and went into the water. We saw colourful corals and fish and really enjoyed snorkelling in the Red Sea. We had lunch on the streets in Eilat and then made our way back to Kibbutz Yahel for Shabbat. We lit Shabbat and Hanukkah candles together, had Shabbat dinner and played games with the madrichim. It was overall a great way to bring in our last Shabbat of the trip.
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20191228_174743.mp4Day 38- Saturday 28 December- Shabbat at Kibbutz Yahel
Post by Benjamin Torban & India Sacks
We had a great shabbat- the rest and chill time was desperately needed as there were a few bugs and colds going around the group. We spent our time playing card games, snacking and chatting. The Havdalah run by our teacher Mikey was one of our best (if not the best), as we came together as a group so wonderfully. Mikey directed our circle to all come together into a close curl (kind of like a scroll) and we sang loudly all huddled close together- it was the best! We finished off the night by saying a very bitter sweet farewell to our madricha Tal who was leaving early to travel- Dean spoke on behalf of the group to show our appreciation for what she has done for us and we took one last big group photo together.
Day 39- Sunday 29 December- Tel Faher & Kibbutz Misgav Am
Post by Guy Rein & Aiden Poswell
This morning started with an early departure from campus and became a never ending bus ride, accompanied by the somewhat miserable and muddy weather. Travelling back from Eilat to campus last night and now all the way to the North in the Golan Heights region. In 24 hours we've touched both ends of Israel.
We first visited Tel Faher where we learnt and discussed the story of Eli Cohen. He was an Israeli spy appointed by the Mossad to act and work as a Syrian gathering intelligence for the ongoing conflict between Syria and Israel. Eli Cohen sent intelligence to Israel via radio, secret letters and the occasional in-person meetup, zigzagging from Syria to Europe to Israel and back.
We then departed to the Northern most Kibbutz in all of Israel, Mizgav Am, literally bordering Southern Lebanon. There we saw with our own eyes most of Southern Lebanon and learnt in detail about Israel’s conflict with Lebanon throughout history.
Our last stop of the day was at Tel Hai where we enjoyed free time and reflected on the day that has passed, counting down the days until we leave Israel and making the most out of every moment.
20191230_100626.mp4Day 40- Monday 30 December- Har Bintal & Agmon Hahulaf
Today we continued learning about Israel's northern borders with a visit to Har Bintal- a military base that was used to protect Israel from Syria in the Golan. We learnt about the Syrian Civil War, which was particularly interesting as it is considered by some as one of the worst tragedies of our time, with hundreds of thousands dead and millions of people displaced due to this lengthy conflict.
We then visited the bird sanctuary at Agmon Hahulaf. These wetlands are home to a wide variety of birds and we learnt that Israel sees approximately 500 million migratory birds each year- the biggest in the world aside from the migration route through the Americas.
To conclude our day (& almost our Chavayah) we celebrated with a skit night back in the beit knesset at campus. The Meir students ran a thoroughly entertaining night of songs and performances. Particular credit is due to the MCing efforts of Zach Nabarro, Mr Bloom's guitar playing and the Meir students for all of their preparations for the night. The Meir group capped off the night with a lovely song sikkuming our Chavayah (the lyrics are available on the Google Doc).
