The Israel Winter Seminar Begins

After the excitement and then the postponing of our trip, the time had finally arrived. Montreal cohort 6 was off to Israel! We left the Y, with our new journals in hand (thanks Alizée), and made our way to the airport. After a couple adjustments, all our bags were underweight. With some free time in the airport, we bought snacks and drinks and got ready for our long flight to Zurich. Everyone passed the time either by sleeping, watching movies, or reading. Our flight was uneventful as was the stopover in Zurich. Prior to boarding the plane for Israel we met the Miami cohort and socialized, turns out, they were on the same flight as us! We arrived in Israel in the early afternoon and reunited with our partnership cohort. It had been so long since the last time we had seen them! After we all had a chance to hug and say hello, we headed to the buses. 

We drove to Ben Yehudah street where we had a chance to eat, reacquaint with one another and recover from our flights. After watching the lighting if the chanukiah in kikar tzion (Zion square), we got back on the buses to drive to the old city. Despite a rare downpour in Jerusalem, we trekked through to the Kotel. When we got there we were dripping wet, but enjoying what we know is a pretty unique Israel experience. After we had some time to pray and to put notes in the wall, we gathered to go on the Kotel tunnel tour. The tour explored the length of the Western Wall that was buried under the ancient city and just recently uncovered by archaeologists. We learned a lot about the history of the wall and the sheer magnitude of it, and came to appreciate what a feat of architecture its construction  must have been. After the tour, we went back to the hotel for a quick, chanukah themed ma'agal lailah, following which we went to bed to try to catch up on our sleep so that we could enjoy the rest of what we know will continue to be an amazing trip.

 

Written by Ariella Eisenberg, Rebecca Gotteiner, and Jon Boretsky