TUESDAY, JULY 15
I love that fact that when an airplane lands in Israel everyone on board applauds. Sometimes its polite, sometimes it is profound. For me, the gratitude extends to the skilled crew and to G-d’s presence for bringing me back. I am humbled and elated.
We met as a group just after leaving the plane and I saw the joy on everyone’s face. We hugged and welcomed each other. Jennifer pointed out to me all the Hebrew on the billboards and I reminded her of how much better her Hebrew reading will be if she works at sounding them out as we go.
We were met after passport control by two lovely young ladies from ARZA and then gathered our baggage and went into the lobby. Ben Gurion airport has been completely redone in recent years and I remembered from my last trip how strikingly beautiful it is. We met our guide there, Doron Wilfand. He is a very pleasant and energetic young man, born on Kibbutz Ein-Hashofet and currently working on his PhD at Duke University on the Second Temple period and the birth of Christianity. We had a very interesting conversation on his New Testament studies over dinner.
We arrived at the Dan Panorama hotel, across the street from the Tel Aviv beach near the southern end of the strip as the sun was setting over the Mediterranean Sea. There we were reunited with the rest of our group – the Desmond and Finger families. They told us they had a lovely, if somewhat intimate, trip with Doron around Tel Aviv today, including the Ayalon Institute – a clandestine munitions factory used by the Jewish underground during the British Mandate period.
More sports news: we are sharing the hotel with a group of soccer players from the small nation of San Mateo. Their coming to play Israel is making news here and there is some media around us.
After a wonderful buffet dinner at the hotel, the entire group (united at last!) walked along the promenade to Old City of Jaffo. It is remarkable how much more built up the area is, and how many people were lining the boardwalk all the way to Jaffo. Arab and Jew alike, enjoying the warm breezy Mediterranean evening. Doron guided us through the Old City gazing back on the modern lights of Tel Aviv stretched out into the sea as if welcoming a thousands ships back home. After some of us took a brief detour to touch the waves of the sea, we walked back to the hotel tired and ready to start new adventures.
We met as a group just after leaving the plane and I saw the joy on everyone’s face. We hugged and welcomed each other. Jennifer pointed out to me all the Hebrew on the billboards and I reminded her of how much better her Hebrew reading will be if she works at sounding them out as we go.
We were met after passport control by two lovely young ladies from ARZA and then gathered our baggage and went into the lobby. Ben Gurion airport has been completely redone in recent years and I remembered from my last trip how strikingly beautiful it is. We met our guide there, Doron Wilfand. He is a very pleasant and energetic young man, born on Kibbutz Ein-Hashofet and currently working on his PhD at Duke University on the Second Temple period and the birth of Christianity. We had a very interesting conversation on his New Testament studies over dinner.
We arrived at the Dan Panorama hotel, across the street from the Tel Aviv beach near the southern end of the strip as the sun was setting over the Mediterranean Sea. There we were reunited with the rest of our group – the Desmond and Finger families. They told us they had a lovely, if somewhat intimate, trip with Doron around Tel Aviv today, including the Ayalon Institute – a clandestine munitions factory used by the Jewish underground during the British Mandate period.
More sports news: we are sharing the hotel with a group of soccer players from the small nation of San Mateo. Their coming to play Israel is making news here and there is some media around us.
After a wonderful buffet dinner at the hotel, the entire group (united at last!) walked along the promenade to Old City of Jaffo. It is remarkable how much more built up the area is, and how many people were lining the boardwalk all the way to Jaffo. Arab and Jew alike, enjoying the warm breezy Mediterranean evening. Doron guided us through the Old City gazing back on the modern lights of Tel Aviv stretched out into the sea as if welcoming a thousands ships back home. After some of us took a brief detour to touch the waves of the sea, we walked back to the hotel tired and ready to start new adventures.
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