Shalom and Welcome to our “Sababa” (cool!) blog about our trip to Israel
Day one was a quick LONG and filled day as we embarked on our journey to the Holy Land. It began at promptly 9:15 am when we had to arrive at Newark airport four hours prior to our flight. Once we were thoroughly questioned by the El Al staff most of us passed through security. However, a few people on our flight had some minor issues and were randomly searched. As one of the boys who was searched stated “getting searched was just part of the true Israeli travel experience.” Atleast the group members searched had a positive attitude. This was not a big problem at all and we soon regrouped and began to board the flight and bond with our peers. We participated in a human Bingo in order to get to know eachother better. Most of the squares on the bingo board applied to almost every true Jew, such as my personal favorite: person who loves Chinese food. Lets be honest, who doesn’t love some Chinese food and a movie…especially on Christmas.
When we got on the plane most of us unsuccessfully attempted to sleep, even our sleeping pills could not suppress our excitement to land in Israel. Two plane meals and ten hours later and we touched down in Tel Aviv at sunrise. We then went through security one girl on our trip who is an Israeli citizen was informed she needed to get her papers fixed or the army would be in her near future. After a panic attack and a few phone calls we also got this situation under control. Besides, we constantly reminded her that atleast there weren’t finals and school work in the army, and I personally volunteered to take over her position of president of our sorority if she was detained.
We then met a Mayanot leader Pnina to go over the rules and regulations of the trip. She emphasized that Birthright is supposed to be a fun trip, but is no means a spring break. We obviously all understood this and are here for a deeper and more meaningful experience than one we would receive in a place such as Mexico. One thing Pnina stated that really stuck with a lot of us was that it is imperative that we make this trip our own and take something special from Israel. We must “make Israel ours.” Rabbi Mendle later added on that we are all here with one common denominator: our religion. Israel is the holy land of all of the Jews, and hopefully future generations will come back to Israel to visit the place of their heritage as well. In a few generations from now if our grandchildren move away from the United States to somewhere in Europe or Australia our great great grandchildren will not consider themselves American. They will soon assimilate into their new society and consider themselves European or Australian. This is why it is important to visit the only homeland that is truly ours, Israel.
After some inspiring words we went to one of my favorite sites in Israel: Cesarea. Due to my personal interest in history Cesarea is especially impressive to me. Cesarea is a beach area with aqueducts that were built during the Roman Era. These aqueducts were built so people would not have to travel to wells; instead water was directly transported to cities far from Rome. These aqueducts were similar and just as important as our road system today. It is fascinating to really see the grip and strong influence of the Roman Empire, and to see their accomplishments instead of reading about them in a textbook. At Cesarea we stood in a circle on the beach to learn more about our other peers on the trip. We then boarded the bus and headed out to our next adventure: Atlit.