History & Archeology Track — Israel : Past and Present

Chair: Eve Bernstein
Tour leaders: Jehon Grist and Fred Rosenbaum of Lehrhaus Judaica

The History & Archaeology track offers you a fresh perspective, newly rediscovered sites, and an in-depth view of Israel from ancient times to our own day.

Israel is located on the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa and has been the conduit for waves of migration for millennia from all directions. These migrations settled, built, destroyed, and resettled the land which we today call holy. In recent decades Israel’s ancient history has come to life as archaeologists and scholars from around the world have unearthed its treasures. Through hard science and lively debate, they turn these discoveries into vivid history that informs the heritage of the Israelites and their ancient neighbors. The only way to fully appreciate this legacy is to go to Israeli sites, from ancient cities to modern museums. It is the closest thing to time travel, allowing you to re-connect with a distant past that is truly yours.

And the history of modern Israel is no less controversial or dramatic and the successive migrations of Holocaust survivors from Europe and refugees from Arab lands in the 1940s and 50s, and later Soviet and Ethiopian Jews, have shaped the society as much as its recurrent wars and peace initiatives.

Join the Lehrhaus Judaica Israel: Past and Present bus where we will explore two extraordinary eras, the ancient and the modern, and discover the endless and intriguing links that bind them.

Activities include:

• Walking through the reconstructed pathways of Biblical and Roman Jerusalem; later in the day, we'll follow the route of Israeli soldiers as they liberated the Old City in 1967
• Commemorating Yom Ha’Shoah with a special guided tour of the newly remodeled Yad Vashem, Israel’s dramatic and moving Holocaust memorial center
• Participating in a half-day archeological dig at Beit Guvrin
• Wandering through the marvels of Biblical and classical Beit Shean in the north
• Experiencing firsthand modern history in the making with the Federation’s initiatives in Arab- and Ethiopian-Israeli communities
• Walking the winding cobbled paths of Biblical Tel Dan
• Savoring modern Golan wines while discovering the Talmudic village of Katzrin
• Viewing the masterful mosaics of the Hammat Tiberias synagogue
• Stepping inside the room where the Dead Sea Scrolls were written at Qumran
• Marveling at modern Tel Aviv, then discovering its ancestors: ancient Jaffa and Tel Qasile

Full draft itinerary to be posted shortly — check back regularly for updates!