I had this entire entry written, and it somehow got erased and saved blank, so please excuse the choppiness of the writing - I didn't feel like retyping something so eloquent and historically fact-checked a second time.
Day 5 gave us a taste of Tel-Aviv-Yaffo, and I really mean just a taste - one day to see a big city and its historical counterpart? So, we hit the Taglit-mandated highlights, and that's pretty much all we had time for.
Tel Aviv is a large city, and the secular center of Israel. It was built starting in the early 1900s on uninhabited desert land - so anything historically significant in Tel Aviv happened in the last 100 years and is related to the modern state of Israel.
Our first stop was Rabin Square, named after Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin who was assassinated there (at a peace rally, no less) in 1995. While there, we got in groups and discussed the implications of political attacks such as Rabin's and their context within a democracy. It was a particularly interesting discussion since we had our soldiers with us, who were little kids when the incident happened and could even remember a little bit of their parents' reactions. I don't want this to be a particularly political blog, so I won't go into too much detail about my opinions, except to say that I personally am still working out my own opinions about how democracy in Israel can work, so my brain was working overtime trying to keep up with the discussion.
David and Seth, chasing birds in Rabin Square
After that, we went to the Nachalat Binyamin artists' market for lunch and shopping. I don't like shopping when I'm in a rush, so I resigned myself to return at some point during my extension and sat down at a sidewalk cafe to enjoy a leisurely lunch and peoplewatching.
My delicious cheese croissant and cappuccino in Nachalat Binyamin
After our hour in Nachalat Binyamin, we gathered back up as a group and walked through the city to Independence Hall. This is the place where in 1948 Israel declared independence from Britain and became a sovereign Jewish state. The guide there gave us a very thorough and enthusiastic retelling of the entire history leading up to that event, and regardless of the issues I'm still working out in my own head about Israel and its place in the world, it was pretty neat to be in a place where such a historic event happened that has heavily influenced the direction of world politics and events since.
Fellow UCI student Sara and I in Independence Hall
Hannah outside Independence Hall
After Independence Hall, we piled back on the bus and went to Jaffa, the ancient port city adjacent to Tel-Aviv. Jaffa's location as high ground at a strategic and protected part of the coastline makes it a natural place to build a port city, and there are archaeological ruins there dating back to 7,500 BCE. It's been more or less continually inhabited since then, with a couple short periods of complete destruction and re-population a couple centuries later. It's been a major part of history, changing hands between such civilizations as the ancient Egyptians, the Romans, the Ottoman Empire, different sides of Crusaders... so it's seen a LOT of history, and is referenced a lot in ancient texts, including the Bible/Torah (I won't list them all here, but you can look up Jaffa on Wikipedia for a pretty good summary. There are a LOT of pretty significant historical references, I think it's worth a look).
After a short walk through a couple parks and viewpoints, we went into the old city to the front of a Libyan synagogue from the 18th century at sunset, and our rabbi lit a small menorah on the steps for the first night of Chanukkah. We started singing and dancing, sharing songs with our Israeli soldier friends, and were even joined by locals there in the narrow streets of the Old City. It was an incredible experience.
Neil, who is putting together a wonderful photo/video project for us, taking a photo of Tel Aviv along the water in Jaffa.
Me and the Tel Aviv shoreline
St. Peter's Church
Sunset outside the Old City
Seth and I in the Old City
Brittany in the Old City
Me in the Old City
The Libyan synagogue
Our Rabbi lighting the Chanukkah candles
Happy Chanukkah!
Our group packed in to the little narrow old city streets
Singing and dancing to Chanukkah songs in Jaffa - amazing.
We then went back to our hotel in Netanya to eat dinner and light our own individual menorahs we were given by Birthright to celebrate Chanukkah during our time in Israel. It was a very special first night of Chanukkah, to say the least.
Leaving Jaffa, view of Tel Aviv at night.
The dessert table at the hotel - note the special donuts, seasonal for Chanukkah in Israel.
Lighting our menorahs
Our group's menorahs ablaze in the hotel.
[As always, I do not put every single picture I take into this blog. To see the entire album of photos I took while on Birthright, go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtashalocke /sets/72157628872433827/ When I get to my extended, post-Birthright part of the trip, there will be a new album for those photos as well.]
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