3 days in the Golan and Galilee

This week all of the first year students went on a Tiyyul to Northern Israel. The theme of our week was "In Search of the New Jew" and we spoke a lot about the 3 big waves of immigration to Israel beginning before the State was established.

The first stop on our Journey was a city called Zichron Yaakov which was one of the first settlement cities in Israel during the First Aliyah in 1881 (for more info on the First Aliyah- here's the wiki site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Aliyah). We spoke about their difficulties in turning that region of Israel from a swamp land into a viable and thriving place for people to live. For more information about Zichron Yaakov, visit this website: http://www.gemsinisrael.com/e_article000004384.htm. It is now a very quaint city with shops and restaurants, I would definitely recommend that if you are in Israel to visit Zichron Yaakov!

We left Zichron Yaakov for the springs in Sachne. While most of Israel is dessert, the Galilee and Golan areas have much more running water and springs. Sachne is a beautiful site with cold water springs and waterfalls. We spent a lovely afternoon swimming in the springs and enjoying the cool weather and water!

In the evening we met with our Modern Israeli History teachers Paul and Jeremy. Jeremy showed us clips of movies about several different periods in Israel History during the major immigration periods. These discussions were very interesting to me and I am looking forward to learning more about Modern Israel history during this year. Israel is a very old place, and at the same time it is a very new place. The ways in which it is ancient are mostly obvious. However, it can be difficult to see Israel as a new country, especially when we spend so much time in Jerusalem which hasn't changed all that much in a while. During our sessions on this Tiyyul, we spoke about the "New Jew" and the Aliyot (immigrations) to Israel which happened BEFORE it became a state in 1948. Before these immigrations Israel was barren and swampy, and the first settlers worked the lands to make it liveable and beautiful as it is today. This Tiyyul helped me to understand the work that went into creating the Modern State of Israel, which helps to explain the pride that Israelis feel for the land itself.

In the morning on Day 2 we travelled to Tel Hai, which was another early settlement town. Tel Hai is in the Upper Galilee in an area disputed between Israel and Syria. There is a very interesting story about a battle that took place at Tel Hai which left 8 Settlers Dead including the famous Soldier Joseph Trumpledore. For more information, here's the wiki site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tel_Hai. At the end of the battle, the Settlement was burned to the ground, but archaeologists have reconstructed it as a National Monument to the first Settlers of Modern Israel. Below is a picture inside the Settlement.

After Tel Hai we visited the city of Metullah, which is the northernmost city in Israel at the border between Israel and Lebanon. At this stop we spoke about the security issues in Northern Israel and the Golan Heights. Today, these borders are relatively quiet, and I was surprised to see that at this point in the border in Lebanon there is not even a fence or border crossing. However, there is not a peace agreement between the two countries and nobody is allowed to cross these borders. The picture below is taken from Metullah, and it is looking into Lebanon. Looks like a fun place to visit, I hear the food is fantastic! I hope that one day soon a peace agreement will allow people to travel between these two great countries.

We departed Metullah for the Golan Heights and the Israel-Syria border. While only a 15 minute drive, the landscape of the Upper Galilee and The Golan Heights could not be more different. The Golan Heights are beautiful and almost Pacific Northwest-esque with thick green trees and a lot of wind. So much media attention is given to the conflict in the West Bank and Gaza, that it is sometimes easy to forget that the Golan Heights has also been a heavily disputed area. The borders were redrawn in 1973 after the war, and while the border is quiet today, there are many remnants of war in this area. We sat in an old Syrian Army Bunker and heard the story of Eli Cohen, an Israeli spy who helped Israel during the war by reporting on the location of Syrian troops in The Golan. Our teacher, Paul Liptz, told us stories about his army service in the Golan and Upper Galilee during the War. He told us one story about a mine field he encountered: a cow walking a few meters in front of him stepped on a mine which exploded at which point Paul and his fellow soldiers realized they were standing in a live mine field and they had to walk very carefully to safety, not knowing which step may be their last. These mine fields still decorate the Syria/Israel Border in the Golan Heights, although they are well marked today.

A tank left over from the war. Now it is a chilling reminder of the war and the conflict that still exists.

A sign blocking off a mine field- we saw a lot of these signs and barbed wire fences blocking off the fields.

On day 3 we visited Tel Dan, one of the most archaeological sites in Israel. We had the distinct pleasure of spending the day at Tel Dan with David Ilan, our professor and one of the archaeologists who conducts excavations at the site that has been excavated by HUC for a long time. Tel Dan was a very interesting site to visit because it shows an entire city including a Temple for worship and sacrifices. Most recently at Tel Dan, they have uncovered a gate dating to the Bronze Age that they are calling "Abraham's Gate" because it is mentioned during Abraham's travels in the Torah. Below is a picture of the gate. Archaeologists are still deciding the vailidity of whether or not Abraham stood here, but it is pretty cool to think that I could have stood at that same place where Abraham stood!

After visiting the archaeological site at Tel Dan, we walked through what has been made into a nature reserve. It is a beautiful and lush area with running spring water! For about 15 minutes, I felt as though I was back in the Pacific Northwest in Marshal Park!