Dear Parents,

I am emailing you from Ramot Shapira, the hotel that we are staying at for Shabbat, with a view that is out of this world. We had an incredible week starting out in Tel Aviv learning about the founding of the state of Israel and spending time shopping in the famous Yafo shuk (market).

Our base for the week week was a Kibutz in Gush Etzion, just outside of Jerusalem, called Kfar Etzion. We spent a lot of time learning about the biblical and modern history of the area. We toured the city of Chevron and visited Ma’arat Hamachpela (the tomb of our forefathers). We hiked in the area around the Herodian mountain and the valley under the Tekoa Settlement. We spent time with local Israeli peers in Tekoa and heard from local politicians about the political climate in the area. We talked at length about the struggles that Israelis have experienced in the area including a program focusing on Eyal, Gilad and Naftali, the 3 Israeli teens who were taken last summer.

Our busy week included a tour of Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust Memorial, and Har Hertzel, the Israeli Military cemetery. Thursday night, we capped off the week with a visit to the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem. Tuesday night and Wednesday we ran a Color War (Congrats to the Blue team for taking the glory!) and on Thursday night, we hosted our own Shabbat Shuk, a laid back activity allowing the teens to explore different activities in preparation for Shabbat. This morning we spent some time in The Old City of Jerusalem learning about what local Jews are doing to prepare for rebuilding of the 3rd temple. Afterword, we spent time learning about Kabbalah from a local teacher, Rabbi David Aaron. During lunch, some took the opportunity to visit the Western Wall. Before heading to our hotel for Shabbat we stopped one last time in Machene Yehuda, the market in Jerusalem for some pre-Shabbat shopping.

It really has been an incredibly hectic, but still amazing week and we are all looking forward to the rest.

As a side note, I wanted to remind you that while we are taking a lot of pictures, we have been unable to post many of them because of our connectivity issues. Blogs have been written and not posted for the same reason. While we will continue to try to resolve this- even through the last few days of the trip, we really appreciate your patience and understanding until now and look forward to posting them as soon as we are able.

Have a wonderful Shabbat,

Levi Zeffren

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