First Meeting of Travelers

 

  Our Congregational trip to Israel is now only about 100 days away!  The first gathering of our confirmed travelers and potential travelers took place on Sunday December 4, 2011.  After introductions, one of our Israeli Young Emissaries, Rotem Prag, gave a vivid description of her experiences growing up on a Kibbutz in Israel.  We were all fascinated by her description of this way of life.  This was followed by our trip leader, Rabbi Colin, providing the group with a descriptive summary of our current trip itinerary, including travel days and day-by-day breakdown of our time and accommodations in Tel Aviv, in Jerusalem, and in the north; site-seeing at the Kotel (Wailing Wall), Masada, and the Dead Sea; and a schedule that includes time for walking along the Promenade, and for Shopping(!!), and eating too! (more details to follow in future blog entries!). 

   We learned that our trip will include a visit to a Kibbutz in the north similar to Rotem's, and that we will also meet Rotem's mom on our visit to the Afula children's center.  Israel trip committee co-chair Anita Rosnick concluded the meeting discussing the financials, and also introduced the group to a fundraising project being conducted in conjunction with our B'nai Torah Talmud Torah children.  This program will be presented to Schlomo Kessel, director of the Children's Center, on our visit there, and it will specifically help to provide funds for the center to purchase shoes for these at risk children, which is an important need, but a costly expense for the center. 

   Two additional gatherings of the group are planned for January 22 and February 12 in 2012 as we get closer to our trip.

Some photos from the first meeting -