Bedouins, The Dead Sea and Masada

5/24/2017

Shalom to Parents and Friends of the Wonderful Class of 2017,

It is late Tuesday night, May 23, and apologies for not having posted earlier. Our kids were in the desert and there was no cell phone reception and so we had a little bit of “radio silence.” But now we are back and this is a recap of what we have been doing the last couple of days.

First they went to Ashkelon, and the Dead Sea where everyone had a great time. Then to Bedouin Tents where they had a wonderful dinner in the Tent. The kids slept in the Bedouin tents in the desert as well. Then at about 4 a.m. they woke up to climb to the top of Masada at sunrise. They davened there and then had a very deep and reflective discussion about all the historical events that happened there.

Afterwards they had breakfast followed by camels rides. They had a great time with the camel rides – they even named their camels. Then they returned to their site and packed up to go back to Jerusalem. They needed to time their arrival at Jerusalem to avoid the road closings because of the President’s visit. Therefore, they had to take a circuitous route and got back to Jerusalem to Ramat Rachel at about 1:30 p.m. They were given 3 hours to sleep and rest (but no one did, of course!). After this down-time they had a presentation called “the Four Faces of Israel” with parts played by various actors and our guides. One face was religious woman, another a Tel Avivi, another an Arab, and another a Dati Leumi – someone who was living in the settlements. The kids got a terrific sense of what Israeli culture and society is all about and its diversity.

Yitzhak Sokoloff, who is the founding director of Keshet, the tour vendor that we use in Israel, came for a debriefing, to get an idea from the kids what was good and what was less so and how we can improve the trip in the future. After dinner our kids went to an Israeli basketball game. They were very excited about that, and it was a nail-biter! The team they rooted for lost at the buzzer but it was very exciting, even though their team did not win. They came back to the hotel, hopefully to shower and sleep, and then to prepare for the last day in Israel.

So we are looking forward to seeing the kids. We will try to post one more time and will leave you directions and instruction about their return. We are really looking forward to seeing them.

In the meantime, stay connected and stay well.

Zipora Schorr

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Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School

Roz & Marvin H. Weiner Family Campus
3300 Old Court Road | Baltimore, MD 21208
410-486-1905 | mail@bethtfiloh.com

Learning together. For life.
Baltimore’s only Jewish independent preparatory school serving PreSchool through Grade 12.