Israel Day 3 –May 3, 2023

Another beautiful day in Israel! This morning, we enjoyed breakfast at the hotel and then set out for the beautiful city of Jaffa. While Jaffa and Tel-Aviv are both under a single Israeli municipality and are just a mile apart, they are so different. Tel Aviv is a city that belongs to modernity and Jaffa is one of the most ancient cities in the world. We think that Jaffa is approximately 5,000 years old, and have evidence that Jaffa existed as a city at about the same time as Ancient Egypt. 

 

From ancient times, Jaffa has functioned as an important port city both for Israel and for the entire Middle East. In more recent centuries, however, the working port in this area has moved from Jaffa just up the beach to Tel Aviv.  While Jaffa was strategically perfect for those living in the city of Jaffa – on the water but highly elevated in rocky hills above the water -- it was always a difficult port because of the rocky shoreline that is very treacherous and caused many boats to capsize or be destroyed by the big rocks that are just under the surface of the water. Nevertheless, Jaffa was a place in which people lived and worked and is now a predominantly Muslim city. When we arrived in Jaffa, we climbed to the top of a hill above the water and looked out at Tel Aviv which was right in front of us. The contrast between Tel Aviv and Jaffa is palpable. They are truly twin cities – one ancient and the other modern; one mostly Jewish, the other mostly Muslim. 

 

As we looked out toward Tel Aviv, the Mediterranean Sea was right in front of us – its blue-green color stretching all the way to the horizon as far as the eye can see. One could imagine all the people who came by boat to the Holy Land and to the port of Jaffa where sailors had to carefully navigate the rocks and bring people ashore: the Biblical figure Jonah, King Solomon, Saint Peter, Alexander the Great, and the Crusaders. Later, Napoleon came to the Holy Land from Europe through the Jaffa port. Famous and ordinary people alike arrived at the Port of Jaffa fleeing persecution and first stepped foot into the Holy Land from the waters surrounding Jaffa. In some ways, Jaffa can be compared to New York’s Ellis Island – both are places in which immigrants from throughout the world have come to make their homes here. 

 

After taking a group photo against the backdrop of the Sea and Tel Aviv, we walked through the magnificent stone alleyways of the Old City of Jaffa- which, from a visual standpoint, looks almost exactly like the streets and alleys of the Old City of Jerusalem. The flowers were blooming in full colors and we had a chance to peek into some of the windows of the many art galleries, studios, jewelry makers, and museums for which Jaffa is known. As many people know, one of the most important exports of Israel over the years has been its delicious oranges, which, because they left Israel through the port of Jaffa to be delivered to countries around the world, became lovingly known as “Jaffa oranges.” We saw one artist’s rendering of these oranges in a now-famous sculpture installation known as “The Floating Orange.” As we heard about the history and culture of Jaffa from our guide, Yoni, we were offered a special treat – a visit to the home and museum of artist Ilana Goor, truly one of Israel’s most gifted artists. A self-taught artist who has been creating art since she was only a few years old, she is now 87 and her husband is 92 years old. They divide their time between their homes in Jaffa and New York City. The house is filled with art, sculpture, and artifacts – both those of Ilana Goor and others that she has collected from other artists over the years. The home is filled with literally thousands of amazing and unique pieces that truly defy description. Her house looks out over the Old City of Jaffa and the Mediterranean Sea and there is hardly a square inch of this enormous home that is not filled with her work in all media – metal, wood, stone, canvas, and paint. Her kitchen itself is a work of art! 

 

After walking up and down the hills of Jaffa, we stopped for some free time at the famous Jaffa Flea Market and were on our own for lunch where many of the travelers chose to have a delicious variety of traditional Arab salads and/or meats such as Kebabs and Shwarma. Some people even stopped to taste delicious Baklava and K’nafe – typical sweets to follow a delicious Middle Eastern meal.

 

We got back onto the bus and began heading south toward the Negev desert. We made a fantastic and memorable stop along the way to the Beta Yisrael Village in Kiryat Gat - a unique social-educational center that combines agriculture and educational activities to preserve Jewish-Ethiopian heritage and establish it as a sustainable national asset. The Project is the brainchild of the Hineni organization, which has been initiating and supporting Jewish-Ethiopian mission-driven communities for more than a decade. We were given a tour of the Village by a woman who came to Israel from Ethiopia forty years ago and shared her more than two-year journey from Ethiopia to Israel through Sudan. She treated us to some delicious coffee and home-baked Ethiopian bread that is part of an ancient Jewish ritual that continues today in Ethiopian Jewish homes in Israel. She spoke about her love and appreciation for Israel and Judaism as well as the challenges and difficulties of integrating into the State of Israel as a black African woman. She told us all about the Jewish traditions of the Beta Yisrael Ethiopian Jewish community and we spoke about the younger generations and the future of this incredible immigrant group in Israel. We did a clay project with her as she explained the important role of women in Ethiopian Jewish society and their unique Jewish communal leadership which is very different from what most of us know from our Western culture. 

 

Tired by happiness, we boarded the bus toward the Negev Desert and our destination of Mitzpe Ramon. As we looked out the window the scenery changed quickly and dramatically as we entered the wilderness – much of which is quiet and unpopulated. We saw a few camels along the way and other desert wildlife, birds, and plants that somehow grow in the rocky and difficult desert land and climate. When we got out off the bus at Mitzpe Ramon, the air was noticeably drier and, once the sun sunk below the horizon, the temperature cooled down and the wind increased. We had dinner, listened to some live music outside under the moonlit and starlit sky, and prepared for our exploration in the desert beginning in the morning.