As we head northwest from Jerusalem, we settle in for a “road trip” in earnest. The back of the bus was the place to be - lots of laughs and good tunes. Ami, our guide, provides service with a smile!
We are enroute to the Hadassah Youth Village in Neurim. A Youth Village (Kfar No’ar) was first developed in the 1930’s. Henrietta Szold used this model to provide a home for the children fleeing the Nazis. Called Youth Aliyah, they were a cross between a European boarding school and a kibbutz.
The Youth Village in Neurim is located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, between Tel Aviv and Netanya. It screams: location, location, location with a beautiful sandy beach shoreline. This happens to be one of the largest villages in the country with about 200 boarding students and 250 day students in the 15 – 18 age range. The nurse at the village has a practice similar to that of a school nurse. The major difference is that she lives at the village and the children are knocking at her door 24/7!
Most of the children have behavioral and economic problems. More recently there has been an influx of Russian and Ethiopian immigrants. They need three basic things: food, shelter, and attention, with an emphasis on the latter.
Mendi Rabinovitz, the principal, is a dynamo administrator. Since many of the children come with skill and knowledge gaps, there is an obligatory curriculum with a focus on getting a diploma. Hadassah also funds many enrichment programs. Getting a diploma is a means to break the glass ceiling. Instilling confidence and developing emotional and social skills is an integral part of the academic program.
Mendi personally interviews each of the children and he always asks, ”What is your dream?” He describes the program at Neurim as having 3 major components: the first is dream trainers (set a goal); the second is life plan builder (for future based thinking) and the third is a planner of sexual behavior (when to say “no”). The success of this program in part is the teachers; he recruits the best! Every child must have a dream and life plan when they leave, as there is no safety net. Mandatory military service is a great equalizer for these young adults.
Although formal success is measured with matriculation to the university, Mendi looks at it through a different lens. Success is demonstrating good behavior, serving the country, having a passion to learn and making something of themselves.
Last year, Marlene Post, the former Hadassah president donated a new track to the village. With the influx of Ethiopian immigrants, the Village is currently training an Olympic hopeful in field and track. Stay tuned! Oh, yes…remember the group shots?
This Hadassah Mission is well planned! After leaving the village, we pull into what looked like an ordinary gas station, only to find that this is our lunch spot! The food was fabulous, but we really liked “nanna” – mint tea. Garnished with almost a plant of mint, it was another Kodak moment!
A former detention camp prisoner spoke with us at Attlit. This charming octogenarian woman recounted the experience at the camp. There certainly is a consistent theme amongst this age group – their lives were difficult; they overcame amazing losses and hardships; and they are full of spunk and vitality.
Our travels continued through Haifa with a tour of the city and shopping at the gift shops of one of the hotels. I took the opportunity to “take care of business”, as I was soon going to be traveling on my own.
Our final destination was Tsafet. This town's name is spelled so many different ways -- Tzefiya (in the Talmud), Safad, Zefat, Sefad -- it's easy to get confused and think they are entirely different places.
At almost 3000 feet of elevation in the mountains of the Upper Galilee, Tzfat is the highest town in the country and its proximity to the heavens may be a correlation to its being considered the center of Kabbalah. Its reputation as the center of mysticism shouldn’t discount that it is considered one of the holiest cities in Israel, along with Jerusalem, Tiberias and Hebron.
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Initially settled by the Crusaders, the thriving Jewish settlement grew, declined and then survived Ottoman rule. The Ottomans made Tzfat their capital through the 16th century. Jews began to come in large numbers after they were expelled from Spain in 1492 (while Columbus was sailing the ocean blue). Safed did not become an important center of Jewish life until the late 15th and early 16th centuries. It is not mentioned in the Torah and was apparently not settled until Roman times. Among them were respected rabbis, spiritual leaders, and poets who gravitated to the center of revived Kabbalah study. It is most closely associated with Jewish mysticism, the kabbalah, whose foremost exponent, Rabbi Isaac Luria, lived and taught there.
The "bible" of the kabbalists, the Zohar, was written by the second-century talmudist Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who believed each word and line of the Torah had a higher meaning.
A Kabbalah rabbi gave us the basics: it is about reading between, behind, and all around the lines! Each letter and accent of every word in the holy books has a numerical value with special significance, which offers added meaning to the literal word.
The town is a maze of cobblestone streets that lead to ancient synagogues. The doors of Tsafet present many Kodak moments! . Many of the doors of buildings in the city are painted blue to remind people of heaven.
In addition to the kabbalist, Safad also attracted numerous other Jewish scholars and spiritualists including Rabbi Yosef Caro. There is a very charming old synagogue, dating back to 1535 named after him. He authored the Shulchan Aruch, the code of law that remains the foundation of Jewish religious interpretation today. The synagogue was once Caro’s study hall. It was rebuilt in the mid-19thcentury after being destroyed in the earthquake of 1837. The Ark contains a Torah scroll that is at least 400 years old. The turquoise paint here, considered the ”color of heaven”, is believed to keep away the evil eye.
The next morning we toured the Chule Valley. I must say it was a refreshing departure from the hospital and historical sites. Driving around in golf carts, we were able to cover a lot of ground at the Agmon Hahula. This Nature Reserve contains the last vestige of wetlands preserved after the rest was drained in the 1950’s to create arable land. Over time, people realized that in addition to affecting the water quality in the Sea of Galilee, the project had destroyed the habitat for millions of birds migrating across the Hula Valley between Europe and Asia.
Pelicans, wild geese, storks, cranes, plovers, and raptors once again have a sanctuary. The attraction for them is the swampy waters that abound with carp, catfish, and perch. Our total count of bird sightings was twenty! In addition, there is a large reed habitat dense with thickets of papyrus.
Nearby is a reconstructed farmhouse-like-museum that was once owned by Russian immigrants who converted from Christianity to Judaism. As the story goes, in 1904 the Dubrovins came to the swamps of the Hula valley, persevered through many hardships, and began farming the land. This property was eventually donated to the Jewish National Fund and was first open to the public in 1986. The food was fabulous….I am still thinking about the smoked and grilled chicken and these little chocolate molten cakes whose centers were oozing halvah!......yummmmm
Rosh Pinah, for all of its small size and out of the way location, has played an important part in the resettlement of the Jewish people in Israel. This includes contesting the city of Petah Tikvah for the distinction of being the first settlement in modern Jewish history. The name Rosh Pinah means "cornerstone," which comes from Psalm 118: "The stone that the builder has rejected has become the headstone of the corner." Today it is a picturesque village that reflects late 19th and early 20th century Israel.
On our last day on the mission, we find our heroines, the nurses, investing in the economy in the galleries and shops of Tsafet – true Zionists are we! The road trip continued through one Jewish National Fund's forests on a very scenic narrow road. I actually thought that I might be able to find the trees that I planted during my days in Hebrew school (how silly was that idea?) We are heading west toward Nazareth for a stop at Tsipori.
The excavations at ancient Tsipori/Zippori/Sepphoris (multiple spellings are the norm) have proven to be one of the most exciting archaeological sites in the Galilee today. The modern dig, launched in the mid-1980s, has revealed the remains of a moderately sized city that served as the regional capital during Roman rule. Climbing to the summit of the acropolis, it is not hard to understand the strategic location of the city, overlooking the sweeping valley of Bet Netofa. In fact, it has been suggested that the town's name - Zippori - comes from the Hebrew word 'tsipor' (bird), because the spectacular view from the hill, which gives one the feeling of flying.
Much of what has been uncovered in the excavations attests to the very pluralistic quality of Zippori over the centuries, including a Roman theater, a Jewish residential quarter, ritual baths, churches and many, many mosaics.
The most celebrated find on the site was the mosaic floor of the roman villa thought to be the governor’s residence. Depicting a series of drinking scenes. The most stunning detail is the exquisite face of a woman, by far the “finest mosaic” ever found which has been dubbed “the Mona Lisa of the Galilee”.
The real significance for Jewish tradition were the rabbis who gave learned responses to real-life questions of civil and religious law, basing their judgments on the dos, don’ts, and between the lines principles of the of the torah. These rabbinic opinions were transmitted orally from generation to generation and like court decisions, became legal precedents and the heart of Jewish jurisprudence. Rabbi Yehuda summoned the greatest rabbis to Tsipori to pool their experiences and codify the so-called oral law. The result was the encyclopedic work called the Mishnah. Further commentary was added in later centuries to produce the Talmud, the primary guide to orthodox practice today.
Last stop before the airport is Tel Aviv. We encountered very heavy traffic as we wound our way to Menachim Begin Square. The streets were closed for a celebration that would culminate with the lights being turned off in a moment of energy conservation. A brief memorial service at the site of Menachim Begin’s death was a teary moment. A street musician played a mournful version of Hatikvah as we lit a candle and said a prayer.
Last stop was dinner at the Lelitt Restaurant. Another fabulous meal with lovely red wine and a nice story behind the scenes. The restaurant cooperates with the Elem Association for youth in difficulty. The teens work side by side with the staff and part of the proceeds are donated to the organization.
During dinner, the restaurant did turn off the lights and we finished eating by candlelight – a lovely ending to a great mission.
As the bus headed to the airport with my colleagues who were returning to the states, I hailed a cab for the next chapter in my great adventure….
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