In a big, strange, confusing world, nothing is better than seeing family. We are lucky that on our big adventure around the world, we’ve been able to spend some of our travel with some of the people closest to our hearts: from an unforgettable Baltic cruise with my parents and sister to exploring Lisbon with our cousin Rachel, the combination of new places with familiar faces adds a wonderful layer to our journey. Our time in Israel was no exception: not only did we get to explore this fascinating, beautiful country more, but we got to spend some much needed time with family. After tackling Morocco and all of it’s fabulosity and frustrations, plus a whirlwind 24 hours in Barcelona, we were both looking forward to spending some much needed chill time with Bruce and Judy, as well as Ben’s brother Steven and his wife, Michal.

And we had the best time! We got to catch up during walks, Netflix, home-cooked meals (MUCH appreciated after months of dining out, eating cheese and crackers for a meal, or cooking for just the two of us in Air Bnbs), and train rides back and forth from Rehovot to Tel Aviv. Furthermore, Ben and I were able to learn so much more about this tiny, bursting-with-history, lightning rod of a country. We managed to both relax with family AND do a bunch of great things in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Rehovot during our two weeks there. Honestly, besides the normal oohing, aahing, and tucking into exotic foods we do everywhere (I know, I know, tough life!), what made our time in Israel so special is how much learning we did. Through walks and talks with Ben’s friend Ari and some really great museums, I feel like I understand the complexity of this place just a little bit better now. Yet we still have a bunch of stuff we didn’t get to, so we are already looking forward to our next visit!

Jerusalem

Jerusalem is such a riveting place to visit, and is truly special, must-visit city. Besides the famous religious sites, just going to the market and riding the tram feels unique in Jerusalem. In no other place on earth will you see a combination of black-hatted Orthodox men, women with intricate head coverings of all faiths, little kids with side curls, and tourists in jeans jostling to scan their transit passes. Plus, the bus and tram system is really nice. You know I’m a sucker for solid public transit.

I was really excited to go back to Jerusalem. Exactly a year ago, Ben, Brian, Lindsay and I got to do a tour of the Old City which was beautiful: I was especially struck by the devotion I saw at the Western Wall and the Church of Holy Sepulchre. On that trip, I also enjoyed a milkshake from a kosher McDonalds with a seperate dairy section and learned a valuable lesson that wool Allbirds, while stylish and comfortable, are not good travel shoes because once they get soaked in the rain, they are SOAKED. Despite m y poor choice in footwear, I had a great time and it meant a lot to me to go there for the first time with Brian and Lindsay, because we always have a ball together.

A year later, with waterproof boots on my feet and a notably bigger backpack, but sadly lacking the newlywed Slivnicks, Ben and I arrived back in Jerusalem. I had a few things on my list I DEFINITELY wanted to see, and we did all of them plus much more.

We arrived via the very nice and new Ben Gurion-Jerusalem rail, which was slick and easy. Unfortunately, it was absurdly early since we had taken a red-eye from Barcelona and it was pouring. But we managed to stumble through the rain and the sleepiness to the Post Jerusalem Hostel, which was to be our home for the night. By the way, I loved this place. We had a private room with an ensuite bathroom that was very clean and had a heavenly shower. It has an amazing location right on a tram stop, a 10 minute walk to the Old City, and at breakfast they had personal shakshukas and fresh squeezed orange juice. This place may convince me that not all hostels are evil, because it was clean, comfortable, and a great price. Due to the very early hour, Ben tried to crash in the common room until check-in, and I set out for the Old City for the first site I wanted to visit: Dome of the Rock.

Dome of the Rock

Like many places in Jerusalem, this iconic gold-topped mosque is highly controversial and has tight security. The site is very important in both Judaism and Islam, so both faiths claim jurisdiction over it. For Jews, the mosque is built over the place where Abraham nearly sacrificed his son Isaac before divine intervention. Additionally, it is the former site of both the First and Second Temple. The Western Wall is the only remainder of these temples, so the mosque is also awkwardly close to the Western Wall: the most holy site for Jews. In fact, you walk right over the Wall on a little walkway on your way into Temple Mount. Muslims believe that Mohammed completed his sacred Night Journey here before ascending to heaven. So, this is an important place to many, many people and is a poignant symbol for why the situation in Jerusalem is so complicated. For a compact city, it has so many places that are deeply important to a diverse set of people. Having visited both the Wall and the Church of Holy Sepulcher, I was curious and wanted to see this third holy site for myself.

There have been a lot of issues at Temple Mount with security, so as a tourist, you are allowed to visit during some very specific times. Absolutely no praying or religious activity is allowed, and you can’t bring in any religious items like books or prayer shawls. A woman in front of me in the line was trying to bring in her Bible, and the guard was not having it. I made sure to distance myself from that group–(“Nope! I’m not with them! No worries!)–and made it in with no problems.

Since it was early in the morning (before tour groups show up) and rainy, there were very few visitors as I climbed up the steps towards the mosque. It is an extraordinarily beautiful space. A huge plaza surrounds the mosque. The gold dome rises up towards you as you walk up the stairs, and the blue detailing on the walls is lovely, especially juxtaposed with the gold. Tourists aren’t allowed to go inside the mosque, so after walking around the entire complex and admiring the view of the city and the hills, I headed out to meet Ben for an early morning schwarma.

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Then, it was time for check-in and crashing for our exhausted selves. We actually tried to go to the excellent Israel Museum, but we were so tired that we were sleepwalking through the Dead Sea Scrolls. So, we’ll have to go back there next time.

The next day, after some shut-eye and gobbling up the personal shakshukas (!!!), we got on the tram to go to another site on my must-see list: Yad Vashem.

Yad Vashem

To me, this visit was the culmination of a five-month journey of Holocaust learning and exploration that started back in July with a visit to the excellent Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center in Skokie. Since then, we have gone to Auschwitz, the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, observed Rosh Hashanah in a synagogue-turned-remembrance hall in Prague, visited the Raoul Wallenberg memorial in Budapest and talked to one of the people he saved, and visited many, many monuments in between…including the gold bricks outside of private homes in Germany, Prague, and Poland commemorating the Jews who lived there before the Holocaust. One of them was outside the house that my mom lived in as a kid in the 1960s and 70s. A Jewish family used to live there, and all perished.

With the terrible exception of Auschwitz (which I’m still struggling to write about, but plan on putting up a post about soon), the museums and memorials we have visited are stunning in the grace, emotion, and respect for the victims. Yad Vashem is the apotheosis of that principle: it is a beautiful, beautiful place that is done with so much care, love, and reverence. Creating a museum on a topic as abhorrent as genocide is a tricky and vitally important task, and the caretakers and staff at Yad Vashem have done such a wonderful job. I have so much respect and gratitude for everyone who contributed to creating such a superb institution.

While I don’t have any pictures of our time in the museum, I was most moved by the garden of the Righteous Among Nations and the haunting, candle-filled children’s memorial. Something that is so deeply hurtful about the Holocaust is that so many of the victims don’t have individual graves or markers. That stung me all over Europe. Yad Vashem acts as not just a museum to provide education, but a place to mourn, and after visiting so many brutal Holocaust sites, I needed a place to mourn. I know I’m not the only one who feels that way. Because of that, I’m so thankful I was able to visit, and I know it won’t be the last time we go to pay our respects.

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Walking Around With Ari

An absolute highlight of our time in Israel was the day we spent with Ari, Ben’s very good friend from college. Ari lives and works in in Jerusalem, so not only did we get to catch up with a dear friend, but we got to learn about Jerusalem and the current situation there from an expert. We started our day walking around East Jerusalem, which is a predominantly Arab neighborhood. We enjoyed some truly tasty shwarama and a fascinating walking tour of this community, narrated by Ari, who is not only fluent in Hebrew, but Arabic as well.

We then walked over to West Jerusalem to get the best snacks at the Machane Yehuda market (especially rugelach at Marzipan, which is a true wonder of the world!), and indulged in one of the tastiest lunches of my life at Azura. The dumplings in broth….I’ll be having dreams about it until I get back there.

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Ari took us to all of the most delicious places, and we so appreciated seeing a friend after all of this time being each other’s only friend. After saying goodbye after a spectacular 24 hours in Jerusalem, we hopped the tram to the train station and grabbed a bus back to Rehovot. I love how easy it is to get around Israel.

I think Jerusalem is one of the most intriguing, and beautiful, cities to visit. It has everything: gorgeous views, hidden lanes, more history than pretty much anywhere else on earth, and the best people watching. This is a place I want to go back to again and again.

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv is a GREAT city. Great restaurants, great transit, great neighborhoods, great walking around, great museums, a great beach….I could go on and on. After spending a last Winter Break here, I was really happy to be back. Besides all of the tasty food (seriously, the restaurants are so good), a few places stand out from this last visit:

Florentine Street Art Tour

This was a true trip highlight. Bruce and Judy arranged for the four of us to tour this artsy neighborhood in Tel Aviv that has become a center for street art, and attracts not only local talent but artists from all over the world. We really lucked out with our tour guide, who was deeply passionate about the subject. I’m also realizing on this trip ‘round the world that street art is something that I like to actively seek out (just like I actively avoid hiking uphill. We all have our things). The intricate artistry set against quotidian walls and ho-hum doors tickles me. In Tel Aviv, there is a lot of political art as well as unique-to-Israel 3D and tactile art (like felt or fuzzy installations). Half the fun is spotting the art, either near the curb or on a 6 story building. The colors, the cleverness, the thought-provoking messages: I loved it all.

Museum of the Jewish People

One of my absolute favorite museums ever. The exhibits here are pure delight, and we came at a great time: there were several exhibits that we spent a looooong time in. First, a Jewish Humor exhibit had us LOL’ing (we weren’t the only ones: how great is it to be in a museum and hear all of the other visitors cracking up?!). South Park, kibitzers, shiksas, the Three Stooges, and Adam Sandler were all there, and an entire section was devoted to Seinfeld.

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Then, the excellent permanent exhibit on synagogues around the world, as well as truly moving music and video about the role of synagogue and prayer in Jewish communities.

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Finally, and best of all, Ben and I decided to visit the kid’s exhibit: Heroes and Trailblazers of the Jewish People. WOW. This gallery was so well done, joyful, and educational.

It was divided into different categories, and for each hero or trailblazer there was an interactive and insanely clever activity. For example, boxing like Max Baer, fighting the Nazis like Lydia Litvyak, the adorable video telling the life story of Donna Grazia, learning about the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza, and trying to take a picture of a ribosome using an x-ray camera like scientist Ada Yonath. We learned so much and spent the entire time grinning ear to ear.

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As teachers, we were blown away at the marriage of fun and learning. As Jews, we left feeling so proud. As Ben said when we were leaving, every Jewish person should see this exhibit. This is truly a world-class experience, and very important for Jewish people of all ages to take pride in their culture and community.

World Press Photo Exhibition 2018 and Local Testimony

We were so lucky to be in town during this temporary show! It is a two-part exhibit: the World Press Photo Exhibition is a collection of the best in international photojournalism that year. There are different categories and winners, and all of the photos were incredibly interesting. Honestly, most of the subject matter was deeply depressing (war, senseless violence, rhinos being slaughtered for their horns, environmental destruction for dams, and of course, global warming), but the photography is just gorgeous. So it’s a mixture of have a broken heart about what is being depicted, but an intrigued mind of how the photos are composed and shot. After taking very amateur pictures for months, we were so impressed by the artistry on display by the professional photographers. It is truly an art form on top of striking at the hearts and minds of viewers.

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Part two, Local Testimony, is the Israeli version of the World Press Photo Exhibition: it had many of the same categories, but everything was local to Israel. This was fascinating: we learned so much about current events in Israel. Some of the topics we knew about, like the protests at the Gaza Strip. Others we were unaware of, like the attempt to deport African refugees (this was ultimately abandoned after fierce Israeli opposition, including by Holocaust survivors) or the impact of the decision to amend the Israeli constitution to make it a Jewish State on non-Jewish Israelis. I also loved the cultural photography about day to day life in Israel, like these portraits of Orthodox women and their beautiful head coverings.

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Rehovot

Rehovot may not have the world class cultural institutions and pizazz of Tel Aviv and the Unesco World Heritage status of Jerusalem, but we managed to have a lot of fun in this suburb: despite the consistently grumpy bus drivers! Our big Rehovot activity was visiting the Ayalon Institute, site of a secret bullet making factory during the Israel War of Independence. Ordinary people, pretending to be kibbutz workers, made thousands of bullets for the Israeli soldiers in a secret underground facility at great personal risk and sacrifice. They used a hidden entrance in a laundry facility to climb down for long, stressful shifts. Men and women spent hours in tedious, dangerous work: constantly fearing being found out or making a mistake with the dangerous materials they were using. It was a fascinating tour about a fascinating time period.

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During our time in Rehobot, we also saw Mary Poppins Returns, spent a lot of time at the various baby stores at the Rehovot Mall, took walks around the leafy neighborhoods, ate wonderful home-cooked meals, and enjoyed some Jeopardy episodes. It was a taste of home and family that we desperately wanted after months on the road, and our time in Israel gave us the energy to take on the second part of our adventure.