Esther's Aliyah Experience: JCRC Non-Jewish Seminar

Hello Friends and family,

These past 10 days I staffed a JCRC mission to Israel with MA Reps, Senator, and AFL-CIO participants. It was the first time I saw Israel through a Christian-Political lens. We toured the Via Delarosa, Capernaum, Bethlehem (which I am not allowed to go to because I hold an Israeli citizenship) and some of them got baptized in the Jordon River.

They also toured Masada/ Dead Sea, Yad Vashem, Jewish Quarter, Sderot, Haifa, Golan Heights and spent a day lying in the sun on a Tel-Aviv beach.

As you can see it was a whirl-win of a trip! Three highlights for me were touring the Golan Heights because it depicted the importance of Israel’s security and beauty. The Golan is one of my top 3 places where I would want to live because of its serene nature and vastness.

The second highlight was our tour of the Gaza outlook and Sderot (go to http://www.sderotmedia.com/ for more info). I envisioned what Gaza looked like but when viewing the dark, grey, polluted, and chilling area I understood the true reality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On one side you have beautiful trees, agriculture and flourishing communities and on the other side it is dreadfully oppressing.

After viewing the outlook we ate lunch in Sderot and visited a community center. As the participants were taking a bathroom break and milling around the foyer we heard a TZEVAH ADOM (red alert) which means a Kassam rocket is being launched from Gaza and is going to land in Sderot in 15 seconds. Everyone ran into the auditorium which is also a shelter. Finally after advocating for Sderot for the past 8 months I comprehend only a small part of life in Sderot. Even though it is not the best situation to experience a TZEVAH ADOM this did impact the participants understanding of the situation with Hamas, Iran and innocent Israeli civilians. I attached the picture of Representative Golden playing soccer with a couple of boys afterwards because this states that life goes on and the community’s moral is somehow being upheld.

The third highlight was going to an Israeli incubator in Haifa that is working on a technology which treats all types of cancer without any invasive surgery. After a week of political and religious discussions it was very important for the participants, who could impact this technology in the States, to see Israel’s creative innovations and one of our best resources.

After this amazing week I had a very restful Shabbat which included a 4 ½ hour game of Monopoly in which I came in second out of four. Now that my travels are slowing down for the summer I have time to focus on Ulpan so I can become fluent in Hebrew.

All my love,

Esther