Rome, Greece, and Israel 2009

On Monday, we started the day with a 2-hour trip to Yad Vashem. Our guide was from Wales (he had an awesome accent). After the tour, we met with a holocaust survivor from Thessolaniki, Jacob Handeli, who told us his … Continue reading »

The members of Working Wonders Worldwide need no sleep to be good people as we saw today. We left the hotel at three in the morning and headed to Masada for sunrise. Most of us slept on the two-hour bus … Continue reading »

Roni’s birthday We woke up and walked to the Great Synagogue, just a ten minute walk. The power of the silence of walking in Jerusalem was very touching to me. Stores are closed, no buses, few cars and just a … Continue reading »

Breakfast in the morning (for me at least) consisted of watermelon and pudding, the only edible things in the hotel we are staying at. We set out for the city of David to see Hezekiah’s water tunnel. Shookie and Gabe … Continue reading »

For the first time we actually got to have a late start to our morning.  We left at 9:30 am for the city of Tzippori in the Galil. When we arrived we had a very educational but unsuccessful scavenger hunt … Continue reading »

Happy Rosh Chodesh to you all and a happy no eating meat for the next 9 days as well (which the group frequently discusses with disdain)! We began our day with a drive to the ancient Kabalistic city of Tzfat. … Continue reading »

We woke up really early and got on the bus by 8 am.  Our first stop was Rishon L’tzion, meaning the “first to Zion”.  This was the city that the first aliyah happened in 1882.  We arrived at 9:30 to … Continue reading »

We arrive from Greece to Israel reach the Kibbutz Lavi hotel completely exhausted at 4 AM and quickly go to bed because we have an 8 AM wakeup call the next morning. When we wake up we quickly scarf down … Continue reading »

In the morning I woke up to one of MANY rounds of happy birthdays. Staci and Susie presented me a bag that was stuffed the night before with crazy funny gifts by them and the rest of the girls the … Continue reading »

On Shabbat morning we had another early start to as we all got up and got ready to go to shul. We left at around 8:30 from the hotel to join Rabbi Shitrit’s congregation. I noticed the smile that formed … Continue reading »

Jews have been living in Thessolaniki since 100 BCE. The apostle Paul came to preach the new religion, Christianity, to the Jews living there. He went to the synagogue Etz Chaim which no longer exists. In 1492 an enormous amount … Continue reading »

Leaving the camp was very sad; we made a lot of new friends that we may never see again. Thankfully we exchanged facebooks and the boys have Romina on their arms. On the way to Thessoloniki, we stopped in an … Continue reading »

Today we started with the usual – Tefilah, raising the flags of Greece and Israel with their respective national anthems and then breakfast which consists of rolls and orange juice (this is no Dekelbaum breakfast).  To be honest, no one … Continue reading »

We have officially been gone one week! We left Tuesday the seventh and today it is Tuesday the fourteenth. This morning we all woke up at around 7:30 got dressed and headed out to the flag raising ceremony that takes … Continue reading »

Dear Parents, Kalimera – Good morning from the base of Mt. Olympus at the Greek Jewish Summer camp.  We arrived yesterday after a 5 hour drive from Athens to Le Tohoro, where close to 200 Jewish youth from all over … Continue reading »