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April 15, 2005
Where history becomes reality
King David students meet youth from Har Vagai and experience Israel.
PERRY SEIDELMAN
Many people may remember an old black and white television show,
hosted by Walter Cronkite, called You Are There. In this
program, with archived news footage, Cronkite presented historical
events as if the event was actually current. When thinking about
the recent trip to Israel by 10 King David high school Grade 11
students, accompanied by both school and Partnership 2000 Canada-Israel
officials, I cannot help but compare the experience to the TV show.
The trip was a fact-finding tour to determine if school exchange
trips to Israel are feasible for King David high school. It turned
out to be the trip of a lifetime.
We were guided through Yad Vashem by the very professional and impassioned
tour guide, David, and experienced the beauty of the Ein Geidi waterfall,
where David and Absalom met. We toured Herod's city of Caesarea,
where Rabbi Akiba was executed and, in the Golan, we visited a remote
army outpost and had a wild Jeep ride alongside fenced-off Syrian
mine fields and deserted bunkers. We sifted through the dig at Beit
Guvrin, where we found artifacts from the ancient Edomites and walked
somberly through the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem
where the humblest soldiers, victims of terrorism, and the greatest
Israeli heroes are buried.
We reflected upon Kikar Rabin, the memorial to the assassinated
Yitzhak Rabin, and, in Independence Hall, where, in 1948, Israel
was proclaimed an independent country, we shared in the emotions
of that moment when we sang "Hatikvah." We toured Machon
Ayalon Institute, a former kibbutz where the Haganah maintained
an underground factory for manufacturing bullets, and we marvelled
at the ancient, mountainous city of Gamla where Jews, similar to
those in Massada, threw themselves off the cliffs to avoid enslavement
by the Romans.
We davened in the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem, where Cantor Naftali
Hershtik and the Great Synagogue Choir chanted a beautiful Shabbat
service, and were blessed by the rabbi of an ancient synagogue in
Tzfat, the centre of kabbalah, where we learned that Rabbi Yosef
Caro, author of the Shulchan Aruch, lived and died and where "L'cha
Dodi," sung on erev Shabbat, was authored by Rabbi Shlomo Alkebetz.
We were briefed on Israel's current political situation and rode
camels, feasted and slept in a Bedouin encampment. We floated in
the Dead Sea and our students helped at Or Abracha, an organization
that helps survivors of terrorist attacks. In the situation room,
the adults observed the remarkable centre for Israel's security
and where the exact position of our bus could be (and was) located
within 30 seconds.
We climbed and explored Massada, where we watched an incredibly
beautiful sunrise and had lunch at the Sephardic Centre in the Jewish
Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. We stood in awe and left messages
at the Kotel and participated in the loud, lively and colorful Purim
celebrations on Ben Yehudah Street in Jerusalem. We spent our shekels
in the shops of Jerusalem's Ben Yehudah Street and Tel-Aviv's Sheinkin
Street. In Tzfat, we saw bullet holes from the 1948 War of Independence
and, in the walls of Jerusalem's Old City, we saw bullet holes from
the 1967 Six Day War.
We didn't feel a hint of danger during our trip. The food was excellent,
accommodations were good, the people were amazingly friendly and
the weather was fantastic. From the moment we drove up to Har Vagai,
our sister school near Kiryat Shemona in the north near the Lebanese
border, and a wonderful welcome by our hosts, the connection between
King David and Har Vagai students was immediate and, by the tears
and reluctance to part at the end, obviously long-term.
Perry Seidelman is principal of King David high school.
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