From The City to The Desert (Dec 27)

Last night we had a night out in Tel Aviv, and went to some of the local restaurants and bars with our Israeli soldiers. We headed back to our hotel, and got some much deserved rest to prepare ourselves for our drive to the Negev desert. We started off the day at Rabin square, and saw the place where Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. After seeing the memorial, we split up into groups and went around Rabin square and asked local Israelis about their thoughts on Yitzhak Rabin and his assassination. My group approached many people, and no one wanted to talk to us about the topic. Many people said that they were too young to have an opinion, and the others just did not want to talk about it for their own reasons. The other groups had people talk to them and share where they were during the assassination, and their thoughts. We then all got into a circle in the middle of Rabin square and reflected on what we had heard. A man approached our group out of curiosity and shared his reflections about the day that Rabin was assassinated. He was very passionate about the topic and the legacy that Rabin left. After not talking to anyone about how they felt during the activity, it was amazing to hear about the assassination and the aftermath from someone who remembers the day very clearly. After we heard the man speak, we boarded the bus and started our drive to the Negev desert. Our first stop was David Ben Gurion's grave. His grave, along with his wife's were in the middle of a beautiful lookout, which overlooked the Negev desert. We sat together as a group behind the graves, and played a trivia game to learn facts about Ben Gurion, and then had a group discussion about cultural threats towards the state of Israel. After a very thought-provoking discussion, we drove about five minutes to our hotel. We lit candles for Shabbas, and had a very nice Shabbas service, which was led by three people in our group: Bennett, Jon and Becca L. After the service, we went to dinner and did our "secret shabbas." Everyone picked a name out of a hat in Tel Aviv, and we were responsible for buying a gift for the person who we chose. We all exchanged gifts one person at a time, and had desserts that everyone brought. After we exchanged gifts and had dessert, we heard about our plan for tomorrow, which is very relaxing because of Shabbat! No bus, and basically no itinerary...woohoo!!
-Melissa Modro