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From Ancient to Awesome Mission:
Israel's Past, Present and Future with Hadassah
Israel
Led by Laurie Weitz & Aileen Bormel
November 9 - 20, 2016

Tour Rates & Dates:

There are no Departure Dates available for this Package.
*Please note that all rates displayed are based on standard room double occupancy.
All rates above are in US Dollars, and are based on full payment by credit card unless otherwise noted.
If check payment discount is available for this tour, it can be selected after clicking "BOOK" above.
(Deposit can still be paid by credit card). Upgraded room categories may be available to book later in the booking process.
If Land & Air price is displayed, the air portion includes tax and fuel surcharges, which are subject to change until ticketed.

Tour Overview:

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This Amazing Mission Includes:

4 nights Inbal Hotel, Jerusalem, Israel
1 night Leonardo Beer Sheva Hotel, Beer Sheva, Israel
1 night Beresheet Hotel, Mitzpe Ramon, Israel
3 nights David Intercontinental Hotel, Tel Aviv, Israel
All touring and sightseeing per an agreed upon itinerary in a deluxe
air-conditioned vehicle with an English speaking guide
Breakfast daily
Welcome dinner & orientation
2 Shabbat dinners in private rooms in Jerusalem & Tel Aviv
1 dinner workshop at Eucalyptus
1 dinner in hotel Leonardo Negev
1 dinner at Beresheet Hotel
Meeting with Gil Hoffman
Entrance fees as per itinerary
Porterage

These prices do not include:

Roundtrip airfare & departure taxes and fuel surcharges
(listed separately)
Any border taxes or visas
Tips to guides, driver, and dining room waiters
($15.00 per person, per day-pre-collected)
Any items of a personal nature
Travel Insurance
(Highly recommended)
Nalag'at Theatre experience

Tour Itinerary:

Day 1, Wednesday, November 9, 2016: DEPARTURE

• We depart on our afternoon flight and travel overnight to Israel.

Day 2, Thursday, November 10, 2016: ARRIVAL IN JERUSALEM

• Group arrival at Ben Gurion Airport on LY 002 12:25PM, assistance by an Ayelet representative - Welcome Home!
• Pre-arrivals will meet group at airport on arrival or at the Dan Jerusalem at 2:30PM (according to final landing time of group).
• Travel up to Jerusalem.
• Upon arrival in Jerusalem, we stop atop Mt. Scopus to recite a special “Sh'hekiyanu!” Blessing overlooking the City of Gold.
• Visit the Jewish Quarter and the Cardo.
• Enjoy some time at the Kotel and experience the special atmosphere.
• Tour the Western Wall Tunnels
• Check into our hotel.
• Enjoy a welcome dinner and orientation with Hadassah Leadership at Olive & Fist Restaurant.

O/N Inbal Hotel, Jerusalem


Day 3, Friday, November 11, 2016: WELCOME SHABBAT

• Breakfast at our hotel.
• Visit the Yad Vashem complex, the Jewish National Memorial to the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, where we explore some of the newly found materials relating to places, people and events connected to the Holocaust, including:
     o The Avenue of the Righteous
     o The new Historical Museum
     o The Children's Memorial
     o The Art Museum
End the visit at Yad Vashem with a group Memorial service at the Valley of the Lost Communities.
• Visit Machane Yehuda, Jerusalem's outdoor marketplace, filled with foods of every variety. Together we'll take part in the “shuk bites” program, allowing us to enjoy a varied taste of the marketplace in a fun and new way.
• Time to relax in the market or at our hotel before Shabbat.
• We welcome Shabbat at the Western Wall with the people of Jerusalem.
• Shabbat dinner in a private room with Hadassah friends.

O/N Inbal Hotel, Jerusalem

Day 4, Saturday, November 12, 2016: SHABBAT SHALOM

• Breakfast at our hotel.
• Free morning for Shabbat services or just to relax.
• Guided walking tour through the historical and charming neighborhood of Yemin Moshe.
• Continue to the Old City where we explore the Bazaar/Shuk, the Christian Quarter, the Via Dolorosa and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
• Participate in a Scavenger Hunt through the Yemin Moshe neighborhood.
• Havdalah with Barbara Goldstein in the courtyard of our hotel.
• Free evening in Jerusalem - enjoy a stroll along Ben Yehuda Street, through Emek Refaim Street or visit the Mamilla pedestrian walk, filled with shops and restaurants.

O/N Inbal Hotel, Jerusalem


Day 5, Sunday, November 13, 2016: HADASSAH AND CITY TOUR

• Breakfast at our hotel.
• This morning, we meet with Gil Hoffman, chief political correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, for an in-depth and entertaining look at Israeli current events.
• Continue with a visit to Ein Kerem Hadassah Hospital, where we tour the Mother and Child Pavilion. We also visit the new Sarah Wetsman Davidson tower that recently opened, featuring the most modern hospital facilities in the region.
• Lunch (on own).
• Visit Ammunition Hill, tour the sight, see the museum and watch the film.
• Visit the Ir David Excavations just outside the Old City walls, where we wander through the carefully preserved archeological excavations dating back to the time of King David.
• Dinner and fresh food workshop at Eucalyptus Restaurant.

O/N Inbal Hotel, Jerusalem

Day 6, Monday, November 14, 2016: MASSADA OR THE ESHKOL REGION

• Breakfast at our hotel.
• First Timers (in a 10 seater):
     o Visit a Bedouin camp for a short camel ride and traditional Bedouin hospitality
     o Drive to Ein Gedi & hike to the hidden waterfall
     o Ascend to Masada by cable car and tour the mountain.
     o Next we enjoy an unsinkable swim in the healing salty waters of the Dead Sea
• Second Timers:
     o Drive south to the Eshkol region, bordering Gaza; visit the Regional Center for a security briefing at the Command Center.
     o Visit a secure school on the border.
     o Enjoy a picnic lunch at the “Salad Trail” in the Eshkol region on the border with Gaza. See how Israeli innovation is literally making the desert bloom - with crops grown out of some of the most inhospitable sands imaginable.
     o Visit Bnei Netzarim, a "Halutzit". (A new village that is in the process of being built on the Gaza/Egyptian Border). Talk to the people building a new life and a new family and who are literally, holding the border.
     o We end our day with a visit to exquisite blacksmith, Yaron Bob. Struck by the terror of shell attacks, Yaron decided to transform something horrible into something beautiful - and so began “Rockets into Roses”.
• Drive to Beer Sheva, capitol of the Negev.
• Check into our hotel.
• Dinner together this evening at Arabica, a local traditional restaurant.

O/N Leonardo Negev, Beer Sheva

Day 7, Tuesday, November 15, 2016: BEER SHEVA - CYBER CENTER OF ISRAEL

• Breakfast at our hotel.
• We enjoy a bus tour of the Cyber Center and visit one of the up & coming companies within the center.
• Enjoy a visit to Beit Eshel
• Visit the JNF/Hadassah project of a park in the desert and plant a tree
• Visit the unique original hut & grave of David Ben Gurion at Sde Boker deep in the heart of the Negev Desert. We learn about his dreams for the region, as we have seen them become realities.
• Dinner together this evening at our hotel.

O/N Beresheet Hotel, Mitzpe Ramon

Day 8, Wednesday, November 16, 2016: LIVING IN THE DESERT

• OPTIONAL: Sunrise Jeep tour of the Ramon Crater, watching the sun reflect on the golden and red rock (no extra charge).
• Return to our hotel for breakfast.
• Time to enjoy the facilities and indulge in an optional spa treatment at the world class spa (on own).
• OPTIONAL: Visit the Mitzpe Ramon Visitors Center, which combines exhibits to Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut, along with information on the natural creation of this massive crater (no extra charge) OR continue with time at the SPA.
• Continue with a tour and tasting at a local desert winery.
• Visit the Ort Navel High School in Ashdod that is sponsored by Youth Aliya.
• Drive north to Tel Aviv.

O/N David Intercontinental Hotel, Tel Aviv


Day 9, Thursday, November 17, 2016: STARTUP NATION

• Breakfast at our hotel.
• Meeting with young entrepreneur Rony Rozen to discuss her story, as well as Hi-Tech innovation in this Start-Up nation.
• The Story of Tel Aviv, guided walk through Neve Zedek and what was Ahuzat Bayit, exploring the origins of the city of Tel Aviv, its people and places.
• Continue to Tel Aviv's White City, one of the largest concentrations of Bauhaus in the world.
• We continue to the library in the city center - Space for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The Library provides a shared-working space and hub facilities for teams dedicated to developing internet startups and technology companies. In addition, The Library offers networking events, meet-ups, and professional infrastructure for young entrepreneurial visionaries. We will tour the sight and meet with some of these entrepreneurs.
• We proceed walking to Rothschild Boulevard. The Boulevard has attracted in the past two years, major high-tech companies.
• Visit one of the leading fashion designer studios of Reuma. Learn about the way they started a business from nothing in Tel-Aviv and now have world recognition. Inspired by nature, archaeology and natural object forms, each artifact is a one-off piece created by instinct and inspired by experimentation with combinations of materials, each of which is created by hand in her studio.
• OPTIONAL (not included in price): Evening at the Nalaga'at Center, a meeting place for deaf, blind and deaf-blind and the wider public that through an artistic and cultural experience engage in a dialogue. Dinner at the Blackout Restaurant, which invites you to an exceptional culinary experience that will trigger your senses; followed by a show. (Additional cost - $75 per person).

O/N David Intercontinental Hotel, Tel Aviv

Day 10, Friday, November 18, 2016: TEL AVIV FROM A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

• Breakfast at our hotel
• We begin this morning at the Palmach Museum, where we “join up” with the brave paramilitary unit from Israel's pre-statehood days.
OR
• Walk down the spiraling expositions of the new Rabin Center, dedicated to commemorating the life and work of Yitzhak Rabin with special exhibits.
• See a different angle of Tel-Aviv on a “graffiti tour”. Find out which streets turned into a gallery of art works and learn about the artists and their message: Do they want to be famous or prefer to remain unknown? What happens when a work of art is erased? Is this art? And what is graffiti in general?
• Visit the Jaffa flea market, a unique up-and-coming neighborhood.
• Enjoy the afternoon at leisure (on own).
• Shabbat farewell dinner with Hadassah friends in a private room at our hotel.

O/N David Intercontinental Hotel, Tel Aviv

Day 11, Saturday, November 19, 2016: SHABBAT IN TEL AVIV

• Breakfast at our hotel.
• Free day for Shabbat services or just relax and enjoy the beach.
• This evening, we join together for a closing Havdalah service on the beach.
• Depart for the airport for our flight back to the United States.

Day 12, Sunday, November 20, 2016: ARRIVE HOME

• We land back home in the USA.


The Memories Last Forever!


*Itinerary subject to change