Today was just a great day. We've fully hit our stride. Everyone knows the end of our time here is drawing ever so slightly nearer (don't worry, we've got a long way to go). Gratitude, curiosity, flexibility, comfort, connection... these are some of the words that come to mind when reflecting on this eclectic day.
As you likely know, I'm writing to you from Tel Aviv. Tonight we had a brief after dinner activity and then took the kids out to ice cream at the iconic and popular gelateria: Golda. They've been anticipating their first taste of Golda and, for that reason, we wanted that first taste to be "on the school." Over these many years we've tried to give them so much, but most of all, we've tried to instill in them the sweetness of life, of being Jewish, and of the many blessings that they have to be grateful for. We served our ice cream family style by ordering a couple kilos and then dishing them out. Everyone was appreciative. No one complained about the size of their scoop or the flavors we chose. They were just stoked to be hanging out at Golda on Dizengoff St. (one of Tel Aviv's trendiest spots). We chose to walk "the long way" back to the hotel to burn off some steam (and sugar).
Golda came at the end of another long and meaningful day. We descended from the Golan Heights and stopped to take a boat ride on the Kineret. There we saw many Christian pilgrims walking in the footsteps of Jesus, many of those footsteps quite historically accurate in addition to being spiritually resonant. While those pilgrims took more introspective and religiously themed boat rides, ours was the equivalent of a "Boat Mitzvah." You've likely seen the pictures and videos by now, so you know what I'm getting at.
From the Kineret we headed to Acco. Acco is one of the oldest cities to be continuously settled anywhere in the world. Our time in Acco was spent enjoying an Arab style lunch full of fresh salads and world famous hummus and then visiting an incredibly imposing and brilliantly curated fort from the Crusader period. I confess to not being a huge Crusader fan (a hot take, I know) but boy could they build a fort. And their lifestyle, their motivations, and their impact on European and Middle Eastern history is worth understanding. And they didn't have napkins so they wiped their hands on their dogs when trying to tidy up at the end of their meals!
The road from Acco to Tel Aviv passed through Haifa, so we figured it was worth a stop at another United Nations World Heritage Site: the Bahai Gardens. Haifa is known for its legacy of religious pluralism and peaceful coexistence so the Bahai Gardens and the Bahai faith are quite at home there. Reading the tenets of the Bahai faith and looking out over their beautiful gardens, it's hard not to be inspired by their modern and optimistic worldview. There are quite a few corollaries between Bahai and liberal Judaism. Whether the kids had the mental energy to make those connections or not given the long days and hot late-afternoon sun, I'm not so sure.
As I mentioned, we're in Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv is always a favorite for our kids. The modernity mixed with the deeply cultural Jewishness of Tel Aviv really resonates with them. Over the coming days they'll fall in love with this city, unlike any other city that has ever been. They'll realize now, if they haven't already, that their relationship with Tel Aviv and with Israel more generally is really just beginning. There will be many meaningful chapters to come and, like the more than 10 alumni we've bumped into who are traveling here right now, they will come back here and see not only how Israel has grown and evolved, but how they have grown and evolved as well. We've given them the gift of a second homeland. So many people don't feel at home anywhere in this world. What a blessing, what an inheritance, what a gift, that our kids feel at home not only in the States, but halfway around the world, in a country that's mostly desert, in a rough part of town called the Middle East. How truly blessed are they to be able to call Israel their home away from home.
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