Wow! Getting here was a lot harder than I expected. Our 11 pm Saturday flight was delayed until after 4 pm on Sunday. My seminary colleague, Enid Lader, and I spent Saturday night and Sunday morning in Continental Airlines' President's Club at Newark Airport, along with dozens of other tired, cranky passengers. We were the lucky ones -- at least we were in the club. Here I am finally in the arrivals hall at Ben Gurion airport, next to a bust of the late prime minister.
Instead of meeting our group for dinner on Sunday, we caught up with them at this morning's second stop, one of Israel's secret bullet factories, which operated from 1946 to 1948 underneath a training kibbutz in Rehovot. The kibbutz was close to a British colonial base and even did the British soldiers' laundry. The bullet making operation was hiding literally under their noses.
The Haganah, Israel's defense force, knew that they would surely be attacked by the Arabs when statehood was declared and would need bullets, but they couldn't import them or make them openly while the British were in charge. They secretly imported the equipment and used the kibbutz laundry and bakery to hide the operation. Here's what it looked like.
The Haganah, Israel's defense force, knew that they would surely be attacked by the Arabs when statehood was declared and would need bullets, but they couldn't import them or make them openly while the British were in charge. They secretly imported the equipment and used the kibbutz laundry and bakery to hide the operation. Here's what it looked like.
After lunch at the Weiztman Institute, a world-famous science research institution and graduate school, we did a little volunteer work at the Jaffa Institute, a service organization that feeds many of South Tel Aviv and Jaffa's poor people -- Jews and Arabs alike. They provide hot after-school lunches to children from poor families and deliver boxes of basic foods to poor families. Here are members of our group loading donated food into boxes for distribution.
We were told that 70% of Jaffa's and South Tel Aviv's families are below the poverty line. Only 60% overall of high school students in these areas graduate, but 83% of those who receive Jaffa Institute's hot lunches graduate. The hot lunch program has been in place for 25 years. Some of its "graduates" have made their way successfully in the world and are now donors themselves. Boxes of donated food are delivered by the Dan Bus Co. and by many corporate executives.
All of us donated cash to the Jaffa Institute during our visit. I donated the cash I was given by people who asked me to be their shaliach "messenger", as well as some money of my own. Next we drove through Jaffa and South Tel Aviv into downtown Tel Aviv, to visit Rabin Plaza, where there is a memorial to the assassinated prime minister. We said Kaddish and Lisa B. Segal, a cantor in our group, chanted Ail Moley Rachamim -- God, Full of Mercies -- the memorial prayer. Here we are at the site.
All of us donated cash to the Jaffa Institute during our visit. I donated the cash I was given by people who asked me to be their shaliach "messenger", as well as some money of my own. Next we drove through Jaffa and South Tel Aviv into downtown Tel Aviv, to visit Rabin Plaza, where there is a memorial to the assassinated prime minister. We said Kaddish and Lisa B. Segal, a cantor in our group, chanted Ail Moley Rachamim -- God, Full of Mercies -- the memorial prayer. Here we are at the site.
Later, at our hotel, we were visited by our seminary Hebrew teacher, Ms. Varda Hubara, who has an apartment not far away. Here's a picture of her with my colleague Irwin Huberman.
I'm about to sign off, as I had less than 4 hours of sleep last night and about the same Saturday night. Tomorrow I'll post pictures from our visits to Haifa, Caesarea and Kibbutz Lavi.
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