DAY ONE: Sunday, Feb 19, 2012
DEPARTURE

• 5:25 p.m.  Depart the U.S.A. on Delta Flight #268.

Overnight: Flight

• 2:40 p.m.  Arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport on Delta Flight #268.
• Welcome by our representative and assistance with arrival formalities.
• Drive through Tel Aviv, known as the “city that never sleeps” and pass by centers of culture and recreation such as the Habima Theater, sprawling beaches, Dizengoff Street and Rabin Square.
• Check into the hotel.
• 7:30 p.m.  Enjoy a Middle-Eastern-style Welcome Dinner with a Yemenite touch at Maganda, located in the Yemenite Quarter of Tel Aviv, and which offers a varied selection of salads and grilled meats at a local restaurant.

Overnight: City Hotel, Tel Aviv

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Visit to Independence Hall, site of David Ben Gurion's monumental proclamation of the State of Israel in May 1948.
• Visit Bina, a secular Yeshiva, for a dialogue with students and faculty.
• Visit the Nachalat Binyamin pedestrian mall, with its restored buildings and sidewalk artists, and continue onto the colorful Carmel Market and then to Shenkin, one of Israel's most avant-garde streets and lunch on your own.
• Visit the Old City of Jaffa and stroll through the renovated artists' colony and the ancient port, or just enjoy the vistas of Tel Aviv from above.
• Enjoy dinner on your own in Tel Aviv, at a choice of a wide array of restaurants from the Tel Aviv Port to Jaffa, and downtown Tel Aviv.

Overnight: City Hotel, Tel Aviv

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Check out of the hotel and drive via the coastal plain to Caesarea, one of the Land of Israel's most important cities during the Roman Period; visit the Herodian Theater and new excavations along the Mediterranean shore concluding with a visit to the 900-year-old crusader city built on the same site.
• Guided visit to Zichron Ya'acov, one of the first communities established by the early Zionist pioneers, including:
• A walking tour outside of the Aharonson House to delve into the world of a Jewish spy ring active during the First World War.
• A walk along the colorful Pedestrian Mall with lunch on own.
• Wine tasting at Somek Winery.
• Explore Safed, a center of Jewish mysticism for hundreds of years, and a contemporary artists' colony, including:
• Guided visits to the Ari, Caro or Abuhav Synagogues with their great stories and mystical messages.
• A stroll through the quaint Art Galleries and shop in the artists' colony.
• A dialogue with Baruch Erdstein, an artist inspired by Kabbalistic messages.
• Drive to the Galilee and check into the kibbutz hotel.
• Dinner at the hotel.

Overnight: Hagoshrim Kibbutz Hotel, Upper Galilee

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Short walk through the Tel Dan Nature Reserve located on the largest tributary of the Jordan River and the Biblical settlement of Dan.
• Visit Tel Faher, an abandoned Syrian outpost. Hear the stories and follow the footsteps of the IDF soldiers and their battles in the Six Day War. Enjoy the beautiful natural scenery and gain further insight into the strategic complexity of the Golan.
• Lunch on your own in a Druze village.
• Visit Emek Habecha, the Valley of Tears, on the Eastern edge of the Golan Heights, site of one of Israel's fiercest battles during the Yom Kippur War and view an audiovisual program, depicting the battle of the 77th Battalion - OZ77.
• Dinner at the hotel.
• Kibbutz Ideology and Israeli Reality in the 21st Century : meet with a representative of the kibbutz to get a perspective of the place of the kibbutz in 21st century Israel.

Overnight: Hagoshrim Kibbutz Hotel, Upper Galilee

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Check out of the hotel and drive south via Tiberias, a bustling city located on the shores of the Kinneret, one of the four holy Jewish cities in Israel and where Maimonedes is buried.
• Visit the Beit Shean National Park, one of the largest archaeological sites in Israel with its Biblical Tel and ongoing excavations exposing the vast Roman-Byzantine City.
• Drive southwards through the Jordan Rift Valley.
• Welcome to Jerusalem -enter the vibrant and colourful 3,000 year old city of Jerusalem and experience the convergence of the old and the new.
• Stop at the Western Wall to say the traditional shehechiyanu blessing, recited upon entering Jerusalem.
• Check into the hotel and time to prepare for Shabbat.
• Kabbalat Shabbat services at a local synagogue or at the Kotel.
• Festive Shabbat Dinner at the hotel.

Overnight: Dan Panorama Hotel, Jerusalem

• Meet your guide at the hotel for an optional guided walking tour through the Old City including:
• Walk along the Rooftops of the Old City for a behind the scenes look at the various communities in Jerusalem and how they live together.
• Walk through Jerusalem's famous Old City Market (shuk).
• Walk through the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, including the Via Dolorosa, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer and other Christian sites
• Ben Kodesh Lechol Havdallah overlooking the Old City.
• Free Evening in Jerusalem on Ben Yehuda Pedestrian Mall or on Emek Refaim Street in the German Colony and dinner on your own.

Overnight: Dan Panorama Hotel, Jerusalem

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Challenges and Triumphs of Religious Pluralism and Social Justice in Israel: dialogue with Anat Hoffman, Director of the Israel Religious Action Center.
• Walking tour through the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, for guided visits to some of the sites excavated over the past 30 years, including:
  • The Cardo, a Byzantine street that is now the world's oldest shopping arcade
  • The Hurva Square, the central square of the Jewish Quarter
  • The Kotel (Western Wall)
  • Lunch on own in the Old City
  • Tour the Western Wall Tunnel, the underground continuation of the Western Wall along the Temple Mount
• Israeli Society @ 2012: Dialogue with Dr. David Mendelsson of Hebrew Union College and lecturer at Hebrew University.
• Return to the hotel.
• Enjoy dinner on your own in Jerusalem, at a choice of a wide array of restaurants.

Overnight: Dan Panorama Hotel, Jerusalem

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Descend to the Dead Sea Basin and ascend the cable car or walk up the snake path to Masada, Herod's mountain palace and site of the Jewish Zealots' last stand against the Roman Legionnaires.  Discuss Masada's role as a symbol of Jewish defence and its current significance in modern Israel.
• Bathe in the relaxing and healthy sulphur springs at a Dead Sea Resort Hotel and float in the Dead Sea, including lunch at the hotel.
• Return to Jerusalem.
• Dinner on your own.

Overnight: Dan Panorama Hotel, Jerusalem

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Guided visit through the newly renovated Yad Vashem complex, the Jewish National Memorial to the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, including:
• The Avenue of the Righteous
• The new Historical Museum
• The Children's Memorial
• A concluding Memorial Service
• Lunch on own.
• Meet with Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Chief Rabbi of Efrat, founder and Dean of the Ohr Torah Stone Institutions, a network of high schools, colleges and graduate programs in the United States and Israel.
• Visit Kibbutz Kfar Etzion and the Visitors' Center for an in-depth seminar on Jewish settlement since 1967 and directions for the future, in light of recent diplomatic developments.
• Experience the sites, smells, and tastes of Jerusalem while walking through the Machaneh Yehuda Market, with lunch on your own.
• Return to the hotel. 
• Late check out from the hotel.
• Enjoy a Moroccan-style Festive Farewell Dinner in an authentic atmosphere, at Darna in downtown Jerusalem, offering authentic dishes.
• Transfer to Ben Gurion International Airport.