This Israel trip has no official group fliht, please contact ARZA World or speak with your travel agent to reserve flights that correspond with our itinerary.

Registration for this trip is officially closed but if you wish to add your name to our waiting list in the event of a cancellation, please contact Elana Paru atparue@censyn.orgor 212-838-5122 ext. 3031.  Thank you

(Revised draft as of August 29th, 2012)

DAY ONE: Saturday, October 20, 2012
DEPARTURE

• Depart the U.S.A.

Overnight:  Flight

• 3:20 p.m. Pick up from the David Intercontinental Tel Aviv hotel and join participants arriving at airport.  
• 4:05 p.m. Arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport on Al El Airlines flight #26.
• Welcome by our representative and assistance with arrival formalities.
• Drive to Jerusalem and check into the hotel. 
• Meet in the lobby and walk to dinner.
• Enjoy Dinner at Chakra - "food made with love" and a good atmosphere makes Chakra an entertaining place to have Dinner.

Overnight: David Citadel Hotel, Jerusalem  

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Israel's Strategic Position in the Middle East: The Glass Half Full: Dialogue with Hirsch Goodman, former editor of the Jerusalem Post and a fellow at the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies.
• Stop at the Yamen Moshe for an overlook of the Old City of Jerusalem and to say the traditional “shehechiyanu” blessing.
• Guided walk 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.
  • Lunch on own in the Old City.
  • Guided visit to the Jerusalem Archaeological Park, including a visit to the Davidson Center and the Southern Wall Excavations.
  • The Kotel (Western Wall).
• Visit the Western Wall Tunnel, the underground continuation of the Western Wall alongside the Temple Mount.
• Visit the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, including the Via Dolorosa, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and other Christian sites.
• Continue along the rooftops of the Old City and the Jewish Quarter for further insight into the overlapping quarters, cultures and religions of the Old City.
• Walk to dinner.
•  Dinner at the Little Jerusalem Restaurant in the quaint Anna Ticho House.

Overnight: David Citadel Hotel, Jerusalem  
 

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• The Memory of the Holocaust in Contemporary Israeli Society: Dialogue with Holocaust scholar, Dr. Rachel Korazim.
• Guided visit through the 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 you own at Yad Vashem.
• Visit the National Military Cemetery on Mt. Herzl for insight into the lives of those who are buried there, followed by a visit to the graves of Theodor Herzl and Yitzhak Rabin in the adjacent Plots of the Leaders of the Nation.
• LaDa'at  The Geopolitics of Jerusalem -Travel through the city of Jerusalem exploring some of the political and diplomatic complexities of recent years.
• Return to the hotel.
• Dinner on own.

Optional Evening activity: (on own)

• Visit the renewed Israel Museum, one of the most creative and innovative museums in the world with a wide and eclectic collection, ranging from Judaica and archaeology to Renaissance and contemporary Israeli art, concluding with a visit to the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Shrine of the Book and the Second Temple Period Model of Jerusalem.

Overnight: David Citadel Hotel, Jerusalem  
 

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• The Labyrinth of Israeli Politics: Dialogue with Prof. Reuven Hazan of the Political Science Department at Hebrew University.
• Check out and depart.
• Descend to the Dead Sea Basin.
• Ascend Masada by cable car to visit Herod's mountain palace and site of the Jewish Zealots' last stand against the Roman Legionnaires.  Explore the many archaeological remains from the Roman and Byzantine Eras.
• Lunch at Masada.
• Bathe in the relaxing and healthy sulphur springs at the Mineral Beach and float in the Dead Sea.
• Drive by Qumran, the area where the Dead Sea Sect established a community, and the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.
• Drive northwards along the Jordan Rift Valley.
• Continue to the Upper Galilee.
• Check into the hotel.
• Dinner at the hotel.

Overnight:  Mizpe Hayamim, Rosh Pina

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• LaDa'at  The Hidden Secrets of Safed - Explore Safed…where the mystical and reality intermingle on every corner; meander through the alleyways of Safed, using the writings of the mystics and contemporary Israeli pioneers to guide you on a journey, combining the visions of yesterday with the challenges of today.
• Take a stroll through Safed's quaint Art Galleries.
• Lunch on your own in
• Walk through the Tel Dan Nature Reserve located on the largest tributary of the Jordan River and the Biblical settlement of Dan.
  • Explore Israel's security situation on the Golan Heights while overlooking the Hula Valley from former Syrian fortifications. Cross the Golan Plateau to the border with Syria and observe the abandoned city of Kuneitra and the United Nations outpost located nearby.
• 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.

Overnight:  Mizpe Hayamim, Rosh Pina

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Check out and depart the hotel.
• Drive south along the Mediterranean Coast.
• eGuided visit 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.
• Lunch on own, en route.
• Travel to Tel Aviv
• Visit the Nachalat Binyamin pedestrian mall with its restored buildings and sidewalk artists, and continue onto the colorful Carmel open-air market and then to Shenkin, with its hip street cafes and eclectic shops.
• Check into the hotel.
• Time to prepare for Shabbat.
• Kabbalat Shabbat Service at Kehillat Beit Daniel in Tel Aviv led by Rabbi Meir Azari.
• Shabbat Dinner at the hotel, followed by an oneg Shabbat with scholar Paul Liptz of Tel Aviv University and Hebrew Union College.

Overnight: David Intercontinental, Tel Aviv

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Shabbat services on the beach. 
• Optional: Walking tour through the colorful and gentrified Neve Zedek, one of Tel Aviv's earliest neighbourhoods and today's cultural centre, with many small boutiques and galleries as well as the Suzanne Delal Dance and Theater Center.
• Shabbat lunch on your own.
• Depart for afternoon touring.
• Visit the Old City of Jaffa and ascend from the ancient port through the renovated alleyways to the Jaffa Overlook for an introduction to Tel Aviv at the place where it all began.
• Return to the hotel.
• Ben Kodesh Lechol: Havdallah overlooking the beach
• Visit the Tachana, Tel Aviv's newly renovated old train station and now a center of music, good food and one of Tel Aviv's blooming hot spots, dinner on own.

Overnight: David Intercontinental, Tel Aviv

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Visit the Ayalon Institute, near Rehovot, for an eye opening tour of a clandestine munitions factory used during the British Mandate. (pending confimation)
• LaDa'at  Judean Hills Wine Route - Take part in a Vintner's Journey through the new Judean Hills wine route, exploring some of the new and very successful wineries which have sprouted over the past ten years, including possible visits to the Kastel, Katlav, Ella, Flam and Har El Wineries, and dialogues with wine makers and connoisseurs, with wine tasting.
• Lunch on your own, en route.
• Return to the hotel.
• Late check-out from the hotel.
• Farewell Dinner and wrap up conversation.
• Transfer to Ben Gurion International Airport.
• Departure flight to the U.S.A. 

Overnight: Flight

• Arrive back to the USA.