Hey hey! This is ck, reporting once more on the progress of our Oranim run, Jewlicious sponsored free trip to Israel, which, as you all probably know, came about as a generous gift from Taglit-birthright israel. This year, Taglit-birthright israel will send over 24,000 young Jews to Israel for a free 10 day trip. Oranim, our trip provider, is running over 264 (!!!) buses. Despite what could easily have devolved into an organizational and logistical nightmare, everyone involved has been great. Even our trippers have been well behaved, attentive and inquisitive – which makes my job easy and interesting.



So on Sunday we left Jerusalem and traveled to Caesaria. The last time I was here was on the last Jewlicious trip in January, but what a difference! They installed a new AV center and along with the usual spiel from our tour guide Yael, we also enjoyed an audio visual presentation that, at least from my perspective, helped me to really understand Caesaria and its history a lot better. Even if you’ve been to Caesaria before, go again – it’s a totally different experience. Of course the trippers loved it.




Next we headed off to Zichron Yaacov – a town built in honor of Sir Moses Montefiore‘s father. We went on a fairly intense hike through these atypically well manicured gardens – a security guard yelled at me because my toe touched the grass. Then he told me about the good ol’ days when he used to be a cop and how once he and his partner gave a dude a ticket because “If he can afford a new Mercedes, he can afford to give up some cash for the good of the country.” How sweet.

Our last activity of the day saw us have a yummy dinner hosted by the members of a Druze family. Our trippers learned all about the history of the Druze, though nothing about their secret religion and rituals.

The weather all day was sunny, hot and generally awesome. I even got a bit of a tan and am pleased to see my diaspora pastiness being replaced by a golden hue thanks to the Israeli sun. Yay!

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About the author

ck

Founder and Publisher of Jewlicious, David Abitbol lives in Jerusalem with his wife, newborn daughter and toddler son. Blogging as "ck" he's been blocked on twitter by the right and the left, so he's doing something right.

2 Comments

  • They installed a new AV center

    Sun, manicured gardents, FRICKEN’ AUDIO-VISUAL INTERPRETIVE CENTERS?!?!

    I hate you ck. I hate you.

    C’mon, Oyster. Come to Israel in the winter, it’ll be… uhh… awesome.

    I danced like that just to stay warm, FYI.