Over a week ago now, the Temple Sinai Trip to Israel came to an end. It was a fun, spiritual, educational and identity-affirming trip for everyone. We flew in to Tel Aviv and traveled through the north, before visiting S’fat and spending several days in Jerusalem. The trip combined culture, history, border and political issues, religious pluralism and diversity in Israel, and great food! We even had lunch in a Druze home in the Carmel one day! Check out some of the pictures, below! I hope everyone gets a chance to visit Israel in their lifetime, as there is simply nothing like hearing spoken Hebrew and being immersed in Jewish culture in the homeland of our people. I hope the trip participants will share their experiences with the community for many weeks and months to come!

L’shalom,
Rabbi Bair

Photos from This Past Week at Sinai

Our group learning about the history of the Temple in Jerusalem, its architectural feats, construction and destruction by the Romans.

Women of the Wall on arias Chodesh before Shavuot, reading Torah and advocating for an egalitarian prayer space at the Kotel.

Learning with Noam Zion of the Shalom Hartman Institute on educating an ethical warrior and the dilemmas of asymmetrical warfare in Israel.

Supreme Court in Jerusalem

Lieutenant Colonol Saria Zehavi, formerly the Senior Intelligence officer at the northern border, teaching us about the situation in Syria from Israel’s perspective.

Standing in Jaffa, overlooking Tel Aviv

Dr. Solomiya Ivakhiv — Ukrainiuan violinist from our June 4, 2017 Men’s Club breakfast and Violin Fundraiser — standing in front of an untitled lithograph of a fiddler by artist Chaim Goldberg which is the symbol of Sholem Aleichem (Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich) who is from the very same region of Ukraine that our speaker grew up in.