HUC Tiyul to the Galilee/Golan

About two weeks ago we took our first tiyul (trip) with HUC which included about 70 people. There were 53 students, some 15 "signifcant others" (Jenny is in that category) and a few of the professors and scholars came with us. In 3 days we saw a lot of the northern parts of Israel. Some of the highlights included: staying at a hostel right on the Kinneret (also known as the Sea of Galilee) and taking a 6:30 am swim in it. We visited Metula, which is on the Israeli-Lebanon border. So crazy to be so close to where the war took place last year and to see Lebanon and the UN border patrols and their vehicles so up close. (see picture below from Metula). We met with a psychologist in Kiryat Shmona who talked about her work last summer with trauma victims, many of whom had very close encounters with the Katusha rockets that the Lebanese launched all over the north of Israel. We also visited Har Ben-Tal, which is a beautiful viewpoint and from it, we could see Lebanon and Syira. We've always known how small Israel is but it is crazy traveling around and seeing it first-hand.

On the lighter side, aside from security issues, the theme of the tiyul was the "New Jew," which included learning about the Jews that started coming to what was then Palestine around the 1880s who established the kibbutz movement. We visited Rosh Pina, the first modern settlement in the Galilee and established by a group of Jews from Romania in 1882, which is a very quaint little town now. We also traveled through the Golan Heights and visited the Kinneret Cemetery, which is one of the most beautiful cemeteries we've seen. Situated on the shores of the Kinneret, many people who helped establish the kibbutzim were buried there. Evan led a service there with two of his fellow students. We also had fun rafting in the Jordan River; 6 of us in rafts with two paddles. It was good fun and Jenny's rowing skills have certainly improved! We also visited Tel Dan and Tel Hai; Tel Dan has a lot of hiking trails along with important archaeological remains that we learned about with HUC scholars.

We have two more upcoming tiyullim later in this year.