Day 2 in Israel

Shalom,

My apologies in advance - it is 1:15 a.m. in the Holyland and thus a long blog is not in the forecast, especially since I begin our day tomorrow at 6:30 a.m.

Today - a long day - engaged and embraced our entire range of senses and intellect. We began the day at Givanim School for children with special needs where we met and listened to many teachers who were not only great pedagogues, but also exempary human beings, who are passionately committed to their teaching and enabling their students to become the best that they can become.

Givanim School is situated on the same campus as Yachad School, the only public and religiously pluralistic school in Modi'in. Their co-existence allows for the integratiion of students from both schools throughout the school year. Lisa, principal of Yachad, spoke to us at the Givanim School and then hosted us at Yachad. More specifically, 3 lovely English speaking 5th graders gave us the tour of Yachad, which included many classroms, and their ecological garden where students learn self respect and respect of others through taking care of the earth and linking their activities to Torah and Jewish values.

From Yachad we bussed to the Ecological Farm on the outskirts of Modiin where we ate lunch in their "geodisic domed" tent, toured the farm with Yisrael Schorri (who will come to Rochester in Deceember with the Israeli teacher delegation), and even learned the secrets of compost toilets. We enjoyed the staff, volunteers and wonders of recycling, re-using, and rethinking our world for ourselves and the next generation.

From the Ecological Farm we picked up our guide for the rest of the day (and the week) and traveled to Tel Aviv, beginning our tour at Independence Hall, walking to Neve Tzedek (old Tel Aviv), hopping on our mini-bus to Jaffa for a quick overview of its long history and walking up to the top of the park for a spectacular view of the shoreline of Tel Aviv at night, and ending the day at a superb restaurant at the newly refurbished Port of Tel Aviv.

Laila tov - good night!