Exploring the Many Faces of Tel Aviv

July 4, 2017

By: Ethan Harrison

When we all woke up from our first full night in Israel, we headed downstairs for breakfast dressed in our national colors of read, white, and blue. We took several other Independence Day related Day items on the bus with us. For example, Talia brought decorations for the windows and a big American flag to show off our American pride to make us like even more touristy than we already did.

Our first destination of the day was the museum of the Jewish people located at the Tel Aviv University. There we went on a tour to see models of orthodox, conservative, and reform synagogues from all over the globe. In another exhibit, we watched short videos of Ethiopian Jews that were apart of Operation Moses. We watched stories of their dangerous trip from their homes in Ethiopia to Israel, and the loved ones that were lost on the way. For our last activity in the museum, we split in to small groups of four to discuss the what the state of Israel means to us. The discussions were focused on the ideas of Spirituality, Relevance, A center, Escape, and Love. (If you look closely the first letter of each word spells out Israel, except the I to signify that I and the rest of the Jewish people are a part of Israel.

All of us then took the bus to a children's museum named Dialogue in the Dark where we experienced life without our eyes. In pitch black, we walked around a house, went shopping in a market, and even enjoyed a boat ride proving that blind people aren't necessarily disabled, they just have a different way of living their lives. Our tour guide, who actually was blind, explained that even without his sight, he loves to scuba dive. He has taken 414 dives, and in order to do so he brings another diver with him that carries toy fish with him, so whenever the diver with eyes sees a fish or a squid, the blind diver could feel the toy fish and see with his hands. "It was fantastic, we really saw what is was like to be blind!" Charlie explained.

We then had to go back to using our eyes and walk around the humid city of Tel Aviv for a graffiti tour. We learned that the weird aliens and characters on the walls represented so much more than vandalism. We ended the tour in a "graffiti practice area" where artists go to practice their spray painting skills. We could see the layers and layers of art that changes everyday. Our guide, who was a man named Ashley, told us that on every tour the art changes.

We ended our day with Dino nuggets for dinner (my personal favorite), festive Fourth of July sparklers, and we even got to hang out with some other International teens.