Mt. Hertzel and the Knesset, by Zoe Moskowitz

April 10, 2016

By: Zoe Moskowitz

Today we had an exciting start to the new week. We were sad to say goodbye to Morah Tania, because we enjoyed her so much, however, we were excited to welcome Hamorah Bat Sheva onto our journey. We also welcomed Tiferet Dardik and Naama Furstenburg to our outing today. We started off with a great breakfast, then we headed off to Har Herzel. There, we moved through a video museum about Herzel, and what his dream was. We got to see his real office with all the real artifacts that were inside! After, we followed Shalm-Tzeon through Har Herzel and the graves of famous figures, and fallen soldiers. We got some time to just walk around and look at each memorial site. I believe that each and every one of us connected to at least some of the memorials, even in the most basic level. We then headed to a park, where we got some time to reflect in our journals and have lunch. 

After that we headed to the Knesset, the Jewish parliament. There we got to go on a tour of building and its many historical aspects. Event though the Knesset was on recess, we still got to get a feel of daily life. We first looked at the three Chagall tapestries that are hung in entrance of the building, and some motifs are are present. We also looked at the proclamation of independence. Then we went to the entrance of the offices, and looked at the screen that showed what members were present. We talked about the government system that Israel uses. After we finished our tour, we headed back to the hotel for an hour of down time. After, a poet named Eliaz Cohen came and we examined his poems. It was interesting to hear everybody's different explanations of the same poem. After some more down time (as you can imagine everybody is exhausted, all the time), we walked to the shuk for dinner. It was very yummy! We then meet with a street artist named Solomon Souz and his friend, who showed us all around the shuk where he painted and spray painted murals of heroic figures. Overall, it was an action packed day and so much fun!