July 15th: Tour of Rosh Pina, Tel Chai and Disco Boat!

This morning MBI had the chance to visit Rosh Pina, a Moshava (a settlement established by the first Aliyah) established in 1882. At the time of the first Aliya, the wealthy and famous Rothschild family purchased this land among many other plots in Palestine to serve as a place for Jews to settle and to become agriculturally sustainable. The group visited the earliest portion of the establishment of Rosh Pina where they learned in the museum about the early life there and the hardships of those in the first wave of Aliyah.

Up against one of the old buildings in Rosh Pina.

More Rosh Pina

After lunch in Rosh Pina they traveled to Tel Chai to learn with their Madrichim Masa (tour guides) about the early settlement and kvutza (socialist group living together in pre-State of Israel) there. On the land today is a very informative museum built to look as the settlement did before it was destroyed in the Battle of Tel Chai. As they explored the buildings and museum they acted out skits to help understand what it might have been like to live there after coming to Israel in the second aliyah. They learned about the battle and the legend and hero of Joseph Trumpeldor as well as the eventual destruction of the settlement by their Arab neighbors. While the settlement was destroyed, Tel Chai to this day is a symbol for the ability of Jews to defend themselves.

Skits from Tel Chai. 

Tel Chai

Settlement building at Tel Chai. 

Learning how they washed their clothes there. 

Then they made their way over the Kfar Giladi, another early settlement strategically placed in the north. This is the sight where Trumpeldor eventually died after he was carried from Tel Chai. Here there is a wonderful look out point next to a cemetery and a monument for the eight people who lost their lives in the battle of Tel Chai. MBI had a tekes (ceremony) to honor them as you can see in these photos...

Getting ready for the ceremony...

A song performed at the ceremony. 

In front of monument. 

In the evening they headed for the kinneret and the city on the water there Tiberias. Here they were given money to purchase dinner themselves before heading to a party on a disco boat! They had a blast...

Madrichim on disco boat.