Onto Jerusalem and the Old City

Today the group traveled from the hostel for the first time as a group, to the Old City of Jerusalem.

The theme of the day was Jewish Values and of course the history of the city. They passed into the old city through the Zion Gate and into the Jewish quarter of the city. Then, it was onto the Cardo, an excavated Roman built street. 

Each bus then had the chance to visit the Hurva synagogue. Built in the 18th century, it has been over time one of the most important Ashkenazi synogogues in Jerusalem. The building has been destroyed and rebuilt more than one time. The last time it was destroyed was 1948 during the Arab-Israeli war. They also visited the old city walls from the time of Isaiah. 

In the afternoon they walked to the Kotel (western wall). From there, MBI met Julian, the mazkir (world director) of Habonim Dror's world wide movement. He's also a tour guide. He took them to see the southern walls of the ancient temple. They also visited a digitized 3d model of the temple as it was 2000 years ago. They closed the day with a tekes (ceremony). The presenters at the tekes reflected on what they saw today and what they got out of it. 

Bus 1 at the Western Wall. 

Bus 2...

And bus 3