The 2011
Journey Home to Israel

Day 1 - Tel Aviv

“Better late than never” became the operative motto for the 2011 Journey Home Tour after history-making snow blizzards disrupted Sunday departures from major airports including New York City’s JFK and Chicago’s O’Hare — thus delaying the arrivals in Tel Aviv of many tour participants.

Tour guests who arrived Sunday afternoon as originally scheduled considered themselves blessed while they awaited fellow JHT participants who were forced to find airlines that avoided New York (including flights with stopovers in Turkey, Poland, and Canada).

Cheers greeted the latecomers like Virginia Jones and Virginia Joyner, both of Jesup, Ga., who expressed relief to arrive in time for Monday night’s buffet dinner, which honored soldiers who benefit from Fellowship-funded Impact scholarships, which help support immigrant and underprivileged IDF soldiers as they pursue additional educational opportunities.

Welcome to Israel

The first day began with a warm welcoming event at the home of Yael Eckstein, daughter of IFCJ president and founder Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein.

Yael reminded the Fellowship visitors that “everything that happens is God’s way,” noting that before 1948, when Israel was born, no one would have thought that the desert area would be the “center of everything.”

Yael, the mother of a young daughter and son, injected a somber tone, telling the Fellowship supporters that 200,000 children were withheld from attending school Sunday and Monday because of terrorist launched rockets bombarding southern Israel on Saturday. One rocket hit a school, which was closed on Saturday for the Jewish Sabbath, or the consequences could have been far more tragic, she pointed out.

Monday’s Tour Highlights

Caesarea, the Jezreel Valley, Tabgha, and the Sea of Galilee provided the visitors with postcard-perfect views on a day filled with sunshine, blue skies, and temperatures in the 70s. Their introduction to the Land of Milk and Honey included stops at the Roman Theatre in Caesarea, built by Herod the Great between 22 and 10 B.C.; a Roman aqueduct on the Mediterranean Sea; Mount Carmel, the traditional site of Elijah’s contest with the priests of Baal (where “the fire of the Lord fell” and consumed the burnt offering); and Megiddo, which was fortified by King Solomon in the 10th Century B.C. and was the focus of many battles.

As the sun set, the tour gathered on the shore of the Sea of Galilee — where Jesus labored and began his ministry — to emotionally sing “This Is Holy Ground.”

Initial Sightings

First-time visitors to the Holy Land witnessed storks, pelicans, and cranes migrating from Eastern Europe to Africa; the seven crops of the Bible including olives, grapes, dates, honey, pomegranates, wheat, and barley; plus fish farms, cotton, Jaffa oranges, mangoes, bananas, lemons, and avocados. And, they got their first glimpse of McDonalds in Israel, and ate their first falafel, the Promise Land’s most popular “sandwich” (deep-fried chickpea “meatballs” in pita bread covered with hummus and salad).

Tidbit of the Day

Audible gasps and “guess we don’t have it so bad” comments followed the disclosure from tour guide Nola Moss that the price of gasoline in Israel tops $8 per gallon … yes, $8 per gallon.

Coming Tuesday

As more delayed participants arrive, the tour will visit a bomb shelter in Tiberius (one of 2,000 shelters improved with funds donated from the Fellowship), then take a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee, and eat St. Peter’s fish — two of the annual tour’s favorite activities.

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