TL-45-80 Update 4

Final update!
Tel Aviv & L’hitra’ot (Goodbye For Now)!
Well, we made it! We finished the trip with a beautiful last two sunny days in the city of Israel that “never sleeps”: Tel Aviv! On Tuesday we set out first to explore Jaffa, where we walked through the old artists’ colony and saw incredible views of the blue-green Meditteranean Sea.
Then we met a guide who took us on a Rainbow Tel Aviv Tour, where we learned about the growing LGBTQ life in a city where 30% of the population identifies as queer, and pre-pandemic numbers for the annual Tel Aviv Pride Parade topped 250,000.
After lunch, we split up into 3 groups and chose a specialty tour with some visiting guides: a tour of Tel Aviv neighborhoods, a food tour, and a sustainability tour about the community gardens and architecture of Tel Aviv.
To top off our last full night in Israel we went out in Tel Aviv and partied in the hip neighborhood of Florentine!
After breakfast and loading the bus on our final day of Birthright, Day 10, we met to wrap up everything we’ve done and completed a reflection on what we learned, what moved us, and what we’ll be doing next with our new knowledge of and relationship to Israel. After the reflection and passing our rapid Covid tests, we hit up the neighborhoods of Tel Aviv and received maps to navigate the city on our own. Following that, we took an amazing graffiti tour of Tel Aviv where we got to see how the many people of the city express themselves through art. Finally, before the airport, we shared an Ethiopian dinner together at a restaurant owned by a woman who had been airlifted from Ethiopia to Israel on one of the several rescue operations for Jews there.
Some of us decided to extend our journey in Israel while others of us are on our way home! What an amazing adventure we shared together – one we will remember for a lifetime – one that we will keep alive as we continue to practice Judaism in our own ways and stay in touch.
In Hebrew we say “L’hitra’ot”! Goodbye, but only for now! We will see you soon!