Morocco and Spain January 11-23, 2009

KIVUNIM- New Directions©
The Institute of Experiential Learning for Israel & World Jewish Communities Studies


Itinerary
Morocco and Spain January 11-23, 2009

Sunday, January 11
 (for those who spent vacation in the US) Departure at 7:01 PM non-stop to Casablanca via Royal Air Maroc Airlines - Terminal One – JFK (PLEASE BE AT THE CHECK-IN AREA NOT LATER THAN 4 PM AND TRIPLE CHECK THAT YOUR BAG IS BEING CHECKED THROUGH TO CASABLANCA) arrival Monday morning at 7:40 am (Staff: Peter and Josh)…and
Monday, January 12 Departure at 6:15 am from Ben Gurion Airport on Turkish Airlines 1193 (GROUP WILL MEET AT INFORMATION DESK BEFORE ENTERING SECURITY at 3:15 AM) arriving Istanbul at 8:35 AM connecting to Turkish Airlines 1127 departing at 9:55 AM arriving Casablanca at 1:00 PM. (PLEASE TRIPLE CHECK THAT YOUR BAG IS BEING CHECKED THROUGH TO CASABLANCA) (Staff: Tal, Gabi and Hannah).

Both groups will be met at Mohammed V Airport, Casablanca by our Moroccan Guide, Raphael David Elmaleh (more about Raphy shortly), our very special Moroccan bus driver Abdulkabir, and his assistant, and accompanied to our hotel for a quick check-in and then on to begin our Moroccan adventure at 3 PM. Those arriving from NY in the early morning will have breakfast at the Golden TulipHotel at 9 am and check-in for some rest while we await the arrival of the Israel group.

Raphy is a very special guy, having returned to his birthplace in Morocco 15 or so years ago with the goal of creating a permanent record of the Moroccan Jews. His work and his many discoveries are moving and fascinating. His personality is very special and you will love being with him. Morocco is one of those places that still has romance and exoticism written all over it…and you will be sure to feel it from the moment we arrive. Whatever you are expecting, it will be very different and far more than you can imagine.

Here the story of a Jewish community that traces its history back to Roman times and maybe earlier. Later joined by exiled Jews from Spain following their expulsion in 1492, the Jewish community of Morocco came to number close to 300,000 in the first part of the 20th century, close to 1% of the population of the entire country (Jews are less than 2% of the population of the United States).

(While in Morocco you must drink ONLY bottled water or other drinks - but not tap water. This also applies to brushing your teeth and to ingesting water while showering. Please only eat fruits or vegetables that have been washed with bottled water (you can of course wash them yourself with bottled water) or that have a peel-able skin. UNLESS RAPHY tells you otherwise. This includes having a vegetarian pizza!)

3:00 PM We will visit one of the four Jewish day schools serving the 3000+ remaining Jews of Casablanca and see some of the wonderful children of this community; they are a special delight. We will have time to speak with Jacquy and Natalie Sebag, the school’s directors, about the work they are doing and the challenges that they face. How does one maintain both a Moroccan and Jewish identity? What is the impact of state curriculum expectations upon their work? Why have these families remained when almost all of the 300,000 emigrated? Is there a future?
If we are lucky, the kosher cookie store across the street will be open and we can grab some treats. Where are we exactly?

5:00PM We’ll make our way to The Museum of Moroccan Jewry, the only Jewish Museum in the Arab world today. It is, in many ways, the result of the work of one man, our guide to Kivunim’s Moroccan journey, Raphy Elmaleh. Here we will receive a vivid and comprehensive introduction to the history of the Jews of Morocco, tracing their history back to Roman times and maybe earlier. The museum conveys their vast influence upon Morocco and Morocco (Berber, Arab, Islamic) upon them. We will be greeted by the Museum’s Chairman, Simon Levy, an iconic, fascinating and controversial figure of the Moroccan Jewish cultural scene.

7:00PM We’ll go back to the hotel for check-in for the Israel arrivals, and then reassemble in the lobby at 7:45 for a short ride to dinner. This past summer KIVUNIM brought Jacquy and Natalie as our guests on our teacher program. When they left they insisted that we bring YOU to diner at their mother’s home…as ther guests! So we will have a wonderful and very special strictly kosher dinner in the middle of Casablanca! This will be some treat hosted by two truly special and unique people.

9:30 PM We’ll return to the hotel for a good night’s sleep!

Tuesday, January 13

7:30AM Breakfast is buffet in the breakfast room (pluralistic breakfast policy applies). Please come down to breakfast with your luggage that can be placed on the bus before you go to breakfast- that way we will be ready to roll at 8:30. Please checkout, return your key and clear your account if you had any extras. Make sure you see your bag go under the bus. Modest dress for girls and long pants for boys for the Mosque and the Synagogues this morning, but you may want to have some shorts available for the ride to Marrakech.

8:30 AM We take a short bus ride to begin our day at the Hassan II Mosque, built for the 60th birthday of former Moroccan King Hassan II. It is the largest religious monument in the world after Mecca. It has space for 25,000 worshippers inside and another 80,000 outside. The 210-meter minaret is the tallest in the world and is visible day and night for miles around.
Although Hassan II Mosque was designed by a French architect, it is Moroccan through and through. All of the granite, plaster, marble, wood, and other materials used in its construction were taken from around Morocco (The sole exceptions are the white granite columns and the glass chandeliers.) Six thousand traditional Moroccan artisans worked for five years to turn these raw materials into abundant and incredibly beautiful mosaics, stone and marble floors and columns, sculpted plaster moldings, and carved and painted wood ceilings. The mosque also includes a number of modern touches: it was built to withstand earthquakes and has a heated floor, electric doors, a sliding roof, and lasers which shine at night from the top of the minaret toward Mecca.
Some have questioned the expenditure of so much money in a very poor country, but one must consider the 1000’s of people put to productive work as a result of this “public works project.” The Mosque gave another generation of disappearing artisans and craftsmen a new lease on their creative and productive lives. Things are not always as simple or straightforward as they might seem!
11:30 AM We’ll take a short bus tour of Casa and then before we depart Casablanca, we will have a visit to several of the community synagogues. There are 7 on one street near to the school and they each have services 3 times each day. Some are simple, some are elegant, but all represent this extraordinary culture that has thrived here in the Moslem world. How is this possible?

1:00 PM We will make a first visit to the Walmart/Cosco/Sam’s Club of Morocco, the Marjan market where we pick up our traveling lunch staples and have a quick lunch nearby before departing for Marrakech. The new road just opened in 2007reduces the travel time to around 2.5 hours…

2:00 PM “Don’t you know we’re riding, on the Marrakech express…” Turning southward we begin a journey of several hours through the Moroccan countryside to the grand and majestic city of Marrakech. . The route to Marrakech will take us to the High Atlas Mountains to the south, bringing with it the world of Berber culture and history, the aboriginal people of Morocco. From the flat plains of the first hours of our drive, seeing to each side the beautiful and simple agriculture of this land of plenty, the mountains will arise in the distance and form a startling contrast to our roadway. We may still see snow on the tops of these majestic peaks, containing as they do the 2nd highest point in all of Africa. Jews came here in ancient times and settled among the Berbers, some of whom converted to Judaism, and lived lives very much like their neighbors. We will see some of these villages first-hand in the coming days.

5:00 PM Arrival at the GOLDEN TULIP FARAH Hotel in Marrakech, which will be our home for tonight and then again for Shabbat when we return from our tip to the Sahara. We’ll check-in and have some time to relax, shower and meet in the lobby at 7PM.

7:00 PM We off to an Italian dinner and some ice cream for dessert and then…

8:30 PM Before going back to the hotel, we must see the famous grand square of the city, Djamaa El Fna, where your eyes and ears will fill with a world of mystery and intrigue. The snake charmer whose Sufi music forces his snake to stand at attention! The drummers, the henna decorators, the acrobats, the monkey men…the endless booths of items to buy and even to eat (don’t eat however…or drink). Musicians, dancers, fortune tellers, cooks, tooth-pullers, hair weavers, minstrels, and every other element of your imagination fill the space throughout the night and day.

10:30 PM To sleep…we have a long full day ahead.

Wednesday, January 14

7:00 AM Breakfast. Please come down to breakfast with your bags…big bag for storage at the hotel and small bag for 2 nights away…and bring the big bag to the storage area (to be announced) and the small one with you to breakfast- that way we will be ready to roll at 8:00. Return your key and clear any extras.

We now begin our exciting (get out your motion sickness meds) climb to the top of the High Atlas Mountains! There will be snow at the top and if we are lucky no weather delays. The views from the winding roadway are amazing! We will spend the day on the road, making our way up the Atlas Mountains through scenery so breathtaking that you will find it as difficult as I to describe to family and friends. We will rise to and pass through the Tizi N Test pass, one of the highest points in the High Atlas Mountains. We will be at 6-8000 ft above sea level and the Atlas has heights that are the second highest in all of Africa, rising almost 12,000 ft.

Upon descending from the mountains we will find ourselves at Ait Ben Haddou, a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is a 'fortified city', or ksar, along the former caravan route between the Sahara and Marrakech. This long route was once laced with 1000 kasbahs, a form of desert hospitality more structured than the Bedouin tent which Professor Clinton Bailey has taught us about in October, yet very much along the same lines. In the larger Kasbahs were Jewish mellahs- home to 1000’s of Moroccan Jews for centuries. It is situated in Souss-Massa-Draâ on a hill along the Ouarzazate River and has some beautiful examples of kasbahs, which unfortunately get damaged each rainstorm. Most of the town's inhabitants now live in a more modern village at the other side of the river; ten families however still live within the ksar.

We wll then enter and pass through the city of Quarzazat, which because of its desert location has become a center of filmmaking and several films have been shot here and in Bin Haddou, including: Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Jewel of the Nile (1985), Kundun (1997), The Mummy (1999), Gladiator (2000), and Alexander (2004).

Winding our way eastward we will pass and probably have lunch in The Todra Gorge, amongst the most dramatic sights you can see in Morocco. The cut through the mountain gives at some points only a 10-meter wide passage beneath 300-meter tall walls. Sun only accesses the bottom of the gorge, where an ice-cold river flushes through, in the morning. Later in the night the gorge gets its own climate, and while evenings can be damp and warm in the nearest village, they easily get to be freezing here. We then make our way through the Ziz Valley once part of a caravan route that took travelers from the desert near Merzouga (our final destination later tonight) to the Mediterranean Sea. The Valley itself is a welcome relief from the desert brown. Palm trees and dates grow in abundance. Men tending fields and donkeys carrying goods from one village to another are common sights. Up the river are the ruins of an old fortress or ksar.

In the region is one of Morocco’s most important oases, Tafilalet. Additionally, another place of interest is the Wadi Ziz, a long limestone corridor with palm trees that provide shade for the Kasbah of Ifri, carved out by the Ziz River. Waters of the Ziz River form a vast emerald lake by the Hassan Addakhil Dam. Women can be seen doing their laundry in the shade of apricot trees growing around the lake.

Our late afternoon goal is the city of Errashadiya, once home to a Jewish community of thousands. What were Jews doing here you may ask, so very far from the coast, from urban centers, from other Jews. But of course we are on an ancient trade route and Jews were amongst the greatest traders of the ancient world. They came to Morocco at the time of the second Temple, in the second century BC. Throughout Morocco they settled in small villages, pre-dating Islam by 6-800 years! Everywhere we go we will find remnants of the Jewish quarter, the mellah, along with synagogues and schools, once brimming with Jews; today completely empty.

Here in Errashadiya is a wonderful synagogue here in terrible disrepair, due to a roof collapse in 2006. Last year KIVUNIM students helped clean it, but there is still much work to be done. We will make a small contribution to the effort and then continue on our way to Erfoud, the gateway to the great Sahara desert. The road through the Ziz Valley to Erfoud descends from the plateau where the oasis of Tafilalet is found. The road passes between the sheer sides of the valley and winds through several villages. It underscores the difference of the lush valley to the surrounding rocky desert.
8:00 PM We arrive at our glorious hotel on he edge of the Sahara (quite literally) for dinner and an immediate lights out. We will be greeting the dawn on the dunes and therefore need to get as much rest as we can tonight. Even at night you will feel how gorgeous this place is!

Thursday, January 15
5:30AM Sunrise at the Oasis! No! Actually on rolling dunes that you have seen in movies, and presenting a reality of natural beauty and majesty that even your most imaginative dreams could not prepare you for. The vastness of it all…the mountains of sand that can take an hour to climb…the rising sun at daybreak…our bodies may be tired, but our spirits will be very wide awake! For those who wish to capture this spiritual moment in a traditional form, we will have a minyan at the top of the dunes. (Bring Talit, Tefillin and/or siddur in your backpack if you wish to participate.)

7:00 AM We will return to the hotel for breakfast and a wonderful shower and then back on the road again. The ride through the Moroccan Sahara countryside is fertile ground for creative thinking and dreaming. Imagine our Moroccan cousins traveling this very route in pursuit of trade…walking with donkeys carrying cloth and salted foods and other items needed for the sustenance of daily life in this region. Even today, thousands of years after these early caravan days, the traveling souk remains a feature of Moroccan country life…and its origins are purely Jewish. With virtually no Jews left in this region of the country, the traveling souks STILL do not have any Saturday events…they are shomer Shabbat! The souk is in one central town on Sunday and another every day of the week through Thursday. But not on Friday and not on Saturday. Amazing to watch them pack up and take to the road with gigantic loads atop big trucks only to be unloaded the next day and again and again.

In late afternoon we will arrive at today’s destination, the town of Telouet, home of The Kasbah of the Glaouis and one of the most important sights of yesterday's Morocco. Although not ancient, the Palace built here is an amazing site with an accompanying extraordinary story. It begins during the hard winter of 1893, when Sultan Moulay Hassan was stranded here. He, and his army of 3,000 were well taken care of by the two brothers Glaoui, Madani and T'Hami. In return for their services, they were given political power over all of Morocco south of High Atlas Mountains.

In the years that followed the Glaoui brothers strengthened their position, and when the French came some 20 years later, they started a cooperation with them as well. By the end of the French colonial period, the Glaouis were almost as strong in power as the sultan himself. This dramatic story ends with a French connection that led to intrigue, disloyalty to the Moroccan King, and ultimately a total downfall. The Palace, once a spectacular residence with almost exact replicas of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, is today mostly in ruin. As eternal punishment to the family, the government will not even allow it to be rehabilitated and restored (but they were not beheaded or jailed). Much of the magnificent detail work has been stripped away over the years by thieves. But there are still several royal rooms completely in tact. It is truly something very special to see.

We are spending the night in this small town, where the local Auberges (Inns) will be our homes. We have arranged a vegetarian dinner and local fare. Here you will have time to explore the Kasbah and really get a flavor of what Morocco was, including the Morocco of a huge percentage of those ¼ million+ Jews who lived in the villages and small towns of this country up until 1960. Dinner will include a program of local tribal dancing, and you will see and feel the powerful influence of Black African slaves brought here by the Sultan over the centuries. This will be our most basic accommodation before returning tomorrow to the luxury of city life in Marrkech. But this will truly be a night you will never forget. Situated here in the High Atlas Mountains, the basic life of the Moroccan village will greet you and then never leave you. The air, the sky, the snow-capped mountains…what more could there be?

Friday, January 16
7:00 AM Breakfast. It’s not that we want to wake you so early, but the roosters crowing and the donkeys braying will certainly rouse you from your tender sleep long before breakfast. Don’t hesitate to come outside and savor the sweetness of the early morning…
8:00 AM Departure to the main road where we will pick up our bus and driver and head back up the Atlas Mountains
11:00 PM We’ll stop at a beautiful terraced restaurant where we will have a picnic lunch of our own making and then arrive at the grand and majestic city of Marrakech by 1 PM.
1:00 PM We are off for a visit to the guts of the medinah, the souks of international fame. From one of the student guide books: “Bustling, labyrinthine and shrouded in shadows, the souks of Marrakech offer the city's most fascinating sights. Whether to shop or simply to explore, they are a must for any visitor. Covering over a square kilometer, the souks enclose a variety of trades and individual sections. Although these can initially appear baffling to the visitor, the layout is in fact relatively simple.

At the Northern end of the souks, best accessed from the Ben Youssef mosque, are the active workshops of various trades. See blacksmiths hammering out wrought-iron work (to be sold on in up-scale garden stores for many times its local value), smell the pungent aroma of the leather workshops and watch the babouche makers sewing the stuff into slippers. Workshops blend into stalls as you walk further south and emerge at the Rahba Kedima, a square notable for its bizarre offerings of animals (dead or alive) and strange potions for spells.

Souk Smarine, the main artery, is the place to browse and barter. Stalls offer everything from highly desirable jewels to wooden camels and kaftans. A pair of babouche slippers make an excellent souvenir. Snack on succulent olives or amazing pastries.

Guidebooks warn of hassle from pestering guides and vendors when entering the souks. In reality, it is possible to shop relatively undisturbed, other than by the crowds at various junctions. During our visit we will see the amazing carpets and leathers of Marrakech. Colors galore of all natural dyes and antique rugs with amazing histories, including several created by weavers of several Jewish Berber villages from around the country.

During our visit we will spend a few moments with the Herbal Medicine Man of Marrakech, a many generations healer who will demonstrate and offer for sale some of the wonderful natural remedies of this area of the world.

3:30 PM We return to our rooms for a little relaxation, showers, dress-up and spiritual preparation for Shabbat, which we will welcome together with the Marrakech community at …

4:45 PM You will be amazed at the spirit and beauty of this congregation; and they will be delighted by your participation… the women’s section will almost never ever have been as full. Following Kabbalat Shabbat, and a short talk about the community by its distinguished President, Jacky Kadoch, we will walk back to the hotel for Shabbat dinner with the Rabbi and other members of the community. We are too big for the private home where we have eaten in the past; they will bring our kosher dinner to the hotel. Where exactly are we you may ask? The Upper West Side of Manhattan, the streets of Jerusalem, or truly in the center of one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world deep in the heart of the Arab world. Amazing…yes it truly is! (Until just this fall there was a wonderful kosher restaurant, Le Palmier, in this part of town where KIVUNIM has had many wonderful meals…it closed as the husband of its creator became ill and could not continue to have his wife so busy and away from him…but our creative replacement will be a kosher Moroccan treat.)

10:00 PM Take a gentle walk on the streets of this city before going to sleep…you will see yourself becoming more comfortable with Marrakech by the moment.

Shabbat, January 17

8:45 AM Breakfast

9:45 AM We make our way to the Synagogue for Shabbat morning services, following which we will come back to the hotel for Shabbat lunch. Did you know there is a Moroccan version of the Eastern European specialty, Chulent…wait till you taste!

Shabbat afternoon can be at your leisure, or can be culturally enriching by a visit with Jamal to the Koutoubia Mosque and the Musee de Marrakech. Remember, when do you plan to be in Marrakech again…and when were you here last? Plan accordingly.

7:30 PM We’re off to go to dinner together at the home of Jamal Benkirane, our local guide. Jamal hosted KIVUNIM for a Hanukkah dinner in his home in 2006, the first time that he and his very traditional Muslim family had ever witnessed a Hanukkah Candle lighting service. Jamal’s wife prepares for us a magnificent vegetarian meal of traditional Moroccan delicacies including a range of cakes and cookies for which you must leave room…hard as it will be. Friendships build over the past three years of 2 three teacher programs and now a third New Directions visit will be apparent in the family’s warm and sincere welcome and hospitality.
Havdalah to end Shabbat (which can be said anytime after sundown Shabbat day until Tuesday of that week) will be recited here followed by dinner.

10:00 PM We return home to pack, tomorrow we have a very full day.

Sunday, January 18

7:30 AM Breakfast (pluralistic breakfast policy applies).

8:30 AM We will begin the morning a short distance from Marrakech in a small Berber village where we will be guests of the family that hosted Raphy on his research in this area several years ago. We will be taught how to make authentic Moroccan tea, which will surprise you, and have a snack with this wonderful family…then on to visit with the last Berber Jew! He sits at guard at one of the tombs of the revered great rabbis of Morocco.

12:00 PM Picnic lunch

1:00 PM

Monday, January 19 Martin Luther King Day in the US.

7:00 AM Breakfast, bags to the bus, checkout and on the bus at 8:00. Today we make our way back to the North, returning from Marrakech via the super highway to Casablanca and finding ourselves in Rabat for a pizza lunch and a return to urban familiarity. The last week involved a great deal of travel to get to unique places that few of us are ever likely to see again. But could we have come to Morocco and not seen the Saharra? Could we have never met the last Berber Jew? Never left our mark in Errashadiya, never seen the Kasbah at Telouet? Never been further south than Marrakech? Never been able to pronounce and then actually see Quarzazate? We are descended from people of the desert… this has been an opportunity to get back in touch with our roots!

While he did not travel this modern highway, Maimonides lived in this region in the city of Fes, his first adopted home, and in Spain we will visit the house where he actually lived. He was born in Cordova on the 10th of March 1135, the eve of Passover. His early years were spent in his native town, which had then just passed the zenith of its glory. The Arab rulers had fostered the development of science, art, medicine, philosophy, literature and learning. All these influences played their part in the education of Maimonides, whose father, besides training him in all branches of Hebrew and Jewish scholarship, implanted in him a sound knowledge of these secular studies as well. In 1148 Cordova was taken from the last Fatimite caliph by the victorious Almohades, who had spread over Spain from North Africa. These militant revivalists strove to re-establish Islam in what they considered its primitive simplicity. They laid great stress on the unity of God, and tolerated neither schism within the faith nor dissent without. The position of the Spanish Jews became intolerable, and Maimon, after ten years of hard-ships, wanderings and escapes, decided to take his family out of the country.
He settled in Fez. The years that Maimonides spent there (116o—1165) were memorable for his friendship with Abdul Arab Ibn Muisha—a Moslem poet and theologian—and for the commencement of his literary activity. His energies were diverted towards stimulating the religious feelings of his brethren and combating assimilation. In consequence he became alarmed for his own safety, and in 1165 he left for Egypt, where he settled after a passing visit to the Holy Land. Cordova taught him the humanities; Fez humanity.
5:00 PM Arrival in Tangier in time for our 6 PM ferry to Tarifa, Spain. The ferry ride across the straights of Gibraltar only takes 40 minutes, but the clock in Spain is one hour ahead.

7:40 Arrival in Tarifa, Spain where we will be met by Jorge Roman, our local escort. Once having cleared passport control and customs we will board our new bus and begin our way to Granada, about 3 hours away. Granada is the capital of the province with the same name, situated in the eastern part of the region of Andalusia. The city of Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains at the confluences of the Darro and Genil rivers. Its unique history has bestowed it with an artistic grandeur embracing Moorish palaces and Christian Renaissance treasures. As the last Moorish capital on the Iberian Peninsula, it also holds great symbolic value.
11:30 PM We’ll check-in to our hotel, the Juan Miguel and then get to sleep. We have three packed days here in Spain and what a contrast to Morocco they will offer. These two culturally intertwined areas of the world, separated from each other by a not so wide body of water have parted the religious and cultural road from each other. Do you remember the last time you saw figurative art? Moving from Islam to Christianity, the differences in the world become cleared and clearer.

Tuesday, January 201: Barrack Obama Inauguration Day, Washington, DC!!
8:30AM Breakfast, bring bags down and checkout.
9:30AM The city of Granada has been shaped by the hills, where the old districts in the Albaicín and the Alhambra were founded; brimming with steep, narrow streets, beautiful nooks and crannies, and marvelous landscapes. The new part of the city is situated on the plain, crisscrossed by the large arteries of Gran Vía de Colón and Calle de los Reyes Católicos, and where the busy streets around the Cathedral are found.
The Moors crossed the strait of Gibraltar in 711 and settled in what was then a small Visigoth town perched atop the Alhambra hill. Here they settled, erected walls and laid the foundation for the prosperous civilization that would follow. It was in the 9th century when Granada rose to importance after the fall of the Caliphate of Córdoba. Its splendor was reached in 1238, when Mohammed ben Nasar founded the Nasrid dynasty, and the kingdom of Granada stretched from Gibraltar to Murcia. This dynasty bore twenty kings until King Boabdil was forced to surrender Granada to the Catholic monarchs, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, in 1492. During three centuries, a magnificent and rich Islamic culture flourished, leaving Granada with architectural marvels of the caliber of the Alhambra, declared a World Heritage Site, along with the Generalife and the Albaicín.
The Alhambra Palace overlooking the city of Granada, stands out as the most famous example of Moorish architecture, and perhaps it is the most known Muslim construction all in all.
This palace structure was started after the Reconquista, the reconquering of Spain performed by the Christian kings, started. This adds to its aura. While the illiterate Christians were advancing, Spain reached its highest cultural level ever, but under the Muslim rulers. The slender structure of Alhambra, the breathtaking details, the celebration of life, the mixture of nature in men's design, all underline what tragedy the return of Christianity in Spain was to be for centuries to come.
Alhambra was started as late as 13th century, but Alhambra consists of palaces built by several rulers, each had his own. The carrying idea behind several of the buildings of Alhambra is nothing less than an attempt to create a duplicate of Paradise on earth. The romantic design is made up of a mixture of slender columnar arcades, fountains, and light-reflecting water basins. Most prominent is the Lion Court.
Granada was lost to the Christians in 1492, and when the Reyos Católicos, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella died some years later, Granada was chosen for their burial. Perhaps the Muslim dreams of Paradise moved even the cold hearts of the two?
The Alhambra consists of 3 parts: The Royal Palace, which is the most famous, which in itself consists of 3 parts: The Mexuar, the Serallo and the Harem, where the Lions' Court is the centre. In addition to the Alhambra come the gardens of Generalife and the fortress of Alcazaba.

1:00 PM We’ll have lunch out and then depart for Cordoba where we will check in to the Maimonides Hotel, located right in the center of all the city’s action, and then after settling in spend a hour or so in the Great Mosque, built upon the site of an earlier Church and then returned to status as a Catholic Church with the banishment of the Moors from Cordova.
Following our visit to the Mosque we will have some free time, a group meeting and then another evening out on the town…enjoy.

5:00 PM We’ll check in to the Eurostar Hotel, have some time to shower and change and then drive closer to the Old City and everyone will receive Euros for dinner and you can find a restaurant of your choice and then have time after to enjoy the Plaza de Zocodover. 
This main plaza of Toledo is named after the market held here in Moorish times. It is still the hub of Toledan activity, branching out onto the Calle del Comercio and generously peopled with tourist shops and cafes. Expect to hear very little Spanish spoken here: the place is often overrun by tourists even in off season. Then make your way back to the Eurostar Hotel Just please be back by midnight.

Wednesday, January 21
8:00 AM Breakfast, bags down packed. Put your bags in the lobby, have breakfast and we will be off at 900AM for a visit to Maimonides home and the Jewish Quarter and then we are off to Toledo. We will have lunch on the way, it’s about a 5.5 hour trip…and arrive at the Eurostar hotel in Toledo in late afternoon early evening. Tonight we have a night walking tour of the city, very cool…which will meet in a central location after your dinner out at 9:30 PM.
Our walk will pass the Iglesia Santo Tome Sinagogo El Transito. 
The elaborate Mudejar interior of this 14th century mosque is concealed by its remarkably plain facade. It was commissioned by Samuel Ha-Leví, the Jewish treasurer to King Pedro the Cruel, and is most notable for its seemingly effortless blend of Islamic, Gothic, and Hebrew artistic traditions. An excellent example is seen in the geometric motifs of the frieze in the prayer hall. Adjoining the synagogue is the Jewish museum, worth seeing for anyone interested in the hundreds of years of religious tolerance Toledo was renowned for.
Thursday, January 22
7:00 AM Breakfast and packing the bus…Those who flew from New York should put their stuff on the bus first, plus Ben who will be flying back to NY with Peter on Friday for a few days for an exciting opportunity at the UN; those who flew from Israel should put their stuff on the bus last, and Robyn, Rachel, and Adam E should put their stuff on the very last. Due to the limitation of flights that worked with our schedule, R, R and A are flying back earlier today and will be dropped at the airport on our way into Madrid. Those who flew on Turkish Air from TA will depart this afternoon, and those who came from NY (except for R, R, and A) will fly back on Friday morning and will stay Thursday night at an airport hotel with Peter and Josh.
10:00 AM Through a wonderful connection arranged by Tal, we have been invited to a special meeting with the Israeli Ambassador to Spain. We will meet him at the Israeli Embassy and spend a fascinating hour with him. The historic reestablishment of Jewish life in Spain after the expulsion in 1492 has taken place only within the last few years, and this meeting takes on a unique quality given this historical reality.

11:30 AM The Turkish Air fliers will depart for the airport with Tal, Hannah and Gabi and the rest us us will have lunch and then proceed to the Prado Museum for a tour which we really regret could not be scheduled into the flight plans of the Turkish Air group.

1:30 PM The Prado is one of the world’s greatest art museums in the world, where, amongst other things, you can really reflect on the difference between Islam and Christianity and its subsequent impact upon visual culture in these two very different yet over-lapping societies. In the Prado, we will have a specialist guide to concentrate on the Spanish collection, best known for its extraordinary religious paintings and regal portraits by Goya, El Greco and Velázquez, as well as works by Hieronymus Bosch, Titian, Rubens and others. We will end around 3:30 PM.

You will now have time to experience Madrid on your own, including dinner, and we will meet at a very central location to be determined by Jorge for the bus ride to the airport hotel. We will meet at 8 :30 PM. Jorge will be available to walk with you, give you pointers, etc for this personal time in this quite special and wonderful city.

Safety: 

Spain suffers from much higher crime rates than North Africa, and it pays to be careful about your possessions. Theft is quite normal, and performed often in broad daylight. However, physical crime is rather uncommon, and with normal precautions you should feel safe and sound at any time.
Theft is generally performed by distracting your attention. Typical techniques involve the helpful local, who might guide you towards a spot on your clothes, while his/her friend strips you off your valuables. It could be someone in the bar or restaurant doing something that takes your attention, while his/her helper sneaks up on you.


Safe journeys home…
we meet again on the international circuit in Istanbul, March 12th.

Salonika

The last three days of our time in Greece was spent in Salonika. Salonika or Thessaloniki as it is sometimes called, was home to the largest Jewish population in all of Greece. Pre-holocaust it was home to more than 250,000 jews and was often called the second israel. Going to visit this beautiful city we saw all that remains of the jewish quarter, meat with the jewish teens of the city and experienced a Shabat in Greece.

What was so sad for most of us was that the jewish people of Salonika have not moved forward. Instead of embracing the past and challenging themselves to move to the present they have allowed themselves to get stuck in the first few years after the Holocaust. Even talking to the jewish teens you could feel how disconnected they felt from modern-day Judaism and how close they felt to our horrible past. Additionally, we saw many museums and ruins continuously reminding us of what Salonika used to be like and nothing of what it is really like now. Below are some pictures from the city and a lovely fish meal we ate at the community center. All and all Salonika was a very intresting place to visit from a historians perspective but a very sad place to visit at the same time.

Kalampaka/Meteora and Veria

The town of Kalampaka, is situated below the magnificent, eternal rocks of Meteora. Although it is unknown when Metéora was established, as early as the 11th century AD hermit monks were believed to be living among the caves and cutouts in the rocks. By the late 11th or early 12th century a rudimentary monastic state had formed and was centered
around the church of Theotokos (mother of God), which still stands today. Arriving late in the evening, I along with the rest of my group had no idea that we were surrounded by these amazing rock formations. So, when we exited our hotel and saw all this natural beauty around us we were very please and surprised! Below are the pictures on our bus ride to the monastery as well as the monastery itself.




On a lovely thanksgiving day we left Kalampaka and Meteora and the ancient monasteries for a walking tour of the old Jewish district of Barbuta. Many of the houses there have only recently been restored thanks to a special
program of the Municipality of Veria supported by several Jewish organizations
from abroad. We visited the recently restored Synagogue where Saint Paul of
Tarsus preached Christianity in 50 C.E. Before this however, we were surprised with a special thanksgiving lunch in a little Greek Restaurant. Now, you may be asking yourself how is it possible to have a thanksgiving dinner in Greece? Well actually it was just a usual Grecian meal with paper turkey plates and thanksgiving decorations brought from America. But nonetheless, it was nice that even though we were all so far from home that we could have a little thanksgiving spirit.


I even saw an Indian on Thanksgiving!





Above is an example of one of the homes work in progress!

DELPHI

After making a quick street stop to take some touristy pictures we arrived in the one street long village of Delphi. From the balcony of our hotel I could see much of the city and the country side below. Our dinner that night was at at a little restaurant adjacent to the hotel and I got to taste many of the traditional Greek Foods. I felt at the time that I would never be able to have Feta cheese again A) because I'd been eating so much of it and B) because it tastes so wonderful in Greece.

In the morning we awoke to the beautiful city of Delphi. The breakfast at our hotel had some of the best yogurt i'd ever had (and the yogurt I had heard Greece was famous for).
When we went to meet our tour guide we were reminded again of what was said in our itinerary: The Temple of Apollo: The visible ruins belong to the last temple, dated to the 4th century BCE, which was peripteral (an Architectural adjective: (of a building) having a single row of pillars on all sides in the style of the temples of ancient Greece. ORIGIN early 19th cent.: from Greek peripteron (from peri- ‘around’ + pteron ‘wing’ ) + -al)in Doric order. It was erected on the remains of an earlier temple, dated to the 6th century BCE. Inside was the adyton, (The adyton (Greek: Άδυτον) or adytum (Latin) was a restricted area within the cella of a Greek or Roman temple. Its name meant "inaccessible" or "do not enter". The adyton was frequently a small area at the farthest end of the cella from the entrance: at Delphi it measured just nine by twelve feet. The adyton would often house the cult image of the god. ) the centre of the Delphic oracle and seat of Pythia (the priestess of Apollo at Delphi in ancient Greece). The monument was partly restored during 1938-1941.

By far one of my favorite days while in Greece I loved the city of Delphi and all of the ancient ruins. Plus we had a wonderful tour guide who not only gave us the basic information about Delphi but told us her own personal family history there. I think what I loved so much about Delphi was that it was everything I thought of when I thought of Greece. Set on a mountain side the people where friendly and the ancient ruins where beautiful and looked as though they belonged in there surroundings.

Next Stop Chalkida!

Waking up early in Athens our group departed for Chalkida, capital of the island of Evia, a short 1- 1.5 hours from Athens. To give a little back ground: Chalkida's historic synagogue was rebuilt in 1846 at the spot of the previous one, which was destroyed by fire. The community’s cemetery has been in use for centuries and contains tombstones dating from the 15th century. In the beginning of WW II, the first Greek officer to die in battle at the Greek-Italian front was one of the Jewish community’s own, Mordechai Frizis. Of the community’s 327 members only 22 perished in the Holocaust, as the rest were hidden and assisted by their Christian neighbors. The town Metropolite (the local head of the Greek Orthodox Church) hid all the holy items of the Synagogue in his church. Today the community, although small, is active and fully integrated in the financial and social life of the town.

When Kivunim first arrived we went right to visit the synagogue of Chalkida. Aswell, we got to meet with the president and care taker of the Jewish community (their picture is below). What I found upon arrival were beautiful Grecian orange trees which formed a canopy over the synagogues courtyard. To the pleasure of our group all 51 of us were told that we could take an orange off the tree. As I went around searching for the perfect orange I saw that this courtyard was the place where children played during services as well as the communal gather place after and before services. Additionally, after finding that perfect orange I have to say it is one of the best I have ever had in my life!





After meeting with the president of the Jewish community Kivunim went to visit the oldest Jewish cemetery in Greece which contains tombstones of great scholars and rabbis dating back to the Ottoman period (15th
century). In its courtyard lies a monument dedicated to Colonel Frizis. The walk over was very lovely because it allowed us to really see Greek life and (for me anyway) to stop judging Greece by Athens and instead seeing it as it's beautiful countryside. One of my favorite parts about the walk to the cemetery was passing by the hanging octopus tentacles that many residents came to buy as part of there dinner. One of my friends, didn't happen to see tentacles until she walked head first into them. It was a GREAT laugh.


After visiting the cemetery the group ate a delicious lunch of spanakopita and got ready for our long bus ride towards Delphi, the home of Apollo, the Sun God. On our way I saw this beautiful image of the sun peaking through the clouds. Many of us joked that apollo was watching us.

much awaited time in greece

After a very, very early morning flight allowing us to arrive in Athens around 10:30 the group packed on the bus to meet our very friendly tour guide and explore the city (by bus) before going to our hotel for lunch. On the bus ride over I took a few pictures of Athens, which I found to be a very dreary and dirty city. Pre-arrival I had expected this beautiful ancient city but instead i saw a lot of poverty surounding a few beautiful ancient ruins. On returning to America many people asked me what I thought of Athens and what I said is that go to Athens for a day, see the magnificent Acropolis and the Propylaea, Temple of Athena Nike, Parthenon, Erechtheion
and Museum of the Acropolis.







Although I have many complaints about the city of Athens arriving at the Acropolis was very powerful and inspiring. After being given half an hour to walk around on our own and take pictures:
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we sat down for a lecture/ discussion with Peter (the head of my program) and our tour guide to learn about how the Acropolis was built and it's importance to Ancient Greece. Although I sometimes found it hard to pay attention (what with my fatigue and desire to explore what was going on around me) i really got the sense that even though the Greeks ruled the world thousands of years ago there presence is still very much engrained in our Western Society.
The next day my group went out for free time in Athens and to see a Athenian Synagogue and the Olympic Stadium but I was unable to attend because I caught a stomach bug that had been floating through Kivunim.