As a part of our IB History course, we had the astonishing opportunity to experience first hand the locations from our history books as we went on a one-week exploration of the ancient and the contemporary historical, cultural and religious sites of Israel.
The first city we visited was Tel Aviv, the cultural capital of Israel. Directly translated it means “Spring Hill” which is a great metaphor for the combination of the new mixed with the traditional. Guided by our tour leader, we travelled from the North to the South of the country, visiting the Golan Heights, Masada, the Ro- man city, Beit-She’an and Qumran. We also swam in the Dead Sea, rode a camel and visited a traditional Kibbutz. We even learned how to barter in a traditional marketplace.
We then travelled to the city of Jerusalem. In the capital of Israel we followed Jesus’ path of life from the church where he was born in Bethlehem, to the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher, the church that is built on the spot where Jesus was crucified. We experienced the key locations of biblical stories in more reality than we ever could from any textbook. On the last day, we paid a somber visit to Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial to the Holocaust in Jerusalem.
Most of us, having known very little about the Jewish culture and what life is like in Israel, were all returned with so many remarkable experiences from our trip. We could now put these fragments of knowledge together to help us develop a deep and multi-perspective understanding. We saw amazing things and images of beauty that will definitely remain in our memory for a long time.