Day 3, Morning in Tel Aviv, JWRP Core Value: Azut D’kedusha – Courage!

Inside Independence Hall in Tel Aviv. In this room we enjoyed a wonderful speaker and video giving us a vivid understanding of how Tel Aviv sprouted from a courageous but crazy idea into the booming metropolis it is today in only 110 years.

Tel Aviv of 1909

Tel Aviv of Today

We moved into the gallery where the Declaration of the State of Israel was proclaimed on Erev Shabbat (Friday night), May 14, 1948. The site chosen for this declaration was the home of the first mayor of Tel Aviv, Meir Dizengoff who had donated his large home to become the first museum in Tel Aviv – an art gallery. We could feel the history, emotion, and energy of the dreamers who dared to what was good and right for the Jewish nation.

Most inspiring was to hear of Milwaukee’s own, Golda Meir’s contributions to funding the expense of fighting the War of Independence. She left Israel with hopes of bringing back $5 million and instead she came home with ten times that much!

Our guide, Aidel took us on a lovely walking tour of the old Ahuzat HaBayit neighborhood of Tel Aviv . We visited the first Hebrew school, Gymnasia Herzliya, and the home of Akiva Aryeh Weiss the visionary who founded the first Hebrew speaking city in Israel. We enjoyed shopping and lunch during our free time and marveled at the city Tel Aviv has become.