My mom Jenny sat under some shade at a picnic table while everyone in the tour swam in the springs at Sachneh. It was very peaceful. There were lots of people there and everyone was friendly. When I went to change out of my wet swimsuit I found Jenny surrounded by about 50 students from Boston. They were mesmerized listening to her tell harrowing tales of surviving the concentration camps. What's amazing is how in this context she's a total rock star. They absolutely adored her. She just comes alive in a way I only see when she is up on stage singing Hebrew and Yiddish folk songs, partying at a simcha (a hebrew word for gladness or joy but used a lot for 'celebration'), mourning at a funeral, chatting with friends over tea, or other things like that. The rest of the time she is hard impenetrable and suffocatingly controlling. I was drawn into this circle of raptured youth and began telling more stories of her astounding trials and adventures. And then they started crushing on me. Jenny was beaming and I was flushed with pride. I guess I'm a lot like her in some ways. I like the attention and the free pass the Holocaust card gets you when it's played.
In Safed in an alley we stumbled on this guy making the best sandwiches on earth! It was some kind of Yeminte roti and man was he funny. Chatting away with everyone while he put on a show. It was delicious and we had to order more.
In the mountains we donned biblical garb in a village where we made bread and rode donkeys. It was fun. The tour guide was a big burly dude who had a very warm personality. His little daughter followed us around and man was she cute.
This tour guide took us underground through a museum that had been a hidden bullet factory during the Independence War.
The woman was our guide through the Armored Corp Museum at Latrun. All the Bar and Bat Mitzvah kids individually got presented the beret of the Israeli Armoured Corps while standing on a giant Merkava tank. It ruffled feathers at the Corps but as I mentioned, our tour guide had been a high level intelligence officer and finagled it. She was a lovely guide. She was from the US and had lost family in the Corps and was inspired to come to Israel and join up. We all teared up when she told her story and the stories of the warriors who had died.
On Masada the tour kids had their ceremonies. Jacob already Bar Mitzvahed in Jerusalem was invited to participate but he balked at the last moment feeling uncontrollably panicked. The entire conservative religious ritual is anathema to his sensibilities and he had to break away and go for a walk. We followed and consoled him. He just doesn't dig the sturm and drang of most religious ritual. Sturm and Drang being usually tranlated as "storm and stress". Jacob likes laid back.
Jacob loved the Independance Hall lecture in Tel Aviv. He liked getting up close and personal to the story of the history of the creation of the State of Israel. We're not Zionists but it's great to feel the tribal connections and if this trip were part of an online role playing game, Jacob's identity definitely got an upgrade. Tessa and Jacob were inseparable for a few days after she arrived late to the tour with her mother. After a some intense companionship things cooled. Then they both began to chum up with the other kids on the bus, which was good for Jacob too.
