Degania Alef, Israel The settlement of Dagania Alef near the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee was the first of one of modern Israel’s great institutions: the Kibbutz. Founded in the early 20th century by Jewish settlers who wished to work the land as farmers, it became famous as a successful commune which was later emulated by many similar communities around Israel. … [Read more...]
OLD TEL AVIV & THE GREAT SYNAGOGUE
Tel Aviv, Israel The city of Tel Aviv, an outgrowth of the ancient port of Jaffa, is the modern-day financial and diplomatic capital of Israel. Home of the nation’s busiest airport, it is the world’s gateway to Israel, and the first city most pilgrims see when visiting the Holy Land. Despite its size and importance, Tel Aviv is barely a century old. However, it boasts … [Read more...]
YAD VASHEM MUSEUM
Jerusalem, Israel The catastrophic events of the Holocaust are so closely tied to the rebirth of the State of Israel that Hitler’s murder of six million European Jews will always be an integral part of the nation’s zeitgeist. It was the Holocaust that at last convinced the surviving Jews that there would never be peace for them among the other peoples of the world. It is … [Read more...]
TOMB OF MOSES MAIMONIDES
Tiberias, Israel From the time of the early years of the Diaspora until the beginning of the Enlightenment, no figure in Jewish history was as great, as influential or as famous as Moses Maimonides. Born in Spain well after the Jewish Golden Age there had reached its peak, his life was a nomadic and adventurous one. Known as one of the greatest theologians, philosophers … [Read more...]
TOMB OF SHIMON BAR YOHAI
Safed/Meron, Israel The city of Safed along modern Israel’s northern frontier is considered to be one of Israel’s Four Holy Cities along with Jerusalem, Hebron and Tiberias. This consideration is due largely to the city’s connection to Shimon bar Yohai, the first prominent rabbi in Palestine after the Bar Kokhba Revolt, the author of the Zohar and the founder of Kabbalism. … [Read more...]
ANCIENT TIBERIAS & TOMB OF AKIVA
Tiberias, Israel After the failure of the Jewish Revolts against Rome in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, there was an eighteen hundred year gap in the history of the Jewish nation in the Holy Land. Throughout that entire period, however, scattered Jewish communities continued to survive, especially in the Galilean north. In the three centuries following the Bar Kochba … [Read more...]
FORTRESS OF MASADA
Arad, Israel Masada, the sprawling hilltop fortress palace built by Herod the Great as a winter retreat, witnessed the tragic end of one of the saddest chapters in the history of ancient Israel. It was here on this inaccessible plateau perched high above the southern tip of the Dead Sea that Jewish zealots of the Great Revolt made their final stand against the Roman Empire … [Read more...]
TOMBS OF HILLEL & SHAMMAI
Safed/Meron, Israel Because the town of Safed in northern Israel is so closely associated with the famous Jewish sage Shimon bar Yohai, it is easy for visiting pilgrims to overlook the city’s other important shrines: those of Hillel the Elder and Shammai. These two theologians, who preceeded such giants as Shimon bar Yohai, Akiva ben Joseph and Gamaliel, founded important … [Read more...]
ARCHITECTURAL LEGACY OF HEROD
Several Locations, Israel & Palestine Herod the Great, the notorious villain of the Christian Nativity Story and generally vilified by Jews and Christians alike, was also one of the most energetic kings and prolific builders in the entire history of ancient Judea. His architectural achievements surpassed even those of Solomon, and a surprising number of his projects … [Read more...]
LATER JERUSALEM AND THE SECOND TEMPLE
Jerusalem, Israel When most Jewish visitors to Jerusalem tour the city’s ancient sacred sites, it is generally not the legacy of David and Solomon that they are experiencing, but rather that of Herod the Great. Herod, the most prolific builder in ancient Israel, spent vast sums remaking Jerusalem into a magnificent capital city. The archaeological remains of his efforts can … [Read more...]
