8 Feb. Tel Aviv Art Museum - Dinner Liliot

On Wednesday afternoon, after community service we visited the Tel Aviv Art Museum.  The docent was terrific - knowledgeable, full of information and with a sense of humor,  She lead us through the museum discussing the art and especially the new exhibit - Fake?   Forgery is a fascinating phenomenon that has always intrigued people. This exhibition examined forgeries in the fields of art, fashion, history, literature, religion and archaeology. It featured fakes by notorious Dutch art forger Han van Meegeren (1889–1947), who made paintings in the style of Vermeer and passed them as originals. Three Dutch museums loaned van Meegeren's major forgeries to the exhibition.  If you are in Tel Aviv - don't miss this!  We had time to meander through the museum on our own before we went to dinner and a lovely meat restaurant.  Another lovely day!

February 10 - KKL National Tree Planting

Wow - what an event!  Throughout Israel KKL held is annual Tubshvat National Tree Planting Day.  CAARI was on site to help direct the crowds and hand out saplings.  This year we traveled to Eshtaol Park, outside Jerusalem, which was one of the forests that was destroyed by the fall fires.

KKL workers had removed the trees on this huge hillside, dug holes and marked the hole with a KKL flag. You could still see some of the burned stumps on this barren hillside.  And, could also see the spring plant vegetation returning.

From early morning to afternoon thousands of people, mostly families came to plant - it was truly a family event!  Mothers, fathers, children of all ages, religious and secular  and even a few dogs arrived to proudly plant the little saplings!  We greeted them in English and Hebrew and made new friends!  We handed out over 5000 saplings before we left to return to the hotel to
prepare for Shabbat!

Wishing all of you a Shabbat Shalom and Hag Samach!
CAARI 2017

Feb 9 - Community Service and Tubshvat Seder

We are getting into the routine - breakfast - and taxis to our community service assignments.  Neil is our dispatcher and the cabs line up at the front door.  Sometimes, other tour groups compete for our space but Neil manages to get us priority or at least safely get us into the taxi.  The ride is an experience - the drivers are 'friendly and knowledgeable'.  They are a wealth of information and 'expert'  on local politics!

New participants arrived, for the final 2 weeks of touring program.We had free time for those of us who had not seen some of the sites, we visited some of the local museums, walked the boardwalk and some of us even had some time for shopping!

The CAARI decorating team turned the porch area into a festive place for the Seder, with balloons, fresh spring flowers, dried fruits and of course wine!  Can't be a Seder without wine!
 In the evening, after dinner, we celebrated CAARI's traditional Tubshavat Seder, with Esther Rose conducting a lovely and meaningful service, and Gidi Sivan playing traditional songs.  Fun dancing and great evening!


CAARI 2017