A Different Trip to Israel

by Michalee Merritt

Today is Tu Bishvat. We celebrate by planting trees and having a seder of dried fruits, nuts and grains like wheat and barley. 

I just returned from my first trip to Israel. The weather was beautiful, very different from the weather here in New England. The trees were all starting to bloom.

We went to Neot Kedumim: The World’s only Biblical Landscape. We learned about planting trees, the flowers that were blooming and almond trees. To be standing on the land that Moses and King David were in was amazing.

This trip to Israel was a leadership trip led by The Jewish Leadership Academy through the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford. We are all up and coming leaders in Jewish organizations in the Greater Hartford area. So our visit to Neot Kedumim was for a Flock Leadership Program. We had to figure out as a group how to lead the flock of goats and sheep across the landscape to a designated area. (They did not start out all together either!). We put our different leadership skills into practice to work together. What did we learn? You have to listen to each other, different leadership styles are needed to get the flock to move and sometimes you have to lead from behind.

What did we learn? You have to listen to each other, different leadership styles are needed to get the flock to move and sometimes you have to lead from behind.

The entire trip was visiting places like ANU – Museum of the Jewish People, a Graffiti tour of Tel Aviv, The Peres Center for Peace and Innovation and tour of the Knesset followed by a meeting with a member of Knesset. 

It was very different experience, and one that showed us Israel through a very different lens. I am eager to go back. Israel is a wonderful place!