Rishon LeẔiyyon

We left 8am Thurs to head to the Tel-Aviv bus station The bus system is amazing and on 6 shackles you can go amazingly far

Settled in about 3pm Thurs into a charming hotel that used to be city hall which was renovated into a hotel before the war. Unfortunately few tourists here, mostly displaced residents from war zones. Ran into lady who lost a cousin and spouse to the war. She is living here and teaches science at Ber Sheva.

Thurs evening was lots of fun. We had schwarma and schnitzel sandwiches. Then we went back to the hotel to me two good friends from my previous job at NMS communication. It was great catching up with them. However it was sad to hear one of the managers grandson died in the war. After meeting them we went out for late night drinks and had beer. We got talking to the manager and was so appreciative of our volunteering that he gave us shots, Sue having Arak and me the managers favorite a version of Jonnie walker. The setting was in a lovely park pictured. We headed home before midnight. Back at the hotel we met Vic. Vic loves creating music, and was kind enough to play his guitar in the lobby We stayed up fairly late.

Fri am we went food shopping, so much easier than last week's 13 people so nice it was just the two of us

we planned our shabbos, there are 7 in a 200 yard radius. We decided to try the balli saline Sephardic synagogue and then the great synagogue for shabbos day.
More details to follow. The exterior of both are pictured.

Shabbos we met people displaced from their home due to the war. One who lived 200m from the border described how their cousin and husband were killed. Another older woman from the south. Her family came in to celebrate shabbos. So touching hearing the grandmother teach the pre-bar mitzvah to bench after the meal .
I feel awkward when folks are so appreciative of our visit even though we are not helping them directly.Läs mer