Weekly Updates – March 3, 2022

After the hikes, the students rode to the Ana hostel in Acre, where they had some time to relax before dinner. After they ate, optional activities were offered, and the students chose from Karaoke, dancing, board games, or just chilling in the lobby with each other. Which activity do you think we chose? Pass the microphone, guys!

On Wednesday, each group went on a tour of the Old City of Acre and learned about the city’s history. They’ve drawn a timeline that goes way back, from the Byzantine era, and the Ottoman Empire that once ruled the land of Israel, all the way to the British Mandate (which wasn’t so long ago!) until the establishment of Israel in 1948. Acre is known to be a mixed city, with Jews, Muslims, and Christians living together, with synagogues, mosques, and churches right next to each other. While the students were walking through the alleys of Acre and trying out the authentic food at the local market, they learned about the riots between Jews and Muslims back in 2021, and how they affected the peaceful, ordinary life in Acre.

Eitan Brown from London, the U.K told us about his experience in the tiyul: “Our overnight trip to Acre was an amazing experience, especially as every community was there and we were able to socialise with those we hadn’t seen for a long time. We started the trip off with a hike, you could pick either the easy, medium, or difficult one. I personally chose the difficult hike, which was a 6-hour hike through Nachal Kziv. Although the hike itself was difficult, we were merited with being able to see the beautiful scenery surrounding us, whilst also being with our friends. Personally, I would have to say walking through the water during the hike was certainly the highlight of my trip, mainly because everyone around me was enjoying being in the water and having a good time taking our surroundings in. Another amazing feature I found about the hike itself was that when we started climbing back up towards the buses, we got a fantastic view of an old crusader castle, as well as now having an amazing view of the walk we had just accomplished. Once the evening activities had finished, I and a few of my friends decided to explore some of what was around us, which eventually led us to play football with some of the locals as there was a football pitch nearby to us. The next day brought us even more activities, as we got to experience a full tour of the Old City of Acre, which started off by doing a small circle of the ruins around us, then watching a film about what has newly been found in the city, looking at some of the architecture and learning a bit about the history of the Bahai people and how the creator of the Bahai religion Baháʼu’lláh, was imprisoned in Acre in the late 1800s. We ended off the tour by seeing the 3rd biggest mosque in Israel, El-Jazzar Mosque, and walking through the market area in the Old City of Acre, which eventually allowed us to reach our destination of a nice view of the sea, where we had a lovely view of seeing the cargo ships leaving the port.