Checking out Zichron-Ya'akov

Today we visited our partner elementary school in Haifa called the Alon school and spent time with the students in grade 5 and their teachers. Later we visited the beautiful town of Zichron-Ya'akov and saw a very old Roman theatre, as well as a beautiful garden called the Generous Garden.  Generous Garden is the grave site for Baron Rothschild and his wife. We learned the history of how Rothschild helped to establish the Jewish community in the area and donated a lot of money to help Jews living here. Next, we visited an after-school program for people aged 6 to 35.  The program is for people with medium to low retardation and autism. We danced and played drums in an outdoor park with the kids which was amazing. The kids were very eager to get to know us and to have us spend time with them. Even though the Americans don't speak much Hebrew, everyone was still able to interact with the kids. They were able to instantly become comfortable with us and bring us to dance with them. It was great to see that speaking different languages does not mean people cannot be friends! We had our final dinner with our Israeli friends at a Druze restaurant in the center of Haifa.

-Rebecca Teslyar