Tel Dan Nature Reserve

Our day began with a hike through the Tel Dan Nature Reserve in the Galilee. What at first seemed like a casual stroll through a wooded area with rushing water much like the Laurel Highlands quickly turned into an archeological wonderland. It was here, at Tel Dan, where a 9th century B.C.E. stele was discovered that provides the first historical evidence of King David from the Tanakh. Also here is the world’s oldest known gated archway from the Bronze Age and King Jeroboam’s temple, which the Bible indicates was established to house the golden calf and challenge the temple in Jerusalem for supremacy. All that and an icy cold pond with water to splash in from Mount Hermon!

De Karina Chocolate Factory

From Tel Dan we headed to the De Karina boutique chocolate factory in the Golan Heights to reenact the famous “I Love Lucy” chocolate wrapping scene, CDS style. The factory was established by Karina Chaplinski, a third-generation chocolatier whose family made aliyah from Argentina in 2003. We watched a movie to learn about the factory history and manufacturing process, tasted some chocolate delicacies, and then tried our hands at chocolate-making. !טָעִים מְאוֹד

Tel Saki

On our last stop of the day, we visited Tel Saki, where a bitter battle was fought in the Yom Kippur War in 1973 between the IDF and Syrian forces. There, IDF reserve major and motivational speaker Yaakov Selavan (who has Pittsburgh roots) of the 188th Tank Brigade shared the remarkable story of the dramatic rescue of a group of 28 soldiers on this hillside. The soldiers, many of them critically injured, stood their ground in the darkness of a small bunker for more than a day with no water, food, or ammunition. We learned about the impossible challenges they faced under the most dire and terrifying of conditions and how all but one survived through extraordinary leadership, bravery, and hope. We had our own “bunker challenge,” where the class had to work together as a team to navigate through a bunker system in absolute darkness. And we learned how the values the soldiers personified in the battle can inform our lives and inspire our choices today to choose light in the darkness.