Israel continued!!

Guest blog by Evie Denemark This morning we started off at the Ghetto Fighters museum on Kibbutz Lochamei Haghetaot.  We saw memorials for all of the people who were killed in the Shoah, the children specifically.  We saw an exhibit about Yanosh Korjak, a doctor who had an orphanage in the Warsaw Ghetto and, despite his ability to escape, went with his children to Treblinka. There we heard from the daughter of a child survivor who lives on the Kibbutz.   After a small detour, we ate lunch in Chanita.  There we learned about the settlements that were built illegally during the British Mandate in an effort to gain Jewish control of the land.   After a short bus ride we reached Rosh Hanikrah, a beautiful set of natural grottos on the border with Lebanon.   Our region split into their Partnership 2000 cities to meet the people who live in their sister cities.  The Dallas group stayed in Akko and toured the Tunisian shul there.    We went to Western Gallilee College to see an inspiring movie about Michael Levin, a lone soldier from Philadelphia who was killed in the second Lebanon war.  We talked to a commander in the army who works with lone solids, and we heard from an American our age who is going to be in the army next year.   After a dinner of falafel, we went to the city of Akko's ceremony for Yom Hazikaron.  Emily, Mina, Jordan, and Max laid a wreath in honor of the soldiers from our sister city who died in all of the wars of Israel.   After returning to our hostel, we heard from Guy, sou Israeli tour guide, about what Yom Hazikaron mean for Israelis.  We sang a song that was written for a soldier who died, and listened to a poem about the creation of the state.   We are all looking forward to Yom Haatzmaut and the second March!