Exploring the Golan Heights

For our last tiyul (hold on let me go cry for a bit), we went to the Golan Heights. Personally, I think that this was the best tiyul to end on. On this tiyul we learned many stories about Israeli heroism and how Israel prevailed against all odds. One primary example of this was Eli Cohen. Eli Cohen was an Israeli spy working against the Syrians for the Mossad. He gave up his entire life in Israel, his wife, children, and eventually his life for the state of Israel. Hearing such amazing acts of valor makes me proud of the state of Israel and what she stands for. We also learned about the Israeli vs Syrian tank war in the Yom Kippur war. Even though Israel was outnumbered, they still prevailed and ended up gaining land instead of losing it.

In addition to learning about the war, we went to a kibbutz on the Lebanese border. The houses and fields in Lebanon were stunning, it was hard to imagine that there were Hezballah rockets right beneath them. There, we spoke to a man who had quite strong views on Israel. I did not agree with almost anything that he said (and I think he could tell). Although I did not agree with him, I did appreciate hearing many different views and opinions.

To finish off the Golan trip, we visited a Druze village where we learned about their religion and ate some of their food. It was interesting to see how another religion is in comparison to Judaism. I like how HSI tries to expose us to many different viewpoints on religion and political views. Overall, I loved the Golan trip and I’m so sad that our tiyulim are over. - Ari