“It was a lot of fun, but I’m exhausted!”  That’s how Josh described his latest Mission Week trip at school.

Once a year his school takes the classroom ON THE ROAD for real life learning talking to people and groups while seeing Israel from different perspectives. This year they visited Jerusalem. Josh describes it as a clash of many different narratives.

The students had a chance to speak to everyone from Israeli’s on settlement lands to Palestinians who go through check points every day to get to work.  Josh says they also had an opportunity to spontaneously speak to an Israeli from a conservative political party handing out flyers while they were having lunch.

His group focused on “Idenity” and how you identify yourself impacts your beliefs.  Just like last year, he says the discussions got heated at times.

They spent the week visiting the Western Wall,

Dome of the Rock,

The Tomb of Samuel where both Jewish and Muslim prayers are held, the Mechane Yehuda market,

an Ultra-Orthodox neighborhood, and speak to members of the Black Panther party in Israel focused on bringing equality between the Ashkenazi Jews and Arab Jews. 

Just like last year, students from all the groups ended the week waking up at 2 am to met in the desert for a sunrise hike at Masada. 

And once again, he couldn’t wait to share the experience with me about what he saw, heard and learned over the past week!