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Day 18 — Exploring Co-Existence

Hayom yom shishi (Today is Friday)
Hayom yom shishi
Machar Shabbat (Tomorrow is Shabbat)
Machar Shabbat
Shabbat m’nucha! (Shabbat means rest!)

Today began with a hotel breakfast and by 9am we were on the bus with our bags packed and stowed away, heading for Kibbutz Sasa in the Galilee. When we got there, to our surprise, we had arrived at the all-natural, homemade Booza Gelato Factory on the kibbutz! Booza, meaning “ice cream” in Arabic, is a gelato production company founded and owned by an Israeli Jew by the name of Adam and an Israeli Arab named Allah. The vision of the company is to bridge the gap between Jews and Arabs through the everyday production of ice cream. Booza has four storefronts and additional connections with bakeries and restaurants in which their ice cream is sold. In each store, the aesthetic is a mixture of typical Israeli and Arab tiles and patterns and their store playlist has songs from both typical Israeli and Arab genres, along with world music and some pop. All of their products are made in a highly organized manner with specific machinery for each step of the process. The ice cream, gelato and sorbet are made with all natural ingredients, evident upon tasting: each sorbet tastes exactly like its fruit and the gelato and ice creams like their respective flavors. We put on robes and hairnets for sterilization purposes and got a short tour of the factory, followed by videotaping a snippet of us dancing in the factory. We then got to taste five of their flavors, all of which had been produced in that very factory!

Following our tasty surprise, we headed toward the Coexistence Circus on Moshav Shorashim to experience what it’s like to bridge the gap between Jewish and Arab Israelis through a physical art! Upon our arrival, the director of the circus gave us a brief talk about the history of the circus and how its mission relates to the conflict. As of today, there are about 30 Arab youth and 15 Jewish youth in the circus, but they are striving for a more balanced number in the years to come. After the talk, we watched a 10-15 minute performance by six of the advanced students and then got to try juggling, tightrope, globe, hula hoop, Diablo and more for ourselves! We then headed out of Moshav Shorashim in Tir Al Asar and toward a local mall for lunch.


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To conclude our fun-packed, coexistence-themed day, we drove to our beautiful hotel, Ohalo Manor in Tiberias, in the Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) and got ready for Shabbat. We enjoyed our Kabbalat Shabbat service by the Kinneret followed by dinner at the hotel.

We can all agree how crazy it is that Shabbat is upon us again so quickly! It feels as though last Shabbat was just two days ago, yet here we are with only one week remaining on our trip. What a good lesson in how to value each and every experience that comes our way to the fullest!

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