Day 8

Independence Hall

Our first stop in Tel Aviv was, appropriately, Independence Hall. Israel declared its independence in this building on May 14, 1948. Although they chose this building because it was safe (slightly underground, high windows, and large enough to fit the crowd), it was fitting for a number of other reasons. Not only was this building at the time the Tel Aviv Museum, but it was originally the home of the very first mayor of Tel Aviv, Meir Dizengoff. While we were there, we heard an audio recording (translated by a guide) of Ben-Gurion declaring the independence of the State of Israel.

After leaving Independence Hall, we walked up the street a bit while we waited for our bus, and Seth gave a dramatic account of the story of Esther, which is where Purim comes from. From there, we went to Rabin Square and the Rabin Center.

Rabin Center

Rabin Square is the Square where Yitzhak Rabin, former Prime Minister of Israel, was assassinated on November 4, 1995, which just so happens to have also been my 6th birthday. At the square, they have metal plaques in the ground marking where Rabin, the gunman, and Rabin’s guards stood when he was shot. The shooter was a radical right-wing Israeli who opposed the Oslo Accords, a document Rabin supported aiming to make peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The wall memorial below preserves graffiti in the square honoring Rabin’s memory and the need for peace.

The Rabin Center itself is a museum, honoring Rabin, different historical events and efforts during his life, and also commemorating world-wide events which helped to put the Israeli history in context. The museum was interesting and well-organized, but it was a bit of an information-overload for someone like myself with a very limited knowledge-base of the history of Israel. The guide also rushed us through, but I won’t complain about that at all because it helped us get to lunch sooner. My body does not approve of eating lunch much past noon.

After lunch, though, we had my favorite session at the Rabin Center, which was a meeting with Dalia Rabin—Yitzhak Rabin’s daughter. Dalia has to be one of the most amazing women. She’s literally done everything, including working as a lawyer, a member of Knesset, and the Deputy Minister of Defense. Dalia said that while her father was alive, he did well keeping his family out of the public eye and never pushed her to follow in his footsteps, but after his assassination, she thought it was important to get involved in politics. Although she isn’t directly involved in politics anymore, it’s obvious that she still has strong opinions. When asked about the current Israeli leadership, she said she didn’t want to talk about it because we should be able to assume what her opinion is—obviously not a very good one. She currently directs the Rabin Center, in order to most directly ensure that her father’s memory is honored properly.

Gay Center

Seemingly changing the entire vein of the day’s outing, we ended our explorations of Tel Aviv at the Gay Center. While you might ask what this has to do with interreligious dialogue, my answer would be “quite a bit.” As we all know from American politics, religions have lots to say about homosexuality, and in response, the LGBT community has to talk a lot about religion. We also learned about a group they run specifically for religious Jews in the LGBT community. Some of their holiday services, for example, draw upwards of a few hundred people.