Blog

By the 2016 Rubinites Our last day in Israel was a long farewell to our home for the past 10 days. We visited Orr Shalom, a wonderful foster home/community that's partially funded by Jewish Federation in St. Louis, ate excellent shawarma/falafel in the German Colony,...

By Paul Sorenson On this incredible Rubin Israel Experience, I often felt like time had become unstuck -- mixing the past and present but only offering a hazy future for the Jewish State. We "climbed" Masada, learning about both the Zealot rebellion against Rome and...

By Dave Sweeney It is hard for me to believe we are already on 8th day of this amazing experience/adventure. We were out the door by 7am to head to Masada, an ancient fortress in the southern district of Israel. En route, we were informed of many interesting tidbits...

By Katie Rice-Guter This trip has been spent exploring many facets of Jewish life and life in Israel, and I found that celebrating Shabbat in Jerusalem had a special resonance for me. We woke up on Saturday and had a leisurely breakfast in the hotel before splitting...

By Lauren Gelber It's Friday morning. The lack of sleep on top of travel, with a side dish of busy schedules, equals the first morning some of us needed mom to wake us up. Traveling on our incredibly fancy bus (USB ports, lean back seats, and even party lights) we...

By Jodi Glassman The theme of Thursday was tzedaka, giving back, and connection with St. Louis' partnership region, Yokneam-Meggido, in the fertile heartland area of northern Israel. We saw several service organizations that the St. Louis Jewish Federation funds...

By Matt Berman The day started early after checking out the incredible Tel Aviv nightlife. A few of us made it back to the hotel at 5 AM. Several others made it to sunrise rooftop yoga. There was no overlap. Our first stop of the day was at a startup, Wibbitz, that...

By Steve Myers Our last day in Tel Aviv concludes the first chapter of our trip. I feel so much pride and inspiration for what the people of Israel have accomplished in such a short amount of time with one hand tied behind their backs. Today, we visited Independence...

By Sharon Remis As the pilot descends the plane we all look out with anticipation. The topography is amazing and we can see the coast line as we fly in. Many thoughts... are we going to bond as a group, is this place going to be as special as everyone as said? What...