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Highlights

• All Airport and Hotel Transfers
• 11 Nights Accommodation in the Hotels of your choice
• Breakfast Daily
• Driver and Guide for 8 Full days Touring
• Entrance Fees to all sites included in the Itinerary
• Cable Car Ride to the top of Massada
• Tours of the Old and New Cities of Jerusalem
• Visit to Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and Museum

Special EXTENSIONS available for this tour

The Grand Jewish Heritage Tour of Israel

11 Nights - 8 Touring Days
Operates on the following arrival dates during 2007:

February 28, March 14, April 11, 18, May 2, 16, 30
June 13, 27, July 4, 18, August 29, October 3, 17, 31
November 14, 28, December 5, 19, February 13, 2008

Wednesday

Enroute

Upon arrival to Israel, proceed to the Steimatzky book store to meet your driver.

Transfer to your hotel in Tel Aviv.

Overnight, Tel Aviv.

Tel Aviv

Mini Israel

Thursday

Tel Aviv

Start the day with a visit to the Independence Hall where the establishment of the State of Israel was declared.

Next, drive to Latrun to visit the new “Mini Israel” park including miniature models of the most important sites and buildings in the country.

Continue to the Ayalon Institute, once an ammunition factory for the Hagana, the underground movement before May 1948.

Proceed to Yad Mordechai, named after Mordechai Anilevitz, leader of the Warsaw Ghetto. Next visit the restored battle fields of the war of liberation and learn about their heroic story. Return to Tel Aviv for the evening.

Overnight, Tel Aviv.

Friday

Tel Aviv

This morning, visit the Diaspora Museum.

Next, drive around the main streets of Tel Aviv, Israel’s social and cultural center.

Stop at Rabin Square, site of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Continue to Old Jaffa, a 5000 year old port city. Visit the ancient ruins and walk along the restored artists’ quarter.

Next, stroll through Neve Tzedek, the oldest neighborhood in Tel Aviv, and Nahalat Benyamin, the pedestrian street of the city with its musicians, hand made jewelry, and artifacts.

Afterwards, shop on Shenkin Street, a lively and colorful street especially known with the unique shops, café life and youthful ambiance.

Overnight, Tel Aviv.

Saturday

Tel Aviv

Enjoy a free day in the city.

Overnight, Tel Aviv.

Caesarea

Haifa Bahai Gardens

Sunday

Coastal Route

Drive north to Caesarea, once the Roman capital of the region. See the excavations of the crusaders' city, the aqueduct and the amphitheater which has been restored as a concert venue.

Proceed to Haifa for a panoramic view from Mount Carmel and visit “AF AL PI CHEN,” the naval museum of the illegal immigration to Israel at the time of the British mandate.

Drive to Acco to explore the Crusader city and shop in the market.

Continue to the northernmost point of Israel at Rosh Hanikra; here descend by cable into the limestone grottos.

Continue to your kibbutz for dinner and overnight.

Overnight, Kibbutz Hotel Lavi.

Safed

Banias

Monday

Galilee/Golan Heights

This morning drive to Safed, center of Kaballa movement. Visit the JOSEPH CARO and the HA’ARI synagogues, the most important synagogues in the city, and stroll around the artists’ quarter.

Next, enjoy a Jeep Tour to the foot of the Golan. Continue to the Golan Heights.

Stop at an observation point over the city of Kuneitra and the Syrian territory.

Stop at Tel Facher, a former Syrian army camp.

Next, visit the Banias springs and Tel-Hai to see the “Roaring Lion” monument and learn about the heroic battle of Josef Trumpeldor and his comrades in 1920.

Tonight, meet with a Kibbutz member and learn about their unique lifestyle.

Overnight, Kibbutz Hotel Lavi.

Beit Shean

Mount Scopus Synagogue

Tuesday

Galilee/Jerusalem

Begin the day by Planting a Tree.

Drive to Tiberias to visit Rambam’s Grave, and then proceed to Beit Shean, also called "Scythopolis", the biggest archeological park in Israel with beautiful excavations from Roman and Byzantine periods.

Stop at Beit Alpha to see the beautiful mosaic floor of a synagogue from the Byzantine period.

Onto Gan Hashlosha (Sachne), where you will have an opportunity to enjoy the water springs located at the foot of the Gilboa Mountain, the famous mountain on which King Saul was killed in the battle against the Philistines.

Continue via the Jordan Valley to Jerusalem. Stop at Mount Scopus for a blessing as you enter the city.

Overnight, Jerusalem.

Old Jerusalem

Western Wall Tunnels

Wednesday

Jerusalem

Start with a visit of the Tomb of King David on Mt. Zion.

Walk along the Cardo, the ancient Roman road, then visit the four Sephardic synagogues restored after the 1967 war in the Jewish quarter.

Tour the amazing Western Wall Tunnels, and then visit the Davidson Center.

Afterwards walk through the colorful Arab Bazaar. Next, pass through Jaffa gate to David’s Tower museum and see the ancient remains of the city beginning with the First Temple Period.

Overnight, Jerusalem.

Mea Shearim

Shrine of the Book

Yad Vashem

Thursday

Jerusalem

This morning, depart the hotel and proceed to the Western Wall. Here families have the option to celebrate the Bar Mitzvah / Bat Mitzvah of their child. Arrangements will be made with a local English-speaking Rabbi and the family will catch up to the rest of the group at the Israel museum.

The members who do not wish to participate in the ceremony will proceed first to the neighborhood of Mea Shearim.

Drive by the Knesset, Israel’s parliament and see the Menorah with the biblical emblems.

Next visit the Israel Museum and the Shrine of the Book where the Dead Sea scrolls are housed, and the new Holyland Model – a miniature replica of Jerusalem as it was during the Second Temple Period.

Drive to Mount Herzl, the military cemetery, and Yad Vashem, the memorial to the Holocaust.

Next visit Ammunition Hill, a former Jordanian army stronghold, conquered by the Israeli army in the Six Day War, and converted into a national memorial site and museum.

Overnight, Jerusalem.

Massada

Dead Sea Swim

Friday

Qumran/Massada/Dead Sea

Drive through the Judean Desert to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth, almost 1300 feet (400 meters) below sea level.

Stop at Qumran to visit the site where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.

Drive along the shores of the Dead Sea to Massada. Ascend by cable car and tour the ancient fortress where the Zealots made their last stand against the Romans before committing mass suicide in 73 AD.

Descend by cable car, time and weather permitting, an opportunity will be provided to enjoy a Lunch and Swim at a Dead Sea resort.

Overnight in Jerusalem.

Saturday

Jerusalem

Enjoy a free day in Jerusalem.

Overnight in Jerusalem.

Sunday

Enroute

Transfer to Ben-Gurion airport for departure. Your driver will meet you in your hotel lobby 3.5 hours before departure.

Hotels on Tour

• At the King David Jerusalem, based on deluxe new city view rooms
• *For the August 3 and 17 arrivals, the Sheraton Plan will use the City Tower Hotel in Ramat Gan, instead of the Sheraton Moriah, Tel Aviv.

Rates

Per person in USD $. Valid: Mar 1, 2007 Feb 28, 2008.

Included services in our tour rates:

1. Private transfer from Ben Gurion Airport to your Hotel in Tel Aviv and from the Hotel in Jerusalem to the Airport.
2. Meeting point on arrival at the Steimatzky bookstore at the Main Arrival Hall at the Ben Gurion International Airport.
3. 8 full days touring with all entrance fees and attractions as per the above itinerary.
4. 11 nights accommodation on bed and breakfast basis at the hotels as mentioned above.
5. Two dinners at the hotel in Kibbutz Lavi/Galilee.
6. Lunch and swim at a Dead Sea spa hotel.
7. Jeep ride in the Golan Heights.

Services not included in our tour rates:

1. Tips to guide/driver and Hotel staff.
2. Lunches en route on sightseeing days.
3. Treatments at the Dead Sea Spa.
4. Travel Insurance - Provided exclusively by Travel Guard, #1 in Travel Insurance, purchased through Gil Travel.
   
5. All those expenses individual to each passenger including souvenirs, laundry services, valet service, and phone calls.

Bar Mitzvah Service rates:

Rabbi’s fee for one Bar Mitzvah / Bat Mitzvah participant is $450.

The rate includes:

• Correspondence with family by the Rabbi, meeting in Jerusalem with the Rabbi prior to the ceremony, officiating at service, use of prayer pamphlets and Rabbi’s personal Torah scroll, Rabbi’s transportation, and including Bar Mitzvah / Bat Mitzvah certificate from the Ministry of Tourism.
• Reform and Conservative ceremonies will be officiated at the Southern Wall area.
• To the above rate, please add for the transfer to be arranged by Kenes Tours, from the Western Wall Plaza to the Israel $15 per taxi (4 passengers per taxi).