We spent the morning exploring Jaffa, an ancient port city over 3500 years old. It was the port that most of the early Jewish settlers came through. Napoleon landed here in his attempt to conquer the Middle East. Surprisingly, if he had succeeded, he would have given this area to the Jews. Who knew that he was a Zionist! Today Jaffa has 40,000 residents half of which are Jewish. It is a good example of how people can coexist. In 1908, 66 Jewish families decided to build a new Jewish City. They bought land from the Ottoman Empire just north of Jaffa that was just sand dunes. They decided to name the city Tel Aviv based on the title of a Hertzl book. Tel being a archeological mound and Aviv being spring, the old and the new. After lunch we walked through south Tel Aviv which is basically the poor area where migrant workers and asylum seekers live. The Israeli government is going to deport some tens of thousands of these asylum seekers who came here from 2002 to 2012. Similar to our Dreamer situation in the states. There are many organizations trying to stop this. Later in the afternoon, we did Talmud study at a secular yeshiva which also does volunteer community work in south Tel Aviv. Finally I had a delightful dinner with my cousins.

All the pictures were taken while in Jaffa.