Tuesday Oct 18th arrive Tel Aviv through Saturday October 22

Arrival Tel Aviv
Shana Tov sign in airport

Arron and Shouna meet us at airport

Rosen's condo

Our 1st dinner in Tel Aviv

breakfast on their balcony

Tel Aviv Museum

entrance to Museum

Communication tower in Tel Aviv

Museum complex

Museum complex

interesting view Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv

Coffee shop

Shouna's girl friends from her youth

more friends

Shashouk

good friends

Agam condo just off the beach in Tel Aviv

more friends

Rosen's condo entrance

October 18th through October 22nd
We boarded our El Al plane found our seats and and settled i for a ten + hour flight. It was tight but we managed. They served us a kosher meal that was not bad. Actual OK for airline food. We got a little sleep and before we knew it we were landing in Tel Aviv


Tel Aviv – October 18th through Oct. 22nd Our Stay with Shouna Artsiely and Aaron Rosen

Arrival via El Al from Tampa, FL to Kennedy Airport, NY to Tel Aviv.

We arrived Tuesday morning to find Shouna and Aaron
waiting patiently for us. It was great to see them waving at us as we came out of customs. We also saw a welcome to Israel sign and a Shana Tova sign. Having been warned about the size of their car, we were very happy to see that our suitcases did indeed fit inside their trunk. Once everything was loaded, including us, we headed to their condominium in Ramat Hasharon, a fashionable suburb outside TelAviv. We were so excited to be with them
and we were full of anticipation about the next four days that we would be
their guests. They are amazing hosts. Our room and bathroom were all ready for us.
We dropped off our bags got our second wind and immediately headed out
for a local tour of their community and then to dinner at a local Arab restaurant in Jaffa.

Abu-Nassar-Kinnawi
130 Kedem Street
Jaffa, Israel
03-5075539

This is a wonderful Arab restaurant in Jaffa. Shouna and Aaron frequent it regularly. It would be great for a group. Each entrée comes with the most amazing Meza display – they put it out on the table as soon as you arrive. They keep refilling the dishes until you beg them to stop. You can ask for more of anything: roasted eggplant, grilled cauliflower, hummus, baba ganoush, Russian potato salad, carrot salad, olives, roasted peppers, corn salad, cole slaw, pickled cabbage, beets and on and on. The selections are a meal in itself but youdon’t get it without ordering an entrée. Their grilled fish is exceptionally good. We highly recommend it if you can get it in. We had a light breakfast on the plane and then went to this restaurant about 4:00 p.m. We won’t eat another meal tonight.

Back at their apartment, we had coffee and sweets and talked until all of our eyes were sinking into our heads.

For the next four days, Shouna and Aaron shared their way of life here in Israel. We met their childhood friends at an evening at their home. Shouna prepared an
amazing spread of traditional Israeli dishes. We walked the neighborhood, bought the daily newspaper at the local store, bought wonderful breads and pastry for breakfasts, and never ran out of discussion topics. While Shouna and I walked, Lenny and Aaron couldn’t resist fitting in a falafel stop despite knowing that we were going to have a big meal that evening. We also went to their favorite restaurant called Sebastian’s where they are famous for their chicken schnitzel which of course, I, Geri, could not resist. Lenny enjoyed a traditional fish called Denis, grilled perfectly. We stopped at coffee cafes to drink and nosh during the day and to talk about the release of Gila Shilat, the young Israeli soldier, finally released from five years of torture and solitary confinement and set free for the release of 1000 Arab terrorist prisoners. There was a lot of controversy about arranging his release for this ransom – negotiating with terrorists, however,
for the most part there was dancing in the streets and celebration. Wednesday and Thursday was Sukkot culminating with Simchat Torah. All the stores were closed except in the Arab sections.

We didn’t care, we just enjoyed being together, riding to see the neighborhoods,
downtown Tel Aviv, the performing arts center, the Tel Aviv Museum from the
outside, the high tech sections with their huge buildings with familiar names;
Microsoft, Google, etc. Friday morning we had one of Shouna’s great breakfasts – a traditions Shaksouk – a dish that I called “ a bird in the nest” when I was a kid but Shouna made it with an excellent bread, the egg in the middle and then surrounded it with a wonderful tomato
sauce. She and I had either that dish or toast with cottage cheese, greek yogurt and sliced tomatoes. The guys had yogurt with cereal mixed in – how boring! Everything, once again shut down by noon for Shabbat. We drove to the seaside and had coffee and a nosh at one of the small cafes that they knew would still be open. I think we sat for a few hours, chatting and enjoying eachother. We just didn’t seem to run out of laughter and conversation. Friday night, we were invited for Shabbat dinner to the lovely home of Linda and Elli Streit, a terrific couple we know
from Lakewood Ranch where they spent several weeks a year but their real home
is in Tel Aviv. Their house is amazing and they hosted us and their daughter and son-in-law and three grandchildrenalong with Shouna’s daughter and son-in-law and her two grandchildren. These two daughters grew up together and it was wonderful to see them all interact together.

Saturday morning, we got up and had breakfast. Lenny and I packed
and then we headed to a brunch at the home of Shouna and Aaron’s friends. Meira and her husband Aviv, two other long time friends of Shouna’s and Lenny and I were treated to beautiful homemade spread. We were eating again. After several hours of interesting conversation, we headed back to the condo to pickup our suitcases and then we were off to our hotel in Tel Aviv for the start of our formal Federation Mission. We are staying at the David Intercontinental Hotel.