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Laurentian Journey to Israel, Jordan and the
Palestinian Territories
Tour Dates: 5/21/13 – 6/3/13 | Price: $5,909 | Reservation Deadline: December 31, 2012
Discover the history of Israel on a tour of its cultural and religious landmarks. Get swept away by the beauty of
Israel as you explore the stone streets of the Old City in Jerusalem and the white sand beaches of the Red Sea.
Journey into the Palestinian Territories on excursions to Bethlehem and Jericho, and explore the ancient city of
Petra in Jordan. On conclusion of your tour, you will have a comprehensive view of the religious, historical, and
political complexities of this captivating region.
WHY YOU’LL LOVE IT
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YOUR TOUR INCLUDES
Israel top to bottom in 14 days
You’ll take a dip in the Dead Sea
Rich history, from a Kibbutz to Petra
You’ll experience the bustling city of Tel Aviv
Discover the Old City of Jerusalem
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Round-trip airfare & transfers
12 nights in handpicked hotels
Breakfast daily, 10 included lunches, 10 threecourse dinners, beer or wine
Multilingual Tour Director
Private deluxe motorcoach
Included entrance fees to many historical sights
*Price shown is based on double occupancy. Single Supplement: $860.00
This tour must have a minimum of 20 travelers in order to run. If the tour is cancelled due to low enrollment, travelers
will have the option to rebook to a different tour or cancel, which will result in the loss of the $450 deposit.
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Call Maggie Murphy at 1-800-438-7672 or email
maggie.murphy@goaheadtours.com for more information
OVERNIGHT STAYS
DAY 5: GALILEE
Tel Aviv (1)
Continue to discover the Galilee with visits to Kfar Nahum
(Capernaum) and Tabgha, villages where Jesus was said
to have made local fishermen into “fishers of men” and
where he multiplied the loaves and the fish to feed the
multitudes. Afterwards, visit another UNESCO World
Heritage site at the ruins of Hazor, Safed (home of 16th
century Jewish mystics and a modern artist colony), and
then to Banias at the foot of the Golan Heights.
Haifa (1)
Tiberius (2)
Jerusalem (3)
Kibbutz Lotan (1)
Wadi Musa (2)
Eilat (2)
DAY 1: FLIGHT TO ISRAEL
Your tour begins with your scheduled overnight flight to
Tel Aviv aboard an internationally recognized airline
(Dinner and breakfast will be included on board.)
DAY 2: ARRIVAL IN TEL AVIV
Touch down in Tel Aviv. A Go Ahead representative will
greet you at the airport and escort you to your hotel in Tel
Aviv. Tonight, enjoy an included Welcome Dinner.
DAY 3: SIGHTSEEING OF CAESAREA & HAIFA
Explore Jaffa this morning on a guided tour of the historic
Mediterranean city from which Tel Aviv grew. According to
the stories, this was where the prophet Jonah started the
journey that left him in the belly of a big fish (Jonah 1:117), and where Andromeda was tied to a rock as a
sacrifice to a sea monster, before later being saved by
Perseus. After your tour, you will travel to Caesarea and
enjoy lunch and a guided tour of the ancient Hippodrome
and amphitheater. Continue onto Haifa where you will
explore the Carmel Caves and majestic Baha’i Gardens.
DAY 4: ACRE & NAZARETH
Today, tour the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Acre, an
ancient port city, and explore the Crusader’s Hall and Al
Jazar Mosque. Continue into the Galilee, where you will
enjoy a walking tour of the ruins of Sepphoris, known for
its mosaics. Afterwards, travel to Nazareth, the home
town of Jesus, to see the Church of the Annunciation, a
traditional Christian holy site where the Gospel according
to Luke says that Mary was visited by the Archangel
Gabriel and told that God had selected her to be the
mother of Jesus (Luke 1:26-38).
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DAY 6: TRAVEL TO JERUSALEM
En route to Jerusalem, stop in the ancient towns of Beit
She’an and Megiddo and visit the Beit Alpha synagogue,
famous for its mosaic floors which were uncovered in the
early 20th century. If time permits, enjoy a walking tour of
the Mount of Olives where you can see panoramic views
of Jerusalem’s Old City.
DAY 7: JERUSALEM
Spend the morning at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust
Memorial Museum. Containing the world’s largest
repository of information on the Holocaust, Yad Vashem
is the leader in Shoah (the Hebrew word for the
Holocaust) education, commemoration, research and
documentation. You will also visit the Israel Museum,
where you will see the Dead Sea Scrolls. This afternoon,
discover the Western Wall and Dome of the Rock on a
guided tour through the Old City of Jerusalem.
DAY 8: JERUSALEM
This morning, travel to Bethlehem, a Palestinian city
known as the birthplace of Jesus. Inhabited by one of the
world’s oldest Christian communities, the town is also
believed to be the birthplace of King David and the final
resting place of the matriarch Rachel. On your tour
through the city, you will stop at the Church of the Nativity,
which Christians believe Mary gave birth to Jesus.
Afterwards, continue to explore the Palestinian territories
while touring the ancient ruins of Jericho, one of the
world’s oldest cities.
DAY 9: MASADA & THE DEAD SEA
Today, journey by cable car up to the fortress of Masada,
a fortification high atop a plateau that served as the last
Call Maggie Murphy at 1-800-438-7672 or email
maggie.murphy@goaheadtours.com for more information
stronghold of the First Jewish-Roman War, where you will
enjoy lunch. You will then venture to the Dead Sea where
you might have time to float in the famously salty waters.
Later that afternoon, travel to Kibbutz Lotan where you
will spend the night.
DAY 10: TRAVEL INTO JORDAN
This morning, enjoy a tour of Kibbutz Lotan, a Reform
Jewish Kibbutz that focuses on sustainable living in the
desert. Then make your way to Wadi Musa, Jordan via
the Arava Crossing after making a stop in Timna, an
ancient Egyptian site known for its copper-mining and
fascinating rock formations.
DAY 11: PETRA
Discover Petra during a full-day guided tour of this ancient
city. Traveling through a narrow gorge, you will visit a city
lost to the outside world for centuries. Investigate its
freestanding temples, tombs, dwellings and altars.
DAY 12: TRAVEL TO EILAT
This morning, you may continue to explore Petra before
enjoying lunch at Wadi Rum, a protected area of desert
wilderness in the south of Jordan where Lawrence of
Arabia was filmed. Huge sandstone and granite
mountains tower over wide sandy valleys, while narrow
canyons and fissures cut deep into the mountains. You
will find many concealed ancient rock drawings, etched by
the people of the desert. Bedouin tribes still live in these
mountains, and you may catch a glimpse of their large,
traditional tents. Later today, travel back into Israel to the
resort town of Eilat on the dazzling Red Sea.
DAY 13: EILAT
Enjoy a free day to relax on the white sand beaches of
Eilat. The 9 miles of Israeli coast on the Red Sea include
spectacular snorkeling, delicious restaurants, and a lively
night scene.
DAY 14: FLIGHT HOME
A Go Ahead representative escorts you to the Tel Aviv
airport for your return flight home with meals included on
board.
FACULTY PROFILE
Dr. Michael Greenwald is originally from Kingston, New
York. An Associate Professor of Religious Studies, his
interests nevertheless are quite eclectic. He earned his
Bachelor’s Degree in Astronomy from the University of
Pennsylvania in 1970, attended Hebrew Union College
where he earned a Master’s Degree in Hebrew Letters in
1973 and was ordained a rabbi in 1975. He finished his
formal education at Boston University with a Ph.D. in New
Testament and Christian Origins in 1989, the same year
that he joined the St. Lawrence faculty. His current
research involves the completion of a book relating the
collection of the documents that came to be called the
New Testament and the collection of Jewish traditions in
what came to be called the Mishnah with intellectual
trends and structures of knowledge in the Roman Empire
of the Second Century. He regularly teaches courses on
the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and New Testament, on
the religious traditions of Judaism, science and religion,
religions of the Greco-Roman world, and the modern
history of the Middle East, the latter dual-listed with the
History Department. He has taught upper-level seminars
on Jesus in the Gospels, antisemitism, and religion and
theology in the fantasy world of J.R.R. Tolkien. An avid
birder, he has traveled throughout the United States,
Great Britain, the Caribbean, Costa Rica, and Israel
(where he lived in 1970-1971). This will be his fifth trip to
Israel. His wife, Dr. Claudia Setzer, who will be
accompanying us on this trip, is a Professor of Religious
Studies at Manhattan College and has also lived in Israel.
Call Maggie Murphy at 1-800-438-7672, email maggie.murphy@goaheadtours.com for more
informatio
Call Maggie Murphy
at 1-800-438-7672 or email
maggie.murphy@goaheadtours.com for more information
Go Ahead Tours is part of
the EF family of companies
Call Maggie Murphy at 1-800-438-7672, email maggie.murphy@goaheadtours.com for more
informatio
Call Maggie Murphy
at 1-800-438-7672 or email
maggie.murphy@goaheadtours.com for more information