Awesome night in Jerusalem

Howdy ho campers - just got back to the room at 1 a.m. JST and we had an unreal evening.

We blew off dinner with Marci and Seth Cohen and two couples from Cleveland and walked to dinner in the German Colony for Falafel. We found a great little joint and it was just awesome. It was great to get out of the hotel and conference after being in meetings and lectures all day long.
We got to interact during the day with people from other cities and with Israeli members of the Wexner program that study at Harvard. My group had two great Israeli men names Baruch and Avi. They shared their thoughts with us as to why we as American Jews are so important to them in Israel. It was a great jumping off point to a great conversation as to why the Israeli's are so important to us and beyond.

Avi is an IDF officer and is married and lives with three children in Tel Aviv. He and I have hit it off and I can tell from just this one night that we are going to have a relationship of some sort after this trip. He is the type of man that in a few years time, I can see him making a major difference in the Israeli government if he wants to.

Then we went to dinner. We walked back and were treated to a concert from Israel's hottest band called Hadag Nahash. They were awesome and are well known for The Bumper Sticker song. People were up and dancing and the place was rocking. Sorry to say we have pictures to follow of Michael Karlin and Seth Cohen getting down and funky in the front of the stage. It was absolutely hysterical.

After that, there was a group of about 10 of us from Atlanta that went back to the bar at the hotel and talked about everything going on with our program. A few of us went out on the patio and I treated to some great Cuban cigars. We sat and watched the moon over the Old City as we talked about topics from A to Z.

It has been a great trip and tomorrow we go to the Kotel for Shabbat. It's going to be an awesome night tomorrow that I know I am going to be emotional at for so many reasons. Most likely for the fact of who has walked these streets and have been in these areas. We are beyond fortunate to follow in their footsteps and it's just something that everyone should experience. So if you haven't been to Israel - no matter what religion you follow - what the heck are you waiting for???

More tomorrow - good night and good luck from Jerusalem!