A Journey Through Time

A Teen Mission participant lolls through history by boat and on foot.

CARYN ROMAN
Special to the Jewish News

magine you're floating peaceful-
ly down a quiet river. You and
your friend paddle clear of rocks
and bushes with relative ease,
enjoying the leisurely ride. Suddenly,
you spot pirates in front of you (okay,
it's only your madrechim, but they're
still dangerous). A splashing war
ensues and you're thrown overboard.
As the "pirates" haul you out of the
water and back into your kayak, one
thought enters your head — this is
awesome!
Experiences similar to the one
above were common when our bus
(R-4) went rafting on the Jordan river.
Either in kayaks or larger rafts (like
the pirate madrechim), we all paddled

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down a small area of the river, stop-
ping at one point to body raft on the
fast-moving current.
"Kayaking was so much fun and
really relaxing," Adam Wachter said.
"It was a great break from the normal
pace of touring."
Even though we weren't actually
touring, some members of our bus
still found historical value in our trip
down the river.
"It was so cool to do a 20th-centu-
ry activity like rafting on the same
river used for so many things and
fought over through history" Megan
Harris-Linton said. "It's fascinating to
think that people will look back on
our civilization and know that we used
the same river for fun."
Continuing on our float through
history, we spent the next evening vis-

iting the ancient city of Tzippori .
Traveling back through time, we expe-
rienced "Tzippori Live," a tour of the
city as seen through the eyes of its
Roman and Jewish citizens (played by
very convincing actors).
"At Tzippori, we really get to see
how Romans and Jews lived together
and interacted in ancient times,"
Lauren Liebowitz said. "It was inter
esting to hear some of the choices and
compromises they made."
One of the evening's activities
involved creating mosaic tiles after
viewing a beautiful mosaic floor.
"It was really our first opportunity
to do something hands-on or cre-
ative," Michelle Persin said.
Walking around the city, we were
given the opportunity to see possible
interactions between Jews and Romans.

.

Looking at the way they lived together
peacefully, we began to think about
cultural relations in today's society.
"The most interesting thing [about
Tzippori] is that the Jewish, Christian
and Roman cultures thrived together
within the same community," said
Rabbi Joseph Klein of Temple Emanu-
El, a Bus R-4 leader. "Tzippori can
teach us a lot about how our diverse
communities can live together today."
Over the two days in our travels, we
went from water fun to ancient civi-
lization, watched actors try to stay in
character while telling us about their
lives and learned a whole lot of history.
As our journey down this part of our
trip's "river" ends, we look forward to
even more exciting experiences in the
days to come. Oh, and we'll be sure to
watch out for pirates.

❑

