More Tel Aviv

Today we visited Independence Hall, the place where David Ben Gurion declared the independence of the State of Israel, making the dream of Theodore Herzl a reality long after his death. It sent a chill down my spine to sing Hatikva, the Israeli national anthem, at the end of Ben Gurion's speech. This was 1948. Immediately thereafter the 6 neighboring Arab states declared war on Israel, vowing to push the Jews into the sea.




We then visited Ben Gurion's house, containing his library of 20,000 books, all of which he allegedly had read. He was a statesman like no other.



This afternoon we went to a unique mall built around the old Turkish train station in Tel Aviv. My favorite store was Ahava, which sells products from the Dead Sea.



It was nice to have free time to spend in the central courtyard using the free Wi-Fi and drinking coffee. Tonight is our final dinner with the group. We are staying behind for another two days to visit with friends. It will be interesting to see how real Israelis live.


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