December 29, 11:30 p.m.

December 29, 2008
11:30 p.m., Jerusalem

Dear Parents,

After many hours of travel, we have finally arrived in Israel! Our day was permeated by the celebration of one student's birthday across many, many time zones, as well as the newness of Israel to our three students who are here for the first time. Upon arrival, we ascended to Jerusalem, met our Israeli staff, and enjoyed a delicious dinner and welcoming activity before heading off to bed; we are all exhausted!!

Unfortunately, we are not able to get our cell phones until Tuesday morning, so we wanted to get this message to you as soon as possible-we are here! Please keep in mind that if we receive the phones as expected at 9:30 a.m., that is 1:30 a.m. in Chicago, so plan on hearing from your children later in the day.

This evening, we on the CJHS staff met with David Keren, Director of USY Programs in Israel, and our contact from the Israel Experience, as well as our two Israeli staff members. (One is a regular madricha-counselor-and the other is a madrich, who serves as a counselor and guard and is also a qualified medic.)

A few words about the planning of our trip: The Israel Experience is the travel agency of the Jewish Agency for Israel, and is responsible for all of the youth programs and tours in Israel. The Jewish agency has a security team that approves the itinerary for every youth program in Israel, in advance and on a daily basis. The security team receives minute-by-minute updates on areas of concern and makes decisions about restricting access to those areas. When they have an alert, our staff receives the message immediately.

As a result of recent events, our schedule for the next few days has been adjusted. Tuesday's schedule remains the same. On Wednesday, although we will still examine the three religions of Jerusalem, we will not be going to the Temple Mount or the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Our Israeli staff has arranged for us to visit Mt. Zion and Ein Kerem instead.

On Thursday afternoon, we will take a hike through the Jerusalem mountains rather than visit Gush Etzion.

We look forward to keeping in touch with you on a regular basis. We are going to establish a blog to make communication easier on our end. We'll let you know as soon as the blog is set up.

Caroline Musin
Claudia Linda
Ted Schaffner