Saturday, August 6, 2011

Shabbat in Ofra

On our trip with the congregation, we had two tour guides and we went to one of their houses in Ofra which is a place in the suburbs of Jerusalem.  It is considered a settlement.  I will post an article about Ofra from Wikipedia:

"Ofra's establishment was part of a struggle between the Gush Emunim settlement movement, which was founded in February 1974, and the Israeli Labor government, which opposed Israeli settlement amid densely populated Palestinian areas. The establishing group first obtained jobs at a nearby military base on Mount Baal Hatsor, then in April 1975 got permission to sleep over in the abandoned barracks of a Jordanian army base, but then brought in their families and raised an Israeli flag. Though opposed by then Prime Minister, Rabin, and perhaps because of his opposition, Ofra was given the political backing by Shimon Peres, then a leading member of Rabin's government. After the Labour Party was defeated by the Likud Party in the 1977 Israeli election, the new government recognized Ofra as a community and paving the way for expansion into the surrounding hills."

I will post a few pictures of the park that we went to there.  The slide was steep but the material was very slow.  We met some kids at the park and they were nice but they only spoke Hebrew so we had a little trouble communicating.  But it was okay.  Then we met a kid from Canada but his parents were from Russia.  He spoke English and Russian but that's it.  That's it for now.   Here are some pictures.

This is the Ofra playground.

This is me in the tour guide's house.

That's just a view of Ofra.

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