The Bruner Family Journey: Grandma Janet and Poppa Bob

My parents took us on several family trips during my formative years as a pre-teen. The trips had a very profound effect on me. During our first big family trip to California, I immediately fell for San Francisco. From that point onward, I dreamed constantly of returning - and I did five times before settling in the Bay Area in 2000. In retrospect, my parents probably regret planting that seed in my head, and wish they'd taken a driving tour of New England instead. Our second big family trip was in December 1977, to Israel, when I was 12 years old, several months before becoming a Bar Mitzvah. Other than a brief trip by car to Montreal, this was my first trip outside the United States. The trip to Israel planted two more seeds in my head. First, I knew that, one day, I would travel with my children to Israel (not that I would really admit at that point that I actually wanted children). Second, I knew that, more generally, I loved to travel and see new places in the world. The family trip to Israel more than three decades ago was thus the first step in my never-ending global wander-lust, which took me behind the Iron Curtain in 1987, across Scandinavia and north of the Arctic Circle in 1989, from Dublin to Marrakesh in 1994, and from Accra to Dehli in 1999. On the last of these adventures, my parents met Eden and me in Turkey and we had the trip of a lifetime in Istanbul, Cappadocia and the Mediterranean coast.

I will never forget the moment in January of this year when I told my parents that we were quitting our jobs, selling the house and cars, taking the kids out of school, and traveling around the world for a year - again. My father had to leave the room to get some air. It took a while for my mom to catch her breath as well, but she told me she was proud of us for being adventurous and for following our own path. And, most importantly to me, they said they would visit us in Israel in the fall and in France next summer. Woohoo!

I can't recall all the details of our family trip to Israel, but I have some very fond and vivid memories - of discovering felafel, of Jerusalem's Old City and the Western Wall, of sticking my hand in the Dead Sea (I was too freaked out by how salty it was to go swimming), and of walking up the ramp to Masada. It was a thrilling adventure - exotic, beautiful, and with a strong feeling of connection to my Jewish heritage and identity. Here are some pictures my parents dug out of the old family albums (when my children saw these, they were surprised to learn that we had cameras back then!). You'll note my fashionable Dallas Cowboys clothing, which was pretty much all that I ever wore.

Playing with a cat with my brother near the Western Wall

Overlooking the Dead Sea

Exploring Caesarea

Naturally, I was filled with excitement as I took our rental car to pick up my parents at Ben Gurion Airport. After a brief rest at the apartment I took my mother out to explore the neighborhood in Ramat Gan and get some dinner - and just as my parents introduced me to felafel some 33 years ago, I introduced my mother to sabich. I think she liked it - she ate it again the next day for lunch.

Over the course of the next few days, we had a fantastic time exploring my favorite neighborhoods in Jaffa and Tel Aviv. We meandered through Jaffa's old alleyways. We window-shopped and ducked into art galleries and trendy clothing stores. We strolled through the sprawling crafts and produce markets in Tel Aviv and the eclectic, eccentric flea market in Jaffa. We admired the historic and modern architecture - my mom and I are kindred spirits in our fascination with different architectural styles, movements and schools of thought. We gazed at the Mediterranean. We stopped on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv to eat lunch at Batia's, an old school restaurant where they serve food my father's grandmother used to make, like gefilte fish (nothing like the stuff you get in a jar), varenikes, kneidalach, and chicken "puppiks." We ate a delicious dinner at an Arab restaurant in Jaffa, where my father discovered how much he likes good hummus. And, of course, we went to the playground and to our kids' favorite mall to go shopping for toys and to satiate Jeremy's urge for sushi.

View of the beach and Old Jaffa


Enjoying Old Jaffa

Atmospheric Old Jaffa

Heading towards the Old Jaffa port

Old Jaffa port

St. Peter's Church in Old Jaffa

At the Jaffa flea market - need a large metal whatchamacallit or some really old luggage?

At the Tel Aviv crafts market

On Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv

Banana headed figure with fruit-covered car on Sheinken Street in Tel Aviv

Quaint house in the Yemenite Quarter in Tel Aviv

Bauhaus architecture in Tel Aviv

More interesting architecture in Tel Aviv

Skyscraper in Tel Aviv

At the playground in Jaffa (with mosque in background)

Grandma and Talia

Grandma and Jeremy

We also visited Beit Hatfutsot, the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora, on the Tel Aviv University campus in Ramat Aviv. This impressive museum contains numerous exhibits and multimedia presentations on the history and culture of the Jewish people. Among other things, there were short films on the history of Jews in Fez, Morocco and on shtetl life in Poland before the Holocaust; miniature models of synagogues from all over the world (some of which were destroyed during the Holocaust), along with several life-size interior replicas; a slide show documenting Jewish contributions to literature and the arts; and extensive exhibits explaining the history of Jewish communities from Spain to Syria to China. And it's one of the few museums in Israel where you're allowed to take pictures inside:


Replica of relief showing Romans sacking the Second Temple in Jerusalem (original is in Rome)

Replica of painted ceiling from synagogue in Chodorow, Ukraine (formerly Poland) (original destroyed)

Replica of interior of Sinagogo El Transito in Toledo, Spain (original is now a museum)

Part of an exhibit on Jewish immigration to Israel

In addition to the local sights, we spent a day touring in Haifa. We went to the Baha'i Gardens, an enormous, immaculate terrace of gardens and monuments that is a holy site for the Baha'i religion, which originated in Persia in the middle of the 19th century. The gardens contain the famous gold-domed Shrine of the Bab, which houses the remains of Ali Muhammad, whose teachings inspired Mizra Hussein Ali (called the Baha'ullah) to establish the Baha'i religion. The dome is unfortunately under restoration until early 2012, but the gardens, and the views of Haifa, are stunning.

We then relaxed in the historic and fashionable German Colony, which was established in Haifa in 1868 by the German Templers, a Protestant sect that believed settling in Palestine would hasten the coming of Christ. I don't think the Templars would approve of all the establishments for drinking and smoking the nargileh (Middle Eastern water pipe) in their former digs.

We also drove up to the Stella Maris Carmelite Monastery for another fabulous panorama. The Carmelites are a Catholic order that originated in the late 12th century when a group of Crusaders, inspired by the prophet Elijah, settled in caves on the slopes of Mt. Carmel (hence their name) to lead a hermetic life. The monastery presently on the site dates to 1836. The previous monastery was used as a French army hospital during Napoleon's unsuccessful attempt to capture Akko and was destroyed by the Ottomans after Napoleon's retreat. (To read our post on our visit to Akko, click here.)

We concluded our touring in Haifa with a delicious mid-afternoon feast at Jeremy's favorite Chinese restaurant in Israel.