Tiyul – Foreign Roots
Thursday 4 December
Our first stop is at the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Centre in Or Yehuda where you will walk through galleries tracing more than 2,600 years of Jewish presence in Mesopotamia, from exile to the great academies of Sura and Pumbedita, through rabbinic culture, and ultimately to the mass immigration of Iraqi Jews to Israel. The museum brings to life daily customs, religious practices, material artifacts, clothing, and folk culture. You’ll also see reconstructions of a Baghdad street and a synagogue courtyard, giving a sense of architecture and lived space. The research centre and archive sections hold manuscripts, photographs, oral histories, and family trees.
We will next travel a short distance to the Libyan Jewish Heritage Centre, which preserves the heritage of Libyan Jews. It offers a powerful and personal reflection of a community that endured pogroms (especially in 1945, 1948, 1967) and eventual expulsion. Displays include ritual objects, Judaica made of metal, wood, leather, as well as photographs and testimony, and a reconstructed “hara” (Jewish quarter market) in Tripoli. A memorial hall lists the names of those lost and documents the struggles endured by the Libyan Jewish community.
Together, these two centres will offer you not only a survey of historical epochs, but a vivid portrait of personal lives, resilience, displacement, and cultural continuity, even when communities are forced to leave their homelands.
Members NIS 190 Non-Members NIS 220
Depart heading south, first pick-up:
Young Israel 08:40
Return: approx. 16:00
Tickets available below or call the box office 09-8330950. Reservations necessary. Online ticketing ends 27 November. Call the box office after that to enquire about availability.
Please call the box office to let them know your pick-up point.