Day 5 ( +6 )

Friday was the day of the big presentation but before we started to prepare at the school for the show, we went to the Independence Hall in Tel Aviv.



On our way to the Independence Hall

We were told that this was the building where the independence of Israel was declared in May 1948 and we got to learn a lot about the history of Tel Aviv and Israel.


In the Hall of Independence

Our guide showed us pictures of Tel Aviv around 100 years ago and there was practically nothing but desert. 66 families started to build houses in the city and they decided what property goes to which family randomly with seashells.


The lottery of the properties

In the actual hall, where the independence was declared, there was a picture of Theodor Herzl, the man who wrote the book Altneuland in which he describes his visions of a Jewish city and which Tel Avivs name and general idea is based on. Though Herzl died a few years before Israel was founded, he takes a very important role in the history of Tel Aviv.

The Indpendence Hall with a picture of Herzl

We also got to hear a voice audio of the actual Declaration of Independence announced by Ben Gurion and when the National Anthem was played, we all had to stand up for it.

Our guide

After that, we went back to school and got ready for the presentation. The musicians were preparing their instruments on stage, while the film students still had to do the last edits of their videos or were just hanging out. The presentation included most of what we had done and presented in Germany, but also things we had prepared over the days in Israel. Some of the new contributions were a music video for the song 'Englishman in New York', a video about about homesickness, a funny video about 'How to see that someone is a foreigner in Israel', and some new songs for example 'To the little Radio' written by Bertold Brecht.

The musicians

Many People came to see the presentation, amongst others the parents and friends of the Israeli students, students from the Ironi Alef Dance Department and even Mrs. Kölsch, a German teacher from Overath who moved to Israel this summer, was able to come out to support the project. The show was a real success and everybody enjoyed seeing what we had worked on in the past months. After we were done with the presentation, everybody had a little time on their own, before everybody met up at the School and drove to one of the Israeli students house to have a Shabbat dinner. Everbody brought something to eat, mostly it was something typically Israeli or international food and we had music and some of us were dancing. Afterwards we went back to Tel Aviv with the bus to another students house who had Penthouse and access to the rooftop where we had the second part of the party without the teachers. The view from up there over the city was just amazing and everybody had a very good time.

Dancing with some obstacles

Grape Juice shots

Yitzchaki praising the food because of Shabbat

On Saturday was our day off, because this is the only day in the week where the Israelis don't have to go to school, because it is Shabbat and the stores are closed. We all did something different over the day and just met up in the evening. So here we have some photo impressions of the Saturday we spend with our exchange partners:







Saturday evening

Friday night on the rooftop

More pictures will follow