Day 4: Bringing in Shabbat

Cohort X with DUGRI – April 29, 2022

By Susie Kaufman

After a long and emotional day yesterday, we took it easy this morning. Some of the group woke up early to visit the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem. The highlight was a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which houses the rock where Jesus was crucified and buried.

Later we heard from the Israeli/Palestinian rap duo DUGRI. The duo was born when Uri had a vision of how to address the deep prejudices held by both Jews and Palestinians. He joined together with Saz after working to build a real friendship for many months, and the pair have now released three songs!

They created DUGRI as a social venture to bring together Palestinians, Jews and Arabs in a collaborative way. They have presented in schools around Israel, Zoomed into American classrooms, and continue to work towards getting into the Palestinian territories, for which Uri is working on his Arabic. We all hope to bring them to the Twin Cities!

After that, we went to Machne Yehuda for lunch and shopping. We ate all the amazing things and took in the very chaotic and busy scene. Some people walked to Ben Yehuda Street for more shopping, while others met back at the hotel pool for some relaxing! 

We joined together to light candles for Shabbat before participating in a beautiful and special Kabbalat Shabbat service at the Kotel. After that we had a lovely Shabbat dinner full of many, many courses, followed by a song session with a rabbi. What a magical way to bring in Shabbat!