IMHO, I would recommend going. Her 10 day trip would be a learning experience of a lifetime. It would show Isreal as it is now, even with the dangers. Given the current circumstances, it may be foolish not to go. Supposed everything bad did go wrong in the future, what will you see of Isreal then? At the risk of sounding fecetious, go now before they nuke the place.
I would trust the tour company would set the highest safeguards for 16 to 26 year olds from other countries. Most terrorist actions have occured where Muslims and Jews travel together. I would think that they would avoid any such contact.
“…Dress appropriately when visiting the Old City and ultra-orthodox Jewish neighborhoods. Most roads into ultra-orthodox Jewish neighborhoods are blocked off on Friday nights and Saturdays. Assaults on secular visitors, either for being in cars or for being “immodestly dressed,” have occurred in these neighborhoods…”
A non-Jew, I am engaged in an ongoing mission to come to a better understanding of Jewish tradition and faith.
I had thought that the laws regarding the matters noted in the quote above were specifically religious regulations having to do with the proper conduct of Jews, as interpreted in this case by the ulta-orthodox sects.
Do these sects maintain that a certain kind of attire, not using machinery on the sabbath, etc, is incumbent upon non-Jews as well? (I wasn’t aware that even those Jews who accept the universality of the “Noachide Laws” believed these ritual particulars applied to the Nations.)
Or is it more–“This is our turf, outsiders stay away!”
No, however, they do believe that it’s their obligation to not look at immodestly dressed women, and they expect that visitors to their neighborhood dress in a way that will not cause the residents to violate their religious princples.
As far as those who dwell in those neighborhoods are concerned, people who want to dress immodestly (by their standards) are welcome to do so…as long as they aren’t likely to see it.
And, for what it’s worth, we’re not exactly talking about burqas here. Just tops that show no cleavage, sleeves that cover the arm up to (and including) the elbow, and skirts whose hems are below the knee.
Scott - this is an attempt at an answer, not complete by any means.
Certain groups inside Judaism hold strongly to the very specific laws about modesty and physical separation between men and women. Going into their area with skimpy attire would be as offensive to them as going into, say, the White House with a bare arse. Typically, these men will not even look at another woman who is not appropriately dressed. When they move out of their area, they avert their eyes rather than look. When you come to their home, they expect you to respect their needs. Fair enough!
Physical contact between a man and any woman not his mother, wife or child is forbidden. They will go to extraordinary lengths not to brush up against a woman in public areas, and I guess they expect not to have to dance around their home turf avoiding “visitors”. Fair enough!
They usually live in very small, clearly defined areas (eg Mea Shearim in Jerusalem) and set up plenty of signs asking you to respect their tradition. That’s not to say you shouldn’t do your thing anywhere else - just don’t do it there. Fair enough!
The same goes for Shabbat - the roads are closed so that people can walk and play in the only open areas around there. Traffic on the roads would represent a major danger, so the streets are closed off. Again - you can drive to your heart’s content anywhere else, just not there. Fair enough!
So it’s not so much a matter of “stay away” but of “if you choose to come here, please do it our way!” Fair enough!
Moe
About tour groups avoiding dangerous areas: maybe, maybe not. It depends on the group, the guides, the agenda, the guards, etc.
My parents saw fit to send me on a Betar trip when I was 16. This was in 1991, right at the end of the last unrest. Betar is the youth group of the Likud party, so they had quite the agenda. Many of the guides wore necklaces of a map of Israel and Jordan together – the “both banks of the Jordan” that God promised Abraham. I was the token liberal on the tour, and I spent the time debating them on land-for-peace, Palestinian self-determination, etc. I haven’t changed much since then, I suppose.
Anyway, their agenda meant that we did a lot of stuff in previously Arab held land. We spent a lot of time at Ma’aleh Adumim, a large settlement east of Jerusalem, as well as hiking just about every hike in the Golan and the West Bank. We also spent a lot of time in the Old City of Jerusalem. We also did the standard Zionist Indoctrination – climbing Masada and Arbel, visiting Har Herzel and Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem, retracing Jabotinsky’s steps at Kiryat Shmona, etc. etc. That said, it was far less dangerous then than it is now. But we had one or two guards with us at all times and it was treated like all of these things were normal and to be expected in Israel – again, their agenda not mine. And we were 16 to 18 year olds, and some of the time had a 12 and 13 year old bar/bat mitzvah group with us.
So in short, some groups may have agendas and she may end up spending a night or two in Ma’aleh Adumim or Ariel on the West Bank. Some groups may have agendas where she spends two weeks traveling between different religious enclaves and institutes. Other groups will have you do kibbutz work to introduce you to the joys of communal life. There are probably even groups that will have you distributing humanitarian aid in a refugee camp. Probably most big groups aren’t of course extreme, but I’d bet most have some kind of agenda. Just be aware beforehand, and in the end it is far less noxious than listening to a timeshare pitch.
