Etgar 36

Sample Itinerary

 

Day 1 – Atlanta

Meet your fellow journeyers – Pay tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King at his gravesite – Relive the horror of the Leo Frank lynching at the site where it happened and see how it forged the identity of the Jewish South – Walk on Sweet Auburn Avenue, the mecca of Black America in the mid 1900s 

Days 2 & 3 – Montgomery and Birmingham

Discuss the courage to take a stand and start a movement at the Rosa Parks Museum – Understand the connection of slavery to Jim Crow to mass incarceration at the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum and Memorial to the victims of lynching –  Learn about hate groups and work of the Southern Poverty Law Center – Relive the fight for Civil Rights at Freedom Park with someone who participated in the protests – Hear the tragic story of the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church while standing in front of the building

Day 4 – Memphis

Birth home of Elvis – Understand how rock and roll helped mainstream America get involved in the Civil Rights struggle  – Meet with a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan and hear his story of how he got into the hate group and found his way out  – Time to explore, shop and eat on Beale Street – Listen to the live blues in music halls on Beale Street

Day 5 – Memphis and Little Rock

 – Pay our respects to Dr. King at the site where he was murdered on April 4, 1968, and hear the story about the events of that day  – Learn about the roots of rock and roll at Sun Studio – Visit where 9 teens started desegregating America at Central High School – See the Little Rock!

Day 6 – Dallas

– Discuss the legacy of John F. Kennedy at the Grassy Knoll – Sixth Floor Museum – Listen to the conspiracies surrounding the assassination of JFK at the Conspiracy Museum – Debate the issue of abortion with members of the right to life organization, Pro-Life Texas and pro-choice, NARAL – Celebrate Friday night Shabbat with Beth El Binah -a very friendly Reform congregation

Day 7 –  Tulsa & Oklahoma City

Learn about the Tulsa Massacre where it happened – Understand the impact of folk music on rock, punk, and rap music as well as on politics at the Woody Guthrie Center – Hear about the bombing of the Murra Federal building at the site where it happened – Go to a baseball game 

Day 8 – Dodge City

Relive our frontier past at Boothill

Days 9, 10, & 11 – Denver and Boulder

Discuss the second amendment while sitting in front of Columbine High School with a gun control advocate whose son was shot at the school – Visit America’s only Buddhist college, Naropa Institute – Learn the history of the beatniks and Jack Kerouac at the Jack Kerouac Institute of Disembodied Poets – Free time on Pearl Street  – Play at an amusement park – Debate marriage equality with the religious right at Focus on the Family – Learn about hunger in America by visiting Food Bank of the Rockies – Explore the natural beauty of the red rocks at Garden of the Gods – Hear the stories of the fight for rights of people with disabilities from the activists who changed America. 

Day 12 – Salt Lake City

Debate the right to bear arms with the NRA –  Tour the Mormon Church – See a concert at a music and arts festival

Day 13 – Zion National Park

Hike and explore Zion National Park – Discuss the preservation movement – Relax at the pool –  Enjoy nature at its most beautiful – Have a Reconstructionist Friday night service outside in the awesome scenery

Day 14 – Grand Canyon – North Rim

Hike some of the canyon and experience the majesty of the Grand Canyon – Learn how to meditate while sitting on the rim of the Canyon

Days 15 & 16 – Las Vegas

Explore the sights of the Las Vegas strip at night – play in an interactive art exhibit called Meow Wolf – Relax at the hotel pool – Hear about the pros and cons of Labor Unions and discuss minimum wage vs. living wage at one of the largest unions in America – Meet with MAGA Republicans and understand their movement – Learn how to make healthy life choices and self-respect with a teen motivational speaker.

Days 17 & 18 – Los Angeles

Understand the power of redemption and second chances by meeting with former convicts as they learn job and life skills at Homeboy Industries – Explore Hollywood and meet with a movie studio whose goal is to produce movies with social action themes – Go to a Poetry Slam – Experience the atmosphere and interview people on Venice Beach – Discuss race relations in South Central – Discuss the power of addiction at a synagogue for former addicts and prisoners – Have dinner with the congregants and hear their stories – Compare and contrast the neighborhoods of South Central and Beverly Hills – Enjoy fresh fruit while learning about the social justice aspect of access to food by speaking to farmers at a farmers market – Learn about the Never Trump wing of the Republican Party

Day 19 – The California Coast

See and play on America’s most beautiful coastline

Days 20 & 21 – San Francisco

Learn how young people can be empowered to create change and the Free Speech Movement while exploring Berkeley – Visit the old beatnik haunts in North Beach and understand the impact of illiteracy at City Lights Bookstore with a man who learned to read at the age of 45 – Learn about Harvey Milk and the gay rights movement in the Castro District – Relive the ’60s in Haight Ashbury – Walk through San Francisco’s many varied neighborhoods – Understand the future of the media and how to be a savvy consumer of media with the Dean of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism – Have Friday night services with a neighborhood synagogue.

Days 22 & 23 – Chicago

Indulge in deep dish pizza  –  Relax by Lake Michigan – Learn about homelessness in America by meeting with former and current people experiencing homelessness – Laugh at Improv Comedy – Hear about the riots of the 1968 Democratic Convention where they happened at Grant Park – Spend time at the Art Institute of Chicago museum – Discuss city and urban planning and the implications of gentrification with the Chicago city planning organization. 

Day 24 – Akron and Cleveland

Experience the turmoil of May 4, 1970 at Kent State where 4 students were killed while protesting the Vietnam War with a tour of the site guided by a man who survived the shooting – Understand the impact of music at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum

Days 25, 26, & 27 – New York City

Experience a Bruce Springsteen concert at the Meadowlands in New Jersey – Relive our ancestors journey to America at Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty – Understand our power to change the world by meeting with American Jewish World Service –Feel the impact of Ground Zero – Talk about the need to combine commerce and compassion on Wall Street – Eat at New York Pizza – Explore Greenwich Village, Little Italy, Chinatown, and the Lower East Side – Relax in Central Park – See a Broadway Show like “Hamilton” and “Come From Away” – Spend time in Central Park – Hear about being a Muslim in America today by meeting with the Imam of the NYU Islamic Center and attending Friday afternoon services.

Days 28, 29, & 30 – Boston

Have an authentic Italian dinner in the North End – Walk the Freedom Trail – Free time in Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market – Reflect on the wisdom of Henry David Thoreau at Walden Pond – Wander around Harvard Square – Discuss economic justice/poverty with local organizations. 

Day 31 – Philadelphia

Celebrate and debate the Constitution at the Constitution Museum – See the Liberty Bell – Free time on South Street – Enjoy a variety of food at the Reading Terminal Market – Discuss how to make human connections across ideological divides with an African American who has befriended members of the KKK

Days 32-35 – Washington, DC

Meet  with The Heritage Foundation about a conservative view on economic justice/poverty – Greenpeace who work on environmental issues – NORML who want to legalize marijuana– AIPAC and J-Street who both promote American and Israeli relations and working in the Middle East – Talk with protestors in front of the White House – Visit the Korean and Vietnam War Memorials and meet with some veterans – Explore the Smithsonian Museums, The National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Holocaust Museum – Walk through the Roosevelt, MLK and Lincoln Monuments – Reflect on this political experiment we call America and democracy at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial