From Israel to the world
Long ago we began to enjoy Earth’s wonders from a far more accessible location than New Jersey. Any student of cartography can do the same. A simple gaze at the world map is an indicator of Israel’s proximity to many places that are far less remote from Jerusalem than from the Garden State. As frequent visitors to our Holy Land, we have made many easy trips to places near, fascinating, and definitely worth touring. It has enabled us to be world travelers with significantly less cost and jetlag. Good stuff!
It was all predicated on our constant yearning to be in Israel without sacrificing visits to the rest of the world. Thus, while clearly not getting everywhere on our bucket list, and almost always prioritizing Israel, we’ve been to lots of intriguing places.
One obvious sad note is that the fascinating lands surrounding Israel are mainly inaccessible. This is a tragic loss. While we can, and have, visited Egypt and Jordan, most of the other countries that are Israel’s nearest neighbors are not available, despite their proximity and centuries of Jewish settlement and sites. Places like Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Iran and a host of other Arab countries remain so near and yet so far. I know that in my lifetime, sadly, we will never visit Aleppo or Baghdad or many of the other great ancient capitals where our people built stunning civilizations. But we have explored and enjoyed numerous other destinations that have given us a lifetime of joy and incredible experiences.
We returned this very week from a visit to Sicily, an amazing journey to a land whose Jewish history had been completely unknown to us. It’s a trip we can highly recommend and that is worthy of another visit, since our trip was simply too short to do more than see the highlights. We learned that the island of Ortygia, surrounded by the Ionian Sea, and reached via a small bridge from the vibrant contemporary city of Siracusa, was home to a longstanding Jewish community of between 1,000 to 3,000 people, dating back to the first century BCE and often thriving but at other times subject to waves of typical historic discrimination until the Spanish Inquisition of 1492, when the Jews were ousted.
The Jewish neighborhood was known as Guidecca, probably meaning Jewish Quarter, and it comprised about one quarter of the island’s population. For a time it flourished, but eventually the Jews were forced to convert or leave. Some of those who accepted conversion, known as Anusim, are now attempting to rebuild their community. It’s an incredible effort that we’ve also seen in northern Portugal, where secret Jews kept their Judaism alive for hundreds of years and now have a remarkable functioning synagogue high on a hilltop.
Buried deep underground in Guidecca is an installation of ancient mikvehs fed by fresh water dating back to the active period of Jewish habitation in Sicily. There are also churches that formerly were synagogues. It is, of course, always poignant to visit places that evicted our people. Those visitors can at least pay tribute to the memories of our brethren.
Today you can rent a tuk-tuk and driver and zip through the extremely narrow streets seeing the sacred pathways of a thousand years ago. It is a memorable experience indeed. It was also tremendous fun!
From Israel to Catania, Sicily, is less than a three-hour non-stop flight. In addition to the Jewish history we enjoyed the foothills of Mt. Etna, Europe’s largest still active volcano, and the bustling city of Catania itself, a place packed with travelers from around the world and warm and friendly locals.
A literal high point was the soaring city of Taormina, the setting for the popular TV series White Lotus. It would be an understatement to call it spectacular. It is surely one of the world’s most beautiful locations.
Our Jewish connections have been inspirational for many of our trips. In many instances our communities were respected and admired until they became unwelcome. This is the story of Jewish habitation throughout much of the world. It’s a pattern repeated pervasively. But wherever Jews were, they left signs and structures, and those are what every good tourist hunts for on their journeys.
Our Israel connections have enabled us to travel easily to innumerable European locales, including multiple visits to all the major tourist and cultural destinations and many of the smaller or less prominent places. We’ve been to Malta, Luxembourg, Sardinia, Estonia, Latvia, Croatia, Romania, Slovenia, Ukraine, and Georgia, in addition to Russia, Poland, Scandinavia, Greek islands, and Alpine villages, the French Riviera, and Monaco. It was also a quick hop to fascinating Morocco, across the Mediterranean.
But if Europe seems within easy reach, we have also spread our wings further with trips East to China, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Laos, Singapore, and Cambodia, all flights originating in Israel.
As world Jewish travelers we are not doing anything exceptional. There’s a famous expression, cacha ze b Aretz, which means that’s how it is in Israel. Israelis realize where they live, in the center of a huge world, where they are a small but active cog. At its simplest level of understanding is that the typical Israeli travels to one foreign country each year. Thus in 2025 approximately 9.5 to 10 million Israelis recorded 9.4 million international trips. Impressive indeed for a tiny country forever being challenged by enemies, terrorism, and war.
Arriving in Israel is a thrilling event. Years ago, El Al welcomed incoming travelers with the following stirring words, in Hebrew and English: “Ladies and gentlemen, we have now crossed the coastline of Israel.” This was followed by a powerful emotional rendition of Haveinu Shalom Aleichem. That spirit of returning to our beautiful Eretz is still with us, so why not have the best of all possible worlds with a sojourn in Israel followed by a visit to another fascinating destination? That has been our lifetime plan!
Rosanne Skopp of West Orange is a wife, mother of four, grandmother of 14, and great-grandmother of 12. She is a graduate of Rutgers University and a dual citizen of the United States and Israel. She is a lifelong blogger, writing blogs before anyone knew what a blog was! She welcomes email at rosanne.skopp@gmail.com