Morgan Pressel's Mission Trip to Israel

By Morgan Pressel on December 15, 2011

This off season, American professional golfer Morgan Pressel visited Israel on a trip that included a visit to JNF's 9/11 Living Memorial, planting a tree at the Harvey Hertz Ceremonial Tree Planting Center at Neot Kedumim, as well as a tour of Independence Hall. Here is an excerpt from Pressel's own blog, as well as some photos from her trip:

Pressel plants a tree at Neot Kedumim.
Click to enlarge

"Then we drove to the 9/11 Living Memorial, which was quite moving. While the Holocaust was a catastrophic event that defines history, September 11th was an event that defines most of our lives. As an American, I see how the event changed the future of the world, and I will never forget where I was on that fateful day. The Memorial is the only place outside of the United States that recognizes the names of all those killed on 9/11.

From here, we went to Harvey Hertz Ceremonial Tree Planting Center at Neot Kedumim, which is the world’s only biblical landscape preserve. The Jewish National Fund (JNF) has been committed to the reforestation of the land of Israel, and we were all given the chance to put our “roots” in the ground and plant a tree. One day I will return to visit my tree, and hopefully see the difference it will continue to make in the landscape of the country!

Pressel with JNF CEO Russell Robinson.
Click to enlarge

After this we left Jerusalem towards Tel Aviv, where we walked the streets of Old Jaffa, which is an important location in Military history, and lunched near the harbor. In Tel Aviv, we visited Independence Hall, where David Ben-Gurion first announced Israel as a Jewish state. I tried to sit in the same room and imagine what it must have been like in 1948, as Ben-Gurion lead the Zionists to their homeland. I had chills."

You can visit Morgan's blog to read about her trip to Israel in its entirety. For more information about the sites mentioned in this post, please visit:

• 9/11 Living Memorial
• Harvey Hertz Ceremonial Tree Planting Center at Neot Kedumim
• Independence Hall

For more information on how you can travel to Israel with JNF, visit www.jnf.org/travel. To submit a blog entry of your own, please send an e-mail with your content along with your name, trip name, and trip date to travelblog@jnf.org. 

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