A visit to the Ayalon Institute - on a school day!

Last spring I took the first level of Hebrew at Citizen Cafe Tel Aviv. There I met a lovely woman named Debbie. This is Debbie!

Debbie is from the U.S. but visits Israel frequently for work. We tried to hook up when she came through in the fall but we missed each other.

 As often happens in my life, especially when I am paying attention, people drop out of the sky and everything aligns perfectly. I got a text from Debbie she would be in town this week on a day that I would be teaching on Zoom! This meant I could meet up with her and her friend one afternoon to be a tourist for a few hours.

We met at the Ayalon Institute in Rehovot, Israel. I had never heard of it before but wanted to see Debbie and always like being a tourist.

The Ayalon Institute is on Kibbutz Hill (if you aren't sure what a kibbutz is, read more here). During the War of Independence, a bullet factory was built underground and operated in secret for 3 years, until the State of Israel was established.

It was a fun little outing where I got to meet a new friend in person, see something new and learn a bit more about the history of Israel.

Here's the overview of our tour...

Our tour guide. After a video we began in the laundry room, where the entrance to the factory was hidden.

More of the laundry room.

Spoiler alert! The door is hidden under this machine!

This is the "back" way down, which was only used a few times for moving machinery in and out.

The factory. Don't be scared, that's a fake person. 

One way to get the metal was to tell the British they needed lots of lipstick for the ladies. It was after WWII and this was a thing in many countries.

Creepy looking in there, but this is the sun room to give the workers some color and Vitamin D.

The bullets were collected in the big milk jugs for sneaking out. 

Guess how many days it took to build the factory? I'm not telling!

We got to know each other for about an hour after the tour. It was a lovely, cold day.

This is a friend of Debbie's, who is a local guide here in Israel. A good one (if you need one ;) )