Written by Fun Joel on January 11th, 2012
The Light at the End of the Tunnel (taken at Beit Shean amphitheater)
I wanted to update you all about the exam process. For starters, I am proud and excited to announce that I passed the written exam! I got the news on the morning of January 1st, so what a great way to start the New Year! In fact, the test was very straightforward, with no real curve balls (
as I wrote previously), and there was a fairly high passing rate.
Additionally, earlier this week I received the appointment for my meeting at the Ministry of Tourism for my oral exam. I will actually be the first in my class (I believe) to present — 9 AM on Thursday January 26, in just over 2 weeks. I feel relatively well-prepared, but I definitely have more work to do in preparation. Both in terms of preparing my guiding, and my itinerary for the day, as well as general prep for the open question section of the oral.
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Posted in Tour Guide Course | 6 Responses »
Tags: archaeology, art, blog, Dig for a Day, exam, geography, gravesite, license, Maresha, Ministry of Tourism, Sidonian
Written by Fun Joel on December 14th, 2011
The Temporary Mughrabi Bridge in the Plaza of the Western Wall (photo courtesy of Flickr user Ariela R.)
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I hate politics.
But living in Israel and working in the field of tourism, it is fairly difficult to completely avoid dealing with political issues. Nearly every visitor has heard things about the political situation and/or sees things that relate to the issue. So they will inevitably ask some questions.
And it would not be right for me to ignore these questions. So the way I handle them is to respond in as objective a manner as possible, all the while recognizing and admitting that it is actually impossible for anyone to be truly objective. I try to relate the facts as I see them, and try to keep my opinions out of things. When Israel does or has done something wrong, I admit them. But when I see lies or misrepresentations that damage Israel’s image, I will speak out against them as well.
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Posted in Miscellaneous | 1 Response »
Tags: Al-Aqsa Mosque, Arab-Israeli Conflict, history, Hurva, Jerusalem, Jewish Quarter, Jordan, Mughrabi Bridge, Ottomans, politics, religion, Temple Mount
Written by Fun Joel on December 12th, 2011
The cover page of the written licensing exam
As most of you know, I took the written portion of the Israeli Ministry of Tourism licensing exam for tour guides this past Sunday, December 4. (For my posts on preparing for the exam see
Part 1,
Part 2,
Part 3 and
Part 4.) Since one of the focuses of this blog is to provide information to others who are interested in taking the tourguide course in Israel, I wanted to fill you all in a bit on this past administration of the exam.
For starters, I will say that I feel really good about my performance on the exam, and am fairly certain that I will pass. Obviously, there is no way of knowing for sure until I hear back from them (probably in another 2-3 weeks), but I’ll say that I’ll be relatively surprised if I don’t pass. Mainly this is because, while I would not say this exam was easy, I don’t think it was particularly tough, nor did I think there was any part of it that was “out there” or designed to screw with us. It was fairly straightforward, and I feel like I was about as prepared as I could be. I can’t really imagine getting a test that would be preferable to this one, which is why I would be disappointed if I failed this one.
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Posted in Tour Guide Course | 1 Response »
Tags: exam, itineraries, license, Ministry of Tourism, Negev
Written by Fun Joel on December 11th, 2011
Look carefully at this one!
For those wondering how the test went on Sunday, I’ll be writing another post soon in which I review the exam. But suffice it to say that I feel fairly good about my performance on it and am just waiting to hear whether or not I passed. Results in a few more weeks, I guess.
And now on to the previous Israel Mystery Photo. As 3 of 4 commenters answered correctly, the photo was taken at the 9/11 Memorial in the forest on the northwestern outskirts of Jerusalem. It is a place that I’d been wanting to visit for a while, and was very happy to hear about even before I visited. I was finally able to get there a few weeks ago, and was not disappointed.
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Posted in Mystery Photo | No Responses »
Tags: 9/11, art, Jerusalem, memorial
Written by Fun Joel on December 1st, 2011
The Geobasics book from Biblical Backgrounds, Inc.
Way back in the first installment of this series, I promised that I would write a post about a specific study aid that I had come across and which I felt was an excellent tool. Actually, however, this post is about a whole suite of products that are available for sale from a small company called Biblical Backgrounds, Inc.
You won’t find much about the company on their website, though who they are is not the important thing. Rather, what they have created is an in-depth and rather unique way to understand the Land of Israel. Using their tools, you gain a deeper understanding of the events of the Bible (seemingly the main goal of the company), but you also can better learn and comprehend the extra-Biblical history and archaeology of the Holy Land.
So what do they offer?
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Posted in Product Review, Tour Guide Course | No Responses »
Tags: Biblical Backgrounds, exam, geography, guide, history, license, Middle East, Ministry of Tourism, study aids
Written by Fun Joel on November 24th, 2011
The cover page of the written licensing exam
In this edition of this mini series of posts, I want to discuss a little bit about my strategy in preparing to take the Ministry of Tourism exam to become a licensed tour guide in Israel. Hopefully this will be helpful to others who are going through the course, which was always one of my goals when I started this blog.
As most of you probably don’t know, I used to work in the test prep field, teaching GMATs and LSATs for The Princeton Review. I did that for many years in both New York City and Los Angeles, and have continued to do a bit of that here in Israel, also moving on to other tests such as the GRE and SAT. So whereas I recognize that this licensing exam is vastly different than those highly standardized tests, I still feel that I have some insight into test preparation methods. And hopefully I’m also correct that it has made me fairly good at taking tests!
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Posted in Tour Guide Course | No Responses »
Tags: exam, guide, license, Ministry of Tourism
Written by Fun Joel on November 4th, 2011
Where in Israel can you find this?
I am truly in full-on study mode now, with my written licensing exam in exactly a month. So my next post after this will likely be Part 3 of my series about the exams, in which I will tell you how I’ve been going about studying/preparing for the exam.
But first, I need to address the last Israel Mystery Photo. As I predicted, it was easier and many of you recognized it or figured it out. And those who did not get it right at least made logical guesses. I hope that this mystery photo is also something many of you will figure out!
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Posted in Mystery Photo | 4 Responses »
Tags: Arbel, architecture, Galil, Galilee, geology, Golan Heights, Herod, Kinneret, Rift Valley, synagogue
Written by Fun Joel on October 19th, 2011
The Old City of Jerusalem
I love lists like this, where people list the top things to do in a certain place. But I find that often those lists are just a rehashing of the tourist sites you can find in any Lonely Planet, Let’s Go or Fodor’s Guide. And other times they list a number of places that barely scratch the surface of the location.
So I wanted to do something a bit different with this post. This is not a list of ten places to visit in the Holy City of Jerusalem. This is going to go a little bit deeper. I want to give you some things to do so that you really get a feel for what life in Jerusalem is like. So I have chosen ten categories of things that will help you feel like a Jerusalemite while also seeing, smelling, hearing and tasting everything that my wonderful city has to offer!
Due to length, I’m splitting this post into 3 parts. Now, in no particular order…
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Posted in Israeli Tourism, Primers | 3 Responses »
Tags: food, Garden Tomb, Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, Mount of Olives, Mount Scopus, Ramat Rachel, religion, Tayelet, Temple Mount, Western Wall
Written by Fun Joel on October 19th, 2011
A band playing at one of Jerusalem's Friday afternoon summer street parties.
Continuing the list:
4. Get Some Culture
Jerusalem has a thriving cultural scene, full of great music, art and crafts. And especially through the summer season (which really lasts about half the year here), there are tons of festivals that can satisfy myriad interests.
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Posted in Israeli Tourism, Primers | 2 Responses »
Tags: archaeology, architecture, art, British Mandate, Davidson Center, history, Ir David, Jerusalem, Market, music, urban planning, wine
Written by Fun Joel on October 19th, 2011
The Shrine of the Book at Jerusalem's Israel Museum
And now the final entries:
8. Go to a Museum
(Sorry, I couldn’t come up with a clever title for this one!)
I’m not sure who keeps statistics on such things, but I’ve heard that Israel has more museums per capita than does any other country in the world. (Okay, when adding links I found that these guys apparently keep such statistics, or at least report them.) And whether or not that is true, Jerusalem definitely has some of the most significant museums in this country that is full of them.
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Posted in Israeli Tourism, Primers | 2 Responses »
Tags: blood donation, food, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Magen David Adom, mangal, MDA, museums, Nachalaot, Ottomans, Yad Vashem
