June 20, 2011 | 12:22 pm

Actors play doctor in Israel during week-long tour

Posted by Hollywood Jew

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(Left to Right)-Shannon Woodward, Gregory Smith, Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice-Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Sarah Drew and her husband, Dr. Peter Lanfer, Kevin McKidd, Travis Milne, Lucas Neff, Inbal Executive Chef, Moti Buchbut, hotel General Manager, Bruno de Schuyter and Executive Ass't. Manager of Sales and Marketing, Ilan Brenner.

Stars from “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Raising Hope” and “Rookie Blue” were treated to a weeklong tour of Israel courtesy of America’s Voices in Israel and El Al, Israel Airlines.  Kevin McKidd and Sarah Drew (aka Dr. Owen Hunt and Dr. April Kepner on ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy”) got to test out their doctor skills at the robotic surgery lab at Hadassah University Medical Center, using robotic tools to complete procedures.  Seeing as they still are actors last time I checked, here’s to hoping that they were practicing on dummies and not actual patients!

Still, it sounds like an enviable trip for McKidd and Drew, along with Gregory Smith and Travis Milne from “Rookie Blue” (ABC) and Lucas Neff and Shannon Woodward from “Raising Hope” (FOX).  Oh, and Mckidd’s mom, Kathleen, which is just adorable. “This is a lifelong dream of hers” Mckidd told The Jerusalem Post.

America’s Voices In Israel, one of the trip’s sponsors, is part of the Conference of President’s of Major American Jewish Organizations.  One of Israel’s PR efforts, they send American media personalities overseas to experience Israel hands-on.  By touring the country, meeting with political, cultural, business and scientific leaders, the lucky participants can gain a firsthand knowledge of what Israel is all about.  Hence the delegation of some of Hollywood’s hottest young actors.

The actors began their tour in Tel Aviv, stopped in Jaffa, Sderot, Nazareth and Safed, and of course climbed Masada, got salty in the Dead Sea, and went swimming in Lake Kinneret.  This group of young Hollywood darlings spent an exciting (read fun and very busy) weekend at the Inbal Jerusalem Hotel with an agenda highlighted by the Western Wall and Tunnels, the Jewish Quarter, and the not-so-uplifting-but-entirely-worth-it Yad Vashem.  Still, they were pampered with massages and a gourmet meal by the hotel’s executive Chef afterwards, giving the stars a chance to relax before they geared up for the long flights home on Sunday evening.  Smith and Milne planned to extend their stay in order to travel to Eilat and Petra in Jordan.

For a group of non-Jews, they took “Next Year in Jerusalem” at the close of our Seders very literally!

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