Horowitz Travel- Israel-Jerusalem- Seminary to
Citadel-January 18, 2017,
I love hearing your reactions to my emails. My last few have been pessimistic & responses have decreased proportionately. Hopefully, there will be an uptick in the future.
Stoney, the resident dog, is getting used to us. I always greet him, & today he stood up & stuck his nose through the fence for a sniff. Evidently, he liked the back of my hand, because I got dog lickers.
We walked to Hebrew Union College to meet Chaim Shalom by noon. On the way, we stopped at the bank whose ATM generously gave David money yesterday. We waited in line 15 minutes to change some of the 200 shekel bills he got for smaller notes. The teller checked the authenticity of the bills, then gave us what we wanted. Later in the day, a woman approached me on the street asking for change for a 200 shekel bill. I didn't have it & David was in a store. I guess there's a problem with counterfeiting, & even if I'd had change, I wouldn't have helped her.
As I mentioned before, Israel is where the Jewish world crosses paths. As we entered the HUC campus, we ran into Jeff Klepper, who was the Cantor at our friend, Rabbi Peter Knobel's Temple in Chicago. He was also a song leader at the Union camp (OSRUI) in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin where our granddaughters go.
Rabbi Shalom was a most gracious host & guide. The College is built in the early 1960's on what was a slum. It was in a precarious position on the Jordanian border near the Old City into which Jews were barred. The original architecture reflects the vulnerability. It was built as a bunker with thick walls, narrow slits for windows to be used for defense, generators, & wells. The expansion after 1967, was on land purchased for $1, because it was in the No Man's Land in what had been the border between Israel & Jordan. The neighborhood is now considered prime real estate with tiny apartments across the street selling for $4 million. The programs have expanded with the campus from an archaeological center to a full seminary ordaining Reform rabbis. Israeli congregations want Israeli rabbis nowadays, not English speaking rabbis. They want to dispel the image of being "foreign" congregations.
We stopped for a late lunch on Mamilla Mall where we had to climb down two flights off steps to the rest rooms. All eateries have sinks outside the actual bathrooms so the Orthodox can wash their hands & says appropriate prayers before eating. I thought it was interesting that the bathrooms today had a trough style sink positioned between the men's & women's room. Lots of rest rooms here are unisex.
We almost didn't have enough time to tour the Tower of David/Citadel. By the way, the tower was named by Christians. David didn't build it. It's a minaret of an ancient mosque & now a symbol of the Jewish State of Israel. David's actual city was outside the present walls.
It took us two hours to see it all. We took the audio guide and were impressed with the presentation and detail of the exhibit. I chuckled when the narrative assured us that none of the artifacts was "authentic." They're all replicas. They cited where the originals were housed. One was a 4000-year old Canaanite stele found in Egypt that mentioned Jerusalem, albeit as an enemy to be cursed. An artifact in Istanbul mentions the original water tunnel built by Herod in 19 BCE. One display illustrated the origin of the color yellow being associated with Jews. Thank you, Adolf, for doing your homework. During the Mamluk occupation, different color turbans signified whether a person was Christian, Muslim, or Jew, thus what taxes were paid. Jews wore yellow.
So, our day was a trek through time from a present day institution back 4000 years. Our trek continued towards home, but wasn't as orderly. We weren't paying attention & veered left at a fork in the road to find ourselves on Bet Lechem St. That's Bethlehem St. Yup, we were on our way to that famed city. We caught our mistake early on & never would have made the 4.5 mile walk, but I do understand how tourists can get lost & end up in Iraq & in prison. Things are so darned close here.
We'd lengthened our walk so rested at a cafe. We learned why restaurants are crowded with young people. Housing is so costly that they have little hope of owning an apartment. They spend their extra money eating out.
Good news: there doesn't seem to be iceberg lettuce here in groceries or restaurants, & they have kosher chorizo.
Question: Who is in more denial about their security? American Jews or Israelis?
Tomorrow, the Knesset.
Toby
I love hearing your reactions to my emails. My last few have been pessimistic & responses have decreased proportionately. Hopefully, there will be an uptick in the future.
Stoney, the resident dog, is getting used to us. I always greet him, & today he stood up & stuck his nose through the fence for a sniff. Evidently, he liked the back of my hand, because I got dog lickers.
We walked to Hebrew Union College to meet Chaim Shalom by noon. On the way, we stopped at the bank whose ATM generously gave David money yesterday. We waited in line 15 minutes to change some of the 200 shekel bills he got for smaller notes. The teller checked the authenticity of the bills, then gave us what we wanted. Later in the day, a woman approached me on the street asking for change for a 200 shekel bill. I didn't have it & David was in a store. I guess there's a problem with counterfeiting, & even if I'd had change, I wouldn't have helped her.
As I mentioned before, Israel is where the Jewish world crosses paths. As we entered the HUC campus, we ran into Jeff Klepper, who was the Cantor at our friend, Rabbi Peter Knobel's Temple in Chicago. He was also a song leader at the Union camp (OSRUI) in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin where our granddaughters go.
Rabbi Shalom was a most gracious host & guide. The College is built in the early 1960's on what was a slum. It was in a precarious position on the Jordanian border near the Old City into which Jews were barred. The original architecture reflects the vulnerability. It was built as a bunker with thick walls, narrow slits for windows to be used for defense, generators, & wells. The expansion after 1967, was on land purchased for $1, because it was in the No Man's Land in what had been the border between Israel & Jordan. The neighborhood is now considered prime real estate with tiny apartments across the street selling for $4 million. The programs have expanded with the campus from an archaeological center to a full seminary ordaining Reform rabbis. Israeli congregations want Israeli rabbis nowadays, not English speaking rabbis. They want to dispel the image of being "foreign" congregations.
We stopped for a late lunch on Mamilla Mall where we had to climb down two flights off steps to the rest rooms. All eateries have sinks outside the actual bathrooms so the Orthodox can wash their hands & says appropriate prayers before eating. I thought it was interesting that the bathrooms today had a trough style sink positioned between the men's & women's room. Lots of rest rooms here are unisex.
We almost didn't have enough time to tour the Tower of David/Citadel. By the way, the tower was named by Christians. David didn't build it. It's a minaret of an ancient mosque & now a symbol of the Jewish State of Israel. David's actual city was outside the present walls.
It took us two hours to see it all. We took the audio guide and were impressed with the presentation and detail of the exhibit. I chuckled when the narrative assured us that none of the artifacts was "authentic." They're all replicas. They cited where the originals were housed. One was a 4000-year old Canaanite stele found in Egypt that mentioned Jerusalem, albeit as an enemy to be cursed. An artifact in Istanbul mentions the original water tunnel built by Herod in 19 BCE. One display illustrated the origin of the color yellow being associated with Jews. Thank you, Adolf, for doing your homework. During the Mamluk occupation, different color turbans signified whether a person was Christian, Muslim, or Jew, thus what taxes were paid. Jews wore yellow.
So, our day was a trek through time from a present day institution back 4000 years. Our trek continued towards home, but wasn't as orderly. We weren't paying attention & veered left at a fork in the road to find ourselves on Bet Lechem St. That's Bethlehem St. Yup, we were on our way to that famed city. We caught our mistake early on & never would have made the 4.5 mile walk, but I do understand how tourists can get lost & end up in Iraq & in prison. Things are so darned close here.
We'd lengthened our walk so rested at a cafe. We learned why restaurants are crowded with young people. Housing is so costly that they have little hope of owning an apartment. They spend their extra money eating out.
Good news: there doesn't seem to be iceberg lettuce here in groceries or restaurants, & they have kosher chorizo.
Question: Who is in more denial about their security? American Jews or Israelis?
Tomorrow, the Knesset.
Toby
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| David's Citadel |
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| Stoney |
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