From David

Hi all,

I thought, while it was a quiet Shabbat and before we begin walking (probably to the Old City) since buses don't run on Shabbat, I would jot down a few thoughts of my own.  Toby is doing a fantastic job of keeping you abreast of what is happening in our lives in Israel, so I will not try to duplicate her excellent accounts.

I have wanted to come here for a long time and since having the lung surgery in May, Toby has been a great support in making this happen.  Despite our illnesses here, she has kept moving and sharing every bit of this experience with me.

I wanted to walk to streets of Jerusalem, shop where Israelis shop, eat where Israelis eat, ride the buses as Israelis do, and see new things and that which has changed since our last visit more than 20 years ago.

With Toby, I have done all that.  We have prayed with Israelis at the prominent progressive synagogue, purchased a ravkav (a prepaid multi-line bus and light rail pass) to travel like natives, struggled with my poor spoken Hebrew, relaxed as many around us spoke English, and walked more than you might imagine.

In some ways, being in Jerusalem is like living in a wonderful Jewish camp. Rarely do we eat anywhere that is not kosher (though that's possible, especially in the Christian quarter of the Old City). By 4:00 PM erev Shabbat, pretty much other than the Old City and walking trails, all are shut down.  In the evening you pass people in the dark, wish them "Shabbat shalom," and hear the greeting returned in kind.  It is quiet on Shabbat, fewer cars and the sound of children playing and people talking as they walk along the streets.  Within an hour after sundown on Saturday night, all is bustling again as it was the day before with buses running and restaurants serving.  It is truly Shabbat here.

At my age, I may never return to Israel again.  This experience has, however, fulfilled what I needed.  To feel like I have lived in Israel, if not but a short time.  Shabbat shalom.

David

Making Memories

Horowitz Travel- Israel-Jerusalem-Good Bye-February 6, 2017

I didn't think this would be hard to write. After all, the motivation for this trip wasn't the best. David's diagnosis and his feeling of mortality exerted its influence so he felt compelled to make his dream of living in Jerusalem a reality. That was not my wish, but, under the circumstances, I agreed.

David's dream came to fruition. To my surprise, I was seduced into his fantasy and found it to be enlightening, educational, meaningful, & heartwarming. I didn't know we were as resilient as we are pushing forward through illness to accomplish what we'd set out to do.

We renewed friendships, enlarged our vistas, navigated a new culture, & grew closer with each other and the land. Our brains are addled with the confusion of prejudice, hatred, & cooperation as enemies live side by side. Solutions are many. Likely ones are few. Our friends feel relief that their children weren't killed or wounded in the last war, but fear that peace won't come in time for their grandchildren to be spared.

We leave early tomorrow for the airport and our long journey home. We'll need time to process it all. I'm sure we will be overcome with domestic issues on our return. Hopefully, our memories will stay with us long enough to inform what we face.

Thank you for being faithful readers.

Toby

A Fractured Dream

A Lesson

Horowitz Travel-Israel-Jerusalem-Law-February 5, 2017

We got to the Supreme Court too early for the tour, but had a chance to walk over the pedestrian bridge to Cinema City. It's a high-rise movie multiplex built around a shopping mall with restaurants. We sipped coffee at McDonald’s & plotted where we'd eat lunch.

The first order of business before our tour was checking out the bathrooms. I found them & also the way to the bomb shelter. Steel doors with crank closings like on a submarine added a sense of security & spookiness.

We were handed an overview of the courts in English from a rack with several different languages. I didn't recognize one. It was Ethiopian. Of course. Our guide was from France but had been in Israel 30 years. As the only two on the tour, he gave us his undivided attention for 1 1/2 hours. My brain runneth over.

The Israeli justice system borrows from Ottoman (Shariah) law (after 400 years of occupation), British law (end of WWI until 1948), & Jewish law. The austerely modern building of planes and circles reflects the philosophy that the law is rigid & man made (straight lines), but justice comes from the heavens (circular windows admitting light).

They opted not to use a jury system preferring professionals to render decisions. Everyone is entitled to representation regardless of whether or not they're citizens. The court is three-tiered. The Magistrate is the lower court. Appeals go from there to the District Court. From there one can appeal to the Supreme Court. If there is a human rights question or case against the government, a case can skip the lower courts & go right to the Supremes. The plaintiff does not need standing to bring a complaint. The guide said the justices tend to be liberal & are frequently in battle with the Orthodox rabbis & Netanyahu. Thus, the Israeli Supreme Court hears 10,000 cases a year as opposed to our Supreme Court hearing around 100.

We diverged from the tour when we started to talk about the political situation in Israel. The guide was as discouraged as we. The two state solution seems to be dead. The settlements are bad, but he said it's a sideshow the world is using as a diversion. Even if settlement building stopped & land was returned, Palestinians still wouldn't recognize the legitimacy of the State of Israel. And he isn't religious. Not even a kippah wearer.

He asked where we were from. He recognized Cleveland as the home of Demjanjuk who was deported to Israel to be tried for crimes as a Nazi collaborator . The conviction was overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court, & he was released. That's when Germany stepped in, tried, & convicted him. He died in Germany while awaiting appeal. The guide had heard of Blatt, the Cav's coach & LeBron. Couldn't not ask.

We lunched at Cinema City then walked through the Wohl Rose Garden (now roseless) to the Israel Museum. We wanted to see the Goya exhibit on loan from the Prado (just ok) & Behold the Man: Jesus in Israeli Art. Jews not accepting Jesus as Savior has been a source of anti-Semitism for centuries. In this exhibit, he is portrayed as the Jew & catalyst he was. Provocative.

If our bus ride back to the apartment had been our first here, we would have never gotten on another bus again. The driver was jerky & swerved more than usual. We both were nauseated at the end and glad to get off. We'd planned on coffee and a pastry before we walked home from the bus stop, but skipped it.

Tomorrow we meet Ellyn & Stuart for lunch then pack.

Toby

Being Flexible

Horowitz Travel-Israel-Jerusalem-Meandering-February 4, 2017

Change of plans. During breakfast we got a text from Janet, our son's partner. She's in California at a conference. She is a prof in the history department at Akron U & specializes in Turkish-Kurdish history & minority cultures. The Middle East is of special interest. Back to the text. She was with a colleague, Bedross, who has an intimate knowledge of cuisine in Jerusalem. She sent us some restaurant recs in the Armenian & Muslim quarters. We Googled them & couldn't resist.

Better than taking a cab to the Israel Museum, we walked to the Old City AGAIN. Being Shabbat, we didn't know what we'd find except that something will always be open due to the three main religions having different Sabbaths. And tomorrow the Christian, thus Armenian, restaurants would be closed.

The park on the way was filled with tour groups from Asia, India, & the US. Arab families (be they Israeli Palestinians or not) were out in force. Orthodox Jews or secular pushed strollers. All enjoyed the fresh air, sunshine, & camaraderie. If it wouldn't have been rude, I'd have taken a picture of the Arab woman & child swinging next to a man in a kippah pushing his son.

In the Old City it was the same. The Jewish quarter stores were closed, but the ones on King David, the main street, were open. They're run by Arabs. But people didn't stay in their "quarters." I don't even think living accommodations & worship venues are that severely segregated. They rubbed shoulders, did business, ate side by side, & enjoyed each other's cuisines. Damn! It was peaceful co-existence on parade.

We did get to the suggested restaurants in the Armenian quarter. The first, Bulguri, was closed due to a tour group. The Armenian Tavern was where we ended up. It's in an ancient stone cellar decorated with an ostentatious array of Orthodox incense burners, lamps, weavings, art, ceramics, jewelry, & murals. The men at the neighboring table were from Greece & here to work on a church restoration. The dominant language in the quarter was Greek. As Theodora, I felt at home. We ordered their version of baba ganoush & sampler plates. It included basturma (dried pastrami-like beef), soujuk (beef sausage), kubbeh (fried cracked wheat balls stuffed with ground beef), lahmajun (thin bread rolled around ground beef & tomato sauce).  Everything was lovely.

We stayed in the Armenian quarter & followed groups here and there. We ended up walking out the Zion Gate which we've never seen. That's when the white rabbi(t) appeared. He was an Orthodox Jew in all white Shabbat garb including a large white fur shtreimel. That's a big round fur  hat (think Fiddler on the Roof). So, we followed the white rabbit.

He led us to the purported David's Tomb. As David said, if it was really proven to be King David's tomb, the Israeli government would have made a big fuss about it. Meanwhile, it's never been on any tour we've heard of. The "tomb" was a synagogue divided between men & women where each had a portion of the shroud-draped casket at which to pray. Pretty idolatrous .

We headed for what is "purported" by Christian tradition (so said the sign) to be the Upper Room where Jesus had the Last Supper. Who knew? It looked like a Gothic church space with some stained glass accents. There was a large Asian tour group present. They formed a circle, held hands, & began to sing a Christian song in their language. Then they crossed themselves. I found the leader/priest who spoke enough English to tell us they were Korean.

And outside was our white rabbit wending his way down another narrow corridor into Wonderland. But wait. We now picked up the trail of a black robed & hooded man who could have been a member of the dark-ops KKK, Darth Vader, or an Armenian priest. His path led to St. James Armenian Church, one of the oldest in the area. We heard singing, so gingerly pushed aside a quilted flap & peeked in. A service was in progress. It was a gorgeous ornately decorated sanctuary with a heavenly choir. We were going with the moment until they brought out the incense. Couldn't take the fumes.

We strolled into the Muslim Quarter where they were still selling Christian & Jewish wares, turned down a lane of shops catering to locals And There He Was. Our white rabbit had found us! Eventually, we extricated ourselves from the dark alleys, lanes, & looming walls and burst into the open at the Jaffa Gate. It was a re-birth into the now .

We covered a lot of territory today but couldn't see it all. We missed Our Lady of the Spasm & the Monastery of the Flagellation. I’m not joking. They’re highlighted on our map.

Tomorrow the Supreme Court, perhaps.

Toby

Armenian Tavern

Sample Platter

Old City Shoppers

Armenian Church

Count Down

Horowitz Travel-Israel-Jerusalem-Good byes-February 3, 2017

We have sunny skies & a warm-up for erev Shabbat. Had a pleasant stroll with our shopping cart looking much the natives. The temptations of the prepared foods were hard to resist, but we're at the point of having to count days & toilet paper rolls.

We met Terry on Emek Refaim, the shopping drag, & said our good-byes. She'll be away after Shabbat. She's done a great job helping us from finding our apartment to orientation to acting as emergency transport to the medical clinic. What a treasure.

We splurged at lunch and ordered a second cup of coffee. Of course we paid extra, but we were feeling wild. Lunch was so leisurely & extended that we scrapped our plans to take two buses to walk the Haas Promenade overlooking the Old City (Terry had taken us there for the view). Instead, we walked across Emek & explored the walking/bike trail that is all the rage.

In 1892, tracks were laid from Jaffa to Jerusalem opening up ease of access, commerce, & tourism. In 1998, train service ended. Some genius turned the terminal near us into the amusement venue I mentioned in other emails. Two other geniuses transformed the tracks into the 3.6 mile long trail linking a series of playgrounds & parks. It compares to the High Line in NYC as it passes through neighborhoods, is landscaped, & has spots to sit & absorb the tranquility of this refuge in the city. There's even a "Reading Station" with shelves of books that can be borrowed. Several features of the tracks are intact including the rocks and gravel alongside. We thought it would be appropriate to pick up some stones to take to our parents' graves in Florida next time we go.  For those who are unfamiliar with the custom, when Jews visit a grave, they leave a stone on the marker.

Today we joined the pre-Shabbat walkers, bikers, skateboarders, baby carriages, & scooters preparing to separate from the week of work and transition to a day of peace & contemplation .

David went to services at the same synagogue where we went our first Shabbat here, Kol Ha Neshamah . He came home shell shocked. It was a healing service in a social hall, not the sanctuary. There were about 250 people in the room with those who couldn't get in outside looking in the windows. There were six acoustic guitars, a saxophone, two flutes, & a tambourine leading the music &  stirring up a fevered frenzy akin to an evangelical tent revival. The participants lifted their hands and open arms to receive the love of God then lowered them to wash the spirit over their bodies. People swayed & danced in place. There was no room to move; a real fire trap. At one point David thought he'd leave but couldn't make his way out. He found it a happening & was fascinated by the fervor with which the crowd participated. He was, however, disappointed that they never did a Shabbat liturgy. Except for L'cha Dodi & Shalom Aleichem, both at the end of the service, there was no incorporation of Shabbat in the worship. None of our friends was there. David thinks this is a monthly happening & they knew to stay away.

Tomorrow we'll finish up the Israel Museum. Have to cab it.

Toby

Walking Trail

Reading Station

Wanderings

Horowitz Travel-Israel-Jerusalem-LGBT, etc.-February 2, 2017

We met with Rachel at the Jerusalem Open House, the LGBT Community Center. She's only been working there a couple of weeks, but was able to fill us in on their programs, which are many. The facility is on the second floor of an office building & proudly flies the rainbow flag. They serve all aspects of the LGBT community including the most orthodox Jewish & Arabs. There have been Pride parades here for years.  Two years ago, a woman was killed by an Orthodox Jew. Unfortunately, it took her death to garner the publicity for the JOH to take off. This year the parade quadrupled in attendance.

We were near Ben Yehuda St. & Yaffo. We joined the locals in widow shopping & snooping in the hundreds of bins looking for a "find." An Army Surplus Store displayed huge guns in the window. We gawked & wondered aloud how they could sell them publicly.  The man next to us said, "They're fake." They were still expensive & too real for my liking. No orange tips on these babies.

It was too early for lunch, so we stopped for a coffee break & treated ourselves to late morning brownies. The people at the next table were speaking English. They had a three-year old boy with them who was getting antsy & loud. I saw that he was playing with a Noah's Ark kit. I asked him if he had a hippopotamus. Indeed, he did. No, I didn't convince him to give it to me, but he was distracted by my rambling about my granddaughter who loves hippos. His mom & we got into the "where are you from" bit. She grew up in Beachwood (Cleveland), Ohio. Our friend here,Stuart, was her parents' rabbi. She made Aliyah four years ago.

Eventually it was lunchtime. The place we chose was the first combo meat & milk place we'd been in. You had to decide before you were seated & given a menu which you wanted. What if you couldn't agree? We chose meat and had our first bowl of genuine chicken soup. I ordered my Cafe Americano mostly in Hebrew which created a problem. I asked for warm milk. The server said they only had soy milk. Ah yes, it was the meat side. I took it black. The server pretty much told me I didn't want my coffee with my meal. I told him I did. I didn't get it until right before he cleared our meal in spite of frequently reminding him.

We thought it would be fun to ride the light rail to one end of the line then the other. We'd treat it like an amusement park ride. Well, it was amusing. We were shut out of the first train (ten cars long) due to crowds. There was standing room only on the next. It was interesting to watch people pass their ride cards hand over hand to those near the machine to have them validated. The honor system works. There were shouts to open the door, close the door, &halt. Organized pandemonium are good words to use here.

We'd fought our way with long arms and sharp elbows onto the return train. David had to fight to keep the seat next to him for me. In the U.S., we have special close-in parking for people with young children. Here they fend for themselves as they load strollers & baby carriages on board. Babies are hanging from hips, arms, & backpacks as parents balance & text. It isn't usual for seats to be given to elderly or women.

Couldn't resist attaching this deplorable example of religiosity (kippah). I feel ashamed.

Toby

Trump Kippah

Flounderng & Fire

Horowitz Travel-Israel-Lost in Jerusalem-February 1, 2017,

The garbage strike is over. We could tell by the men wearing kippot & hauling trash.

As I was eating delicious butternut squash soup for lunch, I thought about the lack of chicken soup on menus here. Of course, it would have to be in a meat restaurant. But even only one of the Shabbat carry out places has it, & it's tasteless. Since everyone here is sick, I thought that would be a thriving business.

We made a valiant effort to find the Museum on the Seam today. It's in an old house formerly owned by a Palestinian Arab & appropriated by Israel in 1948. It sits on what used to be the border with Jordan. The house had been fortified then converted into a museum in 1999.

When we got off the bus, my directional GPS failed, & we got turned around. Two men seemed to know exactly what we were looking for so we went where they told us. Nope! We walked into a large building & interrupted a lovely woman's desk lunch. She spoke English & Googled where we needed to go. Then she pointed out we were in a municipal building with a Bureau of Tourism. We headed for that office only to walk in the wrong door & be in a synagogue in the midst of an Orthodox prayer service.  Actually, it wasn't surprising. There are synagogues in office buildings in NYC. We did find the tourism office. It was closed for lunch.

We hit the streets again still following my errant internal GPS further confused by Google. Now it was 2pm & 40 degrees. Lunch became more important. To our surprise, we'd reached familiar territory. The Old City. We were really off track, but knew where to go for lunch. We opted for the aforementioned soup & pizza. Our server was chatty & wanted to know if she could help us find where we were going. In all the bonding , she forgot to put in our pizza order. We were actually satisfied with the huge bowls of soup & ate all the lovely rolls before we began our quest anew.

David had sorted out the Google info, the server's input, & we found the correct street. Some kind of police guy figured out which way the addresses ran & we were home free. It turned out not to be what we thought. It was not a museum of the socio-politically marginalized. It was a museum of socio-political contemporary art. We took in what we could. It was extremely interpretive. We spent most time watching three videos. One was about 9/11. Another was about an experiment with mock prisoners & guards in Russia. It documented how the guards who knew it was an experiment turned against the prisoners who were also clued in. It ended when the guards found their humanity, met with the prisoners as humans, & a halt was called to the charade.

The other video was about leadership & how an effective leader is similar whether business or political. What I took away was that people are looking for heroes. Heroes are the ones who come on the scene and do the unexpected & somewhat outrageous. Hello!

We were in new territory so had new transportation needs back to the apartment. We needed to take a train to a bus. It was frigid, & we had to figure out what side of the street on which to wait, but with help & persistence we got to our street. We really wanted pizza so went to a local carry out. When we got back to the apartment we set the oven on warm & popped the pizza, box & all, in until we were ready to eat. David smelled something funny, & when he opened the oven, we'd started a fire. The box had come in contact with the heating element. We grabbed it out, closed the oven, ran the flaming cover under water, & opened the window. At least the smoke alarm didn't go off if it even has batteries. The pizza was unscathed but average.

An observation in closing: Jewish hair. There have been plays written on the subject. It's long, curly, & bushy. Mine is the antithesis. It abounds here. If you know of an enterprising plumber, I'm sure there are career opportunities in Israel.


Tomorrow we're going to the LGBT Open House (community center) to meet with a woman to get a better sense of that community.

Toby 

Museum on the Seam

A Mall's a Mall

Horowitz Travel-Israel -Jerusalem -January 31, 2017

Most everyone at Stuart's party was sick or got sick afterwards except for Stuart, Terry, & Ron. Many use the same clinic we did & like it. Expectations change with time & exposure.

The "emet ( truth): It is a garbage strike. People were protesting the government's not cleaning the streets. Garbage overflowed onto the light rail tracks. Kindergartens were closed & schools were dismissed early.

Which brings me to Malha Mall. Where do kids go when school's out? Coincidentally, that was our destination today. It's three stories & sprawling. The food court is extensive. The food as unimpressive as our courts & in the middle is a two story cage enclosing a play area with everything a kid could want including a seating area for parents. Our table was right next to the webbing. It felt as if we were at a human zoo. We didn't stay long. I wanted to rest before Shaul & Tanya picked us up for dinner.

We know them from seminary days. He was dean & on faculty of Hebrew Union College (the seminary) in Jerusalem. She owned & ran a consignment shop. They're interesting people. She's from Uruguay, & they met in Israel when students. They have two biological children & one adopted Ethiopian son who came with the Operation Solomon Airlift. There are eleven grandchildren total. They're going on a family vacation this summer, but the Ethiopian family is too Orthodox to join them.

Time to plan tomorrow's activities.

Toby

Play Area at Mall

No Rest

Horowitz Travel-Israel-Jerusalem-Israel Museum-January 30, 2017

I read in the paper that more people have a magnesium shortage than know it. It doesn't show up in blood tests, so it's diagnosed by symptoms. Leg cramps are a sign, & muscle twitching at night is another. I discussed this with my doctor & she suggested magnesium was the problem. I told her I'd increase my banana consumption. That helped. But the paper today said that spinach was the best source of natural magnesium. The next were chocolate & nuts. I'm going with chocolate. I bought a big dark chocolate candy bar. No guilt.

I forgot to tell you that we walked through the Tel Aviv shouk after lunch yesterday. It was more extensive than Machaneh Yehuda. It had foods as well as extensive supplies of things locals buy like clothing & household goods. We searched high and low for a hippo but struck out. When we returned to the Jerusalem bus station my eye was drawn to a kiosk with children's books. OMG! There was a primer on counting. "How many hippopotamus do you see? Four." I think Rylee will like the book & can read the Hebrew herself. She can even take it to school. So excited. If she wants to display it with her collection she can prop it open to the hippo page.

Today started with another trip to urgent care. This time it was for David. His eyes were oozing & gloppy, & I thought he might have conjunctivitis. We're washing towels & linens in case. While there he reported his other symptoms. They did take a medical history for him so did a cardiogram. All was fine. I've never seen a cardiogram set up like this one. It had a large halter with multiple leads extending from it. The halter wrapped around the entire chest but was held down by his arms. There were additional wrist & leg leads put on like bracelets. His heart is fine. This doctor prescribed eye drops saying they'd work if it was bacterial & wouldn't if it was viral. She also gave him a decongestant. I tried to convince her to give him an antibiotic based on my experience. She thought the Tylenol with codeine I was prescribed wasn't good for the "elderly" & probably caused me to faint. Meanwhile, that plus the Zpak has resulted in my symptoms improving.  They did a chest X-ray on David & that was ok too. She said we should go home & rest. "We're not 20 anymore."

To give you a better idea of why I didn't want to go there when I cut my head I've attached a picture of just one wall in the facility. There is always cleaning of glass & mopping going on. It's futile given the condition. There's no way to clean "falling apart."

The cab we called to take us there had a personable driver who said we could call him when we were finished at the clinic. We did, & he took us to the Israel Museum. Rest? We're tourists. His English was good enough to have a semi-political discussion. He thinks Trump is crazy. Basketball he didn't know about. We told him about Uber & how they tried to break the taxi strike at JFK. He has a friend who drives for Uber elsewhere & will tell him about that. I suggested his friend should drive for Lyft. Bottom line, the driver fears war either worldwide or regional. I told him we feared civil war in the U.S.

As we approached the museum, which is across from the Knessset, there were blocked streets. He said they were "cleaning" the streets for Netanyahu. I told them that the streets didn't look dirty. After translating in my head, I think he meant "clearing." 

We grabbed lunch at the museum before getting a free audio guide. The audio was very general. We agreed that the Bible Land Museum gave a superior & in depth narrative. The Israeli Museum is a sprawling campus of buildings linked by underground walkways, hallways, & steps. There's a lot of vast empty space &, even with a map, we never wrapped our heads around a pattern. Meanwhile, their collections are glorious. I've never seen as many artifacts displayed with such a completeness in reconstruction. Even the pre-Colombian collection was like nothing we'd seen in Mexico or S. America.

The Shrine of the Book is part of the museum & is where the Dead Sea Scrolls are housed & portions displayed. We've seen it before, but it's still a thrill to realize the age of the document & how identical it is to what we read from our Bible today. There's also a collection of remnants of the 10^th century Aleppo Codex, written in Tiberias.

I noticed some women I thought were Amish & wondered about them. We're used to seeing them in our area, but here? Whoops! Orthodox Jewish. A kerchief is a kerchief. However, there seems to be an increased presence of police at the museum & our neighborhood. Odd seeing Uzis that look as if they're hanging from soldier's tzitzit (fringes on prayer shawls).

We're in for the night.

Toby

Black Mold at Clinic?