Old City

Horowitz Travel- Israel- Jerusalem-Old City-January 15, 2017

Having figured out the bus system, we decided to walk to the Old City. It was only 1.5 miles & the sun was out. Although the high was around 54 degrees, I layered with Under Armor & earmuffs.

We happened on the Montefiore Windmill then stopped at the King David Hotel to pick their brains on distances & sites. Even though we told them we weren't staying there, they were most gracious with help, a map, & lunch suggestions.

We took Mamilla Mall, a trendy upscale street where you'd recognize the store names. Our choice for lunch was mine to make. I'd forgotten how anxious David gets making food decisions, so I took over that job. We ate at Rimon where David had fish & chips. That sounds pedestrian, but this was a delicately battered trio of salmon, tuna, & trout. I looked at what the woman next to me was having & said, to quote "When Harry Met Sally, "I'll have what she's having." It was julienne sweet potato & halloumi cheese concoction on a bed of cucumbers, tomatoes, & spinach.

We had a bird's eye view of the mall & people watched as we ate. There is no rush in Israeli restaurants. No one will approach a table to present a check. We tried to figure out who were Muslim women & who were Orthodox Jewish women. I'd like the concession on black tights & scarves. Both items are worn by some women in both groups.

Emerging from modern Mamilla, we scaled steps to be confronted with a woman screaming about how Jesus saved her. Watching as they walked past were women in hijabs, & ultra orthodox Jewish men with big black hats, tzizit (fringes of prayer shawls), & payot (long side curls). Behind it all, was the wall of the Old City with minarets & domes barely visible.

We ran the David St. gauntlet of vendors trying to entice us into their shops with offers of "good prices." It's the main drag down to the Western Wall which is where we were headed.

We waited for what looked like a platoon of soldiers to pass before we could get in line for security at the Wall. David went to the men's side of the Wall with a note/prayer to place between the stones while I waited. That done, we went to an exit into the Jewish Quarter. As we dithered about how to get through that quarter (there's no direct route) a woman greeted us with a big "hello." It was Jen Chestnut, a Hillel regional director from Akron who was there with a Hillel Birthright group. She is married to Sam Chestnut, the director of the Lippman School (a multi-cultural school teaching Jewish values) where our grandkids go/went. It's amazing how often people run into folks from home here.

The Jewish Quarter was a challenge. The streets wend, wind, & end haphazardly. Typical Medieval maze, but older. We came upon remnants of a wall that was accidentally found while digging for another reason. It's dated at 2600 BCE, the Israelite Tower from 586 BCE, & the Ramban  Synagogue founded by Nahmanides in 1267. He came all the way from Moorish Spain at a time when Jews flourished there.  Not to leave out Rome, The Cardo, an old Roman road has columns in evidence & is still in use as a street.

It was time to head back, but we needed to sit & sip coffee. Aroma Cafe called our name. Coffee houses here serve food as well, but we just had cafe Americanos. Two women from New York sat next to us, & we chatted about their plans. The younger one had worked for Michael Bloomberg 17 years ago. We thought we were on the same page. Then we got into American politics, & they assured us they were Republicans. They were Kasich fans but voted for Trump. Oy! We disagreed on what was good for Israel & the Clintons with fervor but respectful dialogue. One woman mentioned that Reform Jews weren't that informed about Israel. We objected. She accused us & Reform Jews of not caring about Israel, only social issues. They were social liberals, but voted for whomever they thought would make Israel strong. Their theory was that Trump would make a deal with Putin to take over Syria, then Putin would exert pressure for a peace between Israel & the Palestinians. I told her I hoped that would end up better than when Chamberlain gave Hitler the Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia. She paused & agreed. The end of friendly disagreement came when they rose to leave, & one said that Obama should not have abstained at the UN, but what can you expect from a Muslim. We should have been speechless, but managed to let her know that the conversation was over & that we wouldn't listen to her idiocy. Oy! Oy!

Still recovering from our encounter, we continued our walk back to the apt. We weren't hungry, but thought soup would hit the spot. Caffit was it. It's a pleasure to have an ice-free pitcher of water brought to the table without asking. David had an atomic level spicy tom yum, which he loved. I had an extra bland Persian lentil soup which I wouldn't order again.

At the apt. we got the joyous news that friends at home just had a baby boy. And we know where to get a new baby card here!

Toby

Montefiore Windmill

Western Wall

Cold

Horowitz Travel- Israel-Jerusalem of course- January 14, 2017

It's cold. I'm cold. David's cold. I'm layered. My favorite places are in the shower or in bed under a down comforter. We walk, I warm up. We come back, turn the wall heaters up, but I'm still cold. Turning on the central system is extravagant. As I write this I'm listening to an Al Jazeera report on the Syrian refugees. I think I'll shut up now.

We started Shabbat last night by walking to the synagogue, Kol Ha Neshamah,  a progressive (Reform) congregation, where we were meeting our friends. We weren't alone. Most of the populace joined us each going to whatever synagogue met their needs.

Tour groups are not uncommon during services. Last night there were young people from Kentucky & Buffalo, NY. There were two nuns in attendance as well. I'm told they're there every week. They belong to an order that rotates nuns to Jerusalem yearly & they tend to like Jewish worship.

The service was primarily led by a guitar playing young man under the direction of the rabbi. I was told that there are 40 rabbis who belong to that congregation. Lots of American retirees. I thought it would be easy for me to participate, but, although the words were the same, the tunes were entirely different than I'm used to. It threw me to the point where I almost didn't recognize most of them. On the two occassions I could join in, I was relieved.

After services, the Stuart & Ellyn drove us to the Terri & Ron's. Their townhouse is multi-level with each tier overlooking the Old City. During a sumptuous dinner, we had time to exchange opinions and bring each other up to date. We didn't cheer each other up. Things here have gotten to the point where an option of a two-state solution is an old pipe dream, and a one state solution is seen as untenable by both right and left. Limbo isn't a comfortable place to be. Our friends were protesting the building of a new settlement when they asked about the Arab construction workers. The supervisor told them that politics aside, the men needed jobs.  But our friends said that the most discussed topic among their peers is the economy, not terrorism or survival. For those who look forward to Netanyahu being indicted or stepping down, be careful what you wish for. We were told that his successor is likely to be worse. The Jerusalem Post thinks Trump is a savior, and David has taken to watching news on Al Jazeera, not CNN. I left there feeling that Israel was in danger of losing its moral compass. The terror attacks are real, but some types of retaliation can cross the line.

David was determined to start the day in the morning. He set the alarm for 9:00AM, & I actually woke up. We were on our way by foot to the Islamic Museum of Art in no time. Although streets in our immediate neighborhood are level, everywhere else is uphill. We followed a combination paper map (they still exist) and directions from Mapquest. The streets were crowded with people dressed in dark colors returning from worship. There were lots of strollers, children, & dads carrying brightly colored scooters.  Because of the prohibition of driving on the Sabbath, there were few moving cars, no buses, few cabs, & cats. It was a city walker's paradise.

We spent 2 1/2-3 hours at the museum. One of my favorite things was that this museum of Islamic Art in Jerusalem was festooned with mezuzahs (look it up if you don't know) on every doorpost.

It is organized chronologically by room, but within each room there is confusion. Hebrew is written & read right to left as is Arabic. English is the reverse. Explanations were written in all three languages. In setting up the exhibits, the dilemma must have been whether to place the placards in alignment with English or the other languages. They did both. Sometimes we viewed objects first, then the information; sometimes not. We never figured out where to start in a room: to go right or left around the room. After dutifully following the cases around one area we realized the "beginning" was in the far right corner of the room.

Our knowledge of Islamic history is limited. We didn't know that the division of Suni/Shiite started soon after Muhammad's death in 632 CE/AD. It's a family feud. It's the story of many religions: expand; conquer to expand; conquer by intimidation/conversion; war worked best.

The lower level of the museum has an interesting clock exhibit starting with ancient timepieces & going to elaborate creations of French royalty. Muslims have time bound and directional requirements for prayer. They devised small, pocket-sized (did they had pockets?) combo sundial/compasses for that purpose. The ones on display were ornate gold pieces. It made me marvel once again that I was carrying a computer in my purse.

Lunch was back at the apt. A first. Just soup & tuna sandwiches. We took turns on line. David figured out the bus web site & is ready to tackle the public transportation system tomorrow.  I found that if I pulled a chair up to a wall heater it was cozy. I closed my eyes and listened to strains of magnificent piano playing echoing in the hall. Shabbat was over. It sounds as if our neighbor is a professional pianist & listening to him/her practice is a bonus. Often the accompaniment is that of Stoney, a well-mannered elder golden type mix who barks & wags simultaneously. His people are responsible enough to keep him in during hours when his barking would be annoying.

We walked to dinner through a drizzle & wimped out. We chose an eatery based on proximity rather than cuisine. Bagel Cafe was a surprise. The minestrone soup was the best I've ever had.  The bagels were just freshly made after Shabbat. David had whitefish on his bagel; I had fried halloumi cheese (Turkish), which I've yet to taste. The soup came with a bagel, the halloumi on bagel came with a salad. I ate the soup & salad & took the rest back to the apt.

We're invited to Stuart's birthday party next Saturday so went in search of a birthday card. We didn't have to go far, just to Steimatzki's, a book & office supply vendor. The cards were in plastic sleeves on the wall going up a flight of steps. They weren't in any particular order, but we did see lots of bar mitzvah cards. Taking care not to fall up or down the steps, we figured we'd just look for the familiar Hebrew phrase for "happy birthday to you." Wrong! What we wanted was anything saying " mazel tov." Then we had to read through "mazel tov" what? Our confusion was increased only by the fact that we initially tried to open the cards the "American" way. Hebrew is written opposite of English, & so the books & cards open "backwards" to what we're used to.

Another mission accomplished, another day is done. Tomorrow we'll tackle the infamous Egged (pronounced 'egg-ed') Bus Company & hopefully find our way.

Toby

First Shabbat

Horowitz Travel-Israel-Still Jerusalem-January 13, 2017

It's erev Shabbat in Israel. That's the day before the Sabbath. Jewish holy days begin at sundown so preparation for Shabbat is at full throttle. Most all men can be seen carrying flowers home, beggars hit the streets so people can do a mitzvah (good deed) before Shabbat, & carry out stores (some only open Thurs. & Fri.) flourish for those too busy to cook Shabbat dinner. Everything closes early (around 3:30pm) since sunset is around 5pm. They'll re-open Sat. evening. Buses will stop running. Movies & non-Jewish museums will be open half a day. That may be our activity for Sat., but we may have to pack a lunch.

Speaking of lunch, we have to start sharing meals. We had way too much food today. The tables in the cafe were suitable for a coffee shop, which it was (Ben Ami again), but ours was filled to overflowing. We had to consolidate breads & condiments to make room. My spinach omelet came with small sides of olive tapenade, feta, eggplant, & sour cream. I opened the omelet & used most of it as auxiliary filling.

Two women at a neighboring table were speaking "American." I asked a question about getting tap water & chatted a bit. Wouldn't you know, they were hopeful about Trump. David got a Jerusalem Post in English this morning, & it said that 79% of Israelis say he'll be pro-Israel. Maybe, but at what price? And They could care less about what he'll do to the U.S.

It would probably be easy being Vegan here. I'm thinking that lots of baked goods are parve. That means they contain no dairy. Eggs are possible. Because most people here keep meat and milk separate, non-dairy pastry/breads make sense. Also good for lactose intolerance.

We meet Stuart & Ellyn (they were at seminary with us) at the synagogue at 5pm. So, this is it for today. Dinner is at the Terri’s afterwards. We're all talkers so I assume it will be a late night.

Toby

Orientation

Horowitz Travel-Israel-Jerusalem again-January 12, 2017

I slept until noon again. Don't know what's up. If I was jet lagged I'd be waking up in the middle of the night. Before we started our day with lunch, we tackled the dryer. David hung the vent out of the window as instructed, & we now have dry clothes. A miracle.

We took a slightly different route to Emek Refaim, our main drag. Chose a Japanese counter service place, Kampai. We ate noodles, mine with tofu, David's with goose & chicken. Average tasting, but crowded with lots of after school kids.

The weekend starts on Thursday night since Friday at sundown begins Shabbat. Work & school lets out early on Friday & most stores/restaurants close. School days are a bit shorter than in the States because they go to school six days a week. There must have been a music class today since lots of kids were carrying violin & cello cases. Unless they were concealing Uzis :).

Our mission was to find a gift to bring to Terri tomorrow night. She'd invited us for Shabbat dinner, & we didn't want to go empty handed. We narrowed it down to an assortment of dried fruits & nuts when David's phone rang. It was Terri. She wanted to meet us for coffee.  We happened to be in front of her favorite cafe, Ben Ami. We had 15 minutes until she came. We bought the fruit & decided to give it to her when we saw her. Otherwise we'd have to carry it to Temple with us. Our pre-thank you gift was well received.

Terri is a treasure trove of information. She works for a group that arranges for Americans interested in volunteering in Israel (Skilled Volunteers for Israel). She's lived here 41 years and knows everyone. She's expert at orienting foreigners & gave us a crash course in her favorite shops & eateries. She plans to email us her "things to do" list as well as a phone number for her favorite cab company & basics on bus usage.

Terri painted a picture of Jerusalem that was unknown to us. Her favorite butcher and provider of Thanksgiving turkeys is an Arab butcher near where we had dinner last night. Evidently, being a butcher is a profession passed down in families much like the funeral business in the U.S.  She told us that Israel (perhaps Jerusalem) has a huge Kurdish community second only to Kurdistan. There is need for Turkish/Kurdish speakers to work with them. She told us that the Islamic Museum was open on Shabbat & a wonderful place to spend many hours. We spent three hours with her. When I asked if she needed to be home for dinner, she said that Israelis don't have dinner like Americans. They have a late lunch & not an organized meal after work except for Shabbat. That left an unasked question for me of when families sit down to share their day.

We only left the cafe because it was getting crowded & they needed the table. When we parted I said that seeing her was like a reunion with someone I never really knew. We went to our apartment, put on warmer clothing, & headed for a falafel/shawarma (chicken gyros) place she liked. It was so much better than where we ate our first night here.

Toby

Settling In

Horowitz Travel Israel-January 11, 2017-Jerusalem

Like some people, the apartment is more photogenic on line than in reality. Our apartment was represented as being updated, & it was. But it hasn't been recently. It is showing wear and as with other times we've been in Israel, the workmanship is lacking. For example, they put in recessed lighting throughout, but in some rooms the wiring from the previous fixtures hang from the ceiling. Hot water has to be planned for. A switch turns on the heater & we're asked to turn it off when not using it. There are metal shutters on most windows. They're controlled by a remote. One of them is temperamental & gets stuck. When closed, they look like they could fend off mortar attacks. Maybe that's the point. We do have a washer & dryer, but they're in different rooms. The dryer has instructions taped to it that explain how to run the vent out of the window when in use.

We had a handyman here yesterday afternoon to help us figure out the heat & TV. Reva, the manager, gave us a cursory explanation of features. However, we were never told

we had a central heating system nor were we shown how to work it. We were relying on small electric wall heaters, which were inadequate. I was wearing a down jacket inside. Adding to the problem, all the surfaces, including the furniture are hard: marble, stucco, leather. Good when it' hot. Not so much for winter. Now that the heat works well, we have to turn it off at night or when we leave since it's so expensive.

I took an hour nap while waiting for the guy then we hit the streets looking for dinner. We're 2-3 blocks from Emek Refaim. It's a main shopping street with small groceries, specialty shops, & wall to wall restaurants. We think we'll start at the far end and eat our way towards our street.

After having divine falafel with fixings, including fries, we headed back. One observation: Israeli's must have strong immune systems. The server/cashier was ungloved as was the customer who stuck his hand into a bowl on the counter to sample the goods.

We were barely functional when we went to bed at about 9:30pm.  We'd been awake 34 hours. Somehow we slept through the night. David made it to 8:30 AM. I'm proud to say I awoke at noon.

In light of day the cleanliness is dicey. Why am I the one to find long dark hairs? The vanity around one of our sinks has black moldy stuff around the back. Guess that's why they supply lots of cleaning equipment.

We'd missed breakfast (no food in the apt. yet) & it was lunchtime. We wanted to find a real grocery store for our stocking up trip, but where? We saw a taxi on our street so I asked the driver if she spoke English. She didn't, but her passenger did. There goes my theory of younger people speaking English. We got directions to Supersol & learned that an American type grocery is called a supermarket; groceries are small, neighborhood shops.

It was a 10-15 minute walk, as represented, but we still hadn't eaten. I asked a girl where there was a restaurant & we were directed across the street to the Mall. It was our first encounter with security. We entered through a guarded metal detector, & bags were searched. It's not often we see guards with tzitzit (fringes of a prayer shawl) peeking out from under a jacket.

The Waffle Shop called to us. David stuck to the theme & was pleased with his dish & it's flamboyant display. I ordered Shakshuka. It's two eggs smothered in pasta sauce (I chose eggplant) accompanied with a salad & long crunchy wheat roll. Prices are shocking in Shekels (144) but it's $36. Still costly.

It only took us 10 minutes to figure out how to access a shopping cart at Supersol, & if we could get an affinity card. Carts here & in Europe (Aldi's too in the US) are released by placing a coin in a slot. The coin is returned when the cart is returned. It required a 5 shekel coin. We had a 10. We finally got an explanation that denomination didn't matter since you got your same coin back. The apartment came with a cloth shopping cart on wheels. Could we take it into the store? How do we carry it & push a cart? Yes, we could take it. I figured out a way to hang it from the cart. No one else was doing that. They all had them in their store carts. There were two prices for each item on the shelves. I inquired about a membership card. That took three people to answer. It was determined that I needed Israeli ID to be eligible. We paid the higher price. So, 10 minutes wasn't really long to figure this out.

Now we were cooking. To summarize, it took the same time to shop here as our first trip in Australia, two hours. We bought enough to fill our own cart to overflowing (about $90). Packaging was in Hebrew so it was tedious reading ingredients. We almost ended up with vegetarian chicken patties. Being a vegetarian is so easy here. Lots of options. While waiting at the deli counter for sliced turkey pastrami, I saw a clerk free at the other end. Nope, she only handled dairy. Of course, it's Israel. Different clerks for meat & dairy.

It was time to find our way home. That was the easy part. Our cart now weighed what felt like 100 lbs full, but it was downhill. I walked behind in case anything fell out. David schlepped. I helped toward the end, but he had to pull it up the steps to our flat. Yes, it's on the first floor. Translation, outside the U.S. it's the second floor.

Dinner was at First Station, the old railway station, now a small amusement park with cafes & shops. The carousel was playing "Give My Regards to Broadway" as we decided on an outdoor burger joint (Captain). No, it's not that warm (40-50) but most eateries put up plastic sheeting & use outdoor heaters. As we walked, we saw many bus stops & road signs in Hebrew, English, & Arabic. There is more diversity than expected. Africans aren't uncommon. I'd forgotten about the airlift of Ethiopians decades ago. Their children are Sabras (native born Israelis).

We're living in the German Colony. It was established in the second half of the 19th century by the German Temple Society, a Protestant pietist group of the Lutheran church. They were kicked out of Germany due to their millennial beliefs. They came here to await the messiah after the apocalypse. So, the buildings are that old. It's all beige. As we approached Jerusalem yesterday, I remembered how beige it is. As with the American southwest, it never appealed to my aesthetic. To achieve that look, most (all?) buildings are made of Jerusalem stone.

We're doing a load of wash. Most of it is what we travelled in. So far, we have rotation, water, & suds. Here's hoping.

Toby

Note on Dryer

Shakshuka

Onward to Israel

January 9-10, 2017- Leaving USA for Tel Aviv & Jerusalem

Thanks to early morning transportation provided by Janet Klein, we arrived at the airport in Cleveland three hours before flight time. I know. That's a lot of scooch room. David doesn't like rushing.

But that's not really the beginning of the story. Aside from our last minute frenzy of packing & check-lists, the month leading up to our departure date was "eventful." David was collecting leaves in our driveway using the large city garbage can. Did you know there's a warning on it in tiny print to "close like before moving?" He didn't. The lid caught on the ground, the can flipped, hit him in the forehead, & knocked him to the ground. He checked out at the ER & eye doctor with no injuries save two raccoon like multi-hued eyes. Yes, we know about Arnica.

The Friday before New Year's Eve I was delivering Mobile Meals. I wore boots since it had snowed. I miscalculated the thickness of the boot sole, caught it on the curb, & fell. My hands were full of meals so I landed on my knees & right arm. Then my forehead & cheek bounced off the pavement. I was focused on finishing the deliveries on time since I had a dental appointment at noon to have a tooth pulled. I made the appointment, they gave me an ice pack, & I asked for a discount since I thought I'd loosened the tooth. No dice. The good thing was that the novocaine numbed the injured side of my face & I had to take lots of Advil for the extraction. The bad news was that I woke up looking like a one-eyed raccoon. I didn't go to the ER, but did have my eyes checked. A-OK.

I'm telling you all this in case you notice anything in pictures we may send. David is 99% normal looking & I'm more yellow and green with touches of purple.

Back to the airport. Despite missing the exit from the circular automatic door into the terminal and feeling as if I was in an endless roundabout, we breezed through security with our new TSA pre-check status. Our connection to United in Newark went smoothly including the extra sequestration and security for Israel bound flights. As we waited to board I noticed four scruffy looking men with carry on bags being greeted by the gate attendants then entering the crew door. Bet they're Air Marshals.

There was a delay in take-off due to luggage that was checked in without the person boarding. While the ground crew was looking for it there was time for maintenance to fix one of our seats. It didn't recline. Too long a flight to sit up straight. For some reason I thought it was 13 hours from Newark to Tel Aviv, but it's 9 1/2 hours. Nice surprise. 

We've rented an apartment in Jerusalem for a month. David has wanted to spend time there without being on tour. He wants to wander the streets and "feel" the city. I wasn't that keen to go there or to stay that long, but in a weak moment, after he was diagnosed with lung cancer, I capitulated. 

We slept on and off on the plane & watched the orthodox Jewish men pray in the aisles. The flight crew were quite accommodating and gently moved them as needed. They didn't even try hard to ask them to be seated during mild turbulence. Experience taught them it was futile.

Yossi, our driver, picked us up at the airport. He's a friend of the woman we've been in contact with, Terri. Ironically, Terri was a child in our congregation in Hammond, Indiana. She moved to Israel as a young woman, married, & found David on Facebook. She's been our contact and key in helping us find housing. We look forward to seeing her.

We were met at the apartment by Reva, our agent, who showed us how to use the remotes for heat, window shades, & TV. We promptly forgot, but have a detailed guide book for help. The TV isn't responding & there's no heat in the master bathroom. We're waiting for a repairman. David just went out to get lunch since we were told the handyman will arrive "sometime today."

Toby

Verdict
December 14, 2015

It is with pleasure that I can now tell you the verdict. The man who assaulted us in Arles  on Oct. 8, has been sentenced to two years in prison. Case closed.

 

Toby