For appropriate music for this opening page, please click on

http://ingeb.org/songs/hevenush.mid

and then click on the start arrow when the QuickTime screen opens.

 A table of contents for our travels:

A collection of the photos taken by our Oranim tour guide and educator, Rafi Shushi, gathered for a 7 minute slide show of the source photos at Oranim photos in powerpoint from http://www.jewishadventures.com/tbi/Photographs.asp?tourid=95.  (Click on See pictures page by page..)

To view the online slide shows files, please first download Adobe Flash 9 from
http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash

You may find that Internet Explorer is the better browser to view this site.  Windows Media Player will also support the slide shows. 

Going to Jerusalem 12/18, 12/19/, and 12/20/0606   http://stoloffd.edublogs.org/2007/01/08/going-up-to-jerusalem/

Masada, Dead Sea, Camel Rides 122106 http://stoloffd.edublogs.org/2007/01/08/into-the-desert-dead-sea-and-a-bedouin-camp/ 
 
Visiting Yad v’Shem, Har Herzl and other Jerusalem sites 122206 http://stoloffd.edublogs.org/2007/01/08/visiting-yad-vshem-har-herzl-and-other-jerusalem-sites/
Har Herzl 122206 – online slide show

A Shabbat in Jerusalem http://stoloffd.edublogs.org/2007/01/08/a-shabbat-in-jerusalem/
Jerusalem 122306 – online slide show

Tel Aviv 122706

Haifa, Druze Guest House, Meir Shfeya Youth Village 122606

Tzefat 122606

Tel Dan 122506

Golan Heights 122506

Trip North 122406

Jerusalem and Hadassah 122406

http://www.internationalwallofprayer.org/Index-001-Jerusalem-of-Gold.html

Druze music http://www.druzehistoryandculture.com/

Bedouin music

http://encarta.msn.com/media_461563412/Traditional_Bedouin_Music.html

http://www.radiohazak.com/Shir.html

“We Brought Peace Upon Us”, Peace Child Israel Song lyrics and story

“We Brought Peace Upon Us”,Peace Child Israel Song video at http://www.actv.co.il/portal/portal.asp?movind=168

HaTikvah at http://stateofisrael.com/anthem/HaTikvah.mp3

Our family photos going up to Jerusalem, December 18 – 20, 2006:

Jerusalem122006

(This is a big file so it may take a few minutes to load.  Best wishes with Microsoft Internet Explorer.)

Link to mood music for this page on Jerusalem

http://www.internationalwallofprayer.org/Index-001-Jerusalem-of-Gold.html

 We left Willimantic on a Peter Pan bus that met us in the Temple Bnai Israel parking lot at 1 pm on Monday, December 18, 2006.  It was the third day of Chanukah, 27 Kislev 5767.  After a great deal of packing anxiety and a delay due to the August second war in Lebanon, some study, and leaving our two UCONN guys at home for the 10 days that we would be away, the remaining four in our family prepared for the trip, argued about packing too much, worried about losing our credit cards and passports, and joined the others in our group of 23 on the bus. 

The 3 hour ride to Kennedy airport was pleasant.  At the terminal, we searched for Israir, were amused by the questions the young Israir asked us – what my middle initial stands for – L for lion, whether Fay was our daughter.  We had some time to enjoy the donut holes at the ticket counter and the Chabadniks giving out Chanukah information and sufganiot – too fried donuts.  We left our liquid containers at security and went through the lines for more waiting for our flight at 8 pm.  We boarded without much problems but were on the plane for 90 minutes before take-off – some mechanical problems. 

Israir Airlines, which seems to rent their planes from Icelandic Airlines, crowded many into the plane.  There was a high school class from a day school near Baltimore, several hasidic families with hat boxes, business people, and tourists.  Israir provided slippers and pillows, four movies, several meals, and a screen that showed where the plane was over the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.  Some sleep, mostly watching the screen, reading about getting a spiritual experience while visiting Israel, the airline magazine that included information on airplane exercising, eating dinner and then breakfast, and arriving at Tel Aviv at about 3 pm. 

 We slowly got off the plane and found ourselves down wide corridors to the security.  After about 30 minutes waiting in line, the four of  us presented our passports, told the security woman that we were visiting, and exits to find Momo, the Oranim representative who we had first met in September 2005, waiting for our group.  Finding our luggage was not too much of a problem, the airport offers free carts, and we joined our group gathering for instructions.  I tried using my ATM card for funds but couldn’t figure it out.  It would take some time to convert the letters in our PIN into numbers, but when I got the process, it was too easy to withdraw shekelim at the hotel or at a gas station.  Fortunately, our checking account offers no-fee ATM use world-wide.

Some luggage was lost but most arrived safely.  When we were about ready, we left the building and met Rafi, our guide, Judah, our bus driver, and Seva, our security guard.  It was a cool twillight as we took a group photo at the airport and then boarded the bus to go up to Jerusalem. 

In the darkness of the early evening, we climbed away from Tel Aviv and up the Judean hills to Jerusalem.  I was reminded of the American southwest – San Diego or Phoenix – lights on the  top of hills in the distance.  Rafi spoke of the Jerusalem limestone, Chanukah in Jerusalem, and pointed out the growth of the city in the past few decades.  When we entered Jerusalem, we went via west Jerusalem, passing the Knesset, to the street above the Dung Gate.  We entered the Wall area via the Dung Gate.  I asked about putting a message in the wall and Rafi said we would have time. 

After learning how to say “a-fo ha-sha-ru-tim”, where are the bathrooms?, we prepared to enter the tunnels under the Western Wall.  The tour is described at

http://www.aish.com/seminars/tunneltours/overview.asp

We went on a fascinating tour under the present day Muslim quarter on the streets of the past.  Rafi showed us a model with moving parts of the development of the temple mount, these tunnels, over 3000 years.  There were chanukiot at a doorway that some think leads to where the Holy of Holies on the Temple Mount.  In some places, the pathway was wide enough for only two thin people.  We walked to a cistern in the northern part of the city.  I was very impressed while looking down on a plexiglass bridge to the bedrock 40 feet below – this wall is ancient, mysterious, and seems rooted, as legend says, in the navel of the world. 

 We went as far as a underground reservoir and then returned along the same path, not taking another route that goes under the Muslim Quarter for Rafi felt it was unsafe in the evening.  When we exited the tunnels, we had a chance to see again the Western Wall and the large chanukiah with 5 candles glowing, powered by olive oil.  We headed to the bus and the trip to the hotel. 

The hotels for our trip are posted at

http://www.jewishadventures.com/tbi/hotels.asp

with

December 18-24, 2006
Grand Court Hotel
15 Saint George Street, Jerusalem, Isreal
Tel: +972-2-5917777
Fax: +972-2-5917778

December 24-26, 2006
Ha’on Holliday Village
Beside the Sea of Galilee
Tel: +972-4-6656555
Fax: +972-4-6656557

December 26-27, 2006
Renaissance Tel Aviv Hotel
121 Hyarkon St. Tel-Aviv
Tel: +972-3-5215555, +972-50-5701155
Fax: +972-3-5215588

We arrived at the Grand Court Hotel.  Rafi and I later discussed that it was built right on the 1967 border between west Jerusalem – part of Meah Shearim  is on the hills to the west of the hotel - and the the red roof buildings of the American Colony.  The Grand Court Hotel was less than 2 years old at the time.  Its neighborhood, the Novotel Hotel, was just a few years older. 

The bus was unpacked and room were assigned;  my son and I, my wife and my daughter to rooms next to each other.  Our luggage was taken to our rooms after we labelled them.  We lit the 5th candle in the lobby, already aglow with other chanukiot.  Then we went downstairs to a plentiful buffet dinner that featured salads, fish, homus, barbecued chicken legs, brisket, grape leaves, “cheese” cake, fruit pies, tea … We did not lack for food on this trip. 

We unpacked after dinner and TV surfed, channels in Hebrew, Russian, Spanish, English – with US sitcoms.  Rafi had bet that we would not be up before 7 am and that we would be  leaving the hotel for touring in Jerusalem by 9 am. 

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

I had trouble sleeping, as I do in hotels.  Eventually fell asleep watching TV on mute so as not to wake our son.  Watched a black & white comedy about young Israeli recruits and their training – sort of like a fraternity film with exaggerated characters, called something like “A Small Romance”, translated from the Hebrew.  We work at 6:30 for another plentiful meal – salads, smoked fish, fruits,  cheeses, … The group gathered to start our tour.

Rafi directed bus driving Judah up Mount Scopus, passing Hebrew University, the soon to be reopened Student Village, to the Mount of Olives.  We looked down across the wadi filled with headstones to the Temple Mount and Rafi provided a history lesson on the dynamic past and future of Jerusalem.  There was evidence that the Mount of Olives was being contested – a group of teen-age men hanging out on the roofs of buildings that turned out to be a yeshivah establishing its presence in this predominantly Arab neighborhood.  We stopped at the summit below the Seven Arches Hotel;  there were vendors and a camel for the other tourists that came along, and some local teen-agers who made comments about our group.  The tombstones below were often family plots and collections of bones in ossuaries.

Rafi pointed out the City of David where we would have an afternoon tour and the American Colony, near our hotel.  While he spoke, we heard gunfire.  Seva called and found out that a suspected packages was exploded in the old city.  We took  group shots that would be posted on the Oranim website and shared later.

On the way down from the Mount of Olives, we saw a view of the wall, defense fence, dividing parts of the neighborhood.  One might consider the walls to be like the walls dividing a neighborhood from a highway in some cities.  Rafi explained that they are designed to keep bombers from having easy access to the old city and other parts of Israel. 

We stopped by the Jaffa Gate and walked to the Citadel of David museum.  The museum provided a history of the development of Jerusalem and featured a scale model of the city in the late 19th century.  The gardens featured glass sculptures created by Dale Chihuly. Rafi gave us a history lesson on the changing boundaries of Jerusalem and  Israel and then we walked on the wall of Jerusalem from the Jaffa Gate across Mount Zion and the Armenian Quarter, passed the Dormition Abbey .  I mentioned that the grave of Schlinder (of the list) is on Mount Zion.  We arrived at the Jewish Quarter for lunch of falafel and some shopping.  Then we descended into the Western Wall area and I had some time to put messages into the wall that I had gathered from friends.  The women’s section was far more crowded than the men’s area – in the past few weeks, the women’s section has been allocated more room.  The group gathered for a visit to the City of David at about 2:30.

At the City of David, we saw a film on why this spot was developed – in a valley with some underground streams that might be tapped by tunnels from the walled city above.  We then descended into the tunnels based what some think was David’s palace to the stream level.  Across from the City of David  is the Silwan neighborhood – a community built on the sloping hills of the Mount of Olives.  As dusk approached, we boarded the bus and across through the lower level of Silwan towards west Jerusalem. 

I had told Rafi about the question an Arab merchant had asked me in 1974 – would I want a blue peace or a green peace?  I said that I wanted a blue peace and he laughed.  I had interpreted the question as being on the survival of Israel – blue for the ocean, green for being buried.  Debbie and I had walked up a hill for a view after we had exited the spring tunnel and Rafi had asked if I was looking for peace.

We drove to Ben Yehudah Street for some touristic shopping.  I bought a watch with a design that looked like a jet dropping bombs on a radar station that I showed everyone;  my sports watch seemed to have lost its battery.  Fay and I looked for tallit.  The group convened in an hour and we returned to the Grand Court for lighting the Hanukiah and another very filling dinner and rest.   We called the boys at home and figured out how to get shekelim from the ATM machine in the hotel lobby. 

Restless night watching movies and some sleep.  Watched an Israeli black and white movie on 3 recruits joining the Israeli army, a comedy called “A Small Romance” that was a bit like the fraternity films in the US.  The girls’ camp was adjacent to the boys’ camp, foppish drill sargeant.  Noticed that suicide bombers are called jihadists on Star News – an English language news service for Asia.    

back to visiting-israel-december-18-28-2006/, table of contents

Here are our family photos from Thursday, December 21, 2006:

Masada, Dead Sea, Camel Rides

Dead Sea to Camel Riding at Mamshit – powerpoint files of Oranim photos

In the morning we travelled east from Jerusalem to the Jordan River and the Dead Sea, driving 3 miles south of Jericho.  We passed Quamran and the caves where the Dead Sea scrolls were found and talked about the decline in water in the Dead Sea.  After passing Ein Gedi, we arrive at Masada.  We took the cable cars up to the plateau and Rafi spoke of the history of the fall of Masada in 70 CE.  Steve read part of the speech by Elazar ben Ya’ir, the leader of the group.  I mentioned to Rafi that the history is not clear.  He said that historians had found the speech. 

Here’s a recent revisionist interpretation of the Masada story -

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/portrait/masada.htmlHere’s reference to Hindus in Elazar’s speech -“A most interesting reference is found in Flavius
Josephus. When he is describing the fall of Masada, he
has Elazar say – after arguing for the martyrdom and
getting nowhere – ‘Consider the Hindus who don’t know
God from Sinai. They have no fear of death because of
their great faith and they know the soul to be
eternal. If they can be so fearless in the face of
death, should not we be? When they go to their death
they are cheerful and even take notes and presents
from the living to their ancestors in Heaven.’ This
argument won the day.http://www.jcpa.org/cjc/cjc-katz-f05.htm

The group climbed down into a cistern where water would collect in the rainy season.  The walls were covered with graffiti, including “Kfar Silver forever”.  There was a bar mitzvah celebration in a tented enclosure and we walked from one end of the plateau to the other, overlooking Herod’s summer palace.  The day was bright but cool – a good day to be at Masada;  we spoke of what it would have been like in August.

We returned to the center and to a gift shop with Ahava products – beauty aids that make use of the mud from the Dead Sea.  Then onto the Dead Sea at Ein Bokek -

http://www.einbokek.com/deadsea.htm and the Tsell Harim Hotel for a dip in the Dead Sea, an outdoor pool, and a heated indoor pool.  Lots of group shots and floating on the dead sea, playing with the mud that we got when we checked in.  We changed in large room;  unfortunately, our son was locked in one of the rooms for 10 minutes.  After our floating, we partook of a buffet lunch that featured some soups and snitzel. 

After lunch we drove to Mamshit for Camel Riding and Bedouin Style Hospitality.  I was beginning to feel like a tourist in Brave New World.  The camel riding was a once in a lifetime experience for me – been there, done that.  The Bedouin’s story was narrated by an Israeli, we had tea and coffee.  There were tents for Birthright-Taglit groups to sleep over and then take a walk in the desert in the early morning up Masada’s snake trail. 

As we travelled passed Dimona, Rafi connected Masada with Dimona – the site of a nuclear plant that might have nuclear weapons.  Never again being the theme.  We also talked about the Bedouin and their adjustment to Israeli life.  I suggested that there might be  land set aside for Bedouin to travel up and down the desert – realizing later that I had taken the idea of a caribou strip in the Pacific Northwest as the model.  I felt like an ugly American when I thought of tourism and the Bedouin.

In the growing dark, we travelled around the West Bank to return to Jerusalem.  We were dropped off a Ben Yehudah and the Schwartzes and our family went looking for a Chinese restaurant -  following the custom on Chinese food during the season.  We did find a Chinese restaurant but it was not kosher and instead went to a vegetarian restaurant with Japanese flavor called Gong.  Back to hotel for candle lighting and rest. 

Our family photos of touring in Jerusalem area on Friday, December 22, 2006:

Har Herzl 122206

A day of reflection in preparation for Shabbat.  We went to Yad v’Shem, which has been remodeled to look more like a bunker  with alternating sides for the exhibits.  The visitor enters on a montage of scenes from European Jewry before the wall and continues through a history of anti-Semitism, oral histories displays in each room, and major events.  More focus on the Holocaust on the edges of Europe – in North Africa, Turkey, Greece, Denmark.  Rafi had a microphone and headset and we all wore earphones so that he could talk softly and we would hear his instructions.  Someone asked if the walls in the Warshaw ghetto were like to walls that were being put up between the peoples in Israel.  I asked if there were any influential citizens that had been Holocaust survivors.  A small boy in one of the photos of a concentration camp gathering had come to Israel after the war and became the cheif rabbi.  Begin was not considered by Israelis to be a Holocaust survivor because he had come to Israel before the war.  The bunker opens into the bright light of a rebuilt Jerusalem on the horizon.  We then went to the memorial to the deaths and said kaddish.  On the way out, we also went to the hall of mirrors that was a memorial to all of the children that had died during that terrible  time. 

Har Herzl, a national cementery, where many of the national leaders and many soldiers are buried was close by Yad v’Shem.  We walked to see the graves of Golda Meir and Itzhak Rabin and spoke of their lives.  Then to Herzl’s tomb for individual and group photos.  Herzl’s family’s bones had recently been brought to Israel for reinterrement.  The park also had a lovely Hanukiah on a hill near its entrance.

We went to Mahane Yehudah to pass through the crowds doing their Shabbat shopping.  Live fish, samples of halava, spices, a river of people.  Then to the Jewish quarter via the Christian quarter for lunch and shopping. Fay chose a tallit for her bat mitzvah celebration.  Then back to the hotel to prepare for Shabbat and services.

We went to the German section of town for services at a reform congregration – Kol Haneshamah.  The congregation president greeted us and told us that like most progressive Jewish community the vernacular is  used most often – here being Hebrew.  Rafi noted that the breathing in the singing reminded him of Hindu chanting.  I spent too much time wondering if the ark was facing the old city.  A pleasant service with greetings to many visitors from the East Coast of the US.

Back to the hotel for Shabbat dinner, including gefilte fish and chicken soup.  After dinner some card and dreidel playing in the lobby.  It was the 8th night of Chanukah and some wanted to go to the wall.  I likened it to walking through Central Park from the hotel.  Probably would have been a safe 30 minute walk.  A better night’s sleep.

A Shabbat in Jerusalem – some photos of a visit to the walled city and with friends:

Jerusalem 122306

Shabbat morning after breakfast, we went to the Hebrew Union College for services. There wasn’t much space so some of us had chairs in the doorway until some left and we had seats within. The rabbi spoke of the religiousity of Einstein and space and time, rabbinical and cantorial students led parts of the service, and there was a kiddush in their courtyard at the end. It was a rainy morning near the King David Hotel and it cleared by noon in time to return to the hotel for lunch.

After lunch, Rafi took a few of us into the Christian quarter and to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. We followed the last stations from the mount to the cave. One of our group claimed that her tooth ache went away when she entered to cave and asked for help – a joke that will last for years. We then had some time to shop and our family bought lots of magnets and other small souvenirs for our friends.

We returned to the hotel for havdalah in one of the hotel’s secure room. to prepare to meet friends from Buffalo who had made aliyah to Israel in the last decade, people we knew from Buffalo and California. We took a taxi to Center I near the bus station and met our friends for some pizza. Our friend had married into a religious family and found a home in a new community on the edge of Jerusalem. Her mother had come to Israel to be nearer her children and grandchildren. They gave us chocolates with toys within that was very popular with children in Israel. Our friend drove us back to the Grand Court through Mea Shearim, recognizing the bit older Novotel but not our hotel.

This is a collection of our family photos and other resources from our travels in Israel on Sunday, December 24, 2006.

Jerusalem and Hadassah 122406

Trip North 122406

In the morning, we packed to leave Jerusalem and had another filling breakfast before going on the bus to Hadassah. On the way Rafi took us to a hill overlooking Bethlehem, separated by walls to stop snipers and the security wall/fence.  Hadassah Hospital had been built on the edge of Jerusalem and the city was growing to meet it now.  We were met by a tour guide from Colchester, CT and the hospital’s head of development who gave us a tour of the special precautions in the emergency and the Chagel windows. 

http://www.md.huji.ac.il/chagall/chagall.html

While waiting to use the sherutim, the tour guide introduced us to a young woman who had been nearly killed in a terrorist attack in downtown Jerusalem last year.  She had been saved by doctors using heroic and expense measures to stop her bleeding.  We also were taken to the children’s hospital being expanded by Mayor Bloomberg in honor of his mother and were entertained by the hospital clowns.  Time to buy souvenirs in the gift house.

Driving down the hills on the west side of the Hadassah mountain, we saw terraced farms.  Yehudah found the road to Tel Aviv and we stopped at a dinner that featured Elvis memorabilia, two statues to the king, and his music.  Then onto the Yitzhak Rabin Highway north, passing high walls separating two peoples.  We stopped at a Coffee Express for sandwiches and lunch and then followed the road towards Bet Alpha, snaking through hills with Arab communities.  Rafi told us that last August these roads were closed because stones were being thrown at passing cars and there had been some military actions.  In late afternoon, we entered the Jezreel valley and Rafi discussed the Biblical sites.  We stopped at Beth Alpha to visit the mosaic floors after watching a short film on the commissioning of the floor at Beth Shean by the farmers in the region in about 550 CE.  For an astrological interpretation of the floor, see

http://www.stariq.com/Main/Articles/P0002607.HTM

For another historical account, see

http://www.hum.huji.ac.il/CJA/Index_pres/Beit-Alpha-Mosaic-general.htm

The short film included humorous sections on the concerns of the synagogue board, the negotiations for the commission, and the artist’s discussion of the folk-art, cartoonish nature of the floor.

A short bus ride later we entered Beth Shean -  http://www.bibleplaces.com/bethshean.htm

 (Also known as Scythopolis – the city of the Scyths – according to Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scythians

Also, since ancient times non-Scyths have used the name “Scythian” more broadly to refer to various peoples seen as similar or identical to the Scythians, or who lived anywhere in a vast area covering including present-day Ukraine, Russia and Central Asia — known until medieval times as Scythia. Interesting connection – probably another way the Romans tried to remove any presence of the Jews in the land and interesting that 1500 years later, Eastern European Jews would be living in part of the land that was ancient Scythia. 

The park is dramatically designed with visitors entering through the admissions gate to a view of a city of columns in the valley below.  We spent time singing in the amphitheater, taking photos of the public baths and toilets, date trees, columns fallen during an earthquake 1000 years ago.  Michael Palmer reminded me that he and I sang our own version of ”Down by the Riverside” -

http://www.jccathisnewmonth.org/5768/Tevet/tevetson1.asp 

to test the acoustics from the stage of the amphitheater.  A whisper from the stage fills the stone seats raising as a wall.

On the road we entered the modern extension of Beth Shean, passing the ancient water systems and the race track.  We continued to Tiberias, arriving after dark for a walk along the lake. 

Several of us were fascinated by a thorny bark tree in the center of town, by the Ariel bakery.  I think it was a version of the Hercule’s club tree – Hercules’ Club

(Zanthoxylum clava-herculis) http://www.zombiejuice.com/weedsworth/plants/rutaceae/Zanthoxylum_clava-herculis.html

Kibbutz Ha’on Holliday Village is across the lake from Tiberias.  It features an ostrich zoo and a gift shop that sells eggs.  We arrived after dark and settled into bungalows and prepared for a buffet dinner.  The rooms had showers with no walls and a squeeze-gee for controlling the water. 

After dinner, we had a group meeting to discuss different versions of Israeli flag and how that might reflect our experiences on this visit.  I choose two flags - one of a puzzle and one with a blurry, tense image.  I made a point of describing my unease in Israel – focusing on our visit with the woman we met at the hospital who had survived a terrorist attack, the walls along the highway, the gun blasts in Jerusalem. 

I had trouble sleeping so I invited Danny for a beer in the lonely bar.  There were some Birthright kids around but generally it was a very quiet lake-side resort.

Here are our family photos from Monday, December 25, 2007:

Tel Dan 122506

Golan Heights 122506

“We Brought Peace Upon Us”, Peace Child Israel Song lyrics and story

“We Brought Peace Upon Us”,Peace Child Israel Song video at http://www.actv.co.il/portal/portal.asp?movind=168

 In the morning, we headed north to the Golan Heights.  We stopped at Katzrin – a synagogue site and discussed Elie Cohen, Israeli’s master spy who convinced the Syrians to plant eucalyptus trees on the heights that were used to 1967 by Israeli pilots to bomb Syrian military settlements.  The synagogue section featured a film designed to bridge the sensitivities of the religious and the secular in Israel, a retelling of pardes story of the 4 scholars who entered paradise – one dying, one becoming blind, one not affected, one becoming a heretic.  http://www.geocities.com/chris_holte/judaism/pardes.html The heretic on horseback and his former discipline take a walk along the lake on Shabbat, discussing mysticism, until the heretic reminds the religious discipline that he has gone the limit for a walk on Shabbat. Respect for religious diversity was the subtle message of the film.  At the synagogue site, we prayed for a few minutes.  The girls in the group were very interested in all of the cats roaming in the ruins. 

We then climbed up the heights to the Syrian border and visited Koffee Anan – a coffee shop on Little Avital – a hill with a bunker overlooking Kuneitra across the border and to Mount Hermon.  A Danish artist had made use of scrap metal from the war to form sculptures of funny creatures.  It was windy and cool on top of the hill.  We descended via Banias, a shrine to Pan, and the headwaters of the Dan.  We spent a good time walking in the nature reserve along the Dan and visited the site of one of the shrines of the northern kingdom of Israel.  A group photo of that visit is in the synagogue’s archives.  Rafi mentioned that the Mormons have a connection with Tel Dan – they believe that Nephi left Dan to sail to the New World and become the ancestor of the Native Americans. 

We head down the mountains to Tiberias, where some of us stopped into a jewelry factory but most continued to Kibbutz Ha’on to prepare for a special dinner.

Hamat Gader
http://www.hamat-gader.com/?curLanguage=eng
is a hot springs on the Jordanian, Syrian, Israeli border. We had a Thai-Asian inspired dinner before entering the hot springs – large pools with showers and forced water seats. The group shared some wine, chilled by the December air and warmed by the waters and the friendship. We headed back to the Kibbutz for a better night of rest.

Here are our family photos for December 26, 2006

Haifa, Druze Guest House, Meir Shfeya Youth Village 122606

Tzefat 122606

Druze music

http://www.druzehistoryandculture.com/

The weather was cloudy and more reflective when we woke to the very ample Israeli breakfast with salads, fruit, oatmeal, herring, cheeses.  A last walk by the lake and a visit to the ostrich farm that was closed – with big signs warning people to avoid being kicked by the ostrichs.  We packed the bus and headed across the Jordan at the south of the Kinneret and headed to Ginosar and the Yigal Alon Museum for a look at the “Jesus boat” – an excavated boat found when the lake level receded by kibbutz fishermen brothers and carefully preserved for a display in the museum – http://dqhall59.com/jesus_boat.htm.  The museum caters to Christian tourists who come to visit the local history and shrines – http://www.jesusboat.com/nopen.asp.

It began to rain as we left the museum.  Debbie and I marvelled at the totem pole in the kibbutz’ lakeside garden.

The bus then began to climb into the hills west of the lake in a fog and rain, heading to Safed, also spelled Tzfat – which would be closer to the Hebrew spelling.  Tzfat is a hill city known as the center for Jewish mysticism, Kaballah.  Judah, our bus driver, left Rav Jeremy, Merle, and Arielle off the bus at a crossroads to allow them a short visit with family and to rejoin the bus later in Tzfat. 

In the rain, our group went on to visit to synagogues – the Ashkenazi Ha’Ari Synagogue and the  Abuhav Synagogue – http://www.israelinphotos.com/gallery25.htm .  We also visited a candle shop which cartoonish displays of Biblical scenes and where we bought some havdallah candles.  Then onto the artist quarter, where Danny tried some shofarot but decided they were too expensive and Debbie and Fay looked at jewelry.  The fog and dampness fit a visit to a mystical city. 

In the rain, which was considered blessed for it was the first of the winter season, we drove to Haifa – the beautiful city on the coast.  We drove into the city from the north side and crossed the main downtown and harbor area – passing a skyscaper with a non-angular shape and then up into the Carmel highlands passing the Baha’i Temple and Gardens – http://info.bahai.org/article-1-6-0-5.html.  We stopped at an overlook and Rafi gave a history of Baha’i faith.  I contributed that Seals and Croft http://www.sealsandcrofts.com/main.html , a 70s and on singing group had written Baha’i inspired popular music.

Continuing on, passing Freud Street, on the Carmel highlands to Daliyat el-Carmel, to a Druze Guest House where the owner welcomed us while making pita.  We learned about the Druze faith from a young self-proclaimed secular Druze woman named Ruann. http://www.druzehistoryandculture.com/other_places.htm .  The kids were particularly interested in learning about reincarnation and that the Druzes were limited to only 1 million souls.  We spoke about a recent film, The Syrian Bride, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0423310/ , a film on an arranged marriage between Druze woman in Israel and a Syrian Druze man.

On the way to the Meir Shfeya Youth Village, Janis  told us about teaching there in the 1970s as a volunteer English teacher.  The rain had stopped and we were met by Lauren Stern Kedem, who had made aliyah from Plainview, Long Island and was the head of the English Department.  We were treated to refreshments and a mandolin concert and then given a tour of the new winery and a residential hall.  We heard a call to prayer from a local minaret.  Our community presented a check, the results of a Hadassah fund-raiser. 

In the dusk, we headed southwest in the commuters’ traffic to Tel Aviv and the Hotel Renaissance on the coast. 

Our family’s digit photos are posted at Tel Aviv 122706.

We arrived in Tel Aviv at 6 pm in a heavy rain storm on Tuesday, December 26, 1006 .   In the dark it was hard to see that the Renaissance Hotel was on the Mediterranean shore.  The hotel was modern, with narrow doorways, leading to a quality hotel room.  We unpacked a bit and were on our own for dinner.

 I had arranged to visit with a friend from over 30 years ago when we had both taught at Kfar Silver.  Rina had been the Bible teacher in the agricultural school.  From September  1975 to June 1976, I had been the math and science teacher in the American-style high school.  Rina and I became friends in October.  She was kind enough to invite me to visit her family in Ramat Gan on weekends and we traveled during Hanukah to Eliat.   I got to know her parents, brothers, and sister, and the extended family.  They were immigrants from Iraq – forced to leave their home in Baghad in the early 1950s after many centuries of a Jewish community there.  They were very kind to me.  The family was very interested in learning English – Rina spoke/speaks a lovely English, with a trace of an English accent that seems to have increased over the years.  

 We have been sharing Rosh Hashanah cards over the years and Rina sent us a Hanukiah when Nate and Charlie were born.  She married and had a daughter and son.  In response to our recent use of email for our Rosh Hashanah cards, her daughter Zohar, who is a 4th year pharmacy student at Beer Sheva University,  and I have been emailing to arrange a visit. 

When we had settled in at the Renaissance Hotel, I called Rina to see if we might meet.  At 8:30 pm, Rina and her brother Haiim drove a car down, followed by Zohar and her friend Yogev, and met us in the pouring rain at the hotel.  Debbie and I went in the car with Rina and Haiim, and Danny and Fay went with Zohar and Yogev.  We traveled through the rainy streets of Tel Aviv to a more suburban section and an Italian restaurant.  Over salads, soups, pasta, and pizza, we talked about Jewish American life, the travels of Israeli young people who had finished their initial military service to South American and to India and Nepal, the family’s travels to the US, and what I remembered of their family’s kindness to me when I was 23, traveling, and  clueless about life.  

I spoke of the confusion when I lived in Israel 31 years ago.  I had been recruited to interview for the Israeli air force by an American who had a science background – he said that they were looking for scientists in the air force.  At a special interview with a colonel in Tel Aviv at the induction center, he asked me why I wanted to join the air force.  I had said that I wanted to learn how to fly.  He responded that the air force was not a training school.  I asked how long would there be fighting there and the discussion ended.  I was a child of the 60s and of immigrants who had avoided conscription to the Czar’s army and didn’t believe in war.  I also wanted to be a “gibor”, someone special, and saw that it would be challenge to become a teacher in Israel and to earn enough to raise a family.  I also didn’t like the idea of one-month a year service in the army.  But my confusion about my identity as an American Jew or a Jewish American made my decision to leave in June 1976 very difficult.  Life turned out well but it  was a moment of paths diverging in life and I chose perhaps the easier path.  I was lucky that I was introduced to Debbie after several more years of wandering – she has made my life meaningful and set me on the comfortable and productive path we travel now.

Haiim shared a song book of American songs that I had developed for him and his family by listening to songs they liked and transcribing the lyrics.   We took some photos that appear in the slide show, talked about their family, and I weakly argued about paying the bill – they refused to accept our contribution.  Then we returned to the hotel, talked about Rina’s and Haiim’s jobs, past trips to the US and potential travel, and thanked each other for a lovely evening.  We were back in our rooms by 10:30. 

 A bit of television and another restless evening for me.  I woke at 5 am and went down to the lobby to write thank you notes to our tour guide, bus driver, and security guard and to add to our travel diary.  The wind off the sea was rattling the windows in the lobby.  I then explored the hotel and found a workout room – a TV, treadmill, bicycles, and a weight section that was being flooded by a leaky roof, a pool, steam room, sauna, and jacuzzi.  Back to the room to change and then down for some bicycle riding while watching the news – President Gerald Ford, oldest living former president had died at 93.  Enjoyed the steam bath, sauna, jacuzzi, and swam 10 laps.  When I went up to the room, I saw Todd returning from a walk in the storm and told him about the gym facilities.  He went to change and we went down for a steam. 

The Renaissance Hotel’s buffet breakfast featured some more western pastries, pancakes, squeeze your own orange juice, lox. We had a later start as all of the luggage was loaded into the bus for our trip that evening to the airport. We travelled down the crowded, rainy streets of Tel Aviv – Allenby, Ben Yehudah, Rothschild to Independence Hall, he former home of Meir Dizengoff, Tel Aviv’s first mayor, where we saw a film on the founding of Tel Aviv and the events of May 14, 1948. For more information start at

http://www.eretzmuseum.org.il/main/site/index.php3?page=75

We wondered if Mordechai Shattner was related to William Shatner, a cross-generational actor. William Shatner’s family name in the Ukraine had been Shattner. Mordechair Shattner is identified as an industrialist and member of the Provisional Council of State at

http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/history/modern%20history/israel%20at%2050/the%20signatories%20of%20the%20declaration%20of%20the%20establis .

We listened to a recording of the reading of the declaration of independence and the singing of Hatikvah while sitting in the hall. Lyrics may be found at http://www.stateofisrael.com/anthem/ and music at

HaTikvah at http://stateofisrael.com/anthem/HaTikvah.mp3. (A QuickTime window will open and you will have to click to start the music.)

After a discussion led by Rafi on the war of independence and reviewing some more of the documents in the museum, taking a photo of the bust of Ben Gurion, we headed to Rabin Square, where Yitzhak Rabin (Hebrew: יִצְחָק רַבִּין), was assassinated on November 4, 1995 after a speech and joining in on the singing of The Song of (for) Peace (http://www.otn.com/netking/hrabin.html).  There is a bust of Rabin, circles on the spots where bulletins were fired, and a memorial. 

We then headed north to Bina Center for Jewish Identity and Hebrew Culture in Ramat Efal and met with Benjy Maor, an oleh from Los Angeles. He spoke of the need for Jewish renewal for secular Israelis, of the multicultural workshops they provide for schools, and of the Secular Yeshiva in Tel-Aviv and the volunteer opportunity for Tikun Olam in Tel-Aviv. (Told us the joke of the American who asked a taxi driver how one says tikun olam in Hebrew.) More information at http://www.bina.org.il/english.htm.  Mr. Maor said that he wanted to share a discussion prompt  with the group that he uses – about Hillel falling asleep on the roof of a yeshiva under a snowfall. 

 We left Ramat Efal for Herzliah and a condo meeting room where the local Hadassah chapter meets with women who suffer from domestic violence.  They are a support group.  Although it was a damp and chilly day, the Hadassah ladies talked to us about a fund-raising for an air conditioner for the room so that they might be more comfortable in the summer.  A vice-president of Oranim, who was connected to this chapter through his wife, greeted us and gave Oranim backpacks to the kids. 

After discussions and snacks, we returned to Tel Aviv and visited Yafo in the growing dark.  There was a museum that showed a film on the role of Yafo in history and a few of us went on the astrological bridge and walked around some shops.  We returned to Tel Aviv and a seaside dairy restaurant for our final meal in Israel.  Salads and dairy products in a second floor dining room near the windows overlooking the sea – on that evening it was chilly – a bit a wine did help.  After coffee and tea and desserts on the ground floor of the restaurant, we took the bus to the airport.

 I had some confusion over using the cell phone for one last call to Debbie’s parents and over the tip to Rafi, Yehudah, and Seva.  I had written our own family thank you notes and gave a mix of shekelim and dollars.  I gave Rafi and Seva envelopes and left an envelope on Yehudah’s seat.  We heard a week later that there was disappointment over the amount of the tips and I worried about whether Yehudah found the envelope on his bus.  I learned a lesson that we should have contributed to the group tip instead.  We heard later that the group was satisfied with the tip after all was counted.

 The trip to Ben Gurion ended with a scramble for the luggage, good-byes and thank yous, and standing in line to reclaim any Israeli tax on items purchased for more than $100 – a way of encouraging spending.  The bags went through security and were dramatically thrown out of the machines.  The security guards saw a bag with Dead Sea mud in our bags and asked about it but otherwise, we did not think that we were well scruntized. 

The flight back left after midnight and arrive before dawn in New York.  The plane was not completely filled.  There were 4 films, several meals and snacks, and eye shades and neck braces to accompany the slippers and blankets from the trip to Israel.  We arrived back at JFK before dawn.  The bus was waiting for us.  It all seemed like a dream.  We were back in our home at 10 am for months of sorting out the souvenirs, photos, and memories. 

Most of the travellers met on March 4 for a pot-luck dinner and shared our photo albums and our powerpoint slide shows.  I had trouble figuring out how I might display shockwave files on our laptop.  They download well to Internet Explorer in this blog.  I also figured that I would leave the photos on the blog but not share widely this narrative.  It would be available if some one asked for it. 

I think that I will not wait for 31 years for my next trip to Israel.  Life has been kind to me – I am lucky than I deserve.  Blessed with a lovely family, good friends, a good job, and a fine community, I guess I have found a home here in Willimantic. 

Oranim photos in powerpoint

Tel Aviv 122706

Haifa, Druze Guest House, Meir Shfeya Youth Village 122606

Tzefat 122606

Tel Dan 122506

Golan Heights 122506

Trip North 122406

Jerusalem and Hadassah 122406

Jerusalem 122306

Har Herzl 122206

Masada, Dead Sea, Camel Rides

Jerusalem122006

Link to mood music for this page on Jerusalem

http://www.internationalwallofprayer.org/Index-001-Jerusalem-of-Gold.html

later use – Druze music

http://www.druzehistoryandculture.com/

Bedouin music

http://encarta.msn.com/media_461563412/Traditional_Bedouin_Music.html

http://www.radiohazak.com/Shir.html

“We Brought Peace Upon Us”, Peace Child Israel Song lyrics and story

“We Brought Peace Upon Us”,Peace Child Israel Song video at http://www.actv.co.il/portal/portal.asp?movind=168

HaTikvah at http://stateofisrael.com/anthem/HaTikvah.mp3