We are safe and at home in Be'er Sheva. Apologies for the very long journal entry about Christmas and our trip to Jerusalem. You may view the photos from our trip online at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/airzoojosh/ChristmasDayAndJerusalem2008#
I recommend following along with the blog while looking at the pictures of the trip (See entry immediately prior to this one). We hope everyone is enjoying the holidays back home!
Josh and Dawn
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Christmas Day Brunch and Trip to Jerusalem
By now, everyone has heard of the Israeli airstrikes against Hamas government and military targets in the Gaza Strip. We are relatively safe in Be'er Sheva, on the very outer edge of the 40 km. range of Hamas rockets. Be'er Sheva has NEVER been hit by a Hamas rocket, and we both hope this trend continues! All the same, I have never experienced the feeling of being near a war zone before, and it is not one I relish, needless to say. Security has increased at the university. They now check everyone's bags by hand.
On Christmas Day, last Thursday, we enjoyed a wonderful brunch at the apartment of David and Daria Byron, with eggs, waffles, pancakes, and real bacon, bought at a large Russian supermarket in the BIG (yes, that's its name) shopping complex. There were also hashbrowns, scones, and the stollen (German Christmas bread), which Dawn made. Afterwards, we enjoyed the first half of It's a Wonderful Life, with James Stewart. We left to go to campus to make several phone calls to our parents and grandparents back home via Skype. We also purchased tickets for our parents (OK, they paid for it, but I found a great price and did the booking!) to come visit us at the end of March! We are looking forward to it already!
Friday morning, Dec. 26th, we left for 3 nights in Jerusalem, expecting our water-leaking, wall dampening bathroom to be all fixed upon our return. Well, it turns out our landlord got the date wrong and now we have to make plans to be away from our apartment for 2 days at the end of this week. We won't be able to use the toilet, shower, or sink, while the tile floor is torn out and replaced. Anyway, back to Jerusalem... We arrived at 11:30 am at the Central Bus Station and took Bus #18 towards Yoav and Hilla's house. Yoav had forgotten his cell phone, and we were on the bus and he was not answering his phone! But he retrieved it and told us where to get off and picked us up in their car about 12:30. Lunch was not on the menu, as it turned out, so Dawn and I each had a falafel outside the Lion's Gate, one of 7 gates to Jerusalem's Old City, and made it to the meeting point in time for the weekly tour by priests of the 14 Stations of the Cross. It turns out, however, that they take the week of Christmas off, so there was no tour on Dec. 26th! I had bought a guide booklet in Be'er Sheva and we found most of the Stations on our own, except several at the end in the Church of the Holy Sepelchur and Station 8, but we were close! Yoav picked us up and we had a veritable Hannukah feast put on by Hilla (pronounced He-la) for us and 3 friends, one a couple with a 3 year old boy. And this was just Friday!
Saturday, December 27th (Happy Birthday Mom!), Yoav and Hilla slept late as it was the Sabbath, and we had breakfast around 10 am. Then, Yoav put Imri, their 11 month old son, and us in the car and drove us (minus Hilla, who had to do revisions to her MA thesis) out to the Mt. of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane. Some places were not open between the hours of 12 and 2 pm, but we still saw quite a lot. I was especially moved by the Grotto of Gethsemane, the very spot where Jesus was betrayed by Judas. The Basilica of the Garden of Gethsemane also had a very holy aura surrounding it. We also saw what is reputed to be the burial site of Mary, and we climbed up the Mt. of Olives for a wonderful overlook of Jerusalem's walled Old City and the Dome of the Rock. I can imagine how beautiful it is at sunrise and sunset, as the guidebooks say. We got back to Yoav and Hillas around 4 pm, and Hilla was nearly in tears. The Israeli offensive had begun shortly after 12 pm, and Arabs were protesting in and around the Old City, parts of which we passed through on our way back from East Jerusalem. Yoav had had his cell phone on silent and thus did not hear the repeated phone calls. After everyone had calmed down, we enjoyed a relaxing evening at home, while keeping abreast of the news on the Israeli offensive on TV.
Due to the Arab protests, Yoav suggested we visit the Israel Museum and avoid the Old City on Sunday. He dropped us off and went to go study. The main exhibition halls of the museum were closed for renovation, but we still saw the HUGE model of Jerusalem as depicted just before the Jewish Revolt in 66 CE, complete with the Second Temple and individual houses, palaces, everything. The model took a team the model builder and an archealogist 4 years to build. It was completed in 1965, two years before Israel regained control of East Jerusalem and the Old City, where the Temple had stood. Then, after surveying the modernist Sculpture Garden, we went inside the Shrine of the Book, where the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient Biblical texts are on display, as well as artifacts from the 1st century BCE - 1st century CE from the Qum'ram site, where the Essenes lived (the writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls). Next at about 1 pm, we took a taxi to Yad Vashem, the Israel Holocaust Museum. Admission is free, and it was PACKED. But first we had a nice lunch in the Museum cafeteria.
After lunch, we spent the next two and a half hours going through the Museum. No pictures were allowed inside. I have visited the Berlin (Germany) Holocaust Museum, but the Israel Holocaust Museum was much more disturbing, much more powerful. We sped past the last 2 years of the war (there was that much to read), in order to see the Hall of Remembrance and some of the other exhibits not in the Historical Museum. Picture multitudes of Nazi propaganda memorabilia, Jewish artifacts, furniture, photos, and numerous audio-visual stations with first-hand survivor accounts. Seeing the bodies being thrown into pits upon the liberation of the camps, and the emaciated survivors, thousands of whom did not survive in spite of the Allied liberation, was overwhelming. If you are not choked up upon exiting, something is not quite right.
Yoav and Hilla had arranged for us to go on a Hannukiot (a Tour of the Hannukah Lights) in the Old City, and judged it was calm enough to do so. The tour was in Hebrew, technically only for students of Hebrew University, but Hilla had gained permission for all 4 of us. Yoav translated for us here and there, but we all left the tour early as they judged the guide not to be very good. We were all very hungry also. (The tour started at 5:30 pm). Sunday was also Yoav's 30th birthday. We treated them to dinner out at a restaurant at the Cinemataque art theater that Yoav's friend Hanan and his girlfriend had chosen. There was quite a mix up with our orders, but the food was good. Monday we came back to Be'er Sheva on the 11:30 am bus, arriving around 1:15 pm at the downtown station.
On Christmas Day, last Thursday, we enjoyed a wonderful brunch at the apartment of David and Daria Byron, with eggs, waffles, pancakes, and real bacon, bought at a large Russian supermarket in the BIG (yes, that's its name) shopping complex. There were also hashbrowns, scones, and the stollen (German Christmas bread), which Dawn made. Afterwards, we enjoyed the first half of It's a Wonderful Life, with James Stewart. We left to go to campus to make several phone calls to our parents and grandparents back home via Skype. We also purchased tickets for our parents (OK, they paid for it, but I found a great price and did the booking!) to come visit us at the end of March! We are looking forward to it already!
Friday morning, Dec. 26th, we left for 3 nights in Jerusalem, expecting our water-leaking, wall dampening bathroom to be all fixed upon our return. Well, it turns out our landlord got the date wrong and now we have to make plans to be away from our apartment for 2 days at the end of this week. We won't be able to use the toilet, shower, or sink, while the tile floor is torn out and replaced. Anyway, back to Jerusalem... We arrived at 11:30 am at the Central Bus Station and took Bus #18 towards Yoav and Hilla's house. Yoav had forgotten his cell phone, and we were on the bus and he was not answering his phone! But he retrieved it and told us where to get off and picked us up in their car about 12:30. Lunch was not on the menu, as it turned out, so Dawn and I each had a falafel outside the Lion's Gate, one of 7 gates to Jerusalem's Old City, and made it to the meeting point in time for the weekly tour by priests of the 14 Stations of the Cross. It turns out, however, that they take the week of Christmas off, so there was no tour on Dec. 26th! I had bought a guide booklet in Be'er Sheva and we found most of the Stations on our own, except several at the end in the Church of the Holy Sepelchur and Station 8, but we were close! Yoav picked us up and we had a veritable Hannukah feast put on by Hilla (pronounced He-la) for us and 3 friends, one a couple with a 3 year old boy. And this was just Friday!
Saturday, December 27th (Happy Birthday Mom!), Yoav and Hilla slept late as it was the Sabbath, and we had breakfast around 10 am. Then, Yoav put Imri, their 11 month old son, and us in the car and drove us (minus Hilla, who had to do revisions to her MA thesis) out to the Mt. of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane. Some places were not open between the hours of 12 and 2 pm, but we still saw quite a lot. I was especially moved by the Grotto of Gethsemane, the very spot where Jesus was betrayed by Judas. The Basilica of the Garden of Gethsemane also had a very holy aura surrounding it. We also saw what is reputed to be the burial site of Mary, and we climbed up the Mt. of Olives for a wonderful overlook of Jerusalem's walled Old City and the Dome of the Rock. I can imagine how beautiful it is at sunrise and sunset, as the guidebooks say. We got back to Yoav and Hillas around 4 pm, and Hilla was nearly in tears. The Israeli offensive had begun shortly after 12 pm, and Arabs were protesting in and around the Old City, parts of which we passed through on our way back from East Jerusalem. Yoav had had his cell phone on silent and thus did not hear the repeated phone calls. After everyone had calmed down, we enjoyed a relaxing evening at home, while keeping abreast of the news on the Israeli offensive on TV.
Due to the Arab protests, Yoav suggested we visit the Israel Museum and avoid the Old City on Sunday. He dropped us off and went to go study. The main exhibition halls of the museum were closed for renovation, but we still saw the HUGE model of Jerusalem as depicted just before the Jewish Revolt in 66 CE, complete with the Second Temple and individual houses, palaces, everything. The model took a team the model builder and an archealogist 4 years to build. It was completed in 1965, two years before Israel regained control of East Jerusalem and the Old City, where the Temple had stood. Then, after surveying the modernist Sculpture Garden, we went inside the Shrine of the Book, where the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient Biblical texts are on display, as well as artifacts from the 1st century BCE - 1st century CE from the Qum'ram site, where the Essenes lived (the writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls). Next at about 1 pm, we took a taxi to Yad Vashem, the Israel Holocaust Museum. Admission is free, and it was PACKED. But first we had a nice lunch in the Museum cafeteria.
After lunch, we spent the next two and a half hours going through the Museum. No pictures were allowed inside. I have visited the Berlin (Germany) Holocaust Museum, but the Israel Holocaust Museum was much more disturbing, much more powerful. We sped past the last 2 years of the war (there was that much to read), in order to see the Hall of Remembrance and some of the other exhibits not in the Historical Museum. Picture multitudes of Nazi propaganda memorabilia, Jewish artifacts, furniture, photos, and numerous audio-visual stations with first-hand survivor accounts. Seeing the bodies being thrown into pits upon the liberation of the camps, and the emaciated survivors, thousands of whom did not survive in spite of the Allied liberation, was overwhelming. If you are not choked up upon exiting, something is not quite right.
Yoav and Hilla had arranged for us to go on a Hannukiot (a Tour of the Hannukah Lights) in the Old City, and judged it was calm enough to do so. The tour was in Hebrew, technically only for students of Hebrew University, but Hilla had gained permission for all 4 of us. Yoav translated for us here and there, but we all left the tour early as they judged the guide not to be very good. We were all very hungry also. (The tour started at 5:30 pm). Sunday was also Yoav's 30th birthday. We treated them to dinner out at a restaurant at the Cinemataque art theater that Yoav's friend Hanan and his girlfriend had chosen. There was quite a mix up with our orders, but the food was good. Monday we came back to Be'er Sheva on the 11:30 am bus, arriving around 1:15 pm at the downtown station.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Christmas Cookies and Caroling
Once again, it has been 2 weeks since I last wrote. I have been very busy, among other things, considering beginning a PhD in Foreign Languages and Literatures, struggling onward in my Ivrit (Hebrew) bakitah (class), reading and attending for Prof. Gelber's Current Topics in Literature Seminar, researching for the Stefan Zweig annotation project for the German Studies Center, which Prof. Gelber heads, and of course, tutoring English. Add to that the Young Voices Magazine proposed project, and, well, you get the idea!
Tonight is Christmas Eve, but as we are in Israel, it is of course a regular work day, though we are in the midst of Hannukah, there's no sign of outward festivities here in Be'er Sheva. Once again, I must emphasize that we are in the Jewish State. Christmas is only evident in cities that are holy to Christians (Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, etc.) It is thus not "a wonderful experience to be in the Holy Land at Christmas", not unless one is in one of the cities where pilgrims frequent. The observed holiday for the 8 day Hannukah holiday is Sunday,December 28th, when we don't have my Hebrew class for a change. There is a Christmas Eve service tonight at the Catholic Church, but my Hebrew Ulpan meets from 5-8 pm. There is another service on Christmas Day, but I don't know if we will go. David and Daria, another med student and his wife, are hosting a Christmas Day brunch at their apartment tomorrow. (The American med school students get Christmas Day off, but ONLY Christmas Day).
A week and a half ago (Saturday, Dec. 13th), Sonja, from Austria, and Nadine, from Germany, came over to our apartment for some Christmas cookie baking. After about 4 hours of prep work and baking, everyone was ready to call it a day (we took a break for dinner... I think we had spaghetti and salad). The Christmas music of the King's Choir of Cambridge which I had downloaded from ITunes was playing, and I even found some German Christmas songs on YouTube and other sites, including our favorite of the day, "In the Weihnachtsbaeckerei" (In the Christmas Bakery).
Last Friday night, December 19th, we made our weekly trek to the med school student-led Bible Study, (a 40 minute walk... There are no buses on Shabbat) for a couple hours of Christmas Caroling, food, fun, and fellowship. Jacob looked like the Fonz from Happy Days, with his hair slicked back, as he led with the piano, while Ryan and David accompanied him with their guitars to all the favorites: O Come All Ye Faithful, Joy to the World, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, and some fun songs, like Rudolph and Walking in a Winter Wonderland, just to name a few. Spiced hot wine, similar to Gluehwein, hot apple cider, and prayer in 2 and 3 person groups served to round out a wonderful evening. I'll attach pictures of the cookie making and baking, and of the Christmas Caroling.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Christmas is Near
It's been almost 2 weeks since my last post. I've been keeping busy with my various projects. Last week on Wednesday when I returned home from my Hebrew class, Dawn had a surprise waiting for me... a 4 ft. tall Christmas tree! She found it at a Russian store downtown. (Be'er Sheva is home to a large Russian-speaking population from the former Soviet Union). Being in the Jewish State, there are no outward signs of Christmas here. For that, one must travel to Nazareth, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, or one of the other Christian Holy Sites. So, for those of you who wrote me saying, "What a wonderful thing to be in the Holy Land at Christmastime!," well that's not how it is unless we make our way up to Jerusalem or Bethlehem, etc. On the contrary, the lack of decorations and festivities makes me all the more homesick, for Christmas, for family, for some wonderful Michigan snow. (Yes, I know it's a pain to drive in sometimes, but I'll take a White Christmas over others any time!).
We are considering visiting Bethlehem around the holidays. We'll have to see what the current security situation is in the West Bank, where Bethlehem is. Here, I must emphasize that Israel is quite safe. It is the border towns on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and those communities WITHIN the West Bank, that are unstable. Be'er Sheva, on the other hand, is far from either the West Bank or the Gaza Strip.
Last Friday after our weekly Bible Study with the American med school students from Columbia University, Yuri and Kiong (two of the guys) hosted a Christmas Party complete with champagne, hot cider, cookies, cakes, and other yummy food. Yuri's parents also sent him an assortment of classic Christmas films on DVD: A Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Burl Ives' Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. A fun time, and the first time (other than the Christmas tree Dawn brought home) that I was reminded that Christmas is near. Tree and Party pictures attached...
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