No Snakes, Just Awesome

Well, I look diseased as a result of the tie-dye tan-pink-white business going on on my shoulders and the colony of bug bites currently existing on my legs, but I’m extremely happy nonetheless. I just got back from an incredible weekend down in the very south of Israel, where I had the chance to hang out with camels, swim in the Red Sea, visit one of the “new” 7 wonders of the world, and get a whole lot of sun.

Last Sunday was Purim, which means we had a long weekend: Friday-Monday, so my friends and I took advantage of the break to take a long trip. We had some snafus getting down there but we eventually made it to Eilat Friday night just in time to walk to the beach and see the very very touristy resorty beachfront that Eilat has. It was interesting seeing the different sections of the beach: the first part was very “Jersey Shore/Santa Monica/beach fair” kind of place with huge fair-ride kind of contraptions, ice cream stands, kiosks selling sunglasses, flip flops, jewelry, clothes—you get the picture. Then we got to a section with a super fancy hotel and all of a sudden there were more high end stores, “gelaterias” rather than ice cream stands, and cafes rather than kiosks. Then we got to an even nicer hotel and everything changed again. We chose a random place for dinner since we were all starving and it looked reasonable/tasty enough and though our food looked amazing when it came out on plates, pretty much everyone was disappointed with it. So don’t go to “Hof Maman” if you ever eat in Eilat. Trust me.

Yet, there are few things a little ice cream can’t fix and we went to bed happy to be in Eilat. The next morning we woke up early to go to Petra, the ancient city in Jordan that is carved into stone, one of the seven wonders of the world, and (most importantly) the site of the climax of Indiana Jones The Last Crusade, and also where they filmed said scene. Needless to say, we were all pretty stoked about this trip. We opted to take an official tour because of the complexities of crossing the border (it was a lengthy, complicated, multi-step process), which was a great decision because we had a series of awesome people carting us around. The first was our driver from the border to Petra. He stopped on the side of the road at one point so we could say hello to some Bedouins and their camels. This was probably the highlight of the morning since I totally bonded with the little Bedouin boy. I (very ashamedly because of the disgustingly American touristy-ness of the action) took a picture with him and his camel and he put his arm around me with a huge smile and said “say cheese”. Then I asked him his name and he responded “Sagran, what is your name?” so I told him and we shook hands. Then after everyone else had had a chance to get a picture with the camel, I went back over and was petting the camel, marveling at the interesting feeling of its fur when Sagran poked me and held out a rubber band bracelet contraption thing. I looked at it and said something like “Oh that’s cool” and he motioned for me to hold my hand out, so I did, and he put it on my wrist and said “For you”, and patted my arm. I thanked him profusely and we had a little moment, then the most brilliant idea occurred to me. I was wearing three silly bands (I always wear them, for times like these) and I thought, “hey, maybe he will think they’re cool”. So I took one off to show him the shape (it was a pink sparkly crown—probably not the best for an 11 year old boy, but it was what I had) but before I got very far he started to pull the yellow one off my wrist too. So I took it off and gave it to him, and he tied them together the same way the rubber bands he gave me were tied. He was struggling a little with it, so I helped him out and then he tried to put it back on my arm, and I told him no, and motioned for him to put his arm out. Then I put the bracelet on his wrist and he looked at me very confused. I said “for you” and he got this huge smile on his face and took my hand and said “Thank you. Thank you very much”. Then a guy came over requesting a camel ride so Sagran said “goodbye” and I told him the same and we parted ways. But, I still have my bracelet and don’t think I’m ever going to take it off because the whole encounter was just that cool.

Eventually we made it to Petra and embarked on our tour with Ali, the local Arab fellow who was the most succinct yet informative tour guide I have ever had the privilege of experiencing. My favorite part of Ali was the fact that he told our group “I have decided to call our group B1. I cannot remember all your names so I will call us B1. When I say B1, that means you.” Then he proceeded to say many times throughout the tour “Okay B1, look here”, “So we know, B1, that the Nabateans were an ancient people”, or “Are we all here B1. Okay B1”. It was hysterical (because he had a super thick accent as well so it made things even funnier). I’m not conveying this well in narrative form, but I promise it was funny. Petra itself, by the way, is even more incredible than pictures, National Geographic articles, and Discovery Channel specials can describe. The city was carved right out of the sandstone cliffs by the Nabatean people in ancient times, then taken over by the Romans and eventually the Byzantines, so there’s influence from all the time periods within the area. You walk into the city through a narrow canyon called the Siq, with super super high walls. The Siq opens up to the most famous site, the Treasury (the home of the Holy Grail, where I was earnestly searching for Harrison Ford and Sean Connery…I didn’t find them). The beauty, legends, stories, and history of the place are just unbelievable. There are other really awesome sites as well including tombs, a theater, columns, etc. and we spent several hours both with the tour guide and on our own afterwards. There’s so much to see in Petra that you could spend a good 3 days there, but our afternoon showed us the highlights and most famous sites, so I was certainly satisfied. Also included in our tour was lunch at this incredible buffet called the Magic Restaurant with the most delicious traditional Jordanian food. I gorged myself. It was, faithful to it’s name, truly magical.

Before crossing the border back to Israel our driver took us on a little driving tour of Aqaba, the border city on the Jordanian side. In the past few years the government, seeing its potential for tourism, has put millions and millions of dollars into the city building hotels and cleaning it up and making the streets nice, etc. I must say they’ve done an incredible job, because it was pretty beautiful.

The border crossing on the way back took another hour and a half or so, most of which was spent analyzing this one Israeli gentleman whose purpose was very ambiguous (much to Cody’s frustration—he was wearing a badge and looked official but was not in uniform, and frankly did absolutely nothing other than stand around, open a window, talk to a security person, stand around, etc for the entire hour we were in the security line. Whatever). We FINALLY got back to Eilat and went out to eat dinner and met a whole host of new characters (which remains a story for another day).

The next day was spent exactly the way a day in Eilat should be: exclusively at the beach. I and two friends took a glass bottom boat tour in the morning: two hours cruising the gulf, looking into four different countries (Israel, Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia), and seeing some really beautiful fish and reefs (a kid dropped a cheetoh onto the window on the floor of the boat through which we were looking at reefs, so all my pictures have a cheetoh in the middle. Cute.) It was sweltering so I spent a lot of time in the water (much saltier and warmer than the pacific) and relaxing on the beach with pleasure reading. It was a glorious day, and excellent topper to a beautiful weekend.

Not the post I was planning to write

I had planned on spending my free afternoon writing all about my incredible weekend in Eilat and Petra and all the fun I've been having. But then yesterday happened and I feel like I owe a blog post to the situation. For those of you who are not aware, a package was left on the street near the central bus station in Jerusalem yesterday afternoon. It exploded and one person was killed while over 30 others were wounded. I was on Mount Scopus in class and in the library all day so I was nowhere near the site of the bombing. Neither were any of my friends. However I got to class this morning and found out from my teacher that the one person killed in the attack was a woman named Mary, who was in our class. This news, as you can imagine, hit hard. All of sudden this attack that I was beginning to cope with and get past, took on a whole new meaning. Now it's personal, close to my heart, and much more of a reality. I'll write a little more about Mary in a bit, but first I want to say a bit about what I've observed and felt since this all happened.

Naturally I was a little shaken up when I first heard about the bombing itself, if for no other reason than the thought that I ride buses and go through that station all the time. Of course I knew coming here that there's a history of violence in Jerusalem, but never once have I felt unsafe. I've ridden the bus with no hesitation and traveled all over with no second thoughts. While I still don't think I'm in any kind of real danger, having this happen so close and in a place so familiar is a chilling experience.

Seeing the reaction of everyone to the incident was almost a cultural experience in and of itself. Yesterday afternoon the university immediately sent a mass text message to all the students asking us to get in touch with certain people to confirm that we were okay, administrators came into classrooms to call roll and see that everyone was accounted for, and all throughout campus you could hear students on the phone talking to loved ones, explaining what happened, confirming their safety. I had class pretty soon after the incident happened and almost as if nothing happened, my professor went on with his lecture as normal. When administrators came into talk to my Hebrew class this morning they emphasized the importance of going forth with your routine, not letting acts of terror knock you off your normal day-to-day life. The best way to cope, everyone has been telling us, is to keep going as normal. That must be how this country has been able to endure despite everything it has gone through. It knows how to deal with tragedy and as unfortunate as it is, this kind of thing happens often enough that the country just automatically goes into crisis mode, deals with the situation, and emerges stronger. That's not to say that each time an attack happens there aren't fresh wounds, unique mourning, and new grief, but this way of reacting is just a testament to what a special place Israel is.

Additionally, people have been coming together in beautiful ways. Last night my friend Andrew organized a multi-faith prayer group for anyone and everyone who wanted to join. There were about 15-20 students there, each praying or reciting verses or singing in multiple languages from multiple traditions. A lot of people shared words of comfort, offered insight putting politics aside, and united as one, pledging to respond to the tragedy in a way that comes out positively. Praying for peace and stability amidst this turmoil. It was a really moving and impacting time and I know similar types of events were going on all across the country.

Now I want to say a little bit about Mary, to attempt as best I can to memorialize her. As I can imagine always happens to those who lose an acquaintance, it breaks my heart to think that I didn't get to know her as well as I could have. There is so much about her I never learned--her last name for instance. But here's what I do know about her:

She is from Scotland originally but has lived for the past several years in Togo, working with missionaries to teach English. She told our Ulpan class about the many many places all over the world where she traveled and worked, which only makes me think of how many lives she touched. I know she had a huge impact in her 59 years of life and am so thankful for all the good she did literally all over the world. I don't know much about her family, but I do remember that she had a lot of siblings, all of whom were also spread all across the planet. She loved travel books and Jane Austen, always wore a ribbon on her ponytail, and I cannot remember seeing her without a smile on her face. She also told us during Ulpan that she once met JK Rowling just as she was becoming famous :) She was studying here learning Hebrew as part of a bible translation program, working until the last second of her life to make the word of God accessible to people everywhere. She certainly brought a special light to our Hebrew class and it's going to be quite difficult walking into class on Monday, and every day after, only to see an empty seat.

Thanks for reading, and keep the city of Jerusalem in your thoughts and prayers. I'll conclude with a passage that was the inspiration for my blog title and has always been a favorite of mine, but now takes on a whole new meaning.

Psalm 122:
A Song of Ascents of David

¹ I rejoiced with those who said to me,

“Let us go to the house of the LORD.”
² Our feet are standing
in your gates, Jerusalem.

³ Jerusalem is built like a city
that is closely compacted together.
⁴ That is where the tribes go up—
the tribes of the LORD—
to praise the name of the LORD
according to the statute given to Israel.
⁵ There stand the thrones for judgment,
the thrones of the house of David.

⁶ Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
“May those who love you be secure.
⁷ May there be peace within your walls
and security within your citadels.”
⁸ For the sake of my family and friends,
I will say, “Peace be within you.”
⁹ For the sake of the house of the LORD our God,
I will seek your prosperity.

A Very Holy Day

I promised a continuation of the stuff I did last weekend, so here’s a quick update before I get into my Eilat trip. On Saturday I caught up on most of the touristy/obligatory Jerusalem things to do that I have not yet visited this trip, almost all of which are Christian holy sites. My friend Cody had two friends visiting so I tagged along with them to first the Mount of Olives. This is the site of Jesus’ resurrection and where Jews believe the Messiah will come. That’s why there’s a huge Jewish cemetery on the hill—Jews believe that when the Messiah comes, those who are buried there will be resurrected first because they are actually physically present. We were able to walk from Mount Scopus (where campus is) to the Mount of Olives since they’re actually on the same ridge. Our first top was the Church of the Ascension, which is actually a relatively new Lutheran church with a very high bell tower. We climbed the tower (or Kircheturm as the sign said, much to my german delight) several hundred steps and witnessed an incredible view of Jerusalem to one side and the West Bank to the other. Our next stop was a sort of hut that houses the spot from where it is said Jesus ascended into Heaven. It’s now controlled by Muslims because it’s within the grounds of a mosque. There’s this stone inside where supposedly you can see Jesus’ footprint. Frankly it was kind of a bizarre, boring place, but oh well.

From there we went to the Church of the Our Father. This is supposedly where Jesus learned the Our Father and where he taught the disciples the prayer. I don’t know how people chose this specific place for these things to have occurred, but whatever. The church was beautiful. It was a small chapel with very beautiful grounds, but the coolest part was that they had translated the Our Father/Lord’s Prayer (if you’re Catholic or Protestant) into what had to have been every single language on earth. There were tiles with the prayer all over the walls of the grounds and it was really fun walking around seeing all the different types of scripts and alphabets and even just the huge number of languages that exist. Naturally I took pictures of/with the languages of significance to me. They even had the prayer in Braille in several different languages. It was very very cool.

Next we walked through the huge cemetery a bit, making our way down to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus went to pray on the night before he was crucified. That’s one of my favorite place in Jerusalem because it’s beautiful and subtle as opposed to so many of the other churches and holy sites that are super gaudy and ostentatious. Unfortunately, though, I was kind of disappointed with this visit because there were so many people and huge tour groups that I felt like I couldn’t really enjoy it and soak it in and be at peace. But I can always go back, and I’m actually interested to see what the place is like during Holy Week. I bet it’s crazy.

(The Mount of Olives also affords the most beautiful view of the Old City of Jerusalem)

After delicious humus in the Old City (there’s a place called Chumus Lina that I went to three times in three days this weekend…it’s that good—and people just kept wanting to go when I was with them, so I went three times with three groups of people. Not my choosing, but I didn’t complain) we went to Mount Zion, which lies right outside the Zion Gate of the Old City. Mount Zion is the site of Dormition Abbey (a gorgeous building), the room where the Last Supper was supposed to be held, and the Tomb of King David. There is also a cemetery on Mount Zion where Oskar Schindler is buried, so we naturally payed him a little visit. On the other side of Mount Zion is the valley of Gehenna, which is widely considered to be biblically connected to the place of Hell. So I gazed into Hell for a bit and decided I was alright staying up on Mount Zion for the time being.

(Last Supper room)

All in all, it was a very full and productive day of site seeing. I’m still checking things off my to do in Jerusalem list and getting to the end, surprisingly enough! It’s time to start exploring more outside of Jerusalem, which brings me to this weekend in Eilat!!! I’ll have that post up soon (pictures are on facebook though already if you want a preview of what’s to come). Thanks, as always, for reading!!

יום שישי מיוחד

What an eventful weekend I had! Let’s start with Friday. I got up early to go on a Rothberg-led tour of the tunnels under the Kotel (Western Wall) which have relatively recently opened for excavation. Somehow, though, the bus was not there where I thought it was supposed to be, so I ended up not going on this tour (quite disappointing, but these tunnels are a place I can go on my own later, so I’ll just have to do that). Missing that tour meant I got to go back to bed for a few hours before what was supposed to be the second tour of the day. This one was an archaeological tour in the City of David, which I had been to before but not for an extended period of time. We had to literally sprint through the Old City (I may or may not have accidentally knocked over an old woman on the edge of a group walking the stations of the cross—sorry!) to get there in time, but we made it just in time. The tour was a little bit of a disappointment since it focused less on the actual archaeology of the area and more on the political issues surrounding the City of David. The tourist park is on the edge of a Palestinian village called Silwan and there’s a lot of controversy surrounding the lack of attention paid to Silwan and the way the findings of the region are portrayed to the general public. Most of the controversy is regarding the fact that more and more portions of Silwan are being appropriated for archaological purposes. Part of the argument is that this land is being utilized solely for tourist purposes and not to benefit the people of Silwan (which I feel like isn’t a wholly valid argument because (a) they’re not solely tourist purposes: they’re involved with the pursuit of knowledge, research, education, etc and (b) by increasing tourism, it will draw people to the area, which will promote economic development). Of course, destroying playgrounds and schools without any compensation whatsoever is unacceptable, so I do agree with that aspect. What I also see as a problem is the fact that Silwan has done nothing to attempt to take advantage of their location. If the Israeli government or an NGO could provide some advice or guidance to the village of Silwan in the area of the tourist industry, I think the village could benefit a lot. I honestly believe that visitors to the City of David park would be all about eating at an authentic Palestinian hummus restaurant after their day of reliving Bible times (I would be). People sell ridiculous knick-knacks and exploit tourists everywhere else in Jerusalem, why not here too? There was more to the argument of this tour but these were the main points/my reactions to them. If you’re interested in reading more about it, please do so (http://www.alt-arch.org/)

(This is a picture of one of the structures in the City of David--it's really impressive stuff, the oldest dated to 3000 BCE. pretty neat)

While the tour was going on though, we heard what sounded like cannons going off in the distance. Our tour guide assured us it wasn’t a big deal (that there are often protests on Fridays in Silwan and this was probably just part of that), but then the wind shifted and all of a sudden we could smell something kind of strange. Our tour guide stopped mid sentence and said “Uhhh, I think we should go back up the stairs…because the tear gas will get to us soon”. Um, I’m sorry….what!? Yes, tear gas. As soon as he said that I felt my nose get all tingly and my eyes started watering and the smell got stronger. We turned and went back up the hill we had come down, out of the way, and the tour guide explained to us that every week there are protests in Silwan (which have gotten worse in the past few months) against the presence of Israeli police and demolition of houses that’s taking place in the village. This was one of those protests. We wanted to observe what was going on but our tour guide shuffled us along saying pretty matter-of-factly “This will go on for a few hours, so you can come back later if you really want to see”. Well, the tour ended, and my friends and I took his advice and went back to check out the protest. What we saw was unbelievable. There were Palestinian kids (and I emphasize that they were kids) throwing rocks at Israeli police (in full riot gear) and in retaliation, Israeli police shooting canisters of tear gas back in the kids’ direction. At one point there was something flaming thrown at the police so they shot back, but not actually at the kids, because they had run away by that time. Then the kids started throwing canisters of tear gas back at the police. It was insane. The strange thing though, was that it wasn’t really high action—this sounds like there was something constantly happening. It wasn’t really like that. There would be an exchange here, then a minute would go by with maybe some people running around, then another exchange in another place. It was actually kind of hard to figure out exactly what was going on. (For those of you who are concerned about my safety, fear not. We were on a ridge, there was a valley, and the village was down in and on the other side of the valley—so it was like we were watching from an observation deck above. Perfectly safe). Several armored police cars drove through but didn’t really do much, other than bring more police and sit blocking part of a road. At one point the Muslim call to prayer came on over the loud speaker from the mosque in Silwan, which provided an interesting juxtaposition and certainly a new idea about the phrase holy war. The most disturbing part of this whole thing for me was the fact that the kids throwing rocks were SO young. There were a few who could not have been more than 8 years old. Imagine what they’ve been taught and what they have gone through to have that much anger and frustration within them at such a young age. Similarly, right below us there was a Jewish settler’s house and on the roof were about 10 Jewish kids standing around watching what was going on. Imagine growing up with this kind of event happening outside your window week after week. By the time you’re 5 you’re going to be desensitized to this kind of violence, and you’re going to be brainwashed against the people on the other side, because a peaceful coexistence is something you’ve never known. Watching this whole event go down was on the one hand fascinating (and let’s be real, kind of exciting and cool because it’s the physical manifestation of stuff I’ve only read about but never seen) but on the other hand completely sobering and depressing. It makes me almost lose faith completely in the possibility of peace, not because the protest itself was incredibly violent (it wasn’t) but because of the psychology and sentiments that I know were behind everything going on. I haven’t lost my faith yet, but I can see why it’s easy to do so.

(In this one you can see the roof of a Jewish settler's home, where they have allowed Isareli police (snipers?) to watch from above)

Anyway, sorry for the depressing story but it was definitely a crazy, crazy experience I did not at all expect to have!!

I did other exciting and less dynamic and politically significant things this weekend too that I’ll write about very soon!! I’m also going to Eilat this weekend with a day trip to Petra planned so there are lots of fun things coming up. It’s crazy (and so sad) to think that my time here is more than half over. There’s not enough time to do everything!!!

A Memorial and A Name That Shall Not Be Cut Off

Sorry for not writing in a while, but I haven’t done anything particularly blogworthy that you all would find interesting. I have been going to class, really enjoying it, and attempting to find motivation to do work (which is rough because I feel like I’m on vacation 24/7 still). However, I am slowly working on checking things off my to-do in Jerusalem list, and slowly but surely getting to them all. Last Thursday I went to Yad Vashem, which is the national Holocaust Museum, and although I’ve been to many Holocaust museums and this one specifically already, it was an incredible experience. I’m not sure there is a single museum out there that is as well put together as this one is, right down to the symbolism of the architecture and placement within the city itself. The grounds of the museum are beautiful: it’s located on Mount Herzel which is also the site of a huge cemetery where people like Yitzchak Rabin, Golda Meier, and Theodore Herzel himself are buried. The Jerusalem National Forest is right next to it as well, so the surroundings are really beautiful. On the grounds of the museum are several memorials, including the “Avenue of the Righteous”, where trees are planted in honor of non-Jews who saved Jewish lives during the Holocaust. Probably the most moving memorial is the Children’s Memorial, which consists of a very dark room lined with mirrors and filled with lights. I have no idea how many lights are actually there because the mirrors makes it look like there’s millions of them surrounding you. In the background are voices reading the names of children: Name, age, and home country. They switched off between Hebrew, English, and German (so I understood them all, not that that’s super hard). It was incredibly poignant.

The actual museum itself is very well laid out. You enter under ground and follow the exhibit towards the middle of the building where it slowly gets darker and narrower, until the part about liberation where it begins to open up again. I have a big pet peeve about poorly designed museums, where it’s not obvious what to look at first and where to go next, and this museum did not have that problem at all. It’s very systematic and so so informative. I feel like I could have been there for hours reading every personal story, watching every video testimonial, and fully appreciating all the artifacts.

It’s pretty amazing to me that despite having visited countless museums, reading book after book, and learning both in school and out about the Holocaust for the past 15 years or so, I can still go to Yad Vashem and feel like I’m learning new things. What I found myself enjoying the most this time around were the stories about peoples’ lives inside the ghettos and camps. The way they were able to find joy in such dark times is pretty inspiring. I find it so easy to be a downer because one little thing goes wrong or because the weather sucks or because my favorite team lost AGAIN, but the little things that brought people light within such terrible darkness are amazing. I (naturally) enjoyed a Mickey Mouse cartoon one man drew to depict life in the campus. Another thing that stuck out to me was a quote about the irony of celebrating Pesach, a holiday all about liberation and the freedom of the Jewish people, while confined inside a ghetto. There was also a replica of a monopoly board that some people made inside a ghetto to entertain the children. I saw tons of incredible artwork, including that of Felix Nussbaum and Peter Ginz (look them up) and stories of people writing books, poems, and playing music as a means of coping. One of my favorites was the story of “The Emperor of Atlantis”, a one act opera written by Viktor Ullmann and Peter Kien while they were held at Theresienstadt concentration camp. The cast was composed of various inmates in the camp, and they rehearsed inside the camps walls, but once Nazi officials saw the show and interpreted the main character (Kaiser Overall) as a caricature of Hitler, they banned the show, so they never got to perform. Both Ulmann and Kien were killed in Auschwitz. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Kaiser_von_Atlantis)

I also learned some new things about rescue missions and efforts made to save Jews in various countries. For example, I had always known about the effort of the country of Denmark to evacuate the Jewish people into Sweden, but Bulgaria had a similar kind of action. There were really inspiring stories of individuals from all across Europe who risked so much to come to the aid of their neighbors. Many of these stories were told with video testimonials, which were of course incredible to watch.

I have to say one of the most ingenious parts of the whole museum is the exit: I mentioned that the building gets smaller and darker as you get into the crucial and brutal years, but then begins to open up again at liberation. Well at the end of the exhibit, there are glass double doors, which open onto a terrace with a gorgeous view of the city of Jerusalem. We were there at dusk so we could see the lights of the city below us (because the museum is on a hill) beyond the forest that surrounds the area. The idea is that exiting the museum towards this view symbolizes the resilience of the Jewish people and reminds museum goers of all the Jewish people have accomplished in such a short time: The city of Jerusalem brings hope despite the awful things that go on in the world. It’s truly a beautiful sight to behold.

Sorry for the downer of a post, but I highly recommend a trip to Yad Vashem if you’re ever in Israel. It’s a beautiful place!!