As I write this, it is early Friday morning and we are flying
over the Labrador Sea toward Newfoundland on our way to Newark (where we'll
connect for home). In the event our perspectives and imaginations hadn't been
stretched and twisted up until this point in the trip, that stretching and
twisting took on new shapes as we began to wind down for our departure.
A few words back to our speaker on Tuesday morning. As I wrote,
she was a councilwoman in the Jerusalem city government. Yes, she represents
one of the far left parties and they are definitely in the minority-- but her
words gave me hope. She articulated the three major challenges facing Jerusalem
(as a microcosm of Israel): 1) rich/ poor, 2) Palestinians/ Israelis, 3) across religious groups. If you think of
Israel as a very detailed, intricate tapestry with many threads and patterns
converging and diverging, that's it. Extraordinarily complex. For instance,
many of the ultra-Orthodox (Israeli) Jews are very poor. They don't send their
children to the public schools (and this is sanctioned by the State), so they
don't build marketable skills, and as a result, they cannot or will not work
and, as a result, receive financial support by the State-- with an allowance that
increases per child. These individuals have no interest, whatsoever, in sharing
(or exploring the possibilities of co-existence) with the Palestinians
(indeed, our speaker described this group as racist). So, the cycle continues.
When our speaker was asked what she thought President Obama and the U.S. should do, she responded that we
should dish out some very tough love (my words) to Netanyahu. Not to get
political here (but I will), but we need very strong leaders (with immense
amounts of intestinal fortitude) to address the conflict and it just isn't
happening.
On Tuesday afternoon, some of us headed back to the Old City for
some retail therapy-- where we entered through the Damascus Gate.
Those are spices stacked into a pyramid!
We were successful on that point-- but here
we were exposed to the rough and tumble elements of Jerusalem. One member of
our group was jostled to the ground and his cell phone was stolen. Another
member was hit by one of the large, unwieldy, fast-moving rolling carts . She
needed stitches in her leg. So the perspectives' broadening continued.
On Wednesday morning, we headed north toward Haifa with planned
stops at the Sea of Galilee,
Capernaum, and Safed / Tzfat. First, we took a
boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. (Emily stayed behind to try her hand at "walking on the water".)
For many of our group, this was the most moving
experience of the trip as this was where Jesus actually walked. Our ride was
lovely and became part of the dual narrative when Yuval exuberantly initiated
an Israeli dance-- several of us joined in. The skipper played the Star
Spangled Banner at the outset and raised the American flag. While the flag
of Israel was also flying on the mast,
there was no Hatikvah played-- perhaps
out of political correctness and respect to Husam? This was one of those
painful "dual narrative" moments (more on that later).
Our next stop was Capernaum, where Jesus lived and healed
Peter's mother. The old synagogue (circa 4th century AD) was remarkably well preserved.
We saw all three of these influences converge when we visited David Friedman's art studio. David made Aliyah over 30 years ago from Denver and acknowledged that the music of the Grateful Dead (plus the drug culture) influenced his art. His works are stunning and reflect many Kabbalistic elements, which he beautifully and spiritually spelled out. Many in our group were moved to purchase his artwork (your writer among them).
After the time at David's studio, we visited a stunning Ashkenazi
synagogue...
Alas, we didn't have time for anything but high level browsing. Note to self: must return to this must not miss spot. (If readers are concerned I did not get in my usual shopping quotient, no fear as the Yad Vashem gift shop offered many fine opportunities to fill my extra bag-- and fill it I did.)
We ended the long day in Haifa at Maxim
restaurant-- a Palestinian restaurant that was the site of a suicide bombing incident about 12 years ago. (The restaurant is "in the
family" as one of our staff members is related to the owners ). Of course, as elsewhere on the trip, the Palestinian food and hospitality were
outstanding. More importantly, though, we were joined at dinner by 60 Hands
of Peace kids and their parents; it was
electric and inspirational to hear their stories of hope and understanding.....
...while nearby was a reminder of today's reality:
We were fortunate to be
seated alongside Judy and Amit (she is an American who made Aliyah 20+ years ago and now writes for Ha'aretz-- the left-leaning Israeli
newspaper that many American Jews enjoy-- and he is a university professor who was on Rabin's
team at the time of the assassination). Their son was in our San Diego Israeli
Jewish delegation this past summer. It
was fascinating to hear their perspectives (they now live in Tel Aviv and love
it there-- they used to live in Jerusalem but left because it was so intense--
this reminded me just a bit of the dichotomy we experienced between Shanghai
and Beijing several years back). Most heart-wrenching though was to hear their
story from this past summer. They have four children. Their oldest is in an
elite infantry unit of the IDF so of course was on the ground for the
Gaza operation this past summer. They
heard from him most evenings. Their next child, a daughter, is taking a gap year
before entering the army. Their third child was in San Diego this summer
attending our program during the Gaza operation. And their fourth child was at
home. As Judy told the story of the family's angst, my heart burst for
her. So difficult.
We checked into our hotel in Haifa to
get some rest before our last day of touring. We started Thursday morning with
a visit to the glorious Baha'i shrine and gardens. This was quite a fitting
"last day" stop to our trip as the Baha'i faith speaks to all faiths
and reinforces unity, diversity, and peace. While the narrative was interesting
and somewhat compelling, several of us were surprised to hear how very
conservative the doctrines are. That aside, the views were
spectacular.
Last stop-- a Druze village
where we heard from a non-devout gentleman and a devout woman. (You may be
aware that George Clooney's bride, Amal Alamuddin, has a Palestinian Druze background-- though she is not devout--
as intermarriage is definitely not
permitted). Developed partly from Shia Islam, this ancient faith believes
in reincarnation and very little reverence for the dead.
We were told that many Israeli Druze families support Israel (there are also communities in Syria and Lebanon). Druze families go so far as to send their children to the army. Husam informed us (as it has been his role to do), however, that the Israeli Druze support for Israel is not unilateral.
In a journey punctuated by memorable dining (and when has that not been the case?), our lunch at the Druze village was an absolute standout. The platters kept coming and included (but were not limited to): hummus, home made flatbread with Zatar -- a zesty Mideast spice made from dried herbs including oregano and sumac, home-made flatbread with tomato sauce, roasted eggplant, rice, mini stuffed cabbage leaves, mini stuffed grape leaves, kebabs in Tahini, chicken, and amazing cookies .
All of this was accompanied by a
tangy and sweet Tamarind tea. We bid our
good- byes and headed back to Tel Aviv for our late-night flight home.
As for our departure, security and check in at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion's airport are really something else. We prepped our group that they should not volunteer that we had spent considerable amounts of time on the West Bank. It was " Kosher" for us to be there-- but a detailed description might be problematic for Israeli Security, so we were strongly advised to stick to a straightforward and simplistic script. As tour leader , I was singled out by security for fairly extensive questioning. Good thing my mental and physical exhaustion did not affect my brain cells as I was able to answer the following questions with some semblance of agility: Why were you here? Who was your leader? Did you have meetings? Why? What cities did you visit? Who was your guide (here, we had been explicitly coached not to identify Husam as a guide)? Why did you come early? Did any of your group separate from the rest? Why? Etc., etc. Then, I had to walk alongside our group with my new BFF Security guy to verify our group members (I was pretty pleased I did not have to recite names as by this point, I was wiped!), but that wasn't all. After my bags went through the initial screening, I was pulled aside so the friendly Security folks could do a deeper dive into my baggage for something suspect. (Luckily, my laundry was elsewhere). Low and behold (gift spoiler alert!!!), they discovered that the Dead Sea salt gifts had set off some kind of alert on the X-ray machine. Fortunately, this discovery did not at all affect my ability to keep these gifts and continue through the security labyrinth.
From the stirring moments at the Galilee and Capernaum to the mystical visit to Tzfat to the inspiring kids and parents and the Baha'i and Druze experiences, our last two days absolutely exposed us to yet additional narratives for this rich and emotional trip. The last blog for this journey will
contain our reflections. Stay tuned.
Peace, shalom, salaam,
wendy and emily
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