Blogs from Jerusalem, Jerusalem District, Israel, Middle East - page 46

The Friedlands Pictures of the Friedlands are below. I am so blessed to still be connected to this family. I have known them since I was a girl of 12. I used to babysit them, and here they are... all grown up! It is so much fun to have friends from so long ago and to see how we all mature and grow. Building life-long friendships is priceless. Some pictures are of Stephen (the second oldest) winning his award for Valor in the Lebanese War. The Burden of Israel "The burden of Israel is divided between those who fight, and those who pray." This is a quote from an Israeli that I met recently. When creating Israel, the government decided that the citizens had two choices: they could go to a Yeshiva and spend their ... read more

We had another very fun day today, although Deb and Willie were on a tour of their own (Nazareth, Tiberius, and more around The Galilee). We started by planting a tree in the desert, an Israeli tradition. It was hard to believe that the small pine saplings would grow in such a harsh environment (although they did have a drip system installed), but we were told the huge forest across the street started the same way 20 years ago. We then headed to Beit Gurvin, an active archeological site. The area has 5000 caves from around 1st century BCE. We went into a couple excavated caves and saw an ancient olive oil press. The highlight was when we dug in a cave ourselves! We all found small fragments of animal bones and pottery shards (some as ... read more

Today was the most somber day of the tour. We spent much of the day visiting Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum, a powerful, moving, and painful experience. The rise of the Nazis through the end of WWII was described very well in photographs, text, film footage, artifacts, 3-D models, many interviews with survivors, and replicated scenery that we walked through. The most moving part of the museum was the Children’s Memorial. Next we spent some time viewing several beautiful Chigall stain glass in the Hadassah Memorial Hospital. The best part of the day was when Willie, Deb’s boyfriend arrived safe and sound in the late afternoon. It’s great that he is able to join us. ... read more

Today we made our pilgrimage to Jerusalem where we stopped first in Banias Springs, an oasis in the Golan. We enjoyed a 90 minute hike through a Garden of Eden of fresh fruit trees (figs, grapes, pomegranate, berries, etc…). Our destination was the largest waterfall in Israel (which isn’t saying much, but it still was beautiful). We then started driving our motorized camel (i.e., tour bus) south across the desert. It was incredible to see the landscape change dramatically into a barren dessert, with sand dunes as far as we could see. The only evidence of life was the occasion camel grazing on the sparse shrubs. Much of road ran just a few yards away from the Israel/Jordan border. By the way, if you ever happen to be on Rt 90 in the Sea of Galelee, ... read more

I apologize for not keeping everyone updated about the wedding weekend, but there was shabbos and wedding hoorahs and other biznass with which to deal. So it turns out that the night before the wedding i was poisoned at a restaurant and spent the entire night blowing chunks and shitting water. I say i was poisoned because my friend rachel and i sat at the same table and Rachel was kinda giving the waitstaff a hard time because they were doing a shitty job. Anyway, the thing is all 14 of us ate at the restaurant, and rachel and i were the only ones to get food poisoning----neat. So i spent the day of the wedding curled in a ball in a dark room, trying to drink water and not throw it up, and somehow ... read more