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Jerusalem Rooftops
This is the view from the Austrian Hospice - my newly discovered favorite look out point in the Old City. Even for a veteran wanderer like me, it is easy to stay for weeks at a time in the magical city of Jerusalem. But over the last little while I feel like I am riding up or down the Jerusalem hills all the time, either heading towards the west in between century-old terraces of oaks, olives, carobs and pines, or dropping down past Bedouin encampments through the ever starker and barer Judean Desert to the Jordan River Valley. I'll include lots of photos this time - so enjoy!
Living My uncle Mike and aunt Susan came to visit me and after a day in the Old City, we decided to head back up to the north of the country. We drove up the Jordan River Valley, stopping at a Crusader Castle called Belvoir. It was a very aptly named spot, with spectacular (if hazy) views of the Jordan Valley, Jordanian town and mountains, the Jezreel Valley and the hills of Gilboa.
But most of the time, we spent up in the upper Galilee and the Golan. We went back to some of the places where I had gone with my parents in December. Instead of cyclamen and anemones
Belvoir
These are ruins from a Crusader Castle in the Jordan River Valley. at the Banyas, we saw fields of blue thistles and a close relative of Queen Anne's Lace. But there was still lots and lots of water coming down from the spring and crowds and crowds of people (for some reason, especially Palestinian school groups) enjoying the cool shade, the flowing water and the sweet tea and strong coffee sold by a Druze man with a magnificent mustache half way along the trail.
Up on the Golan itself, we saw that the cherries were ripe and we stopped to buy some from a Druze woman who told us it was the first day of the harvest. They were sweet and delicious!
We also stopped at Mt. Bental, the sight of a ferocious tank battle during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. There is a clear view of Syria from the top of the mountain; you can see fields, a UN camp and then a large Syrian town; rumor has it on a clear day you can see Damascus. You can go into trenches and bunkers from the war. Mike was the brave one, as you can see in the picture!
We drove by miles of apple orchards; the
The Banyas River
Even in May the water is plentiful. Druze on the Golan are known for their delicious apples. We also saw dozens of storks who are returning to Europe after wintering in Africa. It was so exciting to see them! All in all, it was a lovely trip.
Today I went down from Jerusalem going the other direction - towards to west. There is a hiking trail called the Shvil Yisrael (the Israel Trail) that goes all the way from the north to the south and my friend Serena is bit by bit hiking the whole thing. I joined her with a couple of her friends for a relatively short hike from Sha'alvim to Neve Shalom/Wahat Al Salaam.
We started out through fields of sunflowers, watermelon and fruit trees and then came up to Latrun, which is a Trappist Monastery famous for its wine. The area is also famous in Israeli military history because it is a high area that looks over the main road to Jerusalem. In 1948 there was a very bloody battle that was fought between the Israelis and the Jordanians to keep that road open. Many of the Israelis who were killed in the battle were Holocaust survivors. The road was kept
More water near the Banyas
Water seeps down from the Hermon - everywhere you go there is more water! open by the Israelis and Jerusalem remained connected to the rest of the young Jewish state. We stopped in the cool, quiet monastery and some of us bought wine.
From there we continued up through olive groves and meadows to Neve Shalom Wahat Al Salaam, a Jewish Palestinian town that has a commitment to bi-cultural bi-lingual education and co-existence. (The name in both languages means "Oasis of Peace.") I had heard about this village for a long time and it was exciting to visit. We stopped for a snack of pita, soft sour white cheese, olives and Turkish coffee on a pleasant shady patio with a fountain splashing behind us.
I hope I get another chance to join Serena for another leg of the Israel Trail before it's time for me to leave!
Learning Our primary class this trimester is on pluralism, primarily as it plays out here in Israel. We have been looking at the general question: What does it mean to be pluralistic in a way that includes groups that are not themselves pluralistic? To me, this is a critical question and one that gets more and more important the more both Israeli and
And still
summer is coming... American society seems to be polarized.
In order to the answer the question, we have been doing readings by people like Peter Berger, who talks about how modernity with all its choices is essentially pluralistic, and Michael Walzer, who talks about cultural rights and how societies can balance their dominant perspective with minority opinions. We saw a very moving film called "Hiding and Seeking," about an Orthodox man who is concerned that his two adult children do not recognize enough goodness in other groups of people. He takes them to Poland where they look for the Polish family who hid his in-laws during the Holocaust. They do in fact find them and arrange for them to be given the designation of "Righteous Among the Nations," an Israeli honor for no-Jewish rescuers of Jews. About half way through the film, I took out my package of tissues and there was much demand for them among my fellow Fellows!
This week we went to the Yaakov Herzog Center, which is religious Zionist educational center at Kibbutz Ein Zurim that focuses on multi-vocal approaches to Jewish learning and strives to bring secular and religious Jews into dialogue through study. It was
Golan Bunker
Mike is coming up the stairs from a bunker at Mt. Bental, right up on the Syrian border. an interesting day of learning and lectures. It seems to me, however, that there is a difference between pluralism and diversity, between tolerance and multi-vocalism. There is no doubt that Judaism has always valued lots of opinions; even in the first two chapters of the Torah, we see two tellings of the creation of the world and in sources that try to reconcile differing views into one coherent system, there are always multiple commentaries on how that system works. And yet, it seems that each view usually insists on its own exclusive authority.
I suspect that ultimately there is an inherent inconsistency to pluralism that extends to non-pluralistic groups. But it is probably better to live with that inconsistency than with the alternative.
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