Nov. 7 Monday. Stan went on walking tour of the 'Shuk', the very old open air market in Jerusalem. The guide explained the history going back to 1880, I think. She showed us the Iraqi section and a poor person section that I never knew about. The most famous picture site also was new to me. She pointed out many tips for shopping here as well as her favorite stall for every item.



Nov 9 We had Dinner with Joel Moss ,a friend from 2008 visit, at his favorite kosher restaurant that was quite good with many tapas. He is now Director of HIAS in Israel. This very old organization, that helped Jews immigrate from all over to escape persecution and helped them get settled in their new land for the last 150 (?) years , now helps mostly Africans here in Israel either to stay or get send back if safe to do so,or helped get settled here even if temporary. It is still supported by Jews from all over. What a great country that Africans mostly from Eritrea and Sudan are risking getting killed by the Egyptian and and Bedouins in the Sinai to come to the land Of Milk and Honey and Safety too! We visited their new condo in a high rise on Pinsker street that was quite lovely. They have 3 sons with MDs and youngest son Josh just got into Hebrew University Medical school here. Two years ago he was in a Yeshiva here, and Joel and I went to study there one afternoon with him. With 3 brother as Doctors he decided not to be the odd one out Rabbi after all. The wife Ellie is a Professor in Montreal their home town and I studied with her in 2008. She goes back and forth between Montreal and Jerusalem until she retires.



Nov. 11 Friday A very Interesting day of the Old City of Jerusalem!! Start with the four Sephardi Synagogues built in late 1500's by Jews fleeing he Inquisition in Spain and elsewhere. The first one was named after Yohanan ben Zakkai of the Roman period who really helped save Judaism from extinction as most other cultures under foreign rule. In 70 CE he fought with the Jewish Zealots to allow himself to be smuggled in a coffin out of Jerusalem as it was being destroyed. The zealots wanted everyone to fight to the end. Ben Zakkai realized the situation in Jerusalem was hopeless and was thinking ahead. Once out he talked with the general in charge and pleaded for the formation of schools in the north first at Yavne, a seemingly simple request. This was granted and from the schools started that trained rabbis and wrote down 1500 years of oral tradition, both resulted in saving Judaism. So the first synagogue built, with some difficulty from the Muslim in charge then, was named after Ben Zakkai. Others were started as new waves of Jews arrived from different lands. The next added was the Istanbuli Synagogue, from Turkey, then a middle one was added between those two. All were built one floor below the ground so as to not be too tall to hurt the Muslim sensibility.
During the 1948 War of Independence this area was under heavy attach by Jordanian forces and after one month of fighting 40 Jewish men women and teenagers held off a entire brigade. Even though they were cut off from supplies from food a to ammunition. The Jordanian General in charge could not believe that such a small force could stop his forces for so long. So he took 300 men including many old men and women who did no fighting back to Jordan as prisoners to justify his great loss of life in his forces and slow pace of advancement. Fortunately all prisoners were treated well in Jordan and were freed after 1 year. However, the Jordanian used the 4 Sephardi Synagogues as horse stables for the next 19 years. After the 1967 6 Day War, Israel captured the entire Old City, all of Jerusalem, and all the territory annexed by Jordan. The 4 Synagogues were rebuilt as they were on the outside but the inside with reclaimed parts of synagogues from Europe that were not in use because of the Holocaust. So they have beautiful arcs and bimas from Italy and other countries. It is quite a treat to sit in the these 400 year old house of worship even if everything is not original. They also have a museum room with documents dating back to 1100's of legal proceedings from the Muslim in charge one of which is for the Jews to start a cemetery . Other documents showed that the Muslim courts did protect the Jewish population from encroachment and other abuses.
Next we went to 'The Huvra Synagogue' the largest and most famous synagogue in the Old City. This synagogue was started in 1700 by some very poor Polish Jews that left all their possessions and headed to Jerusalem and arrived after a 3 year journey. Their Rabbi whose idea this was died one week after arriving. This is really bad luck. They were leaderless and totally dependent on charity from European congregations. But after several years they obtained a loan from some Muslim business men to build a synagogue. However, after 30 years they still hadn't paid off all their debt, so the Muslims burned it to the ground. Hence the grounds were called the Huvra,or the destruction or wreck, which remained till 1864's when wealthy Jews from England and France paid for construction of a grand synagogue, but kept the same name. In 1921, Lord Samuels , a Jew appointed by England to be the Governor General of Palestine, came to pray at The Huvra. The Jewish community was so over joyed to have a Jew finally ruling the land for the first time since 70 CE or in 1851 years that they laid out 6 blocks of red carpet for him to walk on from his hotel to the synagogue as if he were royalty. However in 1948 the Jordanian captured this area and the first thing they did was put 200 lbs of dynamite on the magnificent dome and blow the building up. After 1967, Israel built an arch over the ruins which lasted till 2009, when construction started to rebuild it exactly as it was and again keep the same name. It is now finished and we went on a tour through it. It building a new foundation they discovered ruins from the FIRST temple period before 587 BCE when the first temple was destroyed. In the basement of 2 houses of the Priests were mikvas, ritual baths, and one even had 2 mikvas. You could see the steps leading down to the pool about twice the size of a bathtub and 5 feet high. Later additions were from the Second Temple period and had black burn areas from when the Romans burnt the city down . Another wall was of Byzantine period showing how each culture just built on top of the previous ruins. We also climbed to the outside of the large doom to get great view of the Old city and the tops of buildings. One wall survived from the Jordanian explosion and they kept this wall intact and unfinished as part of the back wall containing the Torahs facing the Temple. The upper wall is painted sky blue with clouds and Jerusalem and the temple floating in space waiting to come back to Earth in its proper place.


We then went to the 'Alone on the Ramparts' exhibit which is a photo exhibit of an American journalist who posed a s a Jordanian legionnaire and took pictures of the fighting in 1948 and the surrender that I talked about above. His name was John Phillips and in 1979 came back to Israel and found 6 of the fighters from 1948 and made a film about their experiences then. The courage of these young people was incredible and the movie is very moving as are his photos.


After a tradition lunch of felafel with everything, we went to the Armenian quarter to visit their big church, St. James Cathedral. It is opened from 3 to 3:30 each day only. The priests dressed in black robes with some having their heads covered about 8 inches over their head by some internal device. The chanting in the prayer sounded very similar to Jewish prayers. The place was very dark with many dozens of lamps hanging from the ceiling but all unlit. A heavy blanket was over the door to keep light out. We talked with the man in charge outside and he said the Armenians have been in their Old City quarter since 310 and have had good relations with the Jews. He said that relations with the Turks was all ways bad but was really a problem from the time of the Armenian Holocaust to the defeat of the Turks here in 1917.
Next we went to the first Protestant church in Jerusalem, Christ Church, built in 1849 as cooperative project between the Anglican Church of England and the Prussian Protestant Church. Their mission was to make a Protestant presence in Jerusalem, try to convert Jews, and lastly to hasten the arrival of Jesus. When we walked inside the church it was amazing to see Hebrew all thru the stain glass windows and even Magen David ( Jewish Star). But even more were the 2 Hebrew Torahs from the Jewish Publication Society on the reading table. We asked the man behind the desk what was is going on and he told us that the Protestants have been in Israel so long they all speak Hebrew and have services in Hebrew! Two other group use the church, which is very ungothic, Christian Arabs ( unknown what language they use) and Messianic Jews ( that I think should be called Messianic Christians instead ( presumably use Hebrew also). They have a nice restaurant and quaint courtyard worth returning to. In the early 1900, the Emperor of German paid a visit to Jerusalem He was the first to bring a car with him but it wouldn't fit thru the small Jaffa gate, so the wall was taken down to make room for a car. I never knew why he came to such an unimportant place but the info on the walls explained that he was visiting this church to see how his investment was going and to see what progress they were making converting Jews.
All in all a very interesting day, but just beginning for Stan, who went to the Kottel ( the Western Wall) for Shabbat Services. As the sun was setting thousands and thousands of Hassids, very religious Jews with dress from 1700 Poland or Lithuanian with philosophy that if was good enough for the nobility at that time , it is good enough for them now, arrived in mass. Perhaps 10,000 to 20,000 men were there to pray with no organized congregations. There were hundreds of services going on at the same time right next to each other. Some younger less Orthodox were dancing with certain prayers making for a unforgettable site. Many wanted to get a close to the wall as possible. I put a prayer for good health for my Mother, Brother, and a member of our Havura in Santa Rosa , Joel Blumberg who is battling throat cancer.



Nov. 12 After Shabbat: Sholomo Carlebach Concert at Binyanef HaUma concert hall, the largest in Jerusalem, In Remembrance of his 21th Yahrzeit. Rabbi Carlebach was a phenom in the 50-70' s writing music, recording CD’s, giving concerts everywhere from college campuses , where Stan was lucky to see him at Purdue in late 50's and Roberta a few years later at Stanford, to large venues. He touched a very large number of religious and non religious Jews with his music and his motto, “ Friends are so Sweet”. He also composed many melodies for religious prayers and in fact a whole Friday night services can be sung with his tunes only, which I love and have gone to two Friday night “ Carlebach Kabbalat Shabbat” services already. The concert featured 8 performers all singing Carlebach songs with crowd singing most of them too. Many times the audience would keep on chanting the song after the performer finished causing another continuation of the song. Many times also the young people would run to the aisle and start dancing and moving up and down the aisles jumping up and down to the beat of the holy music. All the music has a religious tone and is quite beautiful. It can only be described as an incredible happening, and 21 years since he died people are not forgetting him or his music. One might say if you crossed “The Grand Old Opery” with Elvis singing his love songs and a Jewish prayer service you would get close to the event. Ah, but I forgot 2 important parts. Since this was a Orthodox crowd only men were dancing, but did this stop Roberta from getting up and dancing her self. Heck no and after awhile did she drag her Stan to join her dancing while holding hands violating the Orthodox custom of touching one's wife, heck yes! Then on the way home on the bus, a large group of kids at the concert staring singing and dancing right on the bus in an open section. One young man with payases ( for very religious Hassid Jews uncut curly long hair from the temples) down to his shoulders, whipped out his banjo and offered prayers of Carlebach and played his songs. What a happy group after a wonderful concert.


Nov. 13. We walked ( 25 minutes each way) to the Shuk and bought vegetables and a sea bass. After saving a lot of money , we blew it on some pastry at 65 shekels per kilo or about $8 per pound. What fun.