Saturday, April 30, 2005.
I attended the afternoon sessions of the “Redefining Europe” conference at UNVA, most of which were extremely interesting. More interesting than the talks, however, was the discussion. The participants are from Poland, Cypress, Georgia, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Turkey, Portugal, USA, Canada. Most are scholars, a few are students. All are extremely well educated.
This evening Rick and I went to a jazz concert at the Municipal House, performed by the Jazz Quartet Bohemia. The quartet consisted of a violin, piano, bass and drums, and they played familiar American tunes including Gerhswin and Duke Ellington. This concert was not in Smetana Hall, the large concert hall, but rather in the small hall downstairs near the American Café. The music was enjoyable, but smoother jazz than I would have liked on some of the compositions. The musicians were clearly classically-trained, so the musicianship was superb.
We chanced to meet Allan Carlson and his two children on the bus on our way home and stopped for a drink with them. Allan is president of the Howard Center in Rockford, Illinois, doing research on demographics and fertility rates. His daughter Sarah Eva is studying in Belgium and his son Anders is a PhD student in geology at Oregon State University. Allan had been invited to speak at the Prague Senate, which provided the opportunity for the three of them to meet for a holiday in Prague. It’s interesting how an innocent “where are you from?” to an obvious native-English speaker will mushroom into a longer conversation and, at times, a longer-term relationship.
Friday, April 29, 2005.
This weekend marks the one-year anniversary of the ascension of the Czech Republic--and 9 other countries--into the now-enlarged EU. The president of the University of Northern Virginia, which has set up a satellite campus here, had invited me to attend the conference they have organized this weekend, entitled “Redefining Europe: Federalism and the Union of European Democracies One year after the Ten Member Expansion.” I went over to UNVA’s facility at the YMCA to attend the kick-off of their weekend conference, only to find out that the kick-off had been postponed until this afternoon. When I got home, Molly was still asleep.
Shortly after noon, I went with Dave and Molly to the Pinkas Synagogue to introduce them to Sarah, one of our favorite Fulbrighters, who had graciously offered to give them her “royal tour” of the Jewish Synagogues. I left them in her hands and went back to UNVA to hear the first two sessions. I was particularly interested in Steven’s presentation about the EU constitution, partly because I know and love Steven, but also because I know he’s a good presenter and very knowledgeable about the constitution. After Steven’s presentation, I rendezvoused with Dave and Molly and Sarah at the Spanish Synagogue. I took Dave and Molly to see the statues of Rabbi Lowe and the Golem at the New Old Town Hall, to the splendid art nuveau Municipal House, and then to Tesco to see the deli section of the grocery store!
Dave and Molly quickly headed home to change before our dinner date with Howard and Marketa. It turned out that Marketa was unable to join us, so we were a five-some again. We went to a fairly “Czech” restaurant near the Spanish synagogue, but none of us had dumplings! It was a nice “last evening” with them. They leave tomorrow morning.
Dinner with Dave and Molly in Prague
Wednesday, April 27, 2005.
Rick and I set aside this week to visit with Molly and Dave, so any time spent when Molly and Dave were out on their own, was used for us to catch up on e-mail and research projects. Molly and Dave spent most of the time on their own, walking about Old Town and seeing many Prague's sights. Today they spent most of the day at the Castle, returning to the flat late in the afternoon.
Veena’s parents are in town, so we met them for dinner at the Halevi Indian Restaurant near the metro station at the end of our bus route. I was pleased to meet Veena’s parents, since she’s talked so much about them (and because we are so fond of Veena). We had a wonderful time, and a delicious meal.
Monday, April 25, 2005.
Rick and I woke early, and went to the store to get yogurts, cheeses and fruit for breakfast. The tulips are in bloom! We were all awake before 9am, and set out to see the city before noon. From the Malostranska metro station, we walked with Molly and Dave around the Lesser Town and across the Charles Bridge. They went from there to the Old Town Square and spent the afternoon wandering around town. Meanwhile, I went to the post office to mail my Israel postcards and Rick and I spent the rest of the afternoon at home.
Molly and Dave came back to the flat for a short rest, after which we took them to Na Staré Faře for dinner. We had originally planned to have dinner with Ales and Jitka, but Jitka’s sister is visiting her in Červena, so only Ales joined us for dinner. After dinner we had dessert and Becherovka at our flat. Molly and Dave decided to go out on the town shortly before midnight, but returned before 2am.
Sunday, April 24, 2005.
This is our last day in Israel. Yaffa and Ronnie planned a hike with Alan and Mira, but
Mira is ill, so there were just five of us this morning. Alan is the chair of the Geology department at Hebrew University, originally from Wales, but has lived in Israel now for nearly 30 years. Mira, his wife, is also a geologist, doing stalactite dating research. We hiked near Sataf, an ancient agricultural site in the Judean hills west of Jerusalem, just west of En Kerem. Ronnie found lots of flowers, including orchids. We found traces of gazelles, but did not see any animals other than birds and insects and a few horses out for a stroll.
We had planned to take the train from Jerusalem to the Tel Aviv airport, but no bus or train is running today because of the Passover holiday. Instead, Ronnie and Yaffa drove us to Omri and Dina’s house in Modiim, half-way to the airport. We drove through the new subdivision and saw Omri and Dina’s new house, which is under construction.
We had plenty of time to get to the airport, but took a taxi at 6pm since everyone else had early evening obligations. We were prepared for long lines, since many people go on vacation this week, but the airport was not crowded. We strolled through the shops, mostly looking for stamps (for my few remaining postcards) and an English-language newspaper and Economist Magazine to take on the plane. We found the weekend edition of the International Herald Tribute with the Haaretz insert, but the newsstands were out of the Economist and no one had stamps, including the post office which was only partially open. We purchased some Israeli coffee and wine with our last remaining shekels.
The flight left on time, shortly after 9pm, and we were served a Kosher-for-Passover dinner at 10pm. Gaining an hour, we landed in Prague around 12:30a.m. We had only carry-on bags, so we were outside the terminal shortly after 1:00 and home by 1:30. Molly and Dave had arrived earlier in the afternoon and were asleep when we arrived at the flat. Mrs. Halova’s son Vojta and two of his friends had met them at the airport and driven them to the flat.
Saturday, April 23, 2005.
Ronnie and Yaffa's house is ready for Passover, and the lamb stew is slowly cooking in a crockpot, so the four of us went for a walk this morning around the The Wohl Rose Park between the Knesset and the Supreme Court Building. This park, which covers 19 acres and has a wide range of rose varieties (about 400 varieties and 15,000 plants), displays its roses all year round. The rose park includes the Garden of Nations, which is made up of sections donated by countries or communities around the world. The Garden of the Nations contains contributions from Argentina, Holland, Germany, England, Spain, and Ontario. Each section has rose varieties characteristic of, or grown in, the respective country. The park also has an Experimental Section where new varieties of roses are tested for their suitability for public and private gardens in Israel, where roses can be grown all year round.
There were twenty people at the seder this evening, nearly all of the extended Kosloff family: Danny and Ronit with their young children, Ayelet and Nativ; Danny’s older sons Joni, Zemer and Alon, who is now in the military; Miriam and Rick’s Aunt Jean, Danny and Ronnie’s mother; Ronnie and Yaffa and their three sons, Omri, Aviv, and Elad; Omri and his wife Dina and their two boys, Ofek and Yair; and Rick and me. Ray and Helen are in New York with their son Mickey and his wife Inbar. The seder was lovely and the food magnificent and plentiful.
Our last seder with the Kosloff clan was in Boulder in 1999 when Ronnie and Yaffa spent a year in Colorado. Miriam and Jean and Ray and Helen joined us there, as did Rick’s mother and sister and brother. Matt was with us then, and Molly came for her spring break. We’ll see Molly in just two days, when she visits us in Prague.
This occasion was overtly spiritual, of course, but like most Jewish holidays, it was also a deeply felt celebration of the family. For Rick this was an especially meaningful gathering, because he has been close to his Israeli kin his whole life. And what a family it is! His cousins Danny and Ronnie, have kids of their own, several now grown into fine young men. There are even grandchildren, a blessing for which we can only hope. The high point of the evening was Nativ, seven years old and unimaginably cute, asking the four questions. Life doesn’t get much sweeter than this.
Happy Passover!
Friday, April 22, 2005.
Despite the fact that I had been at the Temple Mount and the Hadassah Medical center seven years ago, I was disappointed that I would not be able to see the Mosques and the Chagall Windows again. Since tonight is Shabbat, the few things that are open all close at 2pm, so Rick and I were determined not to let the morning’s opportunities slip away. Rick went to the Israel Museum and I took a bus to the new Yad Vashem Museum. We had both been to Yad Vashem seven years ago, and Rick had spent a full day there many years before that. But the new museum is an entirely new structure, with new presentation and some new holdings, including videotaped interviews of many holocaust survivors, many of whom were filmed by Stephen Speilberg during his filming of Shindler’s List.
Yad Vashemn is the Jewish people’s memorial to the murdered Six Million, and symbolizes the ongoing confrontation with the rupture engendered by the Holocaust. Containing the world’s largest repository of information on the subject, Yad Vashem is a leader in Shoah education, commemoration, research and documentation. Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, was originally established in 1953 by an act of the Israeli Knesset. Since its inception, Yad Vashem has been entrusted with documenting the history of the Jewish people during the Holocaust period, preserving the memory and story of each of the six million victims, and imparting the legacy of the Holocaust for future generations through its archives, library, school, museums and recognition of the Righteous Among the Nations. Located on Har Hazikaron, the Mount of Remembrance, Yad Vashem is a vast, sprawling complex of tree-studded walkways leading to museums, exhibits, archives, monuments, sculptures, and memorials.
At the entrance to the museum complex is the Avenue and Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations, which honors the non-Jews who acted according to the most noble principles of their humanity, risking their lives to help Jews during the Holocaust. Two thousand trees, symbolic of the renewal of life, have been planted in and around the avenue. Plaques adjacent to each tree give the names of those being honored, along with their country of residence during the war. A further 18,000 names of non-Jews recognized to date as Righteous Among the Nations, are engraved on walls according to country, in the of the same name.
The new Holocaust History Museum occupies over 4,200 square meters, mainly underground. Both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary, it presents the story of the Shoah from a uniquely Jewish perspective, emphasizing the experiences of the individual victims through original artifacts, survivor testimonies, and personal possessions. The Art Museum witnesses the strength of the human spirit, and holds the world’s largest and most important collection of Holocaust art. It includes works of art that were created under the inconceivably adverse conditions of the Holocaust, and a selection of works done after the war by Holocaust survivors and other artists.
Unique to Yad Vashem is the Hall of Remembrance, a solemn tent-like structure which allows visitors to pay their respects to the memories of the martyred dead. On the floor are the names of the six death camps and some of the concentration camps and killing sites throughout Europe. In front of the memorial flame lies a crypt containing ashes of victims. Memorial ceremonies for official visitors are held here. The Memorial to the Deportees is an original cattle-car which was used to transport thousands of Jews to the death camps. Perched on the edge of an abyss facing the Jerusalem forest, the monument symbolizes both the impending horror, and the rebirth which followed the Holocaust.
Across the grounds there is a small Children’s Memorial, hollowed out from an underground cavern, where memorial candles, a customary Jewish tradition to remember the dead, are reflected infinitely in a dark and somber space. This memorial is a tribute to the approximately one and a half million Jewish children who perished during the Holocaust. There is also a 2.5 acre monument “Valley of the Communities,” dug from the natural bedrock. Engraved on the massive stone walls of the memorial are the names of over five thousand Jewish communities that were destroyed, as well as the names of the few that suffered but survived in the shadow of the Holocaust.
Yad Vashem’s archive collection is the largest and most comprehensive repository of material on the Holocaust in the world, with 62 million pages of documents, nearly 267,500 photographs, and thousands of films and videotaped testimonies of survivors. The library houses more than 90,000 titles in many languages, thousands of periodicals, and a large number of rare and precious items, establishing itself as the most significant Holocaust library in the world. Holdings may be accessed by the public on site, and residents of Israel are entitled to limited borrowing privileges. The Hall of Names is a tribute to the victims by remembering them, not as anonymous numbers, but as individual human beings. The “Pages of Testimony” are symbolic gravestones, which record names and biographical data of millions of martyrs, as submitted by family members and friends. To date, Yad Vashem has computerized 3.2 million names of Holocaust victims, compiled from approximately 2 million pages of testimony and from various other lists.
Yad Vashem also houses the International School for Holocaust Studies, the only school of its kind in the world. With 17 classrooms, a modern multimedia center, a resource and pedagogical center, an auditorium and over 100 educators on its staff, the school caters annually to over 100,000 students and youth, 50,000 soldiers, and thousands of educators from Israel and around the world. Courses for teachers are offered in 8 languages other than Hebrew, and the school also sends its professional staff around the world for the purpose of Holocaust education. The team of experts at the school is developing a variety of educational programs and study aids on the Holocaust including advanced multimedia programs, maps, books, cassettes and other educational aids. The International Institute for Holocaust Research coordinates and supports research on national and international levels, organizes conferences and colloquia and publishes a variety of important works on the Holocaust, including memoirs, diaries, historical studies, a scholarly annual, and more. Yad Vashem also publishes history books, diaries and document collections in Hebrew and English. Yad Vashem has published over 200 books, which constitute the backbone of Holocaust literature in Israeli society. In recent years, 24 books have been published annually. Most Israelis, indeed most Jews, have many Holocaust victims in their family tree, and a large number have grown up with people who actually survived the ordeal. Many more see remnants of the anti-Semitism and hatred that led to the Holocaust. But those of us who lead easy lives should take time to visit these memorials and realize that there are still those in our midst who wish to annihilate people simply because they differ in customs, beliefs, or origins. I do not mean to trivialize the enormity of my experience when I report that I was in a somber mood as I took the bus back to Ronnie and Yaffa’s flat.
This week is traditionally a time of spring cleaning, owing its origin to the preparation for Passover. The home is made spotlessly clean and the tables are set with the finest dishes and table ornaments. In the afternoon, before sundown, observant Jewish families prepare their homes for Passover by searching for chemetz, or leaven. In religious homes all chemetz must be sought out, and either sold or burnt. Ten pieces of leaven are placed on window sills and shelves by the mother and a special search by candlelight is acted out for the children the evening before the Seder is to be observed. The children watch carefully as father, using a quill feather and a wooden spoon, carefully dusts off these pieces to be burnt up in the morning, and listen carefully as he explains that the leaven is a symbol of the wrongs we must erase from our hearts and lives. The smell of burning chemetz was in the air around the neighborhood of Bet Hakareem. Ronnie decided to sell his chemetz to aliens instead of start a fire on their deck.
Ronnie and Yaffa’s middle son, Aviv, joined us for a relaxing Shabbat dinner. We had not seen Aviv since the Kosloffs’ stay in Boulder five years ago. Aviv is in school now, studying film. He’ll complete his bachelor’s degree this spring.
Thursday, April 21, 2005.
Rick and I headed to the Old City fairly early so that we could go to the Temple Mount and visit the Mosques. We found several entrances, but each one was closed. We found out that today is a Muslim holiday, so only Muslims were allowed in the Temple Mount area. Tomorrow morning is the Muslim Sabbath, so we won’t be able to go then either. So we could only see the Mosques from afar. Back at the Western Wall, we saw a swearing-in ceremony for the inauguration of an army Paratrooper unit. Swearing-in ceremonies are held at the wall twice yearly at Passover and at Sukkot. The Paratroopers, considered one of the elite units of the Israeli Defense Forces, were the first of Israeli troops to enter the Old City during the Six Day War in 1967. Their arrival at the Western Wall signified Israel’s victory and marked the beginning of the reunification of Jerusalem under Israeli control.
We walked through the old city, to the Jewish Quarter and went in to the Wohl Museum of Archeology, the largest and most important site from the Second Temple times. This compound consists of six houses, built on a hillside overlooking the Temple Mount. In the Herodian Period these were home to some of the wealthiest aristocrats in Jerusalem, apparently from the priestly classes. The inhabitants designed their homes meticulously in the Greco-Roman style that was popular in those times. The visible archeological remains are mainly from the cellars of three houses, each of which were evidently two stores in height. Their content provides a vivid indication of the inhabitants’ wealth. There are numerous storage rooms as well as reservoirs, ritual baths, ovens and such decorative adornments as colorful mosaics, elaborate stucco work and even frescoes. Many luxury items were found there by archeologists who concluded that the residents enjoyed a very high standard of living using only the finest goods, including terra cotta tableware, imported amphorae for wine and delicate flasks. There are also innumerable stone utensils which were especially popular among the priestly caste for reasons of ritual purity. The largest and most impressive home is the House of Measurements which has a floor space of 600 square meters. Its rooms are all richly decorated and there is a large balcony overlooking the Temple Mount. The Herodian Quarter was discovered by archeologists when the Jewish Quarter was rebuilt following the Six Day War in 1967. The museum, constructed in the 1980s, was endowed by Vivian and Maurice Wohl.
From there we went to the Tower of David Museum at the Citadel, just outside the Jaffa Gate, which is known for its three-dimensional zinc model of 19th century Jerusalem, created by Hungarian artist Stephan Illes in 1873. The Citadel was first constructed 2,000 years ago by Herod the Great, and the Tower of David Museum traces Jerusalem’s long and eventful history through displays and exhibits which present Canaanites and Hebrews, Greeks and Romans, Crusaders, Muslims, Turks, British, and Israelis. The panoramic route along the Citadel towers allows breathtaking views of the city and the lush archaeological gardens below Robinson’s Arch.
Inside the Citadel, there was a new train exhibit, with working model trains and a history of the Israel railway. The idea of building a railway in this country was suggested by Sir Moses Montefiore as early as 1839, after the construction of the first public railway in England. But the first track was not laid until 1892. The first train route ran from Jaffa to Jerusalem and was 87 km. long. This distance was covered by the first train in the then astounding time of 3 hours and 50 minutes. In 1904, the Haifa-Bet She’an section of the famous Hedjaz railway was opened, followed a year later by the continuation to Dera’a, junction for Damascus and Amman, followed by the Turkish military railway from Afula to Beer Sheba and the Sinai desert in 1915. In 1919, the British completed the Kantara-Haifa railway line. After taking on the Palestine Mandate, they opened the Petach Tikva line. Rail services also included a daily passenger train between Haifa and Cairo. When the State of Israel was established in 1948, the new government took over management of the railways. Following the War of Independence, the government initiated regular passenger service between Haifa, Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem. At that time, the journey took 4 hours. The Tel Aviv Central station was opened in 1954, following construction of a Coastal Line. Nearly ten years later, a Beersheba-Dimona line was completed for freight trains. Following the Six-Day War in 1967, the railway extended to Kantara and Port Tawfik on the Suez Canal. This service continued until the Yom Kippur War in 1973. In 1975, a new railway station for passengers was opened at Haifa-Bat Galim, and the Negev railway was extended to Nahal Zin two years later. In 1988, the Israel Railways were united with the Ports Authority to create “The Ports and Railways Authority.” Further passenger lines were open in the early 1990s and new diesel-electric trains started running in 1992. A commuter line from Tel Aviv to Netanya was instituted in 1993, and a similar commuter line began operating in Haifa in 1996. New passenger coaches and diesel locomotives were brought in from Spain, but the line to Jerusalem was closed in 1998. Just last week, the train line from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was reopened. The tracks now pass through Beit Shemesh, following the old route that ascends to the capital via the Refaim Valley. In its press release, the Transport Ministry confidently stated its prediction that it expects strong demand for the train from Beit Shemesh to Jerusalem and Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. Spending on the project totaled approximately NIS 480 million (New Israeli Shekels), slightly more than 100 million dollars. The renewed railroad line currently stops in Jerusalem, but only at Malcha, the neighborhood in the southern side of the city, which is very far from the four main focal points of attraction for commuters and visitors: the government compound, the city center, the Old City and Hebrew University. Some critics anticipate that numerous people will try the new line early on, in order to reexperience the beautiful landscape, but will soon abandon its railcars to a small contingent of regular consumers, due to the long duration and relatively high cost of the trip.
We spent the afternoon with Miriam, Ray’s father’s widow. We first went to Mishkenot Shaananim, a fancy restaurant in the Yemin Moshe suburb, easily identifiable by the large windmill at the top of the hill overlooking the Old City and the Hinnom Valley on King David Street. Named for Sir Moses Montefiore, Yemin Moshe was the first establishment outside the Old City walls in 1891. Miriam then took us for a drive around En Kerem, first to the Mt. Tayassim Air Force Memorial and then to the Nature Preserve and the Martyrs Forest, the single largest memorial to the Holocaust in the world. The Martyrs Forest is comprised of six million trees – truly, a living memorial. Four and half million pine trees represent the adults who perished in the Holocaust while 1.5 million cypress trees account for the children who perished. Most impressive is the Scroll of Fire sculpture. Dedicated in 1971 by Bnai Brith, the Scroll of Fire is the work of Warsaw-born Nathan Rapoport. The Scroll of Fire is one of the most beautiful sculptures in Israel. It is an imposing work rich in detail and history, that tells the story of the rebirth of the nation from the Holocaust up to the Six Day War. There are a number of recurring elements in the Scroll of Fire; mother and child, an olive tree/branch, a menorah and much symbolism. The scroll on the right focuses on the holocaust and its survivors while the scroll on the left deals with the struggle to establish a new homeland.
We were back at Ronnie and Yaffa’s house for dinner with Hebrew University folks Tova, a colleague of Ronnie’s; Miheala, the Romanian doctoral student; Uli, the German undergraduate student; and Christiane, a post-doc from Leipsig. Dinner started late, and the conversation pushed the evening even later. It was a real treat to meet and chat with these very interesting and charming people. Rick and Uli dutifully finished all the beer, and we all ate any leftover chemetz (leavening), so that there would be little to clean up in preparation for Passover on Saturday.
with Miriam at the Scroll of Fire
Wednesday, April 20, 2005.
Ronnie took us on a long excursion around the Judean hills through the Bet Guvrim forest with students Mihaela (from Romania) and Uli (from Berlin, but studying in Freiburg). We first went to Lakhish, which reveals traces of habitation dating back 5,000 years. Lakhish guarded the route from the lowlands to Hebron and Jerusalem and was a natural look-out post that had to be fortified. Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, included it in a string of surrounding cities that he built in defense of Judah. In 701 BCE the Assyrian King Sennacherib rolled through Judah, laying siege to Lakhish. In 1935 the famous “Lakhish letters’” were discovered, throwing much light on the subsequent capture and destruction of Lakhish by the Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar, who later went on to destroy Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. Lakhish rose again under the Persians in the 5th century BCE and was captured by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE. The site was abandoned shortly after the 2nd century BCE. We walked along the remnant of the double walls, a gate, the residence of the Persian governor, leftovers of a Sun Temple and several rooms.
South of Lakhish, past Tel Erani, are the Caves of Hazan. These are man-made caves and tunnels that were used as hiding-places by Jews at the time of Bar Kochba’s rebellion. This site had earlier been used for producing olive oil (there is a subterranean oil-press that was found in one of the caves), but with the preparation for the Revolt, it was turned into a secret hideout from the Romans. Most interesting to us were the caves that were used for breeding pigeons, whose manure was a valuable trading commodity. There are still a few pigeons roosting in the indentations in the cave walls.
From Lakhish, we drove to Bet Guvrin-Maresha. Maresha is mentioned in the Torah as one of the cities fortified by Rehoboam against the incursion of Babylon into his kingdom. At the beginning of the 9th century BCE, Zerah the Ethiopian attacked Judea and engaged King Asa in the Maresha area. During the Persian period, after the destruction of the First Temple, Maresha and all of southern Judea was settled by Edomites, who came from the southeast. At the end of that period, in the 4th century BCE, Sidonians and Greeks came to Maresha, bringing the Hellenistic culture with them. A few Egyptians and Jews also lived there, refugees from the fall of the Temple and emigrants from the Coastal Plain, and this area became an important economic center. A lower city was built and caves were hewn. From historical sources and local excavations, it became evident that in 113-112 BCE, John Hyrcanus I, the Hasmonean, conquered Maresha and converted the residents of the city and its surroundings to Judasism. The upper and lower city became desolate ruins, but Maresha recovered and was repopulated until it was demolished by the Parthian Army in 40 BCE. Bet-Guvrin replaced Marsesha as the most important settlement in the area, mentioned by Josephus Flavius in 68 CE as one of the towns conquered by the Roman general Vespasian. Following the destruction of the Second Temple, it continued to exist as a rather crowded Jewish settlement until the Bar-Kochva Revolt in 132-135 CE. In 200, Emperor Septimus Severus changed Bet-Guvrin’s name to Eleutheropolis (“City of the Free”) and granted it municipal status. Two aqueducts and five highways were built, as well as an amphitheater and public buildings. The Jewish settlement was rehabilitated, and Bet-Guvrin was mentioned in the Talmud and Midrashim (commentaries) in the 3rd-4th centuries by Rabbi Yonatan and Rabbi Yehuda Ben-Yaakov. From the Roman and Byzantine periods, a large Jewish cemetery and architectural remains were discovered, as was a synagogue inscription. During the Byzantine period, Bet-Guvrin was an important center of Christianity with a number of churches. Most of the bell caves were dug during the early Muslim period, and finds from the Crusader period indicate that it was a small fortified city, surrounded by Crusader villages. An Arab village occupied the site until Israel’s War of Independence in 1948. Kibbutz Bet-Guvrin was established here in May 1949.
We stopped for coffee at the Nes Harim café, about 20 km from Jerusalem, overlooking acres of fruit trees and vineyards. We then headed back through En Kerem, the birthplace of John the Baptist, back to Ronnie and Yaffa’s house. We’ll have dinner with Mihaela and Uli tomorrow.
Tuesday, April 19, 2005.
This morning we took a bus to Baka, now a fairly upscale Jerusalem neighborhood, to visit Rick’s Aunt Jean. We last saw her when we visited Israel in 1998. Her apartment has been arranged as a gallery for an exhibition of some of her recent oil paintings, and it was a treat for us to see the paintings, most of which we had only seen in photos. Jean and I took a walk around the area near her apartment, and we three talked for a long while. Rick and I then walked to the Gabriel Sherover Promenade, and down to the Old City to walk through the Jewish Quarter once again. The Sherover Promenade is an elegant stone path built in 1989 by philanthropist Gita Sherover in memory of her son. The promenade follows the boundary that divided Jerusalem’s Jewish and Arab populations until the Six-Day War in 1967, and it overlooks the arid white hills of the Judean desert, the Old City, the Temple Mount, the golden Dome of the Rock, and the black dome of Al Aqsa. The Sherover gardens are planted with wheat, olives and aromatic plants, contrasting sharply with the desert that begins immediately at its feet.
We walked to the Jaffa Gate to the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, through marketplaces that looked virtually unchanged from our last visit 7 years ago, and probably hardly changed over centuries. We also walked through the Muslim Quarter, hoping to gain entrance to the Temple Mount, the site of the Dome of the Rock and the El Aqsa Mosque. The Dome of the Rock, sometimes called the Mosque of Omar, was built in 691, by the Ummayyad caliph Abd el-Malik, around the rock on which Abraham bound his son Isaac to be sacrificed before God intervened. According to some old maps and traditions, this is the center of the earth. This is also the place where the Koran says Mohammed ascended to heaven. Muslim tradition also holds that the rock tried to follow the Prophet, whose footprints are said to be on the rock. For many years, pilgrims would chip off pieces of the rock to take home with them, but glass partitions now prevent visitors from taking souvenirs. A special wooden cabinet next to the rock holds strands of Mohammed’s hair. Under the rock is a chamber known as the Well of the Souls. This is where it is said that all the souls of the dead congregate.
There is a path from the Western Wall plaza that leads to the Temple Mount, but it was closed, as were the other entrances. The Temple Mount area and the mosques are closed to tourists during the five times each day when Muslims pray, and the area is now only open from 7:30-11:00am and from 1-2pm. So we were advised to come again in the morning.
This evening we had a delightful dinner at the New Philadelphia Restaurant with Ari and Elana Hagler. This is their second year in Jerusalem. Elana is studying art and Ari is finishing a master’s degree in International Relations. They’ll return to the US this fall, where both will be attending graduate school in Philadelphia. It was a treat to see them. After dinner they took us to their flat, where we continued a long conversation and caught up with various family news.
Jean Kadmon's Art Exhibition
Monday, April 18, 2005.
Rick was eager to have some time to himself, but I was eager to see as much of the city sights as possible, so he spent the morning with Ronnie at the university and I walked through the lovely university gardens, across the bridge, through the World Rose Garden, to the Israel Museum. Like the Tel Aviv Museum, this museum has an extensive modern art collection. But the Israel Museum also has the most important archaeological finds made in Israel, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are housed in the Shrine of the Book. There are also exhibitions of ethnography, Jewish art objects, the cultures of neighboring lands, and local and international art. Founded in 1965, the Israel Museum is the leading cultural institution in Israel and is one of the largest encyclopedic museums in the world.
Its terraced complex, comprising nearly 50,000 square meters and a six-acre sculpture garden within its twenty-acre campus attracts over 950,000 visitors each year, about a third of them international tourists and including nearly 100,000 children in the educational programs at its Youth Wing. This museum has extensive holdings of the world’s pre-eminent collection of the archaeology of the Holy Land, the world’s most comprehensive collections of Judaica and the ethnology of the Jewish people around the world, and fine art holdings from Old Masters in European Art through international contemporary art. Obviously, one morning did not allow enough time to do justice to the museum, but after four hours I was ready to take a break.
Yaffa and Rick met me at the museum entrance and we drove to the Jaffa Gate of the Old City to see the new Davidson Center archeological museum and the Ophel archeological excavations near the Western Wall (“Kotel”). The Jaffa Gate is the main entrance to the city, built by Suleiman in 1538. As everyone knows, the western wall is the remains of the western retaining wall of the Temple Mount, including what is known of as Robinson’s Arch, on the southern end of the wall. Robinson’s Arch was originally thought to be a series of bridges leading from the Upper City to the Temple Mount, but this has recently been disproven. The original thinking of Robinson’s Arch was that when King Herod enlarged the area of the Temple Mount during the 1st century BCE, the wall was higher in the southern part and a valley was created. This valley separated the Western Wall from the Upper City, making difficult direct access to the Temple Mount. A series of bridges and arches over the valley to the Temple Mount was created to solve this problem. One of these arches, located close to the southern end of the Western Wall, is known as Robinson’s Arch, discovered in 1838 and named after its discoverer, American researcher Edward Robinson. Excavations in 1968-1977 revealed that the arch had spanned over paved streets at multiple angles. A row of small vaults was also discovered. This row of vaults, together with the arches, supported a flight of steps leading from the street to the Temple Mount.
In the past few years, the Israeli government has used Robinson’s arch as a place for groups to pray that do not meet the approval of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, as the arch area is not under the control of the Religious Affairs Ministry. Since 2000, egalitarian prayer has taken place at the site under the auspices of the Conservative Masorti movement. The Reform movement was also offered Robinson’s Arch as a prayer site but they refused. In May 2000 the woman’s prayer group “Women of the Wall” was offered Robinson’s Arch as an alternative to the Kotel for their Orthodox women’s prayer group, but they were allowed to continue their traditional prayer at the Western Wall when the court ruled that Robinson’s Arch would not be suitable for their prayer. However, in April 2003, the Supreme Court refused to allow Women of the Wall to continue their prayer group at the Wall and instead required the government to prepare an area at Robinson’s arch within 12 months. Women of the Wall members do not feel that the Robinson’s Arch-area is a suitable prayer area.
Rick and Yaffa and I went to the prayer areas at the Western Wall (separate sections for men and women, of course) with notes on slips of paper to place in the wall. There is a long tradition of placing small personal notes of request in the cracks between the stones and there is hardly a space in the wall without many wads of paper tightly stuffed in the cracks between the stones. It is now also possible to send notes to the wall via a fax service given by the Israeli telephone company!
According to Jewish legend this wall was the contribution of the poor people to the building of the Temple: When the Temple was being built, the work was divided among the different sections of the population. The building of the Western Wall was allotted to the poor. They worked very hard to construct it, as they could not afford hired laborers to work in their place. When the enemy destroyed the Temple, the angels descended from on high, and, spreading their wings over the Wall, said: “This wall, the work of the poor shall never be destroyed.” Most of the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, which was about 485 meters long, is hidden by the buildings adjoining it. Until June 1967 the accessible portion of the wall was no longer than 28 meters. In front of it ran a stone-paved alley 3.5 meters wide bordered on its west side by a slum area. The wall aboveground consisted of 24 rows of stones of different dressing and age, reaching a total height of 18 m. with 6 m. above the level of the Temple Mount. In 1867 excavations revealed that 19 more rows lay buried underground, the lowest of which was sunk into the natural rock of the Tyropoeon Valley. In 1968 the ground in front of the wall was excavated to reveal two of the buried rows of stone, and the wall then consisted of seven layers of huge, marginally dressed (“Herodian”) stones from the Second Temple, above which are four layers of smaller, plainly dressed stones from the Roman or Byzantine periods. The upper stones were constructed after the Moslem conquest. Jewish travelers over the centuries used to marvel at the immense dimensions of the lower stones – average height 1 m and length 3 m, but some as long as 12 m. and weighing over 100 tons – and believed they were part of Solomon’s Temple. They were probably quarried at the Cave of Zedkiah, near the Damascus Gate. In order to withstand the soil pressure of the filling behind the wall, the rows were laid in a terraced manner, with each row set back a few centimeters relative to the one beneath it. The wall thus slants slightly eastward. This factor, the weight of the stones, and the accuracy of the cutting account for the unusual stability of the wall. The underground tunnel starting at the north-west of the prayer plaza passes close to the part of the Western Wall that is hidden by the buildings. It goes through a system of vaulted areas and water cisterns. About 350 m. of the wall have been uncovered, up to the northern edge, which is the north-western corner of the Temple Mount. The largest stones of the wall were found in a tunnel, including a giant stone about 60 m long, 3 m. high and 4 m. wide, weighing approximately 400 tons.
While it was late afternoon by the time we got to the wall, I have never seen this area so sparsely populated. The path to the Temple Mount is blocked and there are surveillance cameras and security guards all around. This may be the safest place on earth.
Sunday, April 17, 2005.
We took the morning train to Jerusalem and Rick’s cousin Ronnie greeted us at the train station. This line was just opened a few weeks ago, and both the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem stations are still under construction. Ronnie and Yaffa have a new apartment in Bet Ha-Kerem, a bit smaller than their pervious flat, and closer to Ronnie’s office at the Hebrew University. They have two balconies with lovely potted plants and overhanging gardens. The weather has been cool, so most flowers are still in bloom.
Yaffa took us to the Old City, and we spent the afternoon walking around the Christian and Armenian Quarters, and visited several old churches including the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the cisterns below St. Catherine. We peeked in to a Messianic service, which was strangely conducted in Hebrew, with familiar Hebrew prayers, followed by a communion ceremony with wafer and wine representing the body and blood of Christ. As we walked through the Christian Quarter, we saw several groups of pilgrims carrying crosses, singing, and praying at the various stations of the cross, along the Via Dolorosa from the Muslim Quarter to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Christian Quarter.
We didn’t see Elad, Ronnie’s youngest son, until dinnertime. School is out this and next week for the Passover holiday, so Elad spent the day with friends. Elad is now 16, and quite changed from five years ago when we last saw him during Ronnie’s sabbatical year in Boulder.
Saturday, April 16, 2005.
After breakfast we took a walk, along with Danny and Ronit and Ayelet and Nativ, along the Beit Yanay beach on the Mediteranean, very close to their house in Kefar Vitkin. The weather is a bit cool, but it was sunny and very pleasant along the beach. In the afternoon we went to Tel Aviv, back to the Performing Arts complex, to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. The museum was established in 1932, in the home of Tel Aviv’s first mayor, Meir Dizengoff. At its current location, the museum houses a comprehensive collection of classical and contemporary art, especially Israeli art, a sculpture garden and a youth wing. The Museum’s Israeli Art Collection reflects the history of art in the British Mandate of Palestine and the State of Israel. The collections represent some of the leading artists of the first half of the 20th century and many of the major movements of modern art in this period, including Fauvism, German Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Russian Constructivism, Surrealism, and French Impressionist, including some works by Chaim Soutine, and key paintings by Piccasso and Miro. Figuring prominently among the museum’s collection are works by several modern masters, including Monet, Pissarro, Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Bonnard, Matisse, Modigliani and Chagall. There are also several old masterpieces, among them the 1916 painting of Friedericke Maria Beer by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt and the Untitled Improvisation V, by the Russian master Wassily Kandinsky in 1914. I especially enjoyed the outdoor sculpture garden, which opened in 2002.
Danny’s older sons, Zemer and Jonathon, joined us for dinner – a nice reunion for us. We had last seen Zemer when he spent a year with his father in Houston when he was 11, and we had last seen Joni in 1979 (he was 2!) when Danny and Ronnie and both families visited us in Boise before Zemer was born. Joni was a pilot in the Israel Air Force for 8 years and both he and Zemer have just started their studies at the university. Joni cooked steaks on an outdoor grill, seasoned in the style he had learned during an extensive visit to Argentina. Only recently have grill-quality steaks been available in Israel, since they are not kosher! But now everything is available in Tel Aviv, which is one of the most secular cities.
Friday, April 15, 2005.
We drove to Tel Aviv shortly after breakfast. Helen had been able to opera tickets for the matinee (there are no evening performances on Friday) of Beethoven’s Fidelio, at the new Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center. The Israeli Opera moved there in 1994, and since then many opera companies from all over the world have performed in guest productions there. The major artistic aim of the New Israeli Opera has always been to present opera as a dramatic-theatrical art form, and this production of Fidelio was in keeping with that mission. It was produced in cooperation with the prestigious Salzburg Festival and the Tokyo National Opera. The program notes boasted “Renowned German director Nilolaus Lehnhoff presents an opera which is beyond time and place, an opera that denounces tyranny and calls for freedom and the protection of human rights.” The set was minimalist, with an elevator and an illuminated staircase for dramatic entries and exits, and lighting that conveyed the deep despair of the prisoners.
Beethoven labored over Fidelio, his only opera, writing three versions with four different overtures, and working with three librettists. Fidelio is the tale of the loving wife, Leonore, who disguises herself as a male prison guard, Fidelio, in an attempt to rescue her husband, Florestan, who is in a grim concrete prison block awaiting death. In Act I, Leonore, disguised as Fidelio, tries to ingratiate herself with Rocco while fending off the unwanted attentions of his smitten daughter, Marzelline. Leonore veers between her facade as a kind-hearted, inexperienced young man and her inner turmoil over Florestan’s fate. After hurling herself in front of the evil Pizarro’s knife and then threatening him with her own loaded pistol, Act II culminates in Leonore and Florestan’s reunion and proclamation of their joy in a rhapsodic love duet. In this production, the orchestra and singing were good but not excellent, and the set and costumes were minimized, relying on the lighting to convey despair and/or joy. There was very little engaging movement of the cast. Perhaps the director chose to rely on the music to convey the story. Since the performing arts center is unadorned, the sparse staging seemed a bit lacking. Nonetheless, we enjoyed the performance and the chance to see the opera in a modern setting.
After the opera, we drove to Danny and Ronit’s new house in Kefar Vitkin, about 20 miles north of Tel Aviv. Ray and Helen returned to Haifa and we spent the afternoon with Danny and Ronit and their young children. We had last seen them almost exactly two years ago when they visited us in Denver. But two years is a long time when children are young, and we hardly recognized Ayelet, now 7, and Nativ, now 5. It's not Passover yet, but already Danny and Ronit are serving Matzoh and making Matzoh Brei, a Jewish dish made of matzoh that has been soaked in water or milk, then squeezed dry and dipped in egg and fried, much like French Toast. That evening the house was filled with shalom bayit (domestic peace and warmth), as Ronit hummed Dayenu with the kids and Nativ practiced the four questions he would be called upon to ask at the seder.
Thursday, April 14, 2005.
This is our last day in Eilat and, to everyone’s relief, the weather is a bit cooler. Eilat is most famous for its coral reefs, and most people go there to dive, so we were encouraged to take advantage of the diving opportunities here. The Red Sea Sports Club at the hotel has a diving school that is rated as one of the best in the world. Rick took the introductory dive, a private lesson of basic diving instruction in the open water to view the underwater Coral Reef, which lasted about an hour. Ray is an experienced diver, but now (at age 83) only goes snorkeling. I am not a good swimmer, nor do I enjoy being in the water, so I took a stroll along the beach while Rick was under water.
After lunch, we began our journey back to Haifa. This time we drove along the eastern border, through the Rift Valley to Ein Gedi and along the Dead Sea, the lowest place on earth. We stopped just south of Haifa at the Octagon Steak House for an early dinner. The evening was spent looking at photos from Ray and Helen’s recent trip to the glaciers of South America, and a video of their raft trip on the Zambezi River in central Africa near Victoria Falls.
Diving off the coast of Eilat
Wednesday, April 13, 2005.
Ray took us to the Coral World Underwater Observatory, just down the road from our hotel, which has a giant circular aquarium built within a coral reef, and we had a short tour of the area around the reef in a submarine. The observatory area has a marine park and aquarium museum with local plants and animals, and a new exhibit of sea animals from the Amazon. We saw huge groupers, tunas and rays, and colorful fish and coral. There are also some small dolphins and sharks and large turtles.
While in Eilat we had the misfortune to experience Hamsin. This word means fifty in Arabic, for a hot, dry dessert wind from the east plagues the entire region with high temperatures, dust, and short tempers on approximately fifty days total at the beginning and end of the summer. As predicted, this day was hot and overcast, so Helen preferred to stay at the hotel while we went with Ray on a jeep safari to Timna park, roughly 30 km north of Eilat. This area is one of the Arava (Rift) Valley’s leading tourist attractions, with its breathtaking sceneries and unique geological formations, antiquities and archeological finds dating back to early Pharaonic dynasties. Our jeep careened up and down the steep, rocky gravel road, to reddish-tinged rocks that are said to be the site of the biblical King Solomon’s Mines. For 6,000 years copper was mined here, but that ended in the mid-1970s because of competition from Chilean copper mines, which started selling their product more cheaply.
The Timna Valley is one of the driest regions of the world, with less than an inch of rain a year. Acacia trees grow here because they have deep roots that suck water from the desert’s aquifer far below the rocky landscape. There are a few native animals, mostly small rodents, reptiles and insects, but also gazelles, who get water by eating the leaves of acacia trees. We saw only a few gazelles from afar, since we did not go to the nature preserve, which now has wolves, hyenas, ibex and gazelles, nor did we get to the famous rock formation known as King Solomon’s pillars. Instead we saw a lot of the geologic sites and limestone formations and Ray recalled his travels there with Rick’s father over 60 years ago.
Dinner this evening was at a lovely seafood restaurant, with Ray and Helen and Gadi and Yona. Our main course was fish, but the highlights of the meal were the appetizers, a variety of seafoods and salads. The proprietor, a good friend of Gadi’s, brought us a many-flavored ice-cream plate, adorned with sparklers, for our dessert.
Tuesday, April 12, 2005.
We left this morning for a drive nearly the length of the country, through the Negev Desert to Eilat, Israel’s southernmost town. Eilat is a port on the Red Sea’s Gulf of Aqaba, between the borders of Egypt and Jordan. The history of Eilat is rich given its location on the land route of armies and pilgrims passing between Africa, Europe, and Asia. In the 10th century BC, during King Solomon’s reign, the port of Etzion Geber was built in the area. During the European military expeditions known as the Crusades, Christians took control of the area. In the 1160s, Muslim military leader Saladin seized the region. In subsequent years the port declined. In 1906, the British established a military post called Umm Rashrash in what is now Eilat. In 1922 the area became part of the British mandate over Palestine, which lasted until Israel was created in 1948. Following the 1956 Sinai War with Egypt, Israel started to develop the port of Eilat and officially established the city in 1959.
Eilat is Israel’s only outlet to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Israel created an important naval base in Eilat to protect Israeli shipping interests. In 1967 Egypt’s president Nasser blocked the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba, called the Strait of Tiran. This blocked all shipping to and from Eilat. This blockade was one of the factors that led to the 1967 Six-Day War. A peace treaty was signed between Israel and Egypt in 1979, and between Israel and Jordan in 1994. These developments have generated joint Egyptian-Israeli-Jordanian talks concerning environmental and commercial cooperation in the area of Eilat. Israel designated Eilat as a free trade zone in 1985, eliminating to a great extent taxation on production and commerce, in order to stimulate economic activity.
I had never been in Eilat before, but Rick visited there in 1964 with his good friend Ed Scholes. At that time Eilat was a sleepy little town, with no big hotels or tourist attractions. Now, Eilat is mainly known as a resort town, although tourism has suffered over the last four years – as it has throughout the country – since the Intifada, the Palestinian terrorist attacks that began in September 2000. Just this year has tourism started to pick up, largely due to the fence which has not only reduced terrorist attacks, but also has eliminated horse and car thefts.
The drive to Eilat took us through Qiryat Gat to Beersheva where we stopped for a light lunch at a large shopping mall. We then continued to Mitzpe Ramon, and stopped at the former residence and burial place of Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and his wife Paula. Ben-Gurion championed the settlement of the Negev Desert and practiced what he preached. In 1953 he and Paula were accepted as members of Kibbutz Sde Boker and in 1963 the then-former Prime Minister and his wife made their permanent home in a modest cabin at the kibbutz. World leaders who visited Ben-Gurion in his residence were amazed to see the famous man living in such humble surroundings. Today this cabin houses a museum in memory of the Prime Minister, administered by the Ben-Gurion Research Center. The gravesites are at the edge of a cliff overlooking the stunning landscape of the Zin Valley and the Avdat Plain. The paths from the parking area to the gravesites lead through a landscaped garden with plants which successfully adapted to the dry and saline desert conditions.
We arrived at the Ambassador Hotel, owned and operated since 1996 by Ray and Helen’s friend Gadi Ben Zeev. The Ambassador Hotel is located right on the beach, and Ray requested a room with a view of the Red Sea. Gadi and his wife Yona greeted us after dinner and invited us to an art show, a display of sculptures by a friend and local artist.
Helen and Ray at Mitzpe Ramon
Monday, April 11, 2005.
Our plane took off shortly after 1:30am, but it was hard to sleep on a 3 1/2 hour plane ride, especially when the first hour consisted of seatbelt and safety instructions loudly broadcasted on TV screens, followed by a full breakfast an hour or two later. We were awakened at 5am, to prepare for our 6:10am arrival at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv.
We took the 7am train to Haifa, where Rick’s uncle Ray and his wife Helen were waiting for us at 8:30. The train terminal at the airport was opened last October, and many of the train routes have recently been refurbished, having been suspended and rerouted after the terrorist attacks in September 2001 and April 2003. Just this month, a new line opened between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, which we will take next week. There are plans underway for trains to the Jordanian border, with links from there to other Arab countries.
Haifa is a principal seaport city, in the north of Israel. It lies on the Mediterranean Sea, at the point where it touches the Carmel Mountain. With a population of about 250,000, Haifa is the third largest city of Israel, and site to the Technion, the technical institute, and Haifa University. Haifa is the location of the Bahai World Center, well known for the golden domed Bahai Temple and its surrounding gardens. The remains of the Bab – the prophet of Bahaism, executed in Persia in 1850, were moved here in the beginning of the 20th century. Recently, the new hanging gardens were opened to the public, but the gardens were closed during our stay here so we could only view the grounds from outside the gates.
We had a lovely day with Helen and Ray – very leisurely walking around, talking, and resting – and of course eating Helen’s wonderful cooking. Helen took me shopping with her to a very large supermarket – almost like Costco but with regular-sized packages – with a huge produce section. There are still small markets, but these large markets are proliferating.
Helen was able to get us tickets for a Beethoven concert at the Haifa auditorium this evening. The program consisted of the Leonara Overture No 3, Symphony no 7, and the emperor piano concerto no 5 with soloist Revital Hachamoff, who was absolutely tremendous. Conductor Omri Hadari was also splendid – as was the orchestra.
Sunday, April 10, 2005.
There was almost no one at the airport at midnight, as we checked in and went through the routine security checks. The woman at the ElAl desk who interrogated us is the friend of Ales’s daughter Susana (Prague really is a small town!) and she updated us on the fracas at the Altneu schul on Saturday evening! There has been friction among the leadership of the official Prague Jewish community since last fall when Tomas Jelinek, who ousted Karol Sidon, Prague’s long-standing chief rabbi, refused to step down himself, amidst increasing divisiveness between the Orthodox and Chabad factions. Chabad is an international, ultra-orthodox Jewish sect aimed at getting all Jews to be more observant. Rabbi Sidon has been running services at the High Synagogue since last summer, when Jelinek took over the chairmanship of the Prague Jewish Community.
According to the Prague Post, the violent altercation occurred on April 9 in an emotional dispute between Israeli members of the Chabad movement and locals backing Karol Sidon, former chief rabbi of the Czech Republic. Many of the facts surrounding the fight that broke out in the synagogue’s entry hall are disputed. Both sides acknowledge that the conflict became physical when diminutive 19-year-old Hebrew teacher Tsila Jerochim was slapped in the face by Martin, a Sidon supporter. In response, Martin and his friend were beaten by several Chabad worshippers, including Jerochim’s father. Police responded to the scene, and Martin filed charges against the Chabad members in the fight. A videotape of the attack taken from a temple camera is in the hands of the Prague police, who are investigating the assault as a criminal offense. Both sides agree that the incident stems from the ongoing tension in the Prague Jewish Community over its leadership and religious future.
Of course the press has a field day with this stuff, with headlines like "Jew versus Jew" and "Fights over money." In this case, Jerochim said the tension in the synagogue turned critical Friday evening, April 8, when about 30 Sidon supporters turned up at the Old-New Synagogue along with Rabbi Sidon, who had been moved out of the Old-New Synagogue when Jelinek was elected chairman of the Prague Jewish Community. Sidon's group arrived at the Old-New Synagogue, a prestigious spot for any rabbi, to “take it from Chabad,” said Jerochim. Jerochim admitted telling Martin’s girlfriend that she was acting like the Nazis by trying to keep Chabad supporters out of the synagogue. But Martin says his girlfriend, who confirmed his version of events, told him that Jerochim had called her a “Nazi pig,” which Jerochim denies. Upon hearing of the slur, Martin slapped Jerochim in the entrance hall of the synagogue. “I didn’t do it to hurt her,” he said. “I did it because I thought she was being hysterical and that’s what the psychiatrists say you should do in such a case.” He added that as many of his relatives had been murdered by the Nazis, he found it unbearable that anyone should utter such an insult in a synagogue. Hearing Jerochim scream, several Israelis who worship at the Old-New pounced on her assailant and his friend. However, other witnesses said that the Israelis had no idea why Jerochim was upset and simply seized an opportunity to engage in violence against two people they deemed as obstacles to Chabad’s control of the synagogue. The two beaten men ended up seriously wounded — one of them was tugged by his legs on the floor after being beaten on the head which resulted in a concussion. The synagogue was closed following the violence.
http://www.praguepost.com/P03/2005/Art/0421/news5.php
Saturday, April 9, 2005
It’s been rainy and dreary for the last two days – a good time to stay indoors. Rick and I are finishing up last-minute tasks (reviews, revisions, etc) and getting ready for our trip to Israel. Travel is easier these days – thanks to the internet and ATM machines – so there is less fuss unless one is going to a country that requires a visa. We have plane tickets in hand (Czech Airlines still requires paper tickets) and mobile phones in case of emergency. We live in a rented flat on the top floor so we have nothing to worry about—including plants to water—in our absence.
This evening I went to a lecture about the Passover Haggadah by Rabbi Daniel Goldfarb, the director of the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Of all the Jewish holidays, Passover is the one most commonly observed, even by otherwise non-observant Jews. According to the 1990
National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS), more than 80% of Jews have attended a Passover seder.
http://www.jewfaq.org/holidaya.htm The primary observances of Passover are related to the Exodus from Egypt after generations of slavery, as told in Exodus, Ch. 1-15. The holiday is also referred to as the Spring Festival, the Festival of Matzas, and the Time of Our Freedom. Probably the most significant observance related to Passover involves the removal of chametz, or leavening from our homes. This commemorates the fact that the Jews leaving Egypt were in a hurry, and did not have time to let their bread rise. It is also a symbolic way of removing the "puffiness" (arrogance, pride) from our souls. Without meaning to ascribe an exalted purpose to such a humble action, perhaps the fact that we are at last eating up all the old bread in the house before we leave for Israel qualifies as a distant echo of this mitzvah.
The Passover seder (the order of the dinner) parallels the emergence from slavery and oppression to freedom. The meal starts in a lowly situation, eating bitter herbs and unleavened bread (matzoh), and ends in a praiseworthy situation, reclining over an elegant meal, similar to that of a Greek or Roman symposium. We’ll have Passover this year in Israel with Rick’s cousins. We will only celebrate Passover with one seder (two are the tradition everywhere outside Jerusalem) and we will miss our dear Denver friends, with whom the second seder has been an ongoing tradition. I know Vivien is reading this, and she knows that we miss her and her family very much. The hardest thing about living far from home is being away from close friends and family. We will celebrate being with Rick’s family in Israel this year.
Friday, April 8, 2005.
I went back to the Anglo American College this morning to meet with the VP for Administration, who has been on AAC’s board for some time. It was interesting to talk to someone who has a long history with the college. I also met several other people, among them, the head of the journalism and communications program, the coordinator of the school of business administration, and the Admissions and Recruitment Coordinator. I was given a short tour of the offices and classrooms, and the library and computer lab. I have an appointment to meet with several of the board members in early May.
This afternoon, Eva and I went to the Chagall exhibit at the Miro Gallery near the Strahov monastery. Marc Chagall is considered one of the most important painters of the 20th century, known as a “master of color and of a biblical message,” a Russian Jew who was called “a mystic and a prophet, speaking through pictures.” Eva and I have wanted to see this exhibit for awhile, so it was nice to be able to steal an afternoon for this purpose. The view of Prague Castle and Petřin Hill from the grounds of the Strahov monastery, which still (after 1989, of course) is a functioning monastery, is breathtaking. The monastery was founded in 1140 by the Premonstratensians, an austere religious order, but it was rebuilt in gothic style after it was destroyed by fire in 1258. Strahov has a functioning church, famous library and museum, theological and philosophical halls—with ceiling frescoes and many baroque bookcases and books from a dissolved monastery in Moravia—and a picture gallery.
I got home just in time to talk with Hana at the Fulbright office to commit to speaking at the Woodrow Wilson Center on the 17th of May. I suggested that she contact a few others for a panel, and I will find out what she has been able to arrange when I return from Israel at the end of the month. I am flattered to have been asked to speak, but a bit apprehensive about what is expected. I hope my suggestion of a “women’s issues” panel will be broad enough to be engaging for the intended audience.
Tonight is Shabbat, so Rick and I went to services at the Spanish Synagogue. This evening, David Harris, the executive director of AJC (American Jewish Committee), led the service with Peter Gyori. The synagogue was packed, with study-abroad students, Israel-tour vacationers, AJC students and assorted independent tourists, and, of course, us Bejt-Praha “regulars.” So, although the chanting and singing was uplifting, the setting was less than intimate, and at times I felt like I was at someone else’s party. Fortunately, many of the prayers and songs can (and should) be done with closed eyes, so I could retreat into my own thoughts most of the time. Rick and I said a special Kaddish for my aunt Ethel who died earlier in the week.
Howard spoke about this week’s Torah and Haftorah portions, interesting and thought-provoking commentary about laws of purification after childbirth; laws of tzara’at, a form of leprosy and a physical manifestation of spiritual malaise, allegedly caused by slander; the sanctity of the Torah scroll – and when it can be sold; and the definition of an honorable person – as one who gives honor, rather than receives it. I particularly liked the point of view, written by a rabbi to his son, that claimed, “I have never referred to anyone as my student, because how do I know that I did not learn more from him than he did from me?” Perhaps that is why I teach.
Thursday, April 7, 2005.
This year marks the 100th birthday of Senator J. William Fulbright, who was born April 9, 1905, so William Cabaniss, the US Ambassador in Prague, hosted a reception this evening in his honor. Fulbright served as president of the University of Arkansas from 1939 to 1941 before being elected to the U.S. Senate, where he spent 30 years, 15 of them as chair of the Foreign Relations Committee. He was the only senator to vote against funding Joseph McCarthy’s investigating committee, and he introduced legislation that led to the formation of both the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the United Nations. One memorable Fulbright quote, on the subject of his opposition to Mcarthy, was “You can’t win a pissing match with a skunk.”
On Feb. 9, 1995, Senator Fulbright died in Washington. He was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Fayetteville, his hometown. Fulbright is remembered around the world as the author of the famed Fulbright Scholarship Program, created in 1946 in the aftermath of World War II. The program, intended to increase mutual understanding among nations through the exchange of knowledge and skills, has provided funding for more than 255,000 participants to travel and study abroad. Despite the fact that on April 15, 1973, while a guest on the CBS television program Face The Nation, Senator Fulbright said, “Israel controls the United States Senate,” I feel truly privileged to have the honor of being a Fulbright Scholar here this year.
I found out this evening that the director of the Fulbright program here has been talking with some folks at the US embassy about having me speak at the Woodrow Wilson Center next month. I am the last to know! I’m happy to give a presentation, but I’m not sure what they want – or who they propose to invite. Hana suggested that I should speak with Karen, who is involved in a gender studies research project, to broaden the interest. Karen’s research is quite different than mine – the only common thread is that we are both talking with women! – so I’m not sure how well we’d fit together. Hana knows that I will be out of town for two weeks now and that I also have travel plans for May. The Woodrow Wilson Center availability may pose another problem, since it is used for many presentations and meetings. I envisioned that I’d have few obligations this spring. Now, my schedule is getting tighter than I would like.
Wednesday, April 6, 2005.
Most of my morning was spent struggling to figure out our taxes – even though we don’t need to file yet – but I didn’t have time to go back to the embassy to talk with the tax lady again. I may try tomorrow. Meanwhile, back at DU, I still haven’t gotten any reimbursements for my conference travel, since I paid by cash and Marilyn is questioning the validity of the receipts.
Adding to the money issues is the fact that I’m still paying an arm and a leg for our internet connection, even though the prices have gone down and Český Telecom offered me a lower rate over a month ago, which still hasn’t taken effect. And, according to Mrs. Halova, we may not want the lower rate anyway since they claim I’ll be charged a hefty penalty if I cancel within 12 months. Money seems to be the topic of the day. Our evening discussions with Bruce also focused on money – banks here take an inordinate time to approve (and to execute) loans and the charges are extremely high. Mrs. Halova gets a fairly good deal on her personal account because she is a CNB employee, but she still has to have a separate account at a different bank for the rent transactions, which are considered strictly business and need a different setup. We both shook our heads at the amount we pay for simple ATM and deposit or withdrawal transactions. Czech bank charges are the highest in all of Europe. It does not exaggerate our impressions to say that we have found the European banking industry to be genuinely user-hostile. For an American, the situation is vexing because of the sharp contrast with prevailing attitudes in the States.
Karen, who is here as a Fulbright-Hayes scholar to work on her dissertation from the University of Minnesota, had asked to meet for coffee this afternoon. We had intended to get together a while ago, so I was glad to have an opportunity to talk with her about her research on gender issues here. She’s been here for over a year, intends to stay another 10 months, and has had an opportunity to meet with a lot of interesting people, including some of the women I now know from the Sociological Institute at the Academy of Sciences. Karen’s husband is teaching English here and is quite happy about living in Prague, so her only real time-urgency is satisfying her dissertation committee.
Charlotte is out of town – in Chicago visiting her mother – so Rick and I took Bruce to dinner at Ambiente on Celetna, which serves mostly Italian cuisine. For what we got, the prices are reasonable, since the food and service are very good. We only had the table until 8pm, so we walked Bruce and Rick’s favorite ice-cream parlor “Cream and Dream” for dessert. Cream and Dream is a favorite of many of our friends here, for obvious reasons: the ice cream is terrific and the assortment of flavors makes for difficult, but interesting, choices.
Tuesday, April 5, 2005.
I decided to go to the Czech class at VŠE, even though this is the last day I will be able to attend. Mrs. Antosova thinks that I know more than I do, probably because I make fewer case-related mistakes and have larger vocabulary than the other students. That having been said, I can only construct sentences with careful thought, not spontaneously. And I still have trouble understanding the language unless people speak slowly – or simply with appropriate body language and facial expression! Rick is a much better student than I am because he studies almost every day. I have not allowed myself to take the time, preferring to work on research, have lunch with friends, and go to museums!
One thing I have not done much of is attend other classes. So I went with Veena to Anne McBride’s “advocacy” class this morning. Anne was the president of Common Cause for 25 years, so she has a lot to say about NGO activism. Most of the students in her class are involved in NGOs (non-profit organizations), and are interested in learning how to promote their causes more effectively.
The class ended at 1:30, and I was able to get to the US Embassy by 2pm to talk with the tax advisor there. I am still not sure how to declare my Fulbright stipend – it looks like the whole amount is taxable and only part of it can be declared as Foreign Earned Income. The forms are incredibly confusing – even the tax advisor had to re-read several paragraphs in the instructions – and I am still not sure if I have put things in the proper categories. Fortunately, I can wait and file when I get back to the US, for which I now have proper forms.
In conjunction with the Febiofest – the largest film festival in Central Europe – the Office of Public Affairs of US Embassy sponsored a seminar with director/writer Hal Hartley, a leader of the 1990s American independent filmmaking movement, and a screening of his 2001 monster film, “No Such Thing.” The film is set in Iceland, and uses the rugged Iceland landscape and its folklore/mythology as context and setting. Hartley views this film as a different genre than his usual films, but the relationship between the mysterious, possibly violent stranger and the misunderstood innocent has been a theme in many of his films.
I was not able to see the whole film, since I had agreed to meet Anna at her office at the Sociological Institute at 6pm. She introduced me to Alan Krautstengl, who is the new President for Anglo American College. He is interested in creating a study-abroad partnership with DU and other accredited US universities. Both Anna and Alan have PhDs from the US, so with their American credentials, multi-cultural perspective and experiences, and fluency in both Czech and English, they are in good positions to lead the college.
Monday, April 4, 2005.
I was finally able to get a tour of the Anglo American College in Prague, at its new campus at the site of the medieval convent of the Sovereign Order of the Knights of Malta in the Maltese Square off the Lesser Town square. Everything is now at one campus site, including the library and computer lab, both of which have been upgraded. Anna Vitaskova, who also teaches at the Sociology Institute, has been working to design a new master’s program, and I was interested to hear about her ideas. The school is doing well, with several foreign partners and sponsorships, and, as of this week, has hired a new President. Anna teaches research methods and is interested in writing a case study on AAC, perhaps with some of her students.
I met Michele for lunch at the Opera Garden next to the Radio Free Europe building. Michele has been the Director of Broadcasting here for six years, having previously worked for NPR in Washington, D.C. Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty began broadcasting uncensored news and features from Munich to countries behind the Iron Curtain in 1950. Until 1995, Radio Free Europe had been based in Munich until Vaclav Havel proposed its move to Prague, where they now broadcast in the building of the former communist parliament (rent free) just off Wenceslas Square. Corporate headquarters remain in Washington, D.C. Since 1996, RFE/RL has built a network of more than 210 affiliate partner organizations and 590 transmitter sites that relay programs on the AM and FM bands in 12 time zones. Currently, Radio Free Europe broadcasts to 18 countries in 27 languages, mainly in the Balkans, southwestern Asia and the Middle East; there are no radio broadcasts in Europe now. Political circumstances do not currently permit local re-broadcasting in Belarus, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
The WIB group was small this evening, so four of us had a rather intimate conversation, mostly about women’s issues in the Czech Republic, but also about business conditions and some of the new tax legislation. I met Marketa, who is the “Relationship Manager” for Bawag Bank, and Mirka, who has an aerobics business and has just started a silk-scarf business. She is designing and manufacturing scarves for distribution to the US with a partner in Dallas, Texas!
Sunday, April 3, 2005.
Marketa planned a day of glass exhibitions and galleries for us, starting with the František Vizner exhibit at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. Designer and sculptor František Vízner was born in 1936, and trained at the Industrial School of Glassmaking in Železný Brod before studying at the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague, in the studio of Professors Karel Štipl and Václav Plátek (1956-1962). Vizner specializes in cut studio glass. Some of our favorites were geometric dishes and vases, some of which had shapes that we could not fully comprehend, and colors that changed with the light and angle of view. Vízner is considered one of the most prominent Czech glass sculptors in the world. We also went to several small galleries with interesting glass-sculpture collections, some of which were done by some of the famous artists whose work we had seen yesterday at the glass exhibition at Nosticky palace.
We spent some time at the “Power of Images, Images of Power” exhibit of political posters and propaganda at the Galerie u Křižovniku, next to the St. Francis Church at the Old Town end of the Charles Bridge. This exhibit had five rooms of posters, graphic images that showed how the purpose of political posters under the dictatorship of the political establishment was used to promote the totalitarian ideologies. These posters were striking examples of the force of words and graphic images used to manipulate the thinking of the public. At one time, many first-rate artists rendered their services to Communist ideology, hence, plenty of true graphic jewels were among the posters on display. This collection revealed much about the past that has shaped the Czech Republic. The Communists – first as one party among many, later as absolute holders of power – promoted messianic ideologies by arousing in people the feeling that they were building Heaven on Earth, a paradise of worker pride and industrial strength. Perhaps only residents of Central Europe can fully appreciate the bitterness and irony of the malignant reality.
Saturday, April 2, 2005.
Today is the Prague Half-Marathon, and Veena and Terry (Fulbright friends) and Yehudes (Bejt Praha friend) boldly signed up, and Rick and I went to see them – and 3,450 others – run. The race started on the Charles Bridge, so the bridge was cleared of all vendors until after the start, and ended at Kampa Park. The course went through the Jewish Quarter of Old Town, to the National Theatre, along the river to Výtoň, to Vršovice, and back along the river to Podolí, then to Palackého square, across the Palackého Bridge to Smíchov, through Janáčkovo and Vítězná street, and finished at Kampa Park (below the Charles Bridge). The first runner finished after only a minute more than one hour, a full 38 seconds before anyone else. The first six finishers were from Kenya. Robert Stefko of the Czech Republic was the first non-Kenyan and the first European in 7th place. The first two women finishers were also from Kenya. Veena and Terry finished in about two hours, with Yehudes about 25 minutes later. After the race, Veena and Terry and I went to Bohemia Bagel for lunch to celebrate, after which they both went home to rest for awhile, before venturing out again for the evening.
Howard and Marketa had arranged to see the glass exhibition at Nosticky Palace near the Maltese Square, and I was fortunate to get in on a guided tour. The exhibition was called From Brussels 1958 to Aichi 2005, to highlight the successes of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic at World Expositions. One of the pieces on display is the winning design of the Czech exposition for the upcoming EXPO 2005 World Exposition in Aichi, Japan. This exhibit featured Czech atelier glass, titled Trapped by Light and Space, featured unique pieces of Czech glass making, large sculptures of clear and colored glass, from artists who are not only well-known here, but who pioneered these glass-making techniques. I must say that I have a renewed appreciation for glass works, not just the versatility of the medium, but the incredible effect that light gives these varied pieces. Howard and Marketa are glass collectors, so I was fortunate to be able to benefit from their knowledge and perspective, as supplements to the information from the guide.
Rick met us for dinner at Cervena Tabulka (the Red Tablet), which turned out to be fancier and more expensive than any of us had anticipated. The combination of unfavorable exchange rate for the US dollar, and the increase in prices overall have made most restaurants pretty pricy these days. This restaurant is among the many that was extensively renovated after the flood in August 2002, and is now quite upscale.
Friday, April 1, 2005.
I taught two classes for Martin at VŠE today. The first was a “lecture,” the second a “seminar.” Both were for the same students in the same room, but the seminar was a more interactive case discussion. Martin was particularly interested to see how I would teach the case, of course, and I was interested in how well the case would work, since this is the first time it will have been used. They were given the case in Czech, the version that will appear in Martin’s Entrepreneurship book. The students were quite participative in both sessions, with few struggles with English.
Services at Bejt Praha were a bit unusual this evening, since Peter Gyori was in Bratislava. Murray Greenfield conducted the service and Howard Golden discussed the parsha. Murray is a Jewish American who now lives in Tel Aviv. After World War II, he moved to Israel, where he met his future wife Hana, a Jewish Holocaust-survivor from the Czech town of Kolin. Apparently, Murray and Hana have been in Prague many times, but I had not met him before. Helen and Bonnie were also at services this evening – we hadn’t seen them in quite awhile – but Ivo and Yehudes were not. Ivo is leaving for Israel this weekend, so we were particularly sad not to see him before he leaves; Yehudes is running the 1/2 marathon tomorrow.
Rick and I went to a small, local restaurant for dinner with Howard, and then went to his flat to see the new stone elephant that he and Marketa had gotten in South Africa. The statue weighs over 100 pounds, so the packaging and transport from South Africa took awhile (and, as you can imagine, was very costly). But the elegant elephant now adorns their bathroom.
