Barbara's Travels

Some thoughts on Egypt

The past few days have been filled with news from Egypt. The worst demonstrations in Cairo have been in the area near the hotel in which we stayed. I went back and looked again at my postings from our Egypt trip (the trip was in November 2007 but I didn't post until February 2008 so you will find them under the 2008 date). Brought back a lot of memories from our trip but I paid special attention to the cursory notes I had made on poverty, congestion and pollution and found them prescient. Those poor people!

Hope to get back to posting on Israel and Jordan one day soon. The state legislature is in session and the agenda is crowded with things I need to do for the Coalition. As soon as Gifted Education Day is done with (February 11), Bob and I will go down to Livermore to rest and recuperate (me) and to garden (Bob). Maybe I'll get the rest of this trip posted then or soon after.

Machane Yehuda Market

Almost immediately after such a moving experience we were dropped off at the Market to find lunch for ourselves. A most discomfiting experience! The sabbath was to begin in just a few hours and the market was filled beyond capacity with shoppers buying provisions for the next few days. Everything is on sale in the Market, and it is all jumbled up with a clothing stall right next to a cheese market, next to a fruit stand, etc. A mass of moving people surging back and forth. I felt battered and overwhelmed. 

Since almost no restaurants would be open Friday night, we were shopping for bread and cheese for that evening's dinner and we finally found something.

Cafes in the Market were few and far between but we found a literal hole in the wall - again - that served a very good (and cheap) hamburger.

Some more thoughts: Jerusalem is a city of stone, limestone, even today as it is mandatory to build in stone within the city. Jerusalem is a city of hills with few level places and appears to have grown up at random, which makes for horrible traffic. As bad as Palermo and Cairo? - probably.



 
 



 
 

A witness to the Holocaust

Our talk with a survivor was most interesting. He entered the camps at about age 13 and by ingratiating himself to get work, managed to survive. After the war ended he spent some time in a displaced persons camp before coming to Israel. He said that for many many years he refused to talk about his experiences, even with his children, but recently realized that the number of witnesses is decreasing as they die off and it was his duty to step forward and recount what happened to him and his family - he was the only survivor.

All during our trip through Israel we have been traveling in parallel with a group of 45 Mennonites and Amish who had come to Israel as an act of reparation. They hoped to meet with survivors and the Chief Rabbi to apologize. That morning they had met with our witness. He said the meeting had made him very uncomfortable. How could they apologize for something that happened before they were born. Better they should see to it that nothing similar happened again.



 
 

Yad Vashem

Our first stop here was to walk in the grounds where there are numerous memorials. Then we went through the Children's Remembrance Area. Everyone of us had a blank look on exiting. It was totally disorienting going through a very dim tunnel where you didn't know the direction or where to put your foot. Rather like the Holocaust must have been to the young children caught up in it. By the way, children under the age of 10 are not allowed to go through.

Yad Vashem is very moving and deeply depressing. No wonder the security of the nation is so important to Israelis. Look what happened in the past!

The history of the Holocaust was well documented - mostly by the Germans themselves who photographed and recorded everything. They filmed or photographed even the most gruesome acts as though they wanted mementos. 

The displays here are well presented and laid out.



 
 

Some thoughts

Traffic around the Temple Mount is seemingly unregulated and is a real mess. So many tour buses while residents in cars and public transit try to use the same roads.

The presentation at the Davidson Center would have been better if seen first at the beginning of the day rather than at the end.

Security on Temple Mount - and elsewhere - was unobtrusive. Israeli soldiers are required to carry rifles when home on leave even if not in uniform so one can see armed individuals (including women) on the street. Small platoons of soldiers in uniform usually have one or two armed members. These are the mandatory 2 or 3 years service people. Career soldiers are more heavily armed and protected by vests, etc. Police carry batons and side arms. The side arms are attached to the belt, apparently so they cannot be grabbed and used against the police.

The Haredim are found in great numbers on the Temple Mount, some looking for handouts. These are the ultra-orthodox Jews who spend their lives studying Torah and are neither employed nor do they serve in the military. They live off welfare payments and as their numbers increase, there is a growing movement to limit the number of life-time students to the number needed as rabbis and to cut off the welfare payments and require service in the military of the rest. Since they have very large families, they are an increasing percentage of the Jewish population. Will be interesting to watch how this plays out.

Davidson Center

At the point where the west wall joins the south wall is the Davidson Center, devoted to the excavation of the Temple Mount area. We saw a film about what the Temple is thought to have looked like in the time of Christ. Nothing remains of the Temple since when the Romans sacked the area they tore down all the buildings and pushed the rubble over the side of the high foundations. See picture two for what remains at the base of the wall.



 
 



 
 

The West Wall

A view from the ramp leading to the Temple Mount taken early in the morning. Later in the afternoon, a visit to the Wall itself.

The area of the wall is divided into men's and women's sections. As sign of respect the men wore hats. As I discovered in my visit to the women's side, it is considered proper to back away from the wall and not turn your back on it.

Some places in the world seem to be infused with spiritual power, not of any religion in particular, but just in general, and this Wall is one of them.



 
 



 
 

Lunch

We went to a small plaza (Armenian Quarter??) and lunched in a literal hole in the wall dining area of a restaurant which primarily had outdoor seating - see the red chairs outside.



 
 



 
 

Via Dolorosa and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher

Pictured is the IXth Station of the Cross on the Via Dolorosa and an interior chapel of the Church. It is very old, very ornate, and very crowded. In this area many denominations/religions rub along together somewhat uneasily as the Christian denominations jealously guard their own sites. The Church is obviously Orthodox.



 
 



 
 

Surrounding quarters of the Old City