Heritage House Men's Hostel Jerusalem

... paperclip I have in my pocket, then I gaze at the religious jews and their gentle movements as they proclaim the Torah. One man resembles Dostojewski, with an old cloak over his shoulders, and he is shouting loud and trembling as he says his prayers. I hear him exalting "Abra-haaam, Isa-aaac, Jaaa-kooob" and observe this strident religious extacy. More formally dressed jews look at him. I decide to stick a note in the Wailing Wall myself. So I take a Charity Travel card and ...

... century, a group of Jews overran the Roman garrison and established a community there. This prompted the Romans to send an army to defeat them. The Romans built a huge ramp to the fortress and breached the gate. Rather than accepting death and slavery, the Zealots as they have become known, killed their wives and children then themselves so that when the Romans entered the fortress, all they found were 1000 dead bodies

Our Israeli ...

... van vriend Ahmad. Ze werken namelijk allemaal op de een of andere manier voor het lokale buurtcentrum. Dat was nu nog een dump, maar kreeg binnenkort een computerzaal, een theaterschool voor kinderen en nieuwe guesthouses voor vrijwilligerswerkers. In het oude guesthouse hebben we staan dansen tot om 3u de Ramadan-omroeper komt roepen dat je maar snel maar wat moet ontbijten, voordat de zon opkomt. En dan zijn drie Palestijnse jongens opeens heel erg normaal.

Vrijdag ...

... middle eastern shopping in the suq (market) dividing the Christian from the Moslem quarters. We learned that even to look a vendor in the face or stop and glance at his wares meant a clear invitation to bargain. These guys were masters too. I had read on the internet that anyone who accepted a coffee from a vendor had about less than a 1% chance of leaving without buying something. Here one of the merchants directed us to a set of stairs ...

... ourselves walking in a group of about a dozen, led by an obnoxious man from Florida who referred to everyone as “guy” through the most conservative neighborhoods of Jerusalem. We followed him down empty streets, and dark windows, past families walking in the street, and found our way into a crowded living room lined with bookshelves. There a Rabbi and his family were hosting close to a hundred strangers for Shabbat dinner. I was seperated from ...

... was born, and even though I'm disappointed that this area is under Palestinian rule, and even though I don't feel the need to kiss the star, I still think it was cool that we got to go to Bethlehem and be somewhere near where he was born. The guide took us back to the checkpoint, and we were happy to see Micha again. Back to the hotel, hoping Micha could get us into the Old City the next day, and that the road closures would not deter us.

... convinced that the complete lack of observance of the law, the unholiness of the priests and people of Israel would lead to their destruction. They believed that they would be the only ones to survive, by God's favor, by separately and living very ascetic, disciplined lives. This is the community where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. There at Qumran was a copy of every book in the Old Testament with the exception of the Book of Esther. They ...

... So I got off at the next stop and turned around. On the next bus, I made sure to stand up close to him so that he could tell me which stop to get off at. On a side note, it's appropriate for younger people sit in the back of the bus so that older people can sit in the front section. So, finally after getting off at the right stop and walking a half mile to Yad Vashem, I got there. I was at Yad Vashem 2 years ago, when I was in Israel last ...

... period of time. We stayed on a kibbutz, visited with a host family (mine was awful-they lived in the most depressing apartment housing and the teen child I was paired with clearly did not want to have anything to do with hosting a teen from America), immersed ourselves in the Dead Sea, and climbed Mt. Masada at dawn.

I remember there was a bombing in Jerusalem shortly after we arrived. This was before ...