Harmony Jerusalem

... the best ever barbequed chicken wings, and the boys played games and watched the movie “Space Jam” on the big flat screen TV, staring Michael Jordan and the Lunnie Tunes characters. Which Ezra enthusiastically proclaimed – and Adin as always agreed - was THE highlight of our Israel trip. Go figure. F

Thursday, October 10, 2009,

Though intent on a very early start to the nature reserve at Ein Gedi where we planned to do some dessert hiking ...

... heel gaaf met zn gouden koepel.

's Middags gingen we op aanraden van Oren naar Yad Vashem, het Israelische Holocaust museum. Aan de ene kant kennen we al die geschiedenis wel, aan de andere kant was het toch erg indrukwekkend om al die anti-joden propaganda van over de eeuwen te zien, en te lezen hoe tot in Vichy-Afrika en Letland de Nazi's bezig waren. Toch hadden we onze twijfels... Ghetto's, eceonomische onderdrukking... kennen we dat ook niet uit ...

... they believed that when it is placed in the third temple that G-d will remove the other impure metals and supernaturally cause the menorah to retain its form. We learned that there were10 miracles that happened in the temple. One that the flame of the Mennorah goes horizontally not vertically, another the on and off lights on the stones of the ephod. The other eight I don’t know. Sarah was virtually possessed here in her interest. We ...

... sights. I am moved by the idea that this is where Christ was crucified. But I haven’t, accurately speaking, been to Church since I was about 17. Unless you count the ones I went to for the pretty singing and free sherry, which I don’t.

I grew up a Christmas and Easter Christian. But when I turned twelve, and we were all officially too old for the egg hunt, that dropped quickly down to Christmas. Even then, my mother’s valiant ...

... of the sanctity of the place. Tour groups aside, we were engulfed in emotion. And of course, we left our little slips of paper in a crack in the wall, expressing our own unspoken messages to God. The Kotel remains as the prime focus of our trip to Israel and to Jerusalem, in particular. Memories of our time here need no pictures to remind us of what we had experienced here, for these are memories etched into our brains.

With these impressions fresh in our minds, we ...

... mansion with arches and high ceilings. I took a walk near sunset to an overlook of the city not far away, returning to help Kevin with a successful video staff meeting with his film festival coworkers in Seattle. We set off for a late dinner in the German Colony, a nearby lively neighborhood. Passing a memorial to nine people killed in a 2003 terrorist attack on a cafe there, we settled on some pretty good McKebabs at the local McDonald's and called it a night.

... into a street that was the size of Broadway in Jackson Hole. We get down there and made our way down the street. We stop at the end and listen to a DJ. One scary thing is that half of the girls there (that were older) had big huge machine guns just slung over there backs like purses. We head back to a stage were a really cheesy lady with a butt in front ...

Ben Yehuda St We flew to Israel at a reasonable hour, and the first real thing we did in Israel was head out to the main street in Jerusalem, Ben Yehuda St. Bernard, Hayley, Talia and I had dinner and went to a nagila/sheesha bar, with a good 2-for-1 deal on cocktails too. Seeing Brendan I met up with Brendan again, this time we went to a yoghurt place where ...

... our group had to intervene and ask Betty to please stay quiet. Basically, this young lady said that there are 3 basic things that the Palestinians (P from now on) want - direct access to water (all water comes from and is controlled by Israel), a border with an Arab country (now, the west bank is completely surrounded by israel so anyone coming from the WB has to pass through several check points, then go through Israel to reach the nearest Arab border with Jordan, and their own ...