Miami Hotel Ashdod

... bus at quarter past seven and out guide was an Israeli born fellow called Yehuda whose parents left Nazi Germany in the mid 1930s. He was interesting to an extent but as the day wore on we found his trenchantly nationalistic views a bit hard to stomach. He seemed to have a very hard attitude towards the Arabs despite the fact that his kids went to school with some of them. He had a hard edged and we found ourselves turning ...

... Krieg, gewann, schmiedeten die Nachbarn Syrien, Jordanien und Aegypten - unt**stuetzt vom Rest Arabiens - eine Allianz, um den Juedischen Staat entgueltig auszuradi**en. Dies fuehrte zu einem weit**en, und im heutigen Zusammenhang wohl wichtigsten Nahostkrieg, d** ab** witzig**weise nicht von den Arab**n, sond**n von den Israelis begonnen wurde, naemlich um einem Erstschlag ihr** unliebsamen Nachbarn zuvorzukommen. Dies geschah 1967 und wurde bekannt als d** Sechstagekrieg ...

After a shabbat of relatives we decided on a little site seeing.
The map is not detailed enough to give exact locations but everything was no more than 40 km away.
First stop - Sorek Caves in Avshalom Reserve.
The landscape of the judean hills is so beautiful. Sorek Caves were discovered during a regular quarry mining activities when it revealed an enourmous ...

... names down before I forget so --
Udy and Ester, son Nadav and wife Enbal
Zeeva and Eli, daughters Noa, Shanee with husband Nachoom
Aliza and Yashua daughter Lemi with husband David
and Uncle Barackat

This is really only some of them and they all have a lot of kids which will be impossible to keep track of.
Arielle is handling the relatives pretty well for the jet lag. Hebrew is not coming out yet.

... cinema I used to love going to when I was here in '86-'87. Back then, it was the only cinema that didn't have commercials before the movies (long before it became common in the U.S., so seeing ads elsewhere was a surprise to me) and that had assigned seating. Moreover, situated where it is, it has a tremendous view of the Old City of Jerusalem and the Hinnom Valley from its plaza and downstairs restaurant where we ...

... Priest. I sat in each place imagining the fear and agony of that night. I considered Peter and what might have been going through his mind as he stood in the courtyard right here. Finally, I walked up the very steps that Jesus almost certainly walked up the night before he died. I found myself feeling most unworthy of the privilege of walking where he walked because I'm just not sure I wouldn't be hiding in the courtyard with Peter. I ended my prayerful walking by ...

with the WAL - basicly a group of 100 - 200 hippies and other funny people from all over the world - I went up Israel till we were near Jerusalem again. From there, we took the bus to a beach near Ashdod. A big festival, the Boombamela, had been going on and we cleaned up the trash that 20,000 teenagers left there on the beach.

... our elbows despite the heat! It was of course ornately decorated, but I'm not 100% convinced Jesus would have been a fan. There were two bits of the church that were particularly chaotic, the place where Jesus was actually born and even more so, where he was laid. People were pushing each other. Didn't really leave a good taste, you know. We had a little wander through Bethlehem after this, still in Jackets! This little girl who couldn't have been any more than four ...

... and ice cream, and it was great to catch up with him, the first relative I've seen in 2+ months. It's amazing how he knew so many people we saw on Jerusalem's streets. I couldn't spend too long with him, as my 10-night Poland Heritage Tour started tonight. One week of that is spent in Poland, with briefing and debriefing sessions at Yad Vashem. My madricha for the program is a friend of mine, Eli Massel, which could be a bit awkward. She's a day older than I am, and we'll ...

... house and Meron and Carole were there waiting for us. They are going to be with us until we meet up with the Bet Breira group next Wednesday. We had some lunch and then Mark, Meron, Carole and Hudi took a drive to see Saba and Safta's cemetery and to visit Aunt Eileen in Tel Aviv. He also got to stop at Jonathan's house ...