Sunday--May 14, 2006

Sunday--May 14th

Today was definitely a sightseeing day ala real tourists. We got up early and grabbed breakfast at our hotel, the Prima Royale-(3 Mendele St) taking advantage of the buffet available to the guests. It wasn't anything special--just your normal salads in 15 varieties, eggs (scrambled and hard-boiled), fresh baked goods, 3 or 4 different kinds of fresh fruit, 3 different kinds of cereal, 3 different kinds of herring,hummus, tehina, olives, yogurt, milk, coffee and tea. A nice light way to start the day.
After eating relatively modestly, we got in our rented car and drove the short distance to the Old City--the multi-thousand (as in 3500plus) year old chunk of real estate that is considered sacred by Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Greek Orthrodox. The Old City has an amazing history, one which I won't go into here, but well worth reading up on. We drove the car along the narrow cobblestone streets and made our way back to one of the parking lots that was close to the Kotel or Western Wall. This ancient (2000 years old), few hundred feet of stone wall (187 ft to be precise), is without any doubt, the holiest place in the country, out of many holy sites. (Check out the following site "http://english.thekotel.org/content.asp?id=212" for the real scoop on the Wall). When the Western Wall was recaptured from the Jordanians in the Six Day War in 1967, work was immediately begun by archeologists, working under tight security and secrecy, to excavate the largely hidden portion of the Wall. Today, it is possible, with plenty of advance notice, to make a reservation to tour the Wall from below the Old City, from the perspective of the Kotel Tunnel, which is 1050ft (out of a total of 1600 ft) long. It is a fascinating historical and biblical journey that is an absolute must for anyone visiting Jerusalem. The tour takes about 90 minutes and tickets cost about $10 each. Oh, remember this is a REALLY HOLY site, and women should not be dressed in shorts or be bare-shouldered. I forgot this point and Rae-ann was immediately accosted, upon entering the Plaza just after the security gates, by, for lack of a better phrase, someone from the DECENCY POLICE--actually just an elderly woman who gave her a piece of cloth (not exactly a shawl) to put around her shoulders and a very large (one size fits the whole tour group I think) wrap-around skirt to cover her bare legs. The "look" is really unique, and I am selling the photos of Rae-ann in this outfit to help pay for the trip!
We walked back from the Kotel through the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. (There are Arab and Christian quarters as well, and all are very much considered home to their respective constituencies.) We headed off to Yad Vashem--" Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, 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 Holocaust, Yad Vashem is a leader in Shoah education, commemoration, research and documentation." For more info go to "http://www.yadvashem.org" You need to give yourself about 3 hours to make a small dent in the museum and more importantly, to allow yourself the time to absorb what you are seeing, reading, and feeling. You won't come close to actually seeing or reading everything, but it will be a start and something you can do on succeeding trips to Israel. The experience of Yad Vashem is powerful, almost overwhelmingly so, and is a must for Jew and non-Jew alike. We all need to REMEMBER, so that we don't ever find ourselves in a similar situation where lives are treated so lightly, and our veneer of civilization is so easily worn thin.
Dinner that evening was with Bev and Chezi at the new location for an old Jerusalem restaurant called Spaghetim. Unfortunately, though the new location is bright, airy, and nicely decorated, the food was much better, as I remember, in the old locale. This is one of the growing, but still small number of Jerusalem restaurants that is not kosher. The vast majority of eateries in Jerusalem are kosher, in keeping with the large religiously observant population. The exact opposite is true in Tel Aviv, due to the largely secular community that makes up the majority there. We split, amongst the four of us, a vegetarian antipasta, stuffed portabella mushrooms, goat cheese puffs and fresh foccacia. For our main courses, Rae-ann and I opted for the pasta putenesca and the pasta with spinach and garlic. Our dessert was the halevah frozen dish--very tasty! Halavah or halvah depending on your "taste" for pronounciation, is a favorite Middle Eastern delight that is made from crushed sesame seeds...yum!!)