Winter in Netanya, Israel, Part Two

As we write this portion for the Reporter it feels like an oxymoron to write, winter in Netanya, because of how winter is in New Hampshire.  The second portion of our trip’s weather was mostly sunny and warm in the sixties and seventies.  On our own we visited artist friends in Ein Hod and another friend in Tzfat on weekends. We had a tour of Tzfat, Rosh Pinah, a Druze village and the roads close to the border with Lebanon. We enjoyed seeing the ruins of two crusader forts. With the group we toured an army base and the city of Maale Adummim on the border during the week.

After spending six weeks in Netanya volunteering four mornings a week helping students with their English communication skills, and afternoons taking Ulpan classes, we moved off to visit Eilat in the very southern tip of Israel. Eilat is normally a four hour ride south of Netanya.  However, we spent time at a war memorial in Dimona making the trip longer.

We arrived in Eilat in the late afternoon and stayed in a relatively new hotel named “Central Park Rimonim.”  While the three hotels we stayed in were good, it is always interesting to note how each one handles guests and dining.

The day following our visit to Eilat, Linda and I walked around the city to locate what kinds of things we would enjoy doing and seeing.  Linda had spent time in Eilat in 1963 working on a summer program as a teenager.  She actually spent six weeks that summer in Israel and she notes that there was no air conditioning then.

We booked a trip to the Marine Underwater Observatory which is a wonderful park for adults and children.  The observatory had a circular building which you could walk out to.  It was located some distance off the beach and when you went downstairs you were actually six meters underneath the surface of the water.  As you walk around the interior you are actually viewing many types of beautiful fish in their natural environment in the coral reefs.

There are numerous other exhibits you can visit as well as a movie theatre showing a film about whale sharks which has seats that move around giving you the rocking motion of a boat.

Our group was able to share in the sixty-third anniversary celebration of the freeing of the city of Eilat at Um Rash Rash from Arab hands.  It was a wonderful celebration with dancing, music and its own style of fireworks.

As a group we were able to have a private guided tour of the Eilat museum.  The curator personally gave us this tour and he was very passionate about the city and its development.  Next door to the museum is an art gallery which was displaying art with the theme for the year of the woman.

On March 6^th, we boarded our bus for the trip to Jerusalem with one more kibbutz to visit along the way. The visit to Kibbutz Ketura taught us about mariculture and the importance of research and development in a desert environment.

We arrived in Jerusalem at the Prima Kings hotel just in time for dinner.  Linda and I were getting a little weary of those long drives even though we had comfortable buses to travel in. The Prima Kings is located in the center of Jerusalem and diagonally across from the Conservative Temple.  There is also a Chabad Center adjacent to the hotel and when we spoke with the Chabad rabbi he gave us his card to pass on to Rabbi Krinsky.  They know each other.

Wednesday March 7^th, we toured both of Hadassah’s hospitals.  It was impressive to see firsthand what Hadassah has accomplished in its first one-hundred years of existence.  We saw the new tower which has fourteen floors above ground and five floors below ground.  We saw how the trauma centers and the below ground floors are constructed as bomb shelters due to the second intifada.   There is also a new mother and child care center.

During our tour of Hadassah’s first hospital in Jerusalem on Mt. Scopus, our tour guide, who is the executive deputy director, gave us a tour of the facility plus all of the historical facts about the hospital.  She explained why it was evacuated in the war of independence and how it reopened after the six day war. That hospital is now used as a rehabilitation center.

We celebrated Purim at the Conservative Temple across from the hotel.  The next day Linda and I toured the city on foot and found numerous celebrations along main streets for Purim.  Jerusalem seems to go all out for the holiday with musical events and its residents wearing costumes at all ages.

On Saturday morning the Conservative temple held a Shabbat service run completely by women.  Those who attended found it to be a warm and energizing service.

Linda and I walked to the Old City one more time before we departed.  The weather was fantastic all the while we were in Jerusalem and a great time to move around the city on foot.

Saturday evening Linda and I met with one of her cousins who resides here in the city.    It was good to see her cousin once more as it was six years since we saw her last.

It was Sunday and time to do some last minute touring, packing, shopping and a final farewell to our group over dinner before the flight home.  Linda went with a group to the Herzl Museum and cemetery in the morning and had the experience of riding on the new train.

This trip brought us closer to the land of Israel and its people.  Israel is definitely worth more than a 10 day tour and we are both happy to be retired now so we had the time to do the 8 weeks with this group.

(This article was written by Joe for the May issue of The Reporter, the monthly newspaper for the Jewish community in New Hampshire. I still  have more to post about Jerusalem and will do that soon. Part 1 is also on this blog, posted February 8th.)

walking the streets of Jerusalem (poem)

walking the streets of Jerusalem

 

happy feet

tired feet

walking the old city

and the new 

city of peace

city of conflict

ancient stones and

tall buildings 

ordinary people

dressed in modern clothing

Hasidic clothing

Arabic clothing

and Purim costumes

all going about their

everyday lives 

tourists admiring

every stone

ancient or not

and praying

at the wall

at the churches

at the mosques 

this year we celebrate

the holiday of Purim

reading the Book of Esther

which mysteriously

does not mention God 

I pray that our hidden God

will answer our prayers

and keep our people safe

for another year

©2012 Linda H. Feinberg

Eilat

We are finally back home in New Hampshire. I wasn’t able to post about the trip for the last two weeks since the hotels we were in did not have free wi-fi. 

The trip down to Eilat from Netanya was long, but we left the big storm behind. We stopped in Dimona to see a war memorial and learn about the area. It seems that Israel has many memorials like this. I noticed (again) how young the soldiers were who gave their lives for the state.

In Eilat we walked along the promenade. The area is very commercial now, lots of hotels, restaurants and shops. The last time I was there was in 1963 as a teenager and it was quite undeveloped at that time.  On the way there and while we were there, I was intrigued by the play of light on the mountains (that are in Jordan). I tried to take some pictures (from the bus) of the mountains and date groves, but they didn’t come out well.

We went to the underwater park and enjoyed looking at the fish and other sea animals. I took lots of pictures and will put the link at the bottom of this post. We decided not to do the glass bottomed boat and I think we saw more this way. Beautiful fish and corals.  The movie in the park was enjoyable too.

On another day we had a tour of a bird sanctuary, some fish ponds and learned about “mariculture”.  We saw both border crossings while we were in Eilat (Taba, Egypt and Aqaba, Jordan). The borders are close by.

In the evening we went to the city celebration of their 63^rd anniversary (of the freeing of Eilat) at the Um Rash Rash site. There were students marching, speeches (in Hebrew), a slide show, singing, dancing, musicians and fireworks – good party.

We visited a history museum that is mostly for the children of the community, but we learned a lot there too. I enjoyed looking at all the fish statues (photo below).  We also visited the art gallery next to it which is celebrating the year of the woman with a gallery show about women.

more photos

Eilat

I do not have a good internet connection here in Eilat so just one photo of the port. The mountains in the background are Jordan. We are heading out to Jerusalem shortly. I hope to have a better connection at the hotel there and will post more information about this part of the trip then.

Galilee (northern Israel)

Galil

We spent a wonderful weekend in northern Israel (near the Lebanon border) with my friend, Miriam. First we took a public bus north. This was our first experience with public buses (we have always been with a tour group before). The bus was filled with soldiers going home for the weekend (Friday and Saturday), many of them with their rifles. Everyone was pleasant and the bus was comfortable.

My friend picked us up at the bus stop and took us on a tour of Rosh Pinah, a settlement founded many years ago. The northern part of Israel is very hilly. We could see Mount Hermon in the distance with snow on the top. It was a bit misty so I did not get a good photo.  We spent a little time hiking up hill in a pleasant area with a stream and olive trees (in photo above). Then onto Tzfat (Safed) which was the home centuries ago of the Jewish mystics.  We walked around and Miriam was a terrific tour guide.  She made a lovely Shabbat dinner at her house and we relaxed in the evening.

 Our tour the next day included two Crusader castles. The Montfort ruins were too much of a hike for me (I didn’t have hiking shoes with me) and we decided not to do that, just opted to take photos from the park.  Then we went onto the Yehiam National Park. That was more accessible and I took many pictures.  Joe loves forts and really enjoyed walking around and learning some of the history of the place. First photo below is Montfort, second one is Yehiam.

Finally we stopped for a late lunch in a Druze village and had Sambozek, a type of sandwich on pita bread. It was delicious.  Sunday is a regular work day, so Miriam dropped us off at the bus stop and we made our way back to Netanya. There is a definite advantage to having white hair here – a young woman soldier gave me her seat (the bus was full). A young man gave his seat to Joe. I think I like this senior status. J

More Photos  https://picasaweb.google.com/110223074396610202868/Galil?authkey=Gv1sRgCKC24oCA3o_CoQE#

Near Jerusalem

Only time for a short post today. We went to an interesting army base near Jerusalem, unit #401, tank corps. The tanks are Merkava 4. We did get to look inside, it seems a bit claustrophobic to me.  4 men at a time. When they are in combat, they stay inside, no toilets. No thanks. We had a good tour and ate lunch with the soldiers.

Then we had a tour of Maale Adummin, a city near Jerusalem and near the border. It is built on hills and winds around them.  You can see some of the city in the photos.

We also stopped at the 9/11 memorial near Jerusalem and then at the Elvis Cafe before heading back to Netanya.  That's all I have time for now. Going into a lecture in a few minutes. This weekend we head to Tzfat (Safed) to visit a friend

More Photos

Hof HaCarmel

We had a rainy, windy, stormy weekend in Hof Hacarmel. On Friday artist Zvika Lazr  graciously picked us up at our hotel and drove us north to the Hof Hacarmel region, sister city to Manchester, NH. We had a full agenda despite the storm.

He dropped us off at Atlit, an immigrant detention camp when the British were in charge, before Israel became a state.  We learned about the immigrants who survived the holocaust, made it to Israel and then were thrust back into camps again. We had seen this camp in 2006 when we were in Israel in 2006, but this time we had a much more in-depth tour, with movies and a private guide. The camp has been preserved as a historic site and has a historic recreation of a ship (also with movies and mannequins) to give us an idea of how crowded it was on the ships that brought the immigrants there. I did not take pictures of the barracks and barbed wire fencing this time since I had taken those pictures in 2006. The boat was new to us.

Then artist  Ziva Kainer  picked us up and took us to Ein Hod, an artist colony nearby.  We walked past her burned out home (from the Carmel fires) and went to her rented studio for a good talk and cup of tea. She has been struggling and hopes to rebuild her home and studio. We had a short walk around the village and went into the Ein Hod gallery where we met other artists and saw their work. Picture below is artist Lezer Manole. 

Ziva showed us some of he  paintings that are in the gallery and we saw more at the next stop. (pictures below). She took us to meet David Berman, a member of Nir Etzion and he acted as our guide. We had a wet tour of the area around the hotel and I managed to get a few pictures in between the rain drops of the Arab village across the way and some of the artwork in the hotel, some of it Ziva’s. The hotel (www.nir-ezion.co.il) is quite luxurious and even has an indoor heated pool. They cater to a mostly religious (Jewish) clientele, but also host other guests. They were affected by the Carmel fire too, but the scenery is still very beautiful there. We had a tasty lunch in the dining room with David and Inbal Shahaf Gilad, our Sister City contact person, who did a great job making all these arrangements for us.

A fused glass artist, Bob Nechin (www.glasswork1.com) (picture at top) picked us up and brought us back down the road to Ein Hod. We met his wife Sue, toured his studio, and rested a bit at their house before heading on to our host and hostess for the night, Naomi and Zev Verchovsky. Their house also burned during the Carmel fire, but not completely, and they have restored it enough to move back in. Naomi is a potter and lost some of her studio, but is back in a smaller space next to the house. http://ein-hod.info/artists/naomi  She also gives workshops.

Zev had a used book store which burned down and he lost most of his inventory and his shop. He has rented a shop and is cataloging what is left. He is using the internet now as well as his shop. We had a wonderful evening and they hosted a dinner with other artists as well. Zev is a blogger too.

The next morning we had a tour of the artist colony and learned a bit about its history. We stopped at Sernoff Frohlich,  http://ein-hod.info/artists/asher/index.html a fine art gallery and looked at husband and wife paintings, both representational and abstracts. Our tour guide was Dan Ben-Arye and we met his wife Lea as well. Dan is a sculptor and painter and gives tours of the village. Lea creates wearable art as well as jewelry. We saw ceramic work and paintings at  Magal Ein-Hod  (also  http://ein-hod.info/artists/benzion/index.html)  where four generations of artists have created unique and beautiful work. We walked around (by this time the rain had stopped, but it was still cold and windy. We checked out the Janco Dada Museum and the Nisco Museum (music boxes and mechanical music), but didn’t have time for a full tour of that one. There are links to all the artists in the colony at the main website for Ein Hod Hod (www.ein-hod.info).

We stopped briefly at Tzvika’s studio to arrange our ride back and saw some of his work as well. He is also a painter (was formerly a captain in the merchant marine) and works primarily in an abstract painting style. Everyone we met was gracious and warm. They all had interesting stories. It was sad to see the devastation from the forest fires, but things are growing again, the area is green and the flowers are starting to appear. Many of the trees had buds on them already. Spring will come to Israel soon.

More photos

Ramla

Our trip this week took us to Ramla, an ancient city that was once the capital of the region. Today it is a combination of ancient and modern, with people from all three major religions living together. The mayor greeted us and gave us an interesting talk and booklet about the city. www.ramla.muni.il  Again, I loved seeing the public art in many places. We met some students from America who were studying at a school (Kivunim) in Jerusalem, but were at the municipal offices to meet some of the students from Ramla on this day.

We stopped next at the pool of the Arches, one of the historic sites. These cisterns were created in the 700’s and there are Arabic inscriptions on the wall. This is also known as Saint Helena’s Pool.

 
Then we went onto the White Tower (I think this was buit in the 1300’s), but most of us did not climb up. The stairs were old, dark and did not look safe for seniors.  We had a good lecture and enjoyed looking at the ancient ruins on the site. Ramla was built on a plateau so the tower gave good visibility for the guards. It also was a walled city at one time.

Our next stop took us to a beautiful synagogue built by the Indians who came from Bombay (Mumbai) and other cities in India and Pakistan.  They are still collecting money for a lift (elevator), but the synagogue is complete. It was built over a bomb shelter as that was the land available to them.

Our last stop took us to a cement factory tour.  Most of the construction in Israel (and there is a lot of it, you can see cranes all over) is concrete and stone.  I found it interesting that the conveyer that carries the limestone from the quarry to the factory was built high enough so that small animals could walk underneath it.

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Miracle of birth at Kibbutz Eyal

Photo above is artwork done by a kibbutz member.

We had an extra trip this week, along the border which is very close to Netanya (about 10 miles). We stopped first at a memorial to those killed at a bus stop in 1995 by two suicide bombers. First one blew himself up, then the second waited for the first responders who came to help. When they got there the second one blew himself up. They killed 21 soldiers and 1 civilian who were waiting at the bus stop and injured many others. Very sad.

We had a wonderful tour of Kibbutz Eyal which is along the border. It is both an agricultural kibbutz and they also have a factory that is involved with lens crafting and semiconductors.  We learned about the kibbutz movement and the way the Israeli government works with them.  If they decide to change a crop, they have to get permission from the government (so there is not too much duplication from others). If they do not farm the land, it gets returned to the government.

While we were walking around, we came to the large open-air sheds for the cows. One cow was in the process of giving birth. We could see the feet of the calf already sticking out. We waited around and I sympathized with her cries, knowing she was probably in distress and pain.  We did get to see the full birth and I took a movie.  The calf born was female and we named her “Hadassah”.  Quite a miracle to watch.  We also viewed the milking stations. The teenagers start working (part time) at 13.  They wash the stations, the cows and milk the cows. They work two days a week, but the milking is done three times a day by other kibbutz members.

Along the way we saw both Israeli Arab villages and across the way Palestinian Arab villages. We stopped at a border crossing to watch the Palestinians who work in Israel head back to their homes.

We continued along the border to the home of one of our leaders at Kfar Yair and had a wonderful lunch and home hospitality. I agree with Joe who feels that this trip has shown us not only the tourist sites, but the land and its wonderful people. It has been a pleasure getting to know them.

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Trip to north of Israel

We had an interesting lecture the other night on the prisons in Israel. They are managed quite differently from the ones in the U.S.  When someone is arrested, whether by the military or the police, they are given due process, but all the prisons are managed by one agency (IPS = Israel Prison Service a/k/a National Prison Authority). The police are to fight crime and the military are to defend the country. IPS manages the prisons so the others can do their jobs.  They take care of lock ups and escorts.  There are detention facilities for the prisoners held before their trials.  There are separate detention facilities for illegal immigrants. It might surprise some of you to know that illegal immigrants are trying to get into Israel despite its political problems with the countries outside it. It is still a better life than what they have in their own countries. (These are not Jewish people trying to get to Israel.)  There are separate security prisons and military prisons, also women’s prisons.  It was a good lecture.

Our most recent trip was to the north of Israel, green with mountains and valleys. We had a wonderful guide who explained everything as we went along, desalinization plants, water pumping stations, agriculture, electric production from coal and gas, etc. We stopped for some sheep that were on the road. The herders moved them with their vehicle along with a bit of help from a border collie.  Then we went to visit Emek Hashalom which has nature trails, olive and wine presses.  This is an interesting area for “integrated nature studies” – they explained that to mean that the facility and trails are set up for people with varying handicaps. The trails have stones on the side so that blind people don’t wander off them. The teachers explain the olive presses with picture boards for the autistic etc.  Everyone is included, no one is left behind. www.lotem.cet.ac.il  This area is a controlled area (biosphere) and limited building is allowed. Mount Carmel is in the distance.

We planted trees in the Lavi Forest (Golani Brigade area). I planted a carob tree this time, last time (2006), I planted an almond tree. We had a quick falafel lunch along the way, then headed to the main attraction: Hula Agamon Lake www.agamon-hula.co.il  (Click on English on home page)

The Hula Valley is in the Syrian African rift valley, along the flight path of many migrating birds. In the 1930’s the land was cleared for agriculture and to rid the area of the malaria ridden swamps.  Drainage canals were dug. Unfortunately the end result was excessive drying out of some of the peat earth, causing some underground fires and pollution to the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee).  In the 1990’s, the JNF (Jewish National Fund) restored some of the area and it is now a beautiful nature park for many migratory birds. They are wintering here and then go back to Europe. They have worked with the farmers in the area so the birds do not destroy their crops.  We rode on a caravan pulled by a tractor and went into the midst of the common cranes. They have about 33,000 there and it was fascinating as well as very noisy! The cranes will head back to Europe in March. More photos