Speechless

Had to share this with all of you.  I need add nothing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvRWkgQQ0yo&feature=youtu.be

All of our lives are filled with memories and milestones.  Some of us create scrapbooks or photo albums to hold the memories.  I have both, but my favorite two storage units are my actual memories and a collection of boxes that hold photos and items from a particular trip or event.  I have a Scotland box and a Newport box, one for Japan and one for my miscellaneous political adventures. But the largest box of memories is filled with items from Israel.

The first day of school this year was an especially melancholy day for me.  A year ago, on September First, I officially lost my heart to the students and staff at Hand in Hand schools.  I sat and watched as the kids poured back into the school after a summer of war and fear, but their faces were filled with excitement and joy.  They sang and hugged and danced and I was completely enchanted.



I listened as my friend translated the speeches and explained the songs, but some things just don’t need translation.  The complete happiness to be back with friends and family in school, of all places, was unmistakable.  The rest of the year was not a disappointment.  

I’m sitting on my porch, wondering if I will ever be the same person I was before my year in Jerusalem.  Really.  The joy and enthusiasm of the people I worked with, the commitment to honoring and sharing lives and futures, is something that I have sought all my life.




I love my family, and friends, and my life, don’t misunderstand. I missed my kitchen and my own bed, my dogs, and yes of course, my sweet husband.  I wondered often what the heck I was thinking, traveling halfway around the world leaving my life behind, and now I wonder how I could leave Israel.





How I could leave my kids, my friends and family there.

It’s not what I expected; coming home and missing home.


So, here I am, sitting on my porch, imagining the dancing and singing on the first day of school.  The joy and the dancing of the High Holidays, the eating, dancing and celebrating in the Sukkah and looking forward to the dancing and joy of Hanukah, appreciative beyond words for the opportunity I was given to make a place in my heart for the land and her people.

No, I don’t think I will ever be the same, but you can be sure, I will never stop dancing.

Houston, the Kibbutzim Interns have landed!!

A Huge Thank You to Randy Czarlinsky, the Mickey Leland Kibbutzim Internship Foundation, and anyone else involved in sending 10 of the most amazing young people to Israel, with a morning to spend at the Hand in Hand Jerusalem School.



The kids in the 4th grade English class that they visited were thrilled to have the Americans here, and thought it was pretty cool that they came from the same ‘place’ I did.  The opportunity to make introductions, practice their English, play spelling games, dance, play a little Football and get in a little arm wrestling was welcomed by the kids as well as their teacher, Lynn.

The short kids loved the attention from the big kids not to mention the distraction from their regular classwork.  I think sometimes that’s what they like best about me, I take them out of the class for ‘special’ time that is not regular class work.

I really needn’t say much more than ‘send more interns’.  

Hi, My name is and I like...

My name is and I like...

Well played interns, well played!!  Todah rabah! Kol hakavod!

Don’t check your identity at the door!

I mentioned that last week was a busy one at the school and Identity Day was one of the activities that made it so: basically the culmination of a year’s work in the Max Rayne Jerusalem School in the 1st-9th grade classes.



We all struggle with our identities, who we are, where we fit, but in the West we have the luxury it seems, to ‘find ourselves’ which is not the case here.  In a place where history is present always and where ‘narratives’ can and often do collide, it is important in a different more urgent way if you will, to who know ‘who you are’ and ‘how you fit’.

Here, especially at the Hand in Hand schools, students are encouraged not only to look at their own identities: personal, family, community, religious, and national, but at those of their classmates and friends.  Not only to look, but to appreciate and respect that your narrative may be different from mine but it is your narrative and it has value.

future architect 

Identity Day gives the students an opportunity to explore and share who they are in a community setting that delights in and encourages the process, knowing that understanding is a key for the future.





I think LeVar Burton said it well after his visit earlier in the day. "My hope is that these kids are the future of this region. And that their willingness to look beyond labels and to embrace one another as human beings – I hope that becomes the model for generations to come”

That, to me, is a large part of what Identity Day is all about.  



The final presentation is a big event with parents and friends invited to come and share.  Students present a variety of creations from written word and photographs, to drawings and dioramas, singing and dancing.  Some are directly involved in describing their work and what it means to them.  Others like the chorus’, musicians and dancers, present merely for our enjoyment and enlightenment.

Bible Hill and the Scottish Church

Reading Rainbow goes International!

Last week was pretty busy at the school, adding to the excitement was a film crew from Reading Rainbow and of course its host, LeVar Burton.  I got to recruit two students from the 4^th grade class with the help of the teacher, who would be filmed with LeVar in a short segment.  One Arab and one Jew, one boy one girl. English speakers preferred.

It was pretty exciting for all of us, even if some of us were new to Reading Rainbow.  I have always loved the show and my children have fond memories of it as well, so I was pretty stoked, but it is generally unknown in Israel.

With the attached video, there’s not much else to say except LeVar is just as nice in person as he appears on screen, and so genuine with the kids.  Good thing too, cuz’ kids see right through insincere.

If you’d like to see more about our visitor, visit:

http://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2015/06/08/reading-rainbow-goes-international-liebermann-pkg.cnn

Well, the watermelon was healthy, right?

The end of the school year is fast approaching, and with that the end of school extravaganza POOL PARTY! So today the kids had an
in-house fundraiser for that event.

About a half hour before my second class ends, the kids were dismissed to the center courtyard to set up a snack Kiosk filled with lovely delights, exactly at lunch time.
Someone has thought this one through!



So, for lunch I had, in no particular order:
A small piece of chocolate cake with sprinkles,
Two chocolate covered cubes of vanilla ice cream,
A sandwich size bag of popcorn,
Another bag of popcorn,
A cup of watermelon chunks,
A pancake,
A heart cookie with sprinkles,
Two small pieces of maple cake,
A cup of turmos beans,
Oh my gosh, a second cup of turmos beans for later, these are so good!
Two more chocolate covered ice cream cubes (shared one with the students selling them),
A cup and a half of Israeli Chex Mix (end of the batch and I paid him double),
A third bag of popcorn (all three went in my bag for later),
Two pieces of strip candy that I can’t eat so I shared,
A cup of coke (because the grape juice pack was not at all inticing)

The math was easy, everything cost 1 shekel so, including the ‘tip’ I had one of the least healthy lunches of my adult life and a great time doing it for about 20 shekels!

Now in my defense of the many sweets, when I say small, think bite sized, literally, it was a fundraiser after all.

Now don’t judge me, you already know I’m a sucker for furry creatures and lizards, well I guess you can add kids to that, especially ‘my’ kids.


For those of you who aren’t familiar with turmos beans, you're in good company.  During the break between classes, the English teacher I work with shared some with me.  I thought they were chick peas so when she asked if I knew what they were I said, “Yes, chickpeas.” No she said and told me what they were, which of course didn’t help.  She’s Jewish and these are an Arab snack and she really had no clue  what exactly they were either.  When I found them at the sale later, of course I had to buy some and look them up later.

If you’d like to know more about Turmos beans, visit:
http://www.greenprophet.com/2013/04/lupines-traditional-middle-eastern-snack-food-recipe/

Yad Vashem: The Holocaust History Museum

The first time I came to Israel, the group I was with had the privilege of meeting Professor Dina Porat, Head of The Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry and Chief Scientist of Yad Vashem, one of the key people responsible for the museum and its exhibits. She spoke so eloquently about the passion behind the memorial, the reasoning behind the exhibits, and the symbolism of the building, all in a compelling invitation for our visit the next day.  

Yanush Korzack
and His Children

I haven’t been to any other Holocaust Museums, but I’ve read accounts, I’ve heard the stories, and I’ve seen the movies.  A wide variety of documentaries are readily available, some of which I’ve watched again since I’ve been in Israel. Even with a pretty fair understanding of the events surrounding the Holocaust and the “Final Solution”, each time I visit, the impact is startling.  I think I know what I will see, and in large part I do, but the way it is presented, the personal way the stories are told, makes it impossible for me to come away the same person who walked in.  

It is difficult to rush through this place.  As you enter, to the left, projected on the wall are movies, salvaged and pieced together of people who likely ended their lives in the Nazi death camps. Home movies of families, towns and villages, merchants and shoppers laughing and waving, students at their desks, children playing.  Each time I’ve visited, the faces and places have been different.  Towns and villages that are no more and the people who lived in them. 

Even the most callous might walk by these faces, these stories, without stopping to look, but the building its self is designed to slow you down.  From the outside it looks merely like a large, long, formidable, triangular building, a huge prism, which it is, but the interior sets before you a meandering path that leads diagonally from one side room across to the other side and another room and back across to the next room.  Each room is crafted to tell another chapter. Bits and pieces of lives, pieced together.

And yet this is more than just a memorial to the dead, it is also a tribute to the spirit of those who struggled to endure, those who found the courage and strength to fight back, and of those who did what they could to stop the death, even if it was only one family, or one person.  The Garden  of the Righteous stands as a reminder that not everyone looked the other way. Many put their lives on the line, often losing them, because they could not stand by silently.   

And then, finally, at the end, past the Hall of Names and the Epilogue, is one of the most spectacular vistas in the country.  The symbolism obvious, a view to the future, open and clear. A relief and a promise after the sadness of the past.

You all know that I am here at the Hand in Hand Schools, Yad b’Yad.  When I looked up Yad Vashem the literal translation was Hand in Name which of course made me think of  Isaiah 49:16, “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands…” never forgotten, and that might be enough, but there is more.

The newspaper, Ha’aretz Word of the Day on Apr. 28, 2014 was actually Yad Vashem.

“Although the primary meaning of yad is indeed “hand,” it has additional meanings as well, including the Even-Shoshan definition of “tall memorial monument that rises like a hand.” As a phrase, yad vashem refers to an "enduring memorial" or a "memorial monument."  Indeed, Yad Vashem, which was established in 1953, describes itself as “the Jewish people’s living memorial to the Holocaust.”

This use of yad, which means “power” and “strength” as well as “monument,” can be seen in the biblical description of a memorial to Avshalom, King David’s rebellious son: “Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself the pillar, which is in the king’s dale; for he said: ‘I have no son to keep my name in remembrance’; and he called the pillar after his own name; and it is called Absalom’s monument [yad Avshalom] unto this day” 2 Samuel 18:18.

When you come to the land, do not skip this enduring memorial because you think you know what you will find, or because you know it will be hard.  Given the opportunity, this is a place we should all walk through at least once, if for no other reason than to honor the people whose stories are kept here, whose lives are not forgotten here, and whose memories become ours here.  The horror that made this museum and research center so important, can help lead us to that vista at the end.  A promising future, open, clear and beautiful.

To learn more about Yan Vashem and their research activities visit http://www.yadvashem.org/#!prettyPhoto

http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/museum/overview.asp

http://yadvashem.org.il/yv/en/about/friends/christian/index.asp

For the full Ha’aretz Word of the Day Article visit

http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/word-of-the-day/.premium-1.587771

Leapin’ Lizards

Judean Hills dweller 

I could sense that some of you were secretly hoping for a post about the many lizards that inhabit Israel? Right?

Well you are forewarned, this is that post.

Bethsaida Buddy 

It’s kind of funny actually.  It doesn’t matter who I am with.  Kids, highly educated professionals, graduate students, our tour guards or tour buddies, if a lizard makes an appearance, whatever your reason for being in that place goes right out the window and you either duck and run, or start taking pictures!   I mean, you come back to your original purpose of course, but there seems to be something compelling about the little guys that we spook out of hidey hole or comfortable sunny spots.

Garden of Gethsemane 

And it’s not just us.  They made it into Leviticus 11: 29-30, “Of the animals that move along the ground, these are unclean for you: the weasel, the rat, any kind of great lizard, the gecko, the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the skink and the chameleon…” as non-kosher "creeping things", all of which I have seen, and clean or not, none of them created a desire in me to fire up the bar-b-que.  Fortunate, I know.

Say no to lizards?

Proverbs 30:28 mentions a tiny, pink lizard, "The shmamit climbs with her hands, but dwells in the palaces of kings". These little buddies are commonly found inside Israeli homes and I have also seen them, here and in other places of the world.  This little guy gets around.

I actually like lizards, certainly more than I like their favorite menu item, bugs.  Geckos in particular like moths, my most hated flying bug-creature, and the bigger guys like rodents, some of which I like, like hamsters and rabbits, but most of the wild variety belong somewhere far, far away from me, thank you very much. 

Fortunately I’ve seen no lizards larger than those I’ve photographed, and no snakes, poor snakes, they do get a pretty bad rap straightaway in scripture, "You will crawl on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life."  Genesis 14. 

 
 And no turtles or frogs, but that’s ok, I seem to have enough distractions as it is.

St. Peter's Fish and the Temple Tax

“After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax came to Peter and asked, "Doesn't your teacher pay the temple tax?"  "Yes, he does," he replied. When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. "What do you think, Simon?" he asked. "From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes--from their own sons or from others?"  "From others," Peter answered. "Then the sons are exempt," Jesus said to him. "But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours."  Matthew 17: 22-27

Keep in mind that Peter had just recognized Jesus as Christ, the son of the Living God, so, well, he’s family, right?  Be that as it may, it would not have been helpful to push the point, and would only have made life difficult for the “revenue officers”, so provision was made to pay.  There in the mouth of the fish was a shekel, just enough to pay the tax for the two of them.  

Along the way, some marketing genius decided to cash in, if you will, on the story, so you can find the Saint Peter’s Fish on menus across Israel, or as the only course in some restaurants, particularly in the Galilee.  The whole fish (fillets are available and easier to eat, but not the same ) and in some places, sometimes, a coin in its mouth.  I've had it three times, each time whole, each time delicious. 

So yummy! 

All the recipes I found called for fillets, but if you want the real experience, just use a whole fish. 

For a good recipe, visit http://cookingwiththebible.com/reader/Default.aspx/GR3410-3463/recipe/   

Archaeologist for a day!

Normally I'd be busy at the school today but, Surprise! no school, as it is the day that the Eastern Church celebrates the Ascension of Christ.  So what would any red-blooded American girl with a day off in Jerusalem want to do? Why, hose down and sift through the archaeological refuse from the illegal excavations for an additional access to Solomon’s Stables, dumped in the Kidron valley of course.  I mean really, was there any doubt?  Seriously, when I learned that truckloads of dirt were unceremoniously taken from the temple mount area, and dumped in a variety of spots without any regard to the history it contained, I decided that if I could spend some time helping sort it out, I would.

This morning I walked down from the dorm, around the university and down again into the Tzurim Valley, between the Mt. of Olives, Mt. Scopus and the Kidron Valley, where the temple mount sifting project has been going on for several years.

Solomon's Stables circa 

Upon arriving, there is a brief tutorial, explaining the project and the temple history with a focus on the Templar Knights who named Solomon’s Stables Solomon's Stables (no one is exactly sure why, but the Templars did use the area for their horses), and the later decision by the Muslims in power to build a mosque in that underground area and still later to excavate an “exit” which is the beginning of the story of the sifting project

Archive photo 

In two days’ time, in a clandestine operation, an area was cleared away to open the archways to the underground mosque.  (I didn’t even know there was a second mosque on the Mount) Truckloads of dirt were dumped in various locations, including the spot I visited today which is now part of the national park system.  

archive photo

Fortunately, the excavations were brought to a halt, but the archaeological damage was done.  Layers and layers, years and years of history is now all a jumble, much of it lost forever in unknown dump sites

This project, is collecting, dating, and documenting for publication all man-made objects in an attempt to piece together the past.  Amazing items have been found already including a first temple seal with the name of a  priest mentioned in Jeremiah 20:1,  “When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, the official in charge of the temple of the Lord…”    And coins, lots of coins, from the first temple onward, including the half shekel that was required as the temple tax mentioned in Matthew 17:24-27. 

Buckets of potential treasure

So how do volunteers help?  First be ready to get dirty. Buckets are staged in the center of the tent with about 2-3 inches of rescued dirt and covered with water to soften the years of soil build up.  You begin by selecting a bucket and taking it to a boxed screen that is set up at about waist level and equipped with a hose.  Dump your bucket contents onto the screen, hose out the bucket to be sure nothing remains, hose off the contents now in the screen and go to work sorting out the man-made objects into, metal, ceramic, special stones, bones, glass, and pieces of mosaic.  (I just noticed bones, and I guess buy definition they are man-made, but did that look odd to anyone else?)  

And where are my photos? Sadly, while I took some spectacular photos of the stairs leading down into the valley, the people at the project site, especially my new friend Reut who was assisting the volunteers and said I was excellent at finding ‘just a rock’ (remembering this is archaeology, not geology) but was impressed with a large piece of marble that I found, and apparently an unusually large number of bone fragments.  My camera, however, neglected to alert me that the sim card was still here in the computer. 

Yeah, been there, did that and actually got the tee shirt. 

I think the photos I found and the video below will give you a good feel for the adventure, you’ll just have to take my word for the HUGE piece of marble I found.  Ok, so it was only about the size of a quarter pound of butter, but it wasn't ‘just a rock’ after all.

To learn more about the Temple Mount Sifting Project visit: http://www.cityofdavid.org.il/en/tours/mount-olives/temple-mount-sifting-project

Click on the Video Experience for a pretty great explanation of the process.   

The El-Marwani Underground Mosque

A small section of the many steps, maybe a 1/3.