Snowmageddon

Several sources I found suggest Jerusalem has a heavy snow storm on average every 7 years.  Before we give that more meaning than it may deserve, I checked with some weather sites and found, it really all depends on your definition of heavy.




From the point of view of this Wisconsin Girl, what I’m looking at out my dorm window is merely a good foundation.  For Jerusalem, even though they had a pretty impressive snow last winter, and each of the last several years, this may as well be the storm of the century.  In any event, it is an event!







I read posts from friends in Illinois who just had a pretty impressive late winter storm.

The panicked rush to the grocery store before it hit was pretty well, and often humorously documented.  The long lines, the empty shelves, the grumpy customers, you’d think they were expecting the apocalypse.




Having grown up in the northern Midwest, and living in southern Illinois since 1996, I can pretty much guarantee, even if you run out of milk, and the city shuts down, the stores and roads will likely be open tomorrow, or the next day.  Nearly every municipality, local and state, has a fleet of snowplows and a variety of chemicals or substances to address the snow and ice and get the people moving again.

Not so here in Israel, especially Jerusalem.


Built on seven hills, the inclination alone is a problem. You may recall early on I observed everything is a ten minute walk from wherever you are, and all uphill.  Of course, Jerusalem is bigger than that, and obviously what goes up must come down.  Imagine the possible careening down the winding, narrow streets all over the city!

photo credit: Te'ena Ben-Haim

photo credit: Te'ena Ben-Haim

Next, please consider the road surfaces.  This is an ancient city. Many of the roads are maintained in the original or traditional styles, and plowing would be both damaging and ineffective.

North Jerusalem Neighborhood  Photo Credit: Gila Goren

And then, we have that whole, we’re in the desert thing.  Snow is obviously not unheard of but it is still an anomaly.  Why buy a fleet of plows that you might have the opportunity to use once, maybe twice a year on the roads that could be cleared.


Better a day or two off.


Finally there is this. The storm hit last night. As I write, I’m watching the icing that I woke up to on my pomegranate bush melt and fall away from the branches, the snowmen in the courtyard are melting into oblivion, and the sun is shining in a brilliant, azure sky.  In a few hours the Shabbat sirens will sound, and by Sunday, the snow will be a memory.

So, it's not Armageddon but it is an event.

I can’t get out and about to show you the city, but if you’d like to see more snow in Israel, visit:

http://www.bibleplaces.com/jerusalemsnow.htm

http://www.israelexperts.com/blog/photo-history-snow-jerusalem

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2260223/Jerusalem-hit-worst-snowstorm-TWENTY-YEARS-inches-falls-Holy-City-closing-roads-schools.html

http://www.timesofisrael.com/jerusalem-braces-for-storm-three-times-worse-than-what-has-been-seen-so-far/

the day after

A visit to a complicated neighborhood

I have been asked from time to time about the climate in Jerusalem and Israel toward bilingual education and the ‘mixing’ of Arabs and Jews.  Throughout the country, there are a wide variety of opinions on the issue, and as you can imagine, I haven’t been particularly shy about asking people that I meet, if they ask me what I’m doing in Israel, what they think.    I’ve had Jewish orthodox moms say it’s a wonderful idea, I’ve been called a leftist, told it won’t work, told I’m crazy, been called a do-gooder, and once a troublemaker.  Just the other day as I explained to two fellow travelers on the bus what brought me to Jerusalem, the one woman’s body language and facial expression changed so dramatically, and her response was so negative, I was momentarily afraid she was going to, at the very least, change seats, while her companion was literally ecstatic about the schools and their potential.  I have had very real, sometimes painful conversations with people whose opinions range from it will never work, to those who wish it could, to those who feel is it the only way forward.  In this, I was not surprised.

I can’t give an exhaustive answer here, obviously, but let me take you to the neighborhood where the Jerusalem School is situated and give you a little look into some of the roadblocks. At the risk of oversimplifying the issue, walk with me to the open area just outside the school offices.  From this vantage point we can see many things that may explain why this dream is complicated. 

Looking down from the school, immediately we see the old train line that first connected Jerusalem with Jaffa over 100 years ago. The tracks are still visible but no longer carry trains, now this is a shared public walk way, the very one on which the Hand in Hand school community walked in solidarity this past summer during the war and after the arson attack last November.  

Just beyond the tracks is the memory of the green line.  I say memory because it is no longer the official separation line between Israel and its Arab neighbors established after the 1948 War of Independence, but the green line is not forgotten that easily, especially here where memories are long. The outcome of that war is still viewed as both a victory and defeat by people in these very neighborhoods.  

Green line ^ tracks in the center ^ neighborhood circled

The school sits in an Arab neighborhood, Beit Safafa that was split by that line.  Surrounding the Arab neighborhood is the Jewish Pat neighborhood, named for Yaacov Pat, a commander in the Haganah.  Not a big neighborhood where everyone lives, two distinct neighborhoods.

Gilo on the hill

Up the hill to the left is Gilo, a Jewish neighborhood or settlement, legal or illegal again, depending on your political/historical point of view, strategically placed as one of five ‘ring’ settlements and a reminder of the past for both Jews and Arabs.  Gilo is situated on the “high ground”, offering some a feeling of security that no future attacks on the city will come from that position, but it is also a constant visual reminder of what was lost.

It is all picturesque, especially on a sunny day, but behind the beautiful scene are thousands of people with their own stories, their own histories, their own dreams, just like anywhere else in the world, but here, the history of the land lends a different ingredient to the mix that makes it harder to blend.

I suspect the arson and graffiti attack in November was supposed to have a more chilling effect on us. “Allegedly” carried out by radical, anti-integration, separatist extremists (my terms), it has had a more positive effect than even we would have expected.  More people than ever now know about the schools and their purpose. Some who were on the fence or in some cases not in favor of bilingual/bicultural education have come to appreciate it in a new way and while they may not all completely agree, many are willing to allow us a seat at the table.  The visible damage has been repaired and we are moving purposefully forward.  Not, I think, what the arsonists expected, or hoped for.

Recently I offered another shopper at the grocery with only half a dozen eggs the place ahead of me in line, he declined but as we waited we visited. He asked me the blunt question I have come to expect off campus “why are you in Israel?” I told him about being a Visiting Research Fellow and my area of study, and he told me about his research about a 12^th Century Rabbi.   Then I told him about the Hand in Hand schools and my contribution there.  He recognized the school and knew about the arson, which he said was a very bad thing.  Watching for changes in body language or tone of voice, I asked him what he thought about the idea of bilingual education - of Jews and Arabs together.  He smiled and shrugged and said, “I am cosmopolitan.”  I didn’t ask him to clarify, the look on his face suggested I should understand, but I’m counting him in the “for” column.

So, all I can tell you for sure is that the vote is still out. Some are for, some are against, some don’t have an opinion, but one by one, hand in hand, so long as I’m here, I’ll keep telling the story and asking the question, “How do you feel about people getting along?”  Because really, isn’t that the point?  

Astronauts and Anomalies

A visit to the Negev should also include a stop at the Makhtesh Ramon Visitor’s Center which houses the memorial to Israel’s first astronaut, Ilan Ramon, the educational introduction to the Makhtesh Crater and wildlife refuge and a panoramic viewing of the Makhtesh Crater.  Related only by name and location (and perhaps a well-considered marketing strategy?) they share a visitor center so it’s quite convenient.

As we were approaching the site, our guide explained how unique these geological anomalies were; they are found only in Israel where all the “elements” cooperate, and that when the first two that were discovered they were named the Small and Big Makhtesh. Then they found this one, by far the largest of the three.

Not an impact crater, but a unique example of erosion, something like the Grand Canyon.  A makhtesh, is characterized by its steep walls of resistant rock that surrounds a deep closed valley of a softer material, usually there is a single point of drainage or in this case, a wadi, think, stream or the lowest place where water collects and then carries off debris.

Nearly 25 miles long, between 1-6 miles wide and over 1600 feet deep, this makhtesh is shaped like an elongated heart, which we were told is visible from space. (I wonder if Ilan saw and reported on it? That could be an explanation for the connected sites) When compared to the Grand Canyon which is 277 miles long, as many as 18 miles wide and over 6000 feet deep, it pales, but is easily as breathtaking.

The tour through the visitor’s center begins with the memorial to Ilan Ramon, his personal history as a descendant of Holocaust survivors, involvement in the space program and his death along with the other crew members in the re-entry accident of the Shuttle Columbia in 2003.  The tour includes a video telling the story of Ilan and his quest for space, some sweet recordings that he made for his family while he was in space, observations about his home planet, and the connection and love that he had for it and for Israel.  

Grandpa/Grandson
Father/Son
A proud tradition in the IAF

the crew of the Colombia 

The video ends with the screen rising and curtains opening onto a spectacular view of the Ramon Crater.  From there you proceed to a museum tour of the discovery and ‘mechanics’  of a makhtesh, with hands on displays to explain erosion, earthquakes and other ways that nature produced this wonder.  Then comes a pretty cool diorama that explains how the crater came into being, a quick trip through the gift store, where the ever present Hello Kitty appears (she’s Everywhere, really, it’s a little weird where she shows up) and Then we got to see a movie that reinforced what we’d seen in the museum section. 

I did have to wonder how much time Moses and the Children of Israel might have spent wandering around the crater; like a box canyon, if you found your way in you could spend a lot of time trying to find your way out without GPS.

I can’t report seeing any of the wildlife that lives in the nature preserve, I can report seeing lots of Ibex poo, so I know they’re there. 

The Earth from the Columbia

“The world looks marvelous from up here, so peaceful, so wonderful and so fragile.”

“All we are doing is for the next generation, and the next generations to come. I’m sure the view of the earth out in space is very unique, and since we don’t see any borders, and we see our planet as a planet, as a whole, as a, unity.  I’m sure that we all feel that we shouldn’t have any borders and that we as human beings share this earth. This is the only place we have right now to live in, and we have to keep it clean, to keep it as good as possible for our own life.” From the Video, Remembering Columbia – ‘In Their Own Words.’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4jl4V1alaY

For more information on Ilan Ramon visit:

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Ilanramon.html