Sh'ma Israel...................

I am with Yemima today and we are going to Jerusalem. Maybe I should write what I put in my journal.

"Yemima took me to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum, I don't really know what I can say about it."

That was my entry and I have been wondering what I would write about when I got to this point, but think I have an awful lot to say about it which surprises me.

I was now in Modi'in just north of Tel Aviv, and there had been a terrific storm during the night, in fact it was still raining when we left for Jerusalem and continued raining for quite some time. I didn't realize that the drive to Jerusalem was taking us right through the West Bank until I got to a checkpoint. The country is probably only nine miles wide at this point, but there is an agreement that the road is open. We passed road signs for Ramallah where there has recently been trouble, but that was as close as I go to it.

An Israeli settlement on the West Bank

A different view of the Dome of the Rock from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Yemima took me a little further up the hill as she wanted to show me the desert which is literally just the other side of the hill. It does seem strange to have forests and fertile land on one side and then for the greenery to peter out and then desert. Anyway, we then made our way down from here to Yad Vashem.

I really wasn't sure what I was going to feel or how I would react to whatever I was going to see there. I know there are a lot of people who think it didn't happen or would rather shut their eyes to it, so if you do not wish to read further please feel free to close this down now, but personally I felt that I had to face it, it is such a huge chunk of history that is important. I remember seeing it in my history books at school, and hearing about it - even though I am not Jewish, and because of that it would be easy to ignore it. But..........

Yemima and I parked the car and then she said we should have a coffee before going in. I was surprised how busy it was with lots of tour groups so down we went and got our coffee. We took the only two seats left which was at a table with a couple of bus drivers. I'm busy trying to prepare myself with whatever I'm going to face when a woman came up to the table and spoke to one of the drivers:-

"Where's Andre?"

"I don't know, he must be with your group."

"I lost my group. Call him.Tell him I've had enough Hell for one day I want to go - now."

REALLY?????????

And that was before I've even gone through the main entrance to the Museum. 

We finished our coffee, me seething inwardly at the crassness of this person, and then made our way to the main entrance. We had entered through the main foyer, but then had to go outside again and through the arch that leads to the tunnel where the museum is housed but before we could go in, there were a couple of women using the archway as a photo op. Now I don't mind a photo op, not that I feature in too many, but throwing you hair over your shoulder and posing hand on hip and smiling under the arch that plainly says Holocaust museum didn't seem particularly appropriate to me, but maybe I just have a funny way of looking at things.

So down we go and enter the museum. It is a long tunnel but takes you from one side to the other in a zigzag, you cannot walk straight down the middle. It's an incredibly large space and starts with illustrations in books from the Middle Ages showing how Jews have been viewed through history. I spent a lot of time reading and learnt a lot, then it was through this room and out into the tunnel where there were books which were similar to the ones that would have been burnt on Kristallnacht.

And onwards with the story of how things deteriorated from this point, the rise of Hitler, his persecution of the Jews and others, Romanies and later, Resistance members, the ghettos, the round up of Jews in Paris which tied up with a film I had seen last year at the film society, but here it was. Photograph albums by German soldiers showing them laughing while they cut the beards of Jewish men who looked resigned and proud- I told you this would be difficult - the personal stories of so many people and the stories of heroism, cabinets full of stories and moving across the museum in a zigzag as I mentioned, here are the rails and a wagon, here the story of Treblinka, Auschwitz, Belsen Bergen, the death marches. In the floor, a pile of shoes under glass, ( It took me back to some photos that Shoshi had posted last summer when she was in  Hungary on business. They went to the memorial there on the banks of the Danube. Rows of shoes on the the walk by the river where they had ben told to take them off and then shot and dumped in the river), a model of Auschwitz with model figures, nothing left to the imagination, the uniforms of the camps, the yellow Star of David which would have been sewn to their clothes.  The photographs, the recording of physical state when the American doctors went into some of the camps, "22yrs old, but emaciated so looks much older, died the following day".  So much to see and take in. I also learnt a lot, I didn't know that Europe was a bit slow on the uptake and largely shutting their eyes to what was going on.

 I think we spent four hours going through here.

The museum was full, lots of tour groups but also school groups and Army groups. It was interesting to se that the school groups were quite boisterous at the beginning but became very subdued towards the end.

Carrying on into the Hall of Names where the names of victims are recorded.

Eventually coming out of the tunnel into the light- which I didn't think I was feeling

This lovely sculpture is explained in the first photo and I show it here so you can read about it.

The gate to the Hall of Remembrance. On the floor the names of 22 camps in Europe

The Menorah outside the Hall of Remembrance 

For me, this was the saddest place of all. the Children's memorial. We walked down this ramp and then walked through a door. The room inside is pitch black save for five candles burning which are reflected in hundreds of mirrors as a memorial to the 1.5 million children who were murdered. It is hard to get your bearings as you cannot see yourself reflected at all. As you walk round this memorial, the names, age and country of origin of all the children are read out.

I told you I had a lot to say and I think I will leave this here.

another birthday celebration...............

We had a fairly lazy morning as it was the Sabbath. Again, the sky was blue although it was windy today, but a perfect day for strolling along by the sea.

We walked to the main street in Bat Yam, and I peered through the window of the stores that were there and did some window shopping, and then we were on the promenade. It was very busy with families strolling and even an exercise class going on which was lovely.

The Hora was the exercise class and Shoshi and I sat on a couple of stools and watched. The Promenade was really very nice and there was plenty of seating to sit and read or watch the world go by, and it was the perfect day to do this.

I loved to watch these vendors on their bikes selling food

We had lunch in a lovely restaurant, but you already know that as I posted it earlier, Shakshuka eggs, my favourite breakfast and minted lemonade.

We strolled home, and I got myself ready as I was moving on again tonight and staying with Yemima and Chaim. But, for the afternoon, Shoshi and I came up with plans for the future and she showed me the photos of the Song of Songs exhibit which had been shown in the Netherlands in October, and I signed up to become a member of the Israeli Quilters Association. 

Tonight, we were going to a birthday party! Rachel was also having an exhibition of her work. You may remember that I met Rachel on my first night in Israel at Eti's and I had seen her a couple of times since. I gave her one of my postcards and she told me they were exquisite. When I looked at her work, my mouth dropped open as I found it to be better than anything I could ever hope to produce. 

The exhibition and party was taking place at her husband's place of work at the University of Tel Aviv. We arrived and had plenty of time to look around. Where do I start? I am showing a very small selection of Rachel's work, and I loved it, the use of colour, the different styles, curves, log cabin, you name it they had them and very lovely they were too. Another quilter I want to spend time with. At this rate I think I will be making aliyah to Israel!!

There were two areas with food and it was wonderful, thank you to whoever did the catering, it was delicious !!!

Shoshi, Neri, Ita and Judy

Rachel with two of her grandchildren

I LOVED this piece, it is an image that has stayed with me.

There were a lot of people here and there was a lovely presentation  and after a while we went out and found dessert!!!!! Then it was time to move on, so Shoshi handed me over to Yemima. (I do hope you are keeping up with all this moving around.)

Full bodied, with a hint of earthy undertones and a pleasing bouquet.............

We had a quiet evening and I spent time catching up on my journal. Another week had almost gone by, and I felt I was getting close to the end of my trip, but still had lots to see.

I was leaving Niza on the Friday evening and going back to Shoshi for one night, and this was the day we had brunch on the beach with Eti. It was a beautiful day as you have seen from my photos, no breeze, just warm sunshine and blue skies. It was lovely to sit and enjoy and I resisted the temptation to plunge into the Mediterranean.

Eti had picked us up for this little trip, and after a substantial brunch, we headed back to Niza's wondering what we were going to do with the rest of our day when Niza had a brilliant idea! In Ramat HaSharon, there is a winery how about doing that for a while this afternoon? Sounded like a very good idea to me so that is how we ended up at the Benhaim Winery.

The owners of the winery were originally from Romania, and had been in Israel since the 1930's. We arrived and were greeted by a lovely young man, (I seem to have met so many lovely young men on this trip), who sat us down and brought two glasses for the first one which was a Chardonnay. There were one or two other people there buying wine, and Niza told me that at 2pm, there would be entertainment in the form of a singer and piano. What better way to spend the afternoon than sipping on wine and listening to music?

I let Niza chat on with our young host, and I spent time looking at the wines. After the white, he poured a Cabernet Franc.

 I thought I had gone to heaven.

As he poured it, he is talking about it and telling where the grapes are from, (the Galil), and anything else we should know. Now, I have done wine tastings back in the UK and been told what I should be doing, so, I swilled the wine in my glass, sniffed deeply, held it up to the light to look at it's  "legs", (those are the runnings down the inside of the glass), sucked it in between my teeth swilled and pouted............ and looked up to see a couple who had come in watching me in total fascination. I swallowed and went into the stratosphere.

I found out which bottle it was, and put one aside to bring home to the husband.  (We had the wine at Christmas time, and I have to tell you that it was GORGEOUS, full and rounded and I was sorry I didn't bring another bottle, but as I have mentioned, weight can be a problem in a suitcase.) I am wondering who is going to Israel as I would love another bottle........... although I did purchase some Israeli wines at Christmas time from the LCBO which made my heart sing

The man in leather and chains is the owner of the winery, and the young lady was the singer. We sat and sipped and waited......and waited. Niza said she should have realized we were on Israeli time so 2pm meant 3pm.... eventually they started and it was lovely, mellow music and wine, nothing better, by this time we were trying a Rose, (blush wine to those of you in the US.) The wines from Benhaim had won some very prestigious awards and it was interesting to see them hanging on the walls. If anyone is going over, I will be asking you to take a bottle of Icewine. We had quite the chat about it they have heard of it, but never had it, so please, if you are going, I will pay for a bottle from Duty Free on your way out to be delivered to the lovely young man at Benhaim.

The winery was quite busy, and we left having heard some of the music and then left. The owner was standing outside talking to someone, and there was his Harley Davidson.

Nina almost stroked it and looked at it longingly. I guess we get a bit blasé here, we see so many during the summer here it really doesn't mean very much. I wouldn't have been at all surprised fi he offered her a ride and seen her going off into the sunset...........

Well, as it didn't happen, we had time to go to go for a wander in the centre of Ramat HaSharon. There is a lovely tree lined boulevard and on it are some wonderful sculptures, so we had a lovely stroll looking at them all. These are just a ew of my photographs, the works are all by very well known Israeli artists.

This piece was interesting as I had seen the work of this sculptor at the Museum of Modern Art in Tel Aviv. I posted a photo in one of my first posts of a Bull's face, if you look closely, you will see this small circular face in there too. This face, although they are all different, features in the Holocaust memorial in  Berlin, (I think.) There are thousands of them piled up and every one is different. Very emotional piece even just seeing what I saw.

We got back home and not long after Shoshi arrived to collect me. We had a quick coffee and then left Niza and Chaim and headed back to Bat Yam.

I had a wonderful time with Niza and Chaim, they were so welcoming and warm and I missed them, I look forward to seeing them again, we laughed a lot too.

It was good to see Shoshi again and we were heading out for dinner this evening with a very good friend of hers. We freshened up and then went off to pick up Aliza. Our plan was to have a meal and then go and see a movie. We had a lovely meal and I adored Aliza, she was such a positive person and I know she deals with a lot, but I was struck by her determination. She and Shoshi had been working on a project together.

We carried on to the movie theatre only to find that the film was sold out, oh well, never mind, we found a coffee shop and had a lovely time chatting and laughing together. It was soon time to go home as it was the Sabbath tomorrow, and there was a party to go to in the evening....

Happy Birthday!.......

Another beautiful day and Niza was going to be taking me to Caesarea, (or Qasariyya.) It was not too far and we had a lovely drive up there. We arrived and had to wait a few minutes to see the short film on the site, but it was well worth it. We left the theatre and headed off to the Amphitheatre which is still used today for concerts, operas etc., it was a fabulous space. Niza was telling me that if a singer played Caesarea, then they had really arrived.

I mentioned earlier that there are so many layers to this country with one being built on top of another, and nowhere was this more evident than here. We were heading towards some columns to have a look when we came across this pavement containing stone probably from the Roman period. Caesarea was originally built by King Herod a reviled King, but he did build some beautiful palaces. Once he died, it was then ruled by other members of his family I think, and then was taken over by the Byzantines, then it fell to the Arabs and then came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire.

It was a little strange walking through what was either a graveyard for columns or a stockpile, couldn't decide which, but it was very interesting to see the beautifully carved tops and the smooth round pillars. There was even a sarcophagus, (middle picture), which would have held a body at some point, not a terribly ornate one.

I really couldn't get over how they had made these so smooth, and this particular one was interesting in that it had a square pillar to it as well.

We spent quite a lot of time looking at all this and then moved on to the Hippodrome passing this Roman well on the way.

I'm sure you are all familiar with the film Ben Hur and the chariot races, well this is what the hippodrome would be used for. It was very interesting, and here we are standing at one end of the track. They raced in an anti clockwise direction, and had to negotiate this tight turn at the top. The raised dais on the right in the photo is where the great and the good would have sat cheering on their favourite charioteer.

It is interesting to look at this photo. On the left hand side, there is this rather odd building coming out into the track, it is actually from the Byzantine period. When they took control of Caesarea, they built buildings on top of what was there, so it looks odd to see it, but it is quite natural, this illustrates what I have been saying about the different periods building on top of each other.

We took a closer look at this foundation and I found it fascinating. As a Ceramic conservator, albeit ex, I was astonished to see that they had used Roman pots to create the foundation for whatever building had stood here, so they either found pots and broke them or took broken shards and used them. The other thing that fascinated me was the shell. Can you imagine how long that shell had been in this foundation? And, it was solidly in, not that I tried to move it, but you could tell it was going nowhere.

I am sorry to disappoint all you quilters who may think that you are using traditional patterns, yes you are, but they are two thousand or so years old. Niza said she hadn't been here for quite some time and was thrilled to see lots of new excavation and the mosaic floors were something to behold. The one above was quite fine so would have been in quite a wealthy home.

Who knew?

We then moved outside the palace walls to the town that was built by the Crusaders. It is a lovely spot with restaurants and galleries, I dragged Niza inside one of the stores there and purchased a couple of pieces.

It was interesting to see how things had been recycled. You can see from this shot that the Roman columns now formed a foundation for the sea wall.

This lovely young man was leading a tour group and was dressed in appropriate attire!

This was the original entrance into the town built by the Crusaders. I loved the vaulted ceiling. We spent a little more time, and then headed back to the car which was quite a walk from where we were, and then continued to Zichron Yaakov for the birthday lunch with Naomi and Rifka. It is a beautiful view form there, and I took the opportunity to take some photos after lunch.

There was a lot of produce being grown in the valley.

We had a short rest at Rifka's lovely home, and then Niza and I took our leave and went to find the Aquaduct that carried water to Caesarea. We actually found the beginning of it in the countryside. I never fail to be astonished at things which have stood for thousands of years, but here it was.

You can't see them, but on the left hand side, there were houses, I wondered if they even appreciated what was right beside them.

We then drove back to the beach at Caesarea to see the rest of it. By this time the sun was beginning to go down, and we had packed a flask of mint tea that morning, and some fruit, so we sat quietly enjoying the sunset and drinking our still hot tea and admired the engineering of two thousand years plus.............