Monday

[cellio]

Monday was Christmas. I didn't notice. How novel.

This morning we left Jerusalem and headed north. We drove out via the "Jerusalem corridor", and our guide gave us some history. Jerusalem, he said, is built on the "ring" theme, with neighborhoods on hilltops surrounding the main city. This wasn't true in 1948, and the Arabs nearly defeated the city. This will be harder next time, he says (though I note that warfare has changed and the next attack will likely involve pushing buttons, not sending troops).

The city was surrounded on three sides, with only a narrow road out to the west to bring supplies in. That road runs through a valley, and Arabs controlled the hilltops. That means convoys had trouble getting through.

Some people in the Palmach -- which is somehow related to the Hagunah, but I didn't catch it -- set out to build an alternate path through trees. If I understood correctly, jeeps set out from the city and toward the city independently and met each other, at which point they knew they had a road. According to our guide, who spoke quite proudly of the soldiers (average age: 16), this "Burma road" saved the city.

He also talked about the trees. Everyone knows about the JNF "plant a tree" campaigns. Israel used to be forested, and that was systematically destroyed first by the Romans and later by the Turks. There are still some natural forests in the north, but almost every other tree here was planted by the JNF, apparently.

Our first stop was Caesarea, a Roman city built by Herod the Great (common refrain: "...who was a nasty man"). Not much of the original city remains, but enough did to allow for a reconstruction. So most of what we saw was a modern redaction of Roman architecture. (All of the actual original bits were fenced off.)

We went first to the ampitheatre, which is a marvel of engineering in a few ways. First, the accoustics are amazing; there were several tour groups there, and we heard clearly the leader of the group standing on the stage but mostly not the others. We were halfway up (which was ground level on the entry side); I have no trouble believing that I could have easily heard performances there without benefit of electronics.

The other thing that was nifty about the construction was that it faces the Mediterrnean sea. Why is that important? Because the breezes from the sea are refreshing to people sitting there under the hot sun. This is December and we were warm; imagine what it would be like in July. Most of the kids with us, and some of the adults, went wading in the sea. The beach here is sandy, not rocky; that and the aforementioned breezes contributed to the erosion of the original structures. I guess score -1 for the Roman engineers for not building for posterity. :-)

Next was the chariot-racing track, which I think was later used for gladiator fights and maybe other sports. Our guide didn't know the distance once around. There is an iron statue showing a chariot and horse at one end; I don't know its origin.

On the same site was a Crusader-era gatehouse, the first line of defense for the city they built there. It sits on the highest hill (of course). We walked through it as our guide pointed out all the tools available to the defenders -- moat, arrow slits, murder holes (he said they were for pouring boiling oil down), the porticullus, the several turns you have to take to get in (and how they're designed so your shield is no help against the archers), and so on. Pretty standard castle defenses, but it was neat to see it in stone and not just in pictures.

From there we went to the leo Baeck school in Haifa. A rabbi who just moved to Pittsburgh this past summer (the good Melton instructor) is affiliated with them; I think that affected the decision to go there. If I recall correctly, this is the only non-orthodox religious school in Israel; the government didn't know what to do with them. They have bureaucracy to oversee modern-orthodox, chareidi, and secular schools, and then this reform school came along and they didn't know where to put them at first. (They've since solved the problem.)

I had hoped we would hear more about the academic side, but we mostly heard about good works in the community, including their improvised day-care center three floors below ground level during the second Lebanese war this past summer. It felt like we were getting a toned-down fundraising spiel. Shrug.

Then we went to the remains of Tzippori, a town built by the Romans (about 2000 years ago, like Caesarea). The place is in ruins, but the main streets and outlines of buildings survive, and some incredible moasic floors (the reason for the visit). These were probably homes and public buildings if Jews who were imitating what they saw in their Roman neighbors' houses; there is no shortage of depictions of gods and mythical creatures. A particularly-striking section is called "the Mona Lisa of the Galilee"; her expression is similarly cryptic. (I'll post pictures later, of course, when I'm home and can properly edit.)

From there we headed to K'far Giladi, a kibbutz and our destination for the night. We might be on a kibbutz, but this is a good hotel. It's sprawling and open to the great outdoors in places, but it's not rustic when it comes to amenities. Actually, except for the internet situation and the breakfast being not quite as elaborate as in Jerusalem, this is a much more comfortable hotel. This seems like a nice place to get away for a weekend, if one lived close enough to have this as a weekend destination.

Comments

[goljerp]

Palmach vs Hagunah: I believe (I'm sure I'll be corrected) that they were both anti-british paramilitary forces in british mandate Palestine; they probably had different politics and policies, but had the same enemies (the brits, the arabs).

Road to Jerusalem: Cast a Giant Shadow, a somewhat shmaltzy movie (based on a real story) has a bit about that. Not sure how accurate it is.