5/11/12
Today we said l’hitraot
to Jerusalem and set out for the beautiful city of Haifa. Along the way we
hugged the Mediterranean coastline and made two special stops—Atlit and
Caesarea.
At Atlit we visited a detention camp from the era of the
British Mandate. The detention camp was established to detain Jews who
attempted to immigrate to Palestine/ Israel illegally between 1917-1948. For a
variety of reasons the British set strict limits on the amount of Jews that
could immigrate annually during this time period amounting to no more than
1,500 per month. Given the events of World War II and the Holocaust this number
proved to have tragic repercussions. The students were amazed to learn that
after a long sea or land voyage on an overcrowded ship, trapped beneath deck whenever the sun was shining and, often times having escaped the camps of
Europe: Jews were placed in another detention camp here in Israel complete with watchtowers, barbed wire, and barracks.
As with Har Hertzl we made a personal connection at Atlit.
It turns out that Morah Orna Willis’ father, Tzvi, was detained at Atlit after
fleeing Europe as a child in 1946. Atlit has a database with the profiles of
about 20,000 of the 140,000 people who immigrated or attempted to immigrate
(many ships sunk or were turned back along the way). Tzvi Neuman was among
those who had a completed profile. Looking at his childhood pictures in the
database, everyone was struck by the family resemblance. It turns out that
being Jewish means living history,
especially in the 20th century.
At Atlit we enjoyed a delicious lunch! If your child still
doesn’t recognize pastrami after this trip then they must’ve not been paying
attention! Though pastrami here comes only in the turkey variety.
From Atlit we then headed south to Caesaria to visit the
incredible ruins of the coastal harbor city that King Herod built in approximately
100 BCE. We were treated to a special live performance by a number of our kids
who sang from the stage of the theater (a stage that has been shared by many
great performers, ancient and modern, including Bob Dylan). From there we
visited the palace situated right on the ocean (and including a fresh water
pool in the middle of the ocean!). We also visited the hippodrome where we
learned that the VIP seats were those closest to the bend in the racetrack as
they provided the best view of the gore and bone crunching sound effects of
charioteers being trampled by horses. We also learned that Jews were not
allowed to attend gladiatorial events based on a Talmudic prohibition.
Apparently a Talmudic prohibition was typically instituted to keep people from
doing things that they really wanted to do—like attend gladiatorial games. This
definitely resonated with some of our students!
Also at Caesarea we learned that in ancient Roman times the
bathrooms were much like they are today, but with no separation between the
stalls. If you see pictures of kids sitting in a row amongst the ruins know
that they are sitting on the ancient toilets (which come in a variety of
different sizes to accommodate tucheses of
all shapes and sizes). This was deemed hysterical and gives new meaning to the
term “potty humor.”
Lastly, at Caesarea we took some time to hang out and eat
ice cream. As you can imagine, this deeply upset the kids.
I’m writing to you know from our techno-bus, aka tour bus
2.0. We’re headed to Haifa where we’ll have a chance to check-in, clean up, and
head out to welcome Shabbat at one of Haifa’s Reform synagogues: Ohel Avraham
(Abraham’s Tent), located on the campus of Leo Baeck High School. It promises
to be a memorable and spiritual Shabbat full of singing. We’ll have a Shabbas
meal at the hotel and sleep in tomorrow morning!
The next blog post will come once we’ve done Havdallah
tomorrow night. Shabbat in Israel (and elsewhere) is a “palace in time” and we
look forward to helping our kids and one another embrace this concept. As you
all enjoy this Shabbat back home in Atlanta, or elsewhere around the world,
know that we are singing the same prayers, sleeping under the same sky, and
sending our love to all of you from Haifa, a city on a hill overlooking the
sea.
