We were there the day before!!!
Avraham Infeld talk
View of old city and young couple
The old city
Rich with Jerusalem in the background
Ophir giving us a history lesson
Anne and Annette
Bobbie goes for Ophir
group at view point of the old city
our bus
Supportive Community for the Elderly a JDC project
The "father" of the support group
our hero
our group and there group
here she is again
The Knesset visit
Best Falafel we had!!!
Our special bullet/bomb proof bus
General Nehemia (retired) was with us through out the trip
and made it a special trip
Dani Dayan west bank settler
talk about the West Bank city of Ofra
The hill just right of center is where Jacob of Jacob's ladder stood according to the Torah
seen from the city of Ofra
Synagogue in Ofra
inside the Synagogue
View from our Jerusalem hotel room of the old city
Dinner with former Minister of the PLOOctober 27th Thursday
Today was titled “ Jurusalem the Epicenter of Israel’s Dillemas”.
Today was titled “ Jurusalem the Epicenter of Israel’s Dillemas”.
Reports in the paper and online were that rockets were fired from Gaza into the city of
Rohovath last night. This city north of Gaza and not far from where we were on
Sunday. Israel responded by firing into Gaza later in the day. It hit us that
the dilemmas are real as are the horror of war.
We started the day with breakfast which consisted of many choices that we really enjoyed. Our first meeting was with Avraham Infeld. Among his many credentials was that he was the head of Hillel International. We thought every college student in the US should hear from him.
He was outstanding. He was thoughtful, humorous, engaging, convincing and
talked from his sole. He lead us through a discussion that being Jewish is not
religion but rather being a people that are bound together by the memories of
our past. We are a family that takes care of each other. His work can be seen at
www.5leggedtable.org
We drove through Jerusalem with a stop at a spectacular view of the old city. Ofer
not only told us about what we were looking at but gave us a history lesson. He
is amazing.
We then went to the Supportive Community for the Elderly a JDC project. This
program allows elderly people to stay in their own homes while being supported
for social, medical, emergency and handyman services. He heard from the
professionals and the “father” of the group who responds to the needs of the
people. He spoke about changing light bulbs, fixing toilets to helping people
purchase hot water systems. He then installs it for them. The highlight was
hearing from 6 elderly people praise the program and the fellow who they call
the “father” of their support group. It was a very heart warming session for
all of us.
Our next stop was the Knesset. With passports in hand and tight security we entered
the building. We meet with Benny Begin a Knesset Minister and son of the former
Prime Minister. We talked to us about the current political and international
status of Israel. He was very open and willing to express his thoughts and
opinions. He also answered our questions ranging from the current government, Gaza, the settlements and US media coverage to name a few. We then toured the building.
We had a late lunch about 2:00pm of falafel and shwarma.
We the transferred to a bullet proof bus for our drive into the West Bank/Judea.
We went to the city of Ofra which sits which has 3 Arab cities surrounding it.
We got a bus tour of the area with Dani Dayan. He pointed out the Jewish
historical sites in the area. This included where Abraham walked and where the
Jacob’s ladder story came from and others. He was justifying his right to live
on the West Bank land to us.
We returned the city of Ofra and met with the Rabbi of the city, Rabbi Avraham Gisser. He told us his personal story of why he came to the area and why he plans to stay. Their homes are modest but modern. The main Synagogue is actually three different types. He told us he
thinks he is in paradise. He truly seemed to have no concern about the Arab villages around him
for himself, his family or for the people living in his city. He sees only a continuation of the present situation; that is Jews and Arabs living together in the land but separate. He has no solution for this and says time will be needed to change the minds of the Arabs. He really believes in his position. People came in for evening services and seemed very content. It was
hard for us to understand their devotion to their position. We were riding in
our bullet proof bus while they live there all the time.
thinks he is in paradise. He truly seemed to have no concern about the Arab villages around him
for himself, his family or for the people living in his city. He sees only a continuation of the present situation; that is Jews and Arabs living together in the land but separate. He has no solution for this and says time will be needed to change the minds of the Arabs. He really believes in his position. People came in for evening services and seemed very content. It was
hard for us to understand their devotion to their position. We were riding in
our bullet proof bus while they live there all the time.
The Rabbi is an idealist. He has created a small initiative to bring Arabs and Jews together in the area. He told us that after Ramadan, they invited several leaders of the closeby dinner to his home to break their fast with a meal. They came and had a dialogue and an agreement to try to continue to work for peace. We cannot understand how this can happen. Arabs need permits to visit the Jewish settlements and Jews need permits to visit the Arab towns. It is all very complicated.
Many people napped on the bus ride back to Jerusalem. Once again the
free time that we were promised, vanished into thin air. Some of us stayed up to hear Nehemia talk about our experience and to also express our opinions. Our brains are working overtime with troubled thoughts and perhaps a small thread of optimism. We returned to the hotel at 6:30 and needed to be ready to receive our dinner guest in just one hour.
Our dinner was in a private room at the hotel with Ashraf Ajrami, former Minister to the Palestinian prisoners. He, himself was in an Israeli
prison for 12 years. He told us that he was provided with TV, books, newspapers, learned Hebrew and studied every day. He was a very polished speaker. Our group asked some very visceral questions: When will you recognize the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish State?
Are you concerned about Hamas taking over and becoming even more hostile? How will the Arabs live in the Jewish State and why would they want to be here at all? Why won’t the
Arab countries absorb the refugees? We questioned him about the refugees and the “Right of Return”.
He talked about the issues from the PLO point of view and never agreed that the Palestinians would accept Israel as a Jewish State before an agreement about a two state solution with
the 67 borders and land swaps included. He blamed Israel for stopping the peace process. He also said that the PLO wanted Israel to absorb another 200,000 refugees into Israel. They also want the land swap near East Jerusalem to be at 1.5% for the Arabs and 4.5% for the Israelis.
Our group was polite and civil but shocked. We didn’t feel good about what he said and most of us felt that he was sincere in his thoughts but not believable in any way.
Today was truly a day of dilemmas and it showed how complex and fragile the situation in Israel truly is.
Many people napped on the bus ride back to Jerusalem. Once again the
free time that we were promised, vanished into thin air. Some of us stayed up to hear Nehemia talk about our experience and to also express our opinions. Our brains are working overtime with troubled thoughts and perhaps a small thread of optimism. We returned to the hotel at 6:30 and needed to be ready to receive our dinner guest in just one hour.
Our dinner was in a private room at the hotel with Ashraf Ajrami, former Minister to the Palestinian prisoners. He, himself was in an Israeli
prison for 12 years. He told us that he was provided with TV, books, newspapers, learned Hebrew and studied every day. He was a very polished speaker. Our group asked some very visceral questions: When will you recognize the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish State?
Are you concerned about Hamas taking over and becoming even more hostile? How will the Arabs live in the Jewish State and why would they want to be here at all? Why won’t the
Arab countries absorb the refugees? We questioned him about the refugees and the “Right of Return”.
He talked about the issues from the PLO point of view and never agreed that the Palestinians would accept Israel as a Jewish State before an agreement about a two state solution with
the 67 borders and land swaps included. He blamed Israel for stopping the peace process. He also said that the PLO wanted Israel to absorb another 200,000 refugees into Israel. They also want the land swap near East Jerusalem to be at 1.5% for the Arabs and 4.5% for the Israelis.
Our group was polite and civil but shocked. We didn’t feel good about what he said and most of us felt that he was sincere in his thoughts but not believable in any way.
Today was truly a day of dilemmas and it showed how complex and fragile the situation in Israel truly is.
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