Pesach

Preparing for Passover in Israel is not for the faint of heart or work.  Passover celebrates the liberation of the Jews from slavery in Egypt; it commemorates the story of Exodus. The Jews left Egypt so quickly, so the narrative goes, that they didn't wait for dough to rise. So, matzo (think dry soda crackers you choke down when you have the flu) is eaten for the week of Passover in lieu of bread. Admittedly, matza ball soup is another story (and apparently it's really good fried).

The only way to eat leavened products this week in Jerusalem is if you have made provision by stuffing your freezer or if you head to the Arab side of town and buy pita...um, and beer. Otherwise, forget about it. There were few pastries to be found in the city centre yesterday.  At the shuk there were loads of Passover cookies -- made with coconut and peanuts.  We sampled a kilo of these last week and they weren't really my thing. I'd rather eat the donuts at Hanukkah, and, obviously, the regular pastries.

Passover cookies!

Today at my local grocer, the shelves looked like this:

I don't know what's in there. But it is obviously hametz (not to be eaten on Passover)

Matza Bonanza! Normally this shelf is full of yummy leavened bread

This one too!

Hametz is food you aren't supposed to eat during Passover.  You have to clean your house (especially your kitchen) of every crumb (may be liberally interpreted, but seems to result in a bit of a frenzy as it is spring and who doesn't want to give their house a good cleaning come spring?). There is a ritual of burning all hametz. Last night there were a number of hametz bonfires raging along the route of my walk home (often this is done the morning of the Seder (today) after all the cleaning is done, but maybe some people are more serious). Or, there was a fellow at the shuk yesterday offering to broker deals to sell hametz (the different communities in Jerusalem can be symbiotic!).

Next -- I'm off to a Seder. I've been invited to a Seder with an American Israeli friend (my pottery instructor). From the Seder I'm going to the airport...it promises to be a long night and day and night. I'm hoping the obligatory 4 cups of wine will help ease my journey of three flights and 24 hours!

Hag Sameach! Happy Passover!

When POTUS comes to town

When POTUS comes to town getting around your city gets tricky.

On Thursday the university was very quiet. Someone suggested that it was the ghosts of W's visit 7 years ago when the city was gridlocked for a week. No one could get around and everyone who'd lived through it feared it would be the same with Obama. They were right!!

I had intended to leave early, and in any event by 4pm so I could be home before Obama's speech started. But, I ended up in a meeting and I didn't leave campus until nearly 5pm. About a third of the way toward the Old City from campus the bus came to a halt.  Traffic was being diverted. A few of us got off the bus and walked to the train station. I rode to the City Hall thinking I'd walk down King David St... retracing my steps from this morning.

WRONG.

One of the busiest intersections in town at Mamilla Mall  (King David St is the hill ahead) - blocked.

As it happens, when POTUS is out giving a speech, security protocol is to blockade off a route between the speech site (Convention Centre) and POTUS's accommodation (King David Hotel). Blockade -- no vehicular traffic and no pedestrians -- from when he leaves his hotel until he returns. (Somehow the train passed through.)

In a burst of naivete I headed for home (the German Colony) taking the long way around Fortress King David, passing by the Hebron Road and coming up at the Cinematheque, thinking I'd have walked far enough to skirt the security blocks. 

Flowers on the side of the road -- sighted on my long walk

the security blimp hovering over Fortress King David, there was a helicopter too

NO. FULL STOP.

It was impossible to access the Colony. I guess POTUS was stopping in at the King David and then heading somewhere else? While I was stuck this road block I asked how long? (I needed to find a loo if it was going to be too long.) No one had any idea how long.  

That was it, there I was. Somewhere to be, but nowhere to go. Standing with a growing crowd of people. Stranded just blocks from home. And, we were just one intersection. The Convention Centre is at least 5 km from the King David Hotel -- thousands of people must have been stuck. Meanwhile the blimp and helicopters circled overhead and secret service staff walked or drove the route.

Police cars in the motorcade

The tail end of the motorcade includes ambulances (Ramez at Emek Refaim)

Finally, about half and hour after I arrived at the final blockade, the motorcade blasted through the intersection. Before the police could open the roads, people were crawling over or under barricades to get on their way again. And, instantly the roads began to clog as traffic that had been held back
flowed into key intersections.

Gridlock at Derech Beit Lehem and Emek Refaim

Friday at about noon, I was walking back from brunch at the Cinematheque with my friend Christina and we got stuck at the same intersection for about an hour. The motorcade went by about 15 mins after we got there. Obama had been in Bethlehem to see the Church of the Nativity and his next stop was Amman, Jordan. But, with the sandstorm blowing a gale, Obama couldn't travel by helicopter to Amman: he would have to go to Ben Gurion at Lod and get a jet. So, the road block had to stay until the team was ready to go.

Looking up Keren HaYesod

An interesting thing started to happen. Impatience became palpable. I heard some Ashkenazim call to the police: "Nu?" ("Nu" is Yiddish for lots of things, but in this case likely "So, now what? Yallah!) Certain people, especially if they had children in tow, were being escorted across the street. Other people, with buckets of chutzpah, would just walk across the street in defiance of the blockade. But, if you asked to cross the street, you were told to wait. This shows something about Israeli society. It's very egalitarian, rules are advisory, and it's critical that an Israeli not play the fool.  Also, since nearly everyone serves in the army, there is no mystique or special respect for police or army officers. I mean, everyone knows they are doing their job and appreciates them for it, but no one cowers to them or their "authority". So, when a person decides to walk across the street that has been barricaded and has 4 police officers guarding it, there's frequently little response. Watching this, I finally decided that I would join the next group that crossed. I did. And nothing happened.

A long line of buses on Emek

Certain people cross the street

Standing around in the dust storm

I heard from my housemate Yarden that the road was still blocked two hours later.  I wondered: Does POTUS have any idea how much people are put out when he comes to town? The public's lives must bend to his schedule.  If you were unlucky you could get stranded and be late for work, to pick up your children, or just be stuck standing uncomfortably in a raging sandstorm. Of course, the threat of assassination is real and terrifying and POTUS needs to be protected. But, I couldn't help feeling that something in this balance was wrong. 

Fortress King David

True to predictions, the city is in lock down. I walked to the train station at City Hall today rather than try to take a bus. The roads were snarled at 730am. I'm sure it was faster to walk. And, I got to go down King David and check out the preparations for Obama's arrival.

King David was closed to all vehicular traffic -- except for Obama's entourage. 

King David St at Karen HaYesod St

King David St looking at the YMCA clock tower

The sidewalk on King David St -- view of the roadway is blocked

I was on campus all day so I missed the arrival of Obama. Apparently all the rooftops along the route between Bibi's house and the King David are crowned with snipers. It's security like I've certainly never seen.

We have a visiting scholar this week and I spent the afternoon showing her around the market, the shopping district, and the Old City, testing my Jerusalem tour guide skills.  (I'm definitely making progress on wayfinding in the Old City.) Anyway, I missed all of Barack's remarks and most of B&B's press conference.  As of right now, I really don't know what's going on...but I will get caught up, just as soon as I get some sleep! 

But, before I hit the hay, a little bit of awesome...

Yesterday, riding in the bus down the same street (the Greenline) I ride down nearly every day from Mt Scopus (Har Hatzofim), we were stopped in traffic and I saw this:

Yep, "Engineering Corps St". I'm not sure if the sentiment is the same in Hebrew or Arabic. But, it makes sense; many of the streets in Jerusalem (and Israel more generally) are named for people who were critical to building the country. Why wouldn't the engineering corps get a street?

Six months, already?

I've been living in Jerusalem for six months now! In some ways it has started to feel familiar enough that it feels like home. Today I was walking home and someone asked me "Ehfo Beit HaNassi?" -- which I happened to know the answer to (much to my surprise)..."Where is the President's House?"...Just up the hill and turn left. I don't have Hebrew conversations, but I am getting the hang of the basics...which might just be because I'm asked for directions nearly every day.  In some ways Jerusalem is a city of lost people. It's not just tourists. It's people that are flummoxed by the one way streets that wind around the sides of hills and spit them out facing south east when all they really want is the highway to Tel Aviv (north west). Other folks are on foot looking for the short cut down to the main drag. (There are many pedestrian paths that connect neighbourhoods more directly that the streets.) Then there are the tourists...!

Tonight, Jerusalem, near my neighbourhood, is beginning to feel like a Spooks-MI5 episode. 

Entrance to street Bibi's house is on; Gaza St (it always looks like this, but you get the idea)

John Kerry arrived tonight (can he fill Hilary's shoes?) and Barack arrives tomorrow.  The security fences are up, entrances to buildings are tented over and I am hoping that my commute to campus tomorrow won't be a circus.

(I'll try for more pix, but photographing security installations is frowned upon.) Some 15,000 Israeli soldiers/police officers are assigned to security duty for this 3 day visit. Of course, the bulk of them may be assigned to putting up metal fences --- there are kilometres of the fences, well, this afternoon they weren't fences, they were stacked like dominoes along the sidewalks of the routes the American contingent will travel.

Normally, my bus to Hebrew U goes up King David St., which is fantastic because it skirts the city centre and thus about 75% of the traffic. But, with Barack staying in the King David Hotel (the hotel on the west side) which is in the middle of King David St (looking east over the Old City it has a majestic view), the street is expected to be in lock down...which means we'll likely have to go through the city centre...why do I not have a bike?!

Barack's public speech will be at the Jerusalem Convention Centre near the Central Bus Station in the west of the city. Apparently, there was a lottery for tix to his speech and they went in about 5 minutes. So, I won't get to see Obama in the flesh, unless I happen upon him in the street, but that's never gonna happen...or I find myself with an invitation to dinner at Bibi's. Sure, the conversation would be great, but really, I just want to try Bibi's ice cream ;)

Just in time...

Obviously!

Israel has a new governing coalition. It's made up of four parties -- Likud-Beytenu, Yesh Atid, Jewish Home, and Hatnua. It was a fight to the finish with portfolios hotly contested and endless manouevering. But, here we are. No Haredim in the coalition. Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett really pushed Bibi into a corner and weakened him. What will come of it? The new government will be sworn in tomorrow. Before the hard work begins we have a special visitor...

Bus stop signage near the President's house (Beit HaNassi) on Jabotinsky St

Obama is coming. On Wednesday. And, Jerusalem is ready! The Stars and Stripes are flying everywhere. All around Gan Sacher and the Knesset the major boulevard lightposts are festooned with one Stars and Stripes for every two Stars of David. Welcome Barack!

Some pundits suggest this visit could be really meaningful. Obama is at the start of his second term and wants to advance the peace agenda within Israel-Palestine and in the region. The Knesset has a new coalition. But Bibi intends (it's suggested) to focus on Iran and its nuclear threat. But, maybe he'll surprise us all. More waiting and seeing...

And for those of you who were wondering: St Patrick's Day in Israel is a non event. 

Another week

Eeek, it's been a week since my last post! What have I been up to? Well, to be honest not much besides work. I'm flying to North America in just over two weeks and my to do list seems to be growing as the days count down.

We still don't know the final details of the coalition, but it's hardball this week so we should know soon.

The weather continues to be something to talk about. We're expecting a heat wave to 30C for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Sunday it should be about 10C with rain (snow in the mountains in the North). Meanwhile, the flowers continue to bloom.

And...there are swarms of locusts crossing from Egypt into Israel. Just in time for Passover! NPR has a fun story -- are locusts kosher?

Goings On

A bit of a mid-week grab bag...

Spring weather 

It is indeed a rollercoaster into spring in Jerusalem. Yesterday we had our first Saharan low. Huh? Apparently, this is when a low pressure system from around Morocco and Tunisia arrives over Israel full of dust and pushing the cooler high pressure system out of the way. It was 25C, hazy and windy. Then suddenly, the temperature bottoms out. Today it was 15C, windy, with some "drops" of rain. These are typical spring events. We can expect a couple more and the heat to be higher. The most important thing is to not leave your laundry on the line when the rain comes. The rain is welcome since it clears the dust out of the air, but it will wreak havoc on your laundry...well, I, at least, consider a soiled load of washing havoc and a royal pain.

Still no coalition

At the weekend, Peres granted Bibi two more weeks to put together his coalition. So far Bibi has only managed to ensure Tzipi Livni and her Hatnua party will join the coalition. Yesh Atir (Lapid) and HaBayit HaYehudi (Bennett) are playing hard to get. It's next to unfathomable that Bibi will fail to put a coalition together, but the screws are tightening. Stay tuned!  Meanwhile Barack cannot confirm his travel dates because he isn't coming until the coalition is in place.

West Bank unrest

While I was playing at Purim, there were protests in the West Bank. I won't go into the details, but it's about prisoners and prisoner's rights. Some headlines were wondering if we are seeing the simmering start of the Third Intifada. No one knows, everyone hopes not.

RavKav 2

You may recall that in October I wrote a long entry about the saga of getting a RavKav card for the bus. I bought a one semester RavKav not knowing where I'd be in the second semester. The 1st semester card expired on Thursday. Earlier in February I mentioned to friends, a couple of times, that I ought to go get my new RavKav before the new semester started (Feb 26). But did I? Of course not! That's the thing about human nature...or at least some humans' nature, such as mine. I seem to be of the type who like to put off the less fun things in life. And, admittedly, I had foolishly expected the renewal of the RavKav to be straightforward. Hahahahaha. I have now learned my lesson about Israeli bureaucracy: It never gets any easier and you can never eliminate any steps.

I went to the Central Bus Depot (no renewals on campus in February) on Thursday and waited an hour and a half for my number (you know those red numbered ticket dispensers -- they have them here and occasionally use them) to be called only to find out that students didn't need to get a number, they just needed to queue stand in a mob and wait to enter the office to get their RavKav renewed. Once in the queue mob, I pretty effectively made my way to the front (being taller than the average male is an advantage only in this context!).  I made it to the office only to find out I needed my passport. Whywhywhywhywhy? (Refresher: This is contemporary Hebrew for "I am overwhelmed in a negative way".)

Despite the fact that to pay for a new Rav Kav online you have to enter your ID (Passport number) and a password (your personalized password -- no one else would have this) to access your account, and that you presented your passport and proof of status at the university in October -- which was scanned into your file -- you still need to show your passport at the RavKav office to recharge your card.  I may not be the only person who was perplexed by this. On my second attempt to get my RavKav there was a new sign outside the office:

I didn't try the photocopy, but this made me laugh. The tourist bit means -- if you are not an Israeli, the only document you can show us is your passport - the real thing - we don't care if we've seen it before and scanned it, and no your non Israeli driver's licence is not sufficient proof of identity!

My nearly 6 months in Israel has taught me that you need to approach the bureaucracy with two skills - patience and perseverance. You must be exceptionally patient -- waiting over an hour is to be expected, and you must also persevere. The first answer will always be "Lo!" (NO!) so it's essential to reframe and restate and ask again, a few times. I made about 7 attempts on Thursday with 3 different people -- none of them worked. I did get yelled at in Hebrew though -- a sure sign that I had reached the limit: Egged bus company: 1; Me: a big zero.

I returned to the Central Bus Station on Sunday morning. With passport in hand I walked straight into the office where I learned the happy information that, indeed, people -- even students -- were to  queue by number. Okay? I'm fine with queuing by number, but how are you supposed to know when the rules shift? A total mystery. Thankfully, 15 minutes later I had a new RavKav -- for some reason I couldn't just recharge my old one. Then it was off to the cashier to charge the card...another mystery. The highest technology implemented through a labyrinthine bureaucracy. I suppose the upside is more jobs. 

Pretty Flowers on Bible Hill

Bible Hill is small hilltop of a city park between the Old Train Station and the Hebron Road just east of the German Colony.  The western stairs to Bible Hill are just behind my bus stop. Last week, I was a bit ahead of schedule and since my bus (direct to Mt Scopus) only comes every half hour, I decided to spend my extra time climbing up Bible Hill to see the flowers. They were spectacular.

Looking northeast on Bible Hill

Red anemones

North on Bible Hill

Bible Hill Anemones -- looking northeast to Dormition Abbey

Anemones

Early Spring in Beit Guvrin

This post has been delayed by 6 weeks! When we (Amit,  Thomas, Theresa and I) went to Beit Guvrin (in central Israel) in mid-January the sight of spring was truly spectacular. Just the week before, we'd evacuated Jerusalem and the snow for the kibbutz on the coast near Netanya. At Beit Guvrin spring was springing with spectacular almond blossoms (something like a white cherry blossom) and fields blanketed with early red wildflowers -- anemones and ranunculus. The birds were chirping. (It would be 4 more weeks before we really heard the birds in Jerusalem.) (Photo credits: TT)

The fields at Beit Guvrin

Fields, looking west

Anemone

Almond blossoms

Iris

About Beit Guvrin

Beit Guvrin is a national park that covers an area that includes the ruins of a town from the Second Temple Period (500 BCE - 70 CE) and a Roman city. Bell-shaped caves are the defining feature of the area. Mostly made of chalk, the caves were relatively easy to dig out. Over the years the caves were dug for columbaria to house birds, for burial caves, and for their chalk to make roadways.

A & T in a columbarium

descent

inside a columbarium

down into a columbarium

is that a toilet in there?

Sidonian burial caves

standing in a bell cave, looking at the bats way up in the ceiling

inside a large bell cave

inside a large bell cave

The caves would be dug from the surface (ground level), with a small hole and then gradually hollowed out as the radius was expanded below the surface. The chalk would be lifted up out of the caves. Obviously, we didn't enter these caves from above. At this point, many of the caves are accessible from one side that is at ground level -- when this happened, I'm not entirely sure (as in is this only the case because the caves have been excavated that there is an entry at ground level?)  And, how the bell caves were used isn't entirely clear either. Did they just excavate the chalk or did they also host summer parties in the cool shade of the caves?

inside a large bell cave

Bell Cave

Bell Cave

the remains of St. Anne's Church

The Byzantines built a church that the Crusaders later restored in the 12th Century -- St. Anne's.

St. Anne's Church

We enjoyed touring Beit Guvrin -- the caves are truly unique -- and the wildflowers were a delight.

Jerusalem Marathon

Today was the Jerusalem Marathon. A perfect weather day:  slightly overcast, temperature between 9C and 12C, and little wind. I saw a bunch of the marathoners that were probably between a 3:40 and 4:20 pace come through Emek Refaim when I was out running errands.

It's a beautiful route through the city, but the elevation is punishing.  They call it the "Breathtaking Jerusalem Winter Marathon". I'm not sure if they meant "breathtaking" to be such a pun -- up and down the hills of this city will take your breath away, and if that doesn't do it the views should!

Emek Refaim marathon route

cheering llama and rider!