College cats

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What an ingenious way to provide clear cool water to the many cats that roam the Hebrew University campus!
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If you click on this photo you can just see the cat's tongue licking the water trickling out of the ancient pithos.
The jar is slightly, cunningly, slanted.
It is filled with broken up old roof tiles (like those on the ground), I guess so if some heavy bird were to land on it for a bath, it would not tip over.
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On these boiling hot summer days, a good water source for animals in so important.

Cats feel safe and right at home on the Givat Ram campus.
Plenty of food left over from the students' picnics on the lawns; plenty of migrating and stay-at-home birds to try to catch; no beasts of prey; and only friendly people around.
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Everyone sitting under their vine and fig tree, and none shall make them afraid.
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Sounds like a Biblical prophetic vision come true!
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For the friends of animals and animal friends at Camera-Critters Sunday.
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Listening and learning

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Kristine and Mark didn't notice they were covered in little checkerboard shadows that were just right for Shadow Shot Sunday.
My visiting friends were too engrossed in listening to the audio guide.

This is what they were looking at and hearing about--the Holyland model of Jerusalem as it may have looked in the year 66 C.E.

The model now resides at the Israel Museum.

The museum's white Shrine of the Book, of Dead Sea scrolls fame, is visible just behind the model.

The square building on the left horizon is Israel's Knesset

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Please click to read about the model.

Visitors stand and gaze in wonder at the size and majesty of the Second Temple.

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Bringing heaven down to earth

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On Monday the Israel Museum will open its doors (ALL the doors, not just a few like now) to the public after three years and one hundred million dollars worth of improvements to the 20-acre campus.

I was there just a few weeks ago and you still saw construction everywhere.
Hope they finish on time.

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I don't know WHAT the workmen were doing to or adding to Picasso's "Profiles," which has been in the Billy Rose Art Garden since 1967.

Behind the Picasso you can see Robert Indiana's "Ahava," our Hebrew counterpart to his famous "LOVE." (More about it at my Valentine's Day post.)

Look, something new!

The guard would not let me get any closer.

The sky--on the bottom!

Bringing heaven down to earth for SkyWatch Friday and Weekend Reflections!

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And the guard leaning back on his chair, legs crossed, just sitting and . . . well . . . guarding.

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The 5-meter-tall polished steel hourglass was commissioned from the London-based Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor (who as a teenager came to live in Israel a while and whose mother was Jewish, BTW).

He also made what Chicagoans like to call The Bean.

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"Turning the World Upside Down, Jerusalem” reflects and inverts the Jerusalem sky and the Jerusalem landscape.

This is likely a play on the duality of the heavenly Jerusalem and the earthly Jerusalem.

In Hebrew we say Yerushalaim shel ma'alah, Yerushalaim shel matah, literally--Jerusalem of above and Jerusalem of below.

This new sculpture really turns our world on its head!

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The New York Times explains how the Israel Museum is changing the way things will be shown to us. It is a whole new approach.

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Silk screen on porcelain Pictures in Stone

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Would you believe? This little (now white) house is where former President of Israel Yitzhak Navon grew up.

The plaque on his house in the old Jerusalem neighborhood of Nachlaot says so.

Here, you can enlarge it and see him, the smallest boy in the 1925 photo.

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Talk about roots!

Former President Navon is descended from Spanish Jews who settled in eastern Europe after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 and later moved to Jerusalem in 1670!

His mother's side, the Ben-Atar family, came from Spain to Portugal to Morocco; and finally to Jerusalem in 1884.
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Gilboa street (with the Navon house showing on the left) shows the tell-tale convex paving, meaning a cistern is below.

The little square at the end has the opening to the cistern, now sealed off.

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Navon loved his neighborhood so much that he wrote a play about growing up there.

Bustan Sfaradi (Sephardi Orchard) became a famous musical.
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Sir Moses (Moshe) Montefiore gave money to build the Ohel Moshe section of the Nachlaot quarter, and it is named after him.

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And guess where Montefiore was born!

In Italy, in Livorno!

This I learned from Italian blogger VP. You will enjoy his post http://livornodailyphoto.blogspot.com/2010/05/moses-montefiore.html

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As photo-bloggers, you will be pleased to know that dozens of such signs now adorn the neighborhood.

"Picture in Stone" is a project of Lev Ha-ir Community Center, which gathered family photos and historical testimony from those who lived or live there.
Photos of the original settlers, who left the security of the Old City in the late 19th century for the insecurity of New Jerusalem, are attached to the walls of homes, at the entrances to courtyards, and near the historical locations of schools, hospitals, orphanages, cafés, and more.

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By the 1970s the houses and the society were disintegrating. Lev Ha-ir began a process of restoration and gentrification.

And I believe the Picture in Stone contributed much to the pride of the place.

Nachlaot is now a charming and sought-after place to live, especially for artists, musicians, and--as one funny article claims--especially for "God 'n granola-inspired young American Jews, who lend parts of the neighborhood a feel of a Torah-inflected commune."

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The special technique of silk screen on porcelain is durable but expensive.

I heard from a tour guide who was showing her family's Picture in Stone that the families paid for them.

Even better! Good for them! Thank you!

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Appropriate for Av 9

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For today's ABC Wednesday let "A" be for Av, for today is Tisha B'Av, the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av.

As we saw in the previous post, this is a sad day on which many Jews fast and mourn the destruction of ancient Jerusalem and of her First and Second Temples.

Recently I explored the Romema neighborhood with its grand old houses, begun in 1921.

Something about this building--maybe the open door with the star of David or the sunlight on the old tiles or a sense of mystery--beckoned me to enter and go up the stairs.
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The house seemed to be shared by four families now.
Four apartments.

But what surprised and moved me even more was what I found on the wall, near the ceiling.

The Hebrew on the tiles translates to

A REMEMBRANCE OF THE DESTRUCTION [i.e. of the Temple]

IF I FORGET YOU O JERUSALEM, LET MY RIGHT HAND FORGET HER CUNNING [Psalm 137:5].
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The famous Psalm 137 illustrated!

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"By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept,

when we remembered Zion.

On the willows there

we hung up our harps.

For there our captors required of us songs,

and our tormentors, mirth, saying,

'Sing us one of the songs of Zion! . . . ' "
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This is so appropriate for today, Tisha B'Av, the day on which the Temple was destroyed and following which many of Jerusalem's Jews were taken to exile in Babylon!
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When I returned home from Romema, I Googled and made yet another moving discovery!

Aviva Bar-Am wrote this about this same house:

"Following the fall of the Second Temple, sages of the period declared that every new building must carry a reminder of that destruction: an unpainted area measuring one cubit by one cubit . . . . Many religious Jews take this edict literally and leave an unplastered or black square on their walls. The picture you see embedded into the wall of Fishman-Maimon’s residence--ceramic tiles showing the River of Babylon, harps and weeping willows--[is one of these]."
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Furthermore, our Museum of Italian Jewish Art shows an example in carved marble and says,
"Writings of this kind were common in Germany and Poland, while in Italian synagogues, as well as private houses, part of a wall was usually left unplastered in order to remember the destruction of the Temple."

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So . . . we remember and do not forget.

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UPDATE 2014: 
Another nice explanation is here, at Jewish Treats.
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Titus at the gate

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Soon Israel goes into collective mourning.
Restaurants and places of entertainment will be closed tonight.
Tomorrow the stock market will not open.
Observant Jews (at least those whose health permits fasting in this heat) will not drink or eat from 7:42 p.m. Monday until 8:15 p.m. Tuesday.
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All this is to remember the calamities that befell the Jewish People over the past several thousand years on this very day, the 9th of Av, Tisha B'Av.

Chief among them is the destruction of the First Temple in 586 B.C.E. and of the Second Temple in 70 C.E.

This diorama in the museum of Hechal Shlomo shows details of how the Roman troops commanded by Titus, son of Emperor Vespasian, storm the city walls of Jerusalem in the year 70.
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The figures and war machines are all in miniature, so please click the photos to understand the detail.

See the siege tower and the catapult?

The battering ram battered the gates.

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Actually the Romans worked from February until August, breaching the first wall and the second wall, and finally entering the city in order to burn and raze the Temple.

Josephus writes that during that siege of Jerusalem General Titus, at one point, crucified 500 or more Jews a day. So many Jews were crucified outside the walls that "there was not enough room for the crosses and not enough crosses for the bodies" (Wars of the Jews 5:11.1).
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Sigh . . .

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All this happened 1,940 years ago but it is still part of our world, for That's MyWorld Tuesday.

Someone wiser than me once said that Jews have memory, not history.

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(For less gruesome pictures, please see my posts about Tisha B'Av at the Western Wall and reading Jeremiah's Lamentations by candlelight.)

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Driving under, looking up

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Once again, for Louis la Vache's "Sunday Bridges," Jerusalem's Bridge of Strings.
(See more under the label Calatrava.)
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How did reflections of the tall apartment buildings get onto the UNDERSIDE of the bridge?!
You figure it was a trick of the bus window through which I took the picture?
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Everyone thinks "Trolls!" when you say "under the bridge," but I think the religious men in this photo look dwarfed by the big bridge.
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Pony shadows at the Sea of Galilee

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Tiberias has a nightly market place near the lake for tourists and locals, with all kinds of things to buy or eat.

Once we even saw pony rides!

The harsh projector-like lights above made strong shadows, good for Shadow Shot Sunday .

The string of ponies is a welcome change from my usual cat or bird for the Camera-Critters meme.

Two Arab boys were lucky to ride when their father (in the dark shirt) shelled out some shekels.

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Old and new, co-existing

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For James' Weekend Reflections , here is the new reflected in the old.

The old is about 900 years old, a building from Crusader times that now houses the Tiberias Tourist Information office.

The new is the Leonardo Plaza Hotel next to the Sea of Galilee.

Which architectural style do you like better? I'll take arches any day.
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Moon dwarfed by pines

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Hey, how did the moon get so small?

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Hundreds of weekly participants are celebrating the 3rd birthday of SkyWatch Friday today!

Bloggers from over 80 countries have been getting to know each other by sharing their skies.

Mazal tov to the meme's founder, Dot. And thanks to those who followed her in leading the way: Tom, Klaus, and team Sandy, Wren, Fishing Guy, and Sylvia.
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Capitolo ends, Mass begins

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Today's 7:30 a.m. Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was a special one.

The Franciscans had just completed their ten-day Capitolo Custodiale, their Chapter meeting at which important regional decisions were made.
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(They even wrote a daily blog about it, in Italian and English.)

Benches were taken out of storage and set up in the rotunda.

The Franciscan fathers lined up for their turn to enter the edicule, the little room containing the tomb of Jesus.
I try to imagine how special it was for them to receive Communion in that holiest of Christian holy places.

Raised hands during the words of institution.

The readings from Scripture.
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In 1342 Pope Clement VI declared the Franciscans the official custodians of the Holy Places in the name of the Catholic Church.

To learn more about how this works in modern Israel, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custodian_of_the_Holy_Land.

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Custodia di Terra Santa has a website explaining their activities, and even a Facebook page.
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For more about the church, you can click on my label "Holy Sepulchre."

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Bastille Day at the French Hospital

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Walking up Sultan Suleiman St. (also now know as Paratroopers Way), I wondered why the hospital was flying a French flag today.
Aha, it must be July 14, Bastille Day, le 14 juillet!
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Normally the French Hospital St. Louis flys the Vatican flag.
The dedicated nun-nurses and volunteers care for terminally ill patients, whether Christian, Muslim, or Jewish.
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But for a funny story about this hospice, see the beginning of an article by Aviva Bar-Am.
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We deliver

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Sultan Suleiman Street is a main, usually congested, thoroughfare in east Jerusalem just outside the Old City wall; and it is the main street of Arab businesses.

The wide sidewalk between the city wall and Sultan Suleiman at times becomes a loading zone.

Big trucks, which cannot enter the narrow lanes of the Old City, off-load merchandise here.

It is then carried through the closest gate into the Old City.

"Carrying" can mean on a porter's back or head or on a small dolly.

But the normal means of transportation is this cart.

Note the tire on a chain. On a downhill, the driver steps on it and slows down.

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I still remember my first year in Israel--donkeys were still in use inside the Old City.
No more.

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Zones of listening

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Zones of holy silence

Blessings to Denise Nesbitt for beginning ABC Wednesday.

And thanks to the ABC Wednesday team--Denise, Roger, Barb, Jay, Gattina, Sylvia, and Troy--
who are now helping with the meme.

It is fun having a letter challenge once a week. And with today's Z Mrs. Nesbitt finishes SIX rounds of the alphabet and starts us anew again next week.

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Peace be with you.

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Making a home for archaeology

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On June 30, quite by accident, I made an exciting archaeology discovery that made me very happy.

While walking over to the Israel Museum, I noticed this helium balloon floating with a camera suspended from it.

The cables tethering the balloon led to this construction site.

I hurried over to investigate and was overjoyed to discover that here will be built the NATIONAL CAMPUS FOR THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF ISRAEL!

The bulldozer in the photo was just beginning to scratch the surface.

So far, this group of huts and containers is all there is, as far as I know.

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In the background you see the green oval of the Hebrew University stadium.

( This and the following two photos are courtesy of the image gallery at

The Friends of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Inc.)
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But here is what it WILL look like maybe even next year already!

This is so cool!

The roof here in the scale model is meant to look like the black canopy netting under which we diggers excavate in the hot season.

But this one has a hole in the middle which will collect rain water and funnel in down into a pool, like a waterfall!
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God bless architect Moshe Safdie and his great ideas!

Read his Design Concept for the campus here. You'll love it.

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Also inspiring are the The Vision and the Mission Statement for the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel.

Here is part of The Vision:

"By creating the National Campus, nearly one million objects in the Archaeological National Collections [including 15,000 fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls], the National Archaeological Library and Archives, the National Archaeological Conservation and Restoration Laboratories, the housing facilities, the archaeological education centers and the headquarters of the Israel Antiquities Authority will be brought to a safe and permanent home, in Jerusalem's Museum Hill. . . . "
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At present, all these treasures and resources and people are scattered all over Israel and mostly can't be seen. It is time they got a place all their own.

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The treasures collectively represent the cultural heritage of the Land of Israel, and in a way the archaeological work conducted in our country is also universal in that it preserves the heritage of all mankind.

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This good news is my contribution to That's My World Tuesday.

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