Bethlehem

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O little town of Bethlehem is much in world news every Christmas Eve.

source:  Library of Congress 

This photograph of the Church of the Nativity (first built in 339)  is from about 100 years  ago.
You can click to enlarge.
It is from the American Colony photo collection that was recently donated to the Library of Congress. 
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See also Christmas in the Holy Land 100 Years Ago with more historical photos of the church and Manger Square, at the wonderful blog Israel's History--A Picture A Day.
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Merry Christmas to all of you out there who celebrate the holiday!
Good tidings of Christmas from the place where it all began.
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UPDATE: Midnight Mass just now ended.  This year it was televised from the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth (not from Bethlehem, as I had wrongly assumed).
Did you watch it on TV?
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(Added to OurWorld Tuesday meme.)

The Yemin Moshe windmill works once more!

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Two months ago Jerusalem's Montefiore windmill was all wrapped up and minus its dome.

Next to it parts were waiting to be put up--gears and wings and wooden bow things.
Click on the photo and then click again to find all the exciting details.

It is exciting to see new life for our windmill because the last time it ground wheat was 119 years ago!

It was put back in working order using replica parts made in Britain to the designs of the Holman Company of UK that built the original mill in 1857.
The parts were shipped to experts for assembly in Holland and then transported for final fitting to the mill in Jerusalem.
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The funding of the restoration and the operating and maintenance expenses for the first few years--some 5 million shekels ($1,250,000)--was raised by the Jerusalem Foundation, Christians for Israel (Dutch Friends from Holland), The Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of Tourism, and the Jerusalem Municipality.

And here is a picture from August 14. Isn't she beautiful?!
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Tonight was the festive rededication of the windmill.
Sorry I could not be there.

Soon, some say, the sails will be turning and flour will be produced and the bread made from it will be sold to visitors.
The mill will operate five days a week at set hours and will effectively become the only working mill in Israel.
The Jerusalem Foundation website says

Inside the mill, the historic four story structure will be restored as it looked when the flour mill was active. There will be four floors: a "Flour Floor" - at the entrance to the mill, the "Mill Floor," on the second floor, which held the heavy millstones, and the "Seed Floor" on the third level, where sacks of grain were emptied into large containers and placed on the fourth floor, the "Dust Floor" at the top.

Visitors coming to the mill will be able to enter at the ground floor, look at the flour milling process and watch a short movie about the establishment of the windmill and [19th century] Jewish settlement outside the Old City walls.

I can hardly wait! I have never seen the inside of a windmill.

The wonderful blog "Israel's History--A Picture a Day" has good information and historic photos of the mill, including one showing how the British army blew up a Haganah sniper's nest at the top of the windmill in 1948.
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UPDATE #2: The wonderful The Real Jerusalem Streets blog shows first-hand coverage of the dedication ceremony with all the VIPs.

UPDATE:
Watch videos:
The architects explain the history of the windmill and plans for its future.
Hoisting the cap and wings into place.
The first turning, August 28!
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A day of hearing Italian

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Today I went to Mishkenot Shaananim for the second day of a conference on "Italy in Israel: The contribution of Italian Jews to the establishment and development of the State of Israel."
The lecture hall was almost full and I and a handful of others were the only ones who needed earphones to hear simultaneous interpretation from Italian to Hebrew.
(Someday before it's too late I hope to know Italian!)
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The Italian-speakers spoke rapidly (maybe just to get a lot in within their 20 minute allotment).
The poor microphone got quite a few knocks from the Italkim who spoke with lots of hand movement.
(Italkim is apparently the Hebrew word decided upon to refer to Jewish immigrants/olim from Italy.)

Outside the hall was a big exhibit of photos celebrating 60 years of Italian-Israeli relations.
(Italy recognized the young state early in 1949.)

A nice 1988 photo of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Foreign Minister Giulio Andreotti reviewing the honor guard at the airport in Rome.

And a 1958 image of Randolfo Pacciardi taking leave of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion at his kibbutz in the Negev.
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UPDATE: I just started watching the movie "Kingdom of Heaven" about the Crusades.
The opening scene is France, 1184.
The father tries to convince his son to join him and become a Crusader knight.
Before he rides off on his steed, he says,
"Jerusalem is easy to find. Come to where the men speak Italian, then continue until they speak something else. We go by way of Messina. Goodbye!"
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UPDATE 2: Oh dear, just two days after I published his photo, Yitzhak Shamir died this evening, June 30. May he rest in peace after 96 years of life full of devotion to the Jewish people and state.
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Fenced-in falling facade

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This was the Russian hospital in its better days, in the 1920s.

The historic photo is by the American Colony photographers, whose wonderful collection is now available online through the Library of Congress.
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The Russian hospital was built in 1863, making it the first such institution outside the walls of the Old City.

I walked through Russian Compound today and was dismayed to find the old building's facade draped with chicken wire.
And a protective roof had been put up over the entrance.

"Fenced-in facade" I thought, as I took a picture for ABC Wednesday F-day.
It's no fun, though, because it must mean that chunks of masonry are starting to fall off.

I think that today some offices of the Israel Police use this building.

But the gable is still topped by the symbol of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society which was founded in 1882 in St. Petersburg for the purpose of studying Eretz Israel and the holy places, aiding Russian pilgrims, and establishing institutions in the Holy Land.

Encircling the khi rho (XP) cross and the alpha and omega is the first verse of Isaiah 62, written in old Cyrillic script:
"For the sake of Zion I will not be silent, for the sake of Jerusalem I will not be still."
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Shaare Zedek original doors

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These doors do not open in the physical sense.
But the fact that they are mounted on the wall invites us to open ourselves to their history.
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The doors have a new home in the lobby of the new Shaare Zedek Hospital in the Bayit Vagan neighborhood of Jerusalem.
The two plaques on the threshold explain where they came from.

They were the original doors in the first Shaare Zedek Hospital, from when it was built in 1902 until it moved to the new facility in 1979.

There is even a camel caravan going down Jaffa Road in this photo of Shaare Zedek from around 1902!
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I hope you enjoyed your tour for That's My World Tuesday and for Monday Doors.
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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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The Herodian Mamilla Pool

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The previous post talked about the ancient Lower Aqueduct system.
Today let's look at a huge reservoir that received the water that flowed through the Upper Aqueduct.
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In April I was so surprised to see some water in Mamilla Pool!
Our heavy rains of February must have produced this rare phenomenon.
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And what's more, a group of kids was wading around, searching the water!
Their teacher was there too. Maybe looking for tadpoles?
Please enlarge the photo; you will enjoy it!
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Normally it looks like this, dry as a bone.

Mamilla Pool is one of three reservoirs constructed by Herod the Great during the 1st century BCE.
Water passed slightly downward, through a channel 750 meters long, from the pool to another reservoir inside the Jaffa Gate.

Mamilla Pool still served as a municipal reservoir during the British Mandate period.
It can store 32,000 cubic meters of water.
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When the British left, in 1948, and the War of Independence broke out, the Jewish inhabitants had to use this water while the city was under siege. The Arabs had cut off Jerusalem's normal water supply.
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Photo from Wikipedia

This photo, probably from 1854, shows the pool with water, the city wall of the Old City, and the Jaffa Gate before a breach was made in the wall for Kaiser Wilhelm's entry.
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Strange to see no buildings in the area.
The pool is in the middle of the Mamilla Muslim cemetery, which was in use from the 7th century until 1927.
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Independence Park is just across the street.
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The bridge that carried water over Gehennom

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Last week the big news broke of the discovery of this aqueduct bridge that crosses Jerusalem's Hinnom Valley (Gei Hinnom).
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This photo from the 1880s shows the arches already partly covered.
(The Citadel/Tower of David and Jaffa Gate are in the background.)
Sometime in the early 20th century the area was filled and the beautiful stone bridge was totally covered and eventually forgotten.
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April 27 photograph by Assaf Peretz, courtesy of the IAA

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The Gihon waterworks company was digging, doing work on sewers, when they stumbled upon the old bridge.
The Israel Antiquities Authority stepped in and started excavating.
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Photo by Assaf Peretz, courtesy of IAA
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This is part of the Lower Aqueduct, first built in the Hasmonean period.

Miles of channels, tunnels, and aqueducts carried water to Jerusalem and to the Temple Mount from Solomon’s Pools, south of Bethlehem.

The ingenious system kept on working till the start of the 20th century.

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The bridge was built in 1320 CE (in the Mamluk period) by Sultan Nasser al-Din Muhammed Ibn Qalawun, as evidenced by the dedicatory inscription set in it (visible in the historic photo above).

However, it was apparently constructed to replace an earlier bridge dating to the time of the Second Temple period that was part of the original aqueduct.

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The IAA website says, "The Israel Antiquities Authority, in cooperation with the Nature and Parks Authority, is working to expose the entire length of the arched bridge, conserve it and integrate it in the framework of the overall development of the Sultan’s Pool, as part of underscoring the importance of the water supply to Jerusalem in ancient times."

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So far, two of the original nine arches have been excavated to their full height of about three meters.

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UPDATE Jan. 5, 2014: 
See also  http://www.israeldailypicture.com/2014/01/funny-it-doesnt-look-like-mountain-or.html
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Hurva Synagogue rededicated tonight

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My world, for That's My World, very much revolves around the developments in Jerusalem of the past week.
This tall crane was taken down a few days ago, after four and a half years of work.

That is how long it took to rebuild HaHurva Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.

The previous one had looked exactly the same, built in the grand Neo-Byzantine style in 1864.

Photo from Israel Government Press Office as it appears in Wikipedia

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When the Israeli army won the battle for the Old City in the 1967 Six Day War, this is how we found the Hurva synagogue looking. The Hebrew word hurva means ruins.

In our 1948 War of Independence, Jordan's Arab Legion attacked the Jewish Quarter. The Israeli fighters of the Haganah had to use the synagogue as their last stronghold. We lost that battle, and all the Jews were expelled from the Old City or captured and held prisoner.

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The Jordanians blew up the building NOT in the heat of battle, but after they had already won the battle and taken over the Old City. Explosives were placed with careful thought exactly under the springing points of the domes of the great Hurva synagogue.
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This is actually the third rebuilding of this synagogue.
The first one, from the early 1700s, was burned down in 1721 by Arab creditors angry that the Jews were not quick enough in repaying the money they had borrowed to build it.

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The whole incredible history, international intrigues and all, can be learned at Wikipedia.
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Tonight, Rosh Hodesh Nisan, the Hurva was dedicated with much celebration.
After all these years, the mezuzah was affixed to the doorpost and Torah scrolls were placed in the holy ark.

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I will try to go soon to tour the interior and take pictures. Meanwhile, Arutz Sheva has a 5-minute video of the inside. The wall paintings are impressive.

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To get a feeling of the events of the 1948 war that we talked about above, I highly recommend the candid Life magazine photos. I just discovered a blogger who has put together the best Life shots here (and more here and here).

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