Jerusalem Day

Okay, so as promised, Jerusalem Day.
We had another free morning today which meant sleeping in until 8am (which is not actually sleeping in), breakfast at the hotel and a little walk over to the King David Hotel. Now the King David is not the type of hotel i can afford to reside, now or likely every, however they do allow my kind in for coffee. So i headed over there with Dr Hess and a few other students. We sat in the courtyard which is just lush and talked about many things, figuring out the world and what not. The hotel is particularly interesting because it was the site of 1946 bombing: it seems impossible to escape history/tension in this place. It is obvious that most folk in seminary, as well as those who have gone to seminary, are not the normal patrons of this cut of hotel: they have jewelry on display in the lobby.
Conveniently next to the King David is the Hebrew Union College, one of the places where Dr Hess has studied in Israel. He hadn't been on the campus in a few decades so he took a little trip through nostalgia and we humored him. It was quite interesting to go into there museum on campus where they have some archeological finds and whatnot. Dr Hess was kind enough to give some impromtu lectures on a few of the pieces: it is so fun when someone finds an area of interest with such passion. Though i'm not inspired to dig old rocks out of the ground, i do want to find that love somewhere.
At the end of the lit day we had a lecture from Gershon Nerel (Dr of course) who has lived in Jerusalem most of his life. He is the foremost expert on Jewish Christians in this country (Jewish Believers in Yeshua, as he calls the movement). He has an interesting perspective on the whole thing. Avoiding words like church, conversion and refusing the label or affiliation with any denomination. A very kind man, soft spoken, happy and enthusiastic. It was a bit difficult to concentrate though as celebration for Jerusalem day was begining...

As we tried to walk back to our hotel from the JUC campus the road was blocked. In fact they were seting up fireworks just on the other side of the Jaffa Gate from our hotel, we would not be able to walk back the normal route before midnight (and it was about 9pm). At that point the idea of walking over to the Wailing Wall became more of an option, but those of you concerned with my safety will be glad to know i did not go. While i haven't heard of any incidents there that night, and in fact a few of my friends went down there and said how exciting it was, this is a strange holiday.

In the pictures top picture you can see our view of the crowds walking around in the streets from our hotel roof. the next to pictures i took at about 7pm of the street in front of our house. The next i stole from the internet, it is looking back from the wailing wall. And the final pictures are obviously of fireworks, the roof and folks you can see in the pictures are friends of mine sitting on another balcony of our hotel.

And can someone tell michelle to use the computers, really in put the firework pictures up for her benefit/jealousy. Back to the point, this holiday is only celebrated by the Jews in the country. The city was not meant (as of the 1948 UN decision) to be under Israeli or Jordinian control, but this holiday celebrates the 68 war in which the Jews took control of all of Jerusalem. All the people you see in the pictures above are Jews, in fact people come from all around the world to celebrate this day, hence the mass of traffic and tour buses and every other kind of transportation.

At dinner our prof Bob relayed a little story to me of his walk up to the hotel. He saw two guys, with skull caps, obviously drunk and ready to enjoy the celebration. While they were walking down the street they stopped in front of an arab man who was messing with his cell phone, sitting on the curb. The two men went over to him and started mocking him. When he didnt responded they started kicking him, "gently." Bob explained, as he lived over here until about 4 years ago, that many of the arab have just learned not to fight back. Everywhere around there is Israeli police and military, and they will arrest the Arabs for such behavior. Again, not my story or explanation, but there are racial/religious/nationalistic overtones and tensions everywhere. I feel safe, but everyone here likes americans. We give them guns, spend our money in their restruants, hotels, gift shops... they dont want anything to happen to us.
Of course they do want our money. The tourist price is quite a bit higher than the local price. I was out in the old city today buying some little things, and you barter down to usually about half of what is originally offered- which seems like a silly system until you watch tourist inept (and sometimes unaware) of the batering system.
Which reminds me, if there is something specific you want you should let me know if you haven't already. But i really hate buying stuff here. Every shop has all the same poorly made crap. Muslems selling cheap crosses and Christian shops selling skull caps and prayer mats- it is all business.