Tour of Jerusalem's "Old City"

We begin with an orientation from Yael, about the "Old City" of Jerusalem and how to navigate through the twists and turns of the various Quarters with their unique flavors and lifestyles all crammed into what was once the entire city of Jerusalem, packed away inside the beautiful stone walls of the city.











In the Jewish Quarter, we saw the newly constructed Synagogue on a plaza where a young girl donates her shekels, to "Thank a Soldier Today." Since almost all young Israelis (boys and girls) are required to serve in the army, soldiers in uniform with their guns at their sides are a pervasive sight throughout the old city and the whole country and are highly honored and revered.











We went down to the "Western Wall or Wailing Wall"– as it used to be called, where Jews from around the world come on Pilgrimage to pray at the last standing retaining wall of the old Temple from the early days. There, on separate sides, men and women pray and slip little pieces of paper into the cracks, asking that their prayers be answered.




Above the Western Wall is "The Temple Mount" which is currently in Muslim hands and features the "Dome of the Rock" over a rock where sacred events within all three Abrahamic faiths were supposed to have taken place. In addition the al-Aqsa Mosque is there as the place where the first inflammation of the 2nd Intifada was begun.















In the Muslim Quarter, one can find in the Souk (market) an unbelievable number of sights, smells, colors, tastes and sounds, all combining for an extravaganza of the senses. Here there are florescent-colored vegetables, sweet-smelling spices, tacky plastic toys, jewelery from precious stones, freshly butchered animals, ice cream in all flavors and colors, exotic underwear, sheepskin-lined "sheiks' coats," Turkish coffee and kebabs, fresh-squeezed tamarind juice and anything else you might want or desire!

The Christian Quarter mainly catered to Christian Tourists with guest houses offered by the various churches, shops with all kinds of "ancient relics" and plastic rosaries, and of course the major sites where Jesus was thought to have walked, especially during the last week of his life. The "Stations of the Cross" wend their way through the various streets, heading to "The Church of the Holy Sepulchre" which is generally thought of as the place where Jesus was crucified, buried, and from which he was resurrected.




This place, built by the Empress Helena (Constantine's mother) between 326 and 335 AD, has been inhabited and fought over by the various Christian sects ever since, so depending on your flavor of Christianity, you can go to masses or light candles and pray in any number of sections or time periods.


The Armenian Quarter is a less-visited portion of the old city which has been inhabited by people from Armenia since they first accepted Christianity as their official religion in 301 AD. Their pottery is especially sought-after by artistically-minded tourists.

We left the Old City via the Damascus Gate and returned to our "Ritz Hotel" to a fine banquet of Middle Eastern delicacies!
A fine feast was had by all!

Compassionate Listening–in Israel and Palestine

This year, I have felt "called" to return to Israel and Palestine with a dream that somehow the people on all the various sides of this conflict can lessen their connection to the pains of the past and look for ways to find the things that connect them all as human beings–who want the best for their children and grandchildren. And, I still wanted to better understand the situation "on the ground" and to offer my love and spirit to a future of reconciliation and peaceful coexistence.

To that end, I decided to join a Compassionate Listening Project Delegation to Israel and Palestine. As a group, we hoped to be able to meet with people who are representatives of various "narratives" or points of view and to be able to listen deeply to each person in a compassionate and open-hearted manner and to learn how they experienced their lives.

Our group was made up of a diverse group of  people from around Canada and the United States:

John and Nancy share a chuckle.

We all came prepared to listen, learn and hopefully go away with a much deeper appreciation for the struggles that all the people in this Holy Land feel in their everyday lives.

Amanda has a truth to tell.

We spent the first day learning some of the ground rules associated with listening with compassion. Could we each find within our hearts the possibility of "putting ourselves in the life situation of the other" in a way that allowed us to really feel with them their pains and joys? Could we understand how they might feel the way they did–even if we didn't agree with their beliefs and possibly their chosen actions in any given situation?

Rachel chuckles at some irony.

Susan knows when to listen quiet

We found that doing this was not necessarily easy and it took us focus and dedication to even listen with attention compassion to one another, let alone the people we met along the way. But we tried, did our best and sometimes were even successful!

Ada has something to add.

Shirley loves to meet "the other.

Most of the group were either of Jewish descent or had past or present significant others who were Jewish–and thus had much more familiarity with the the Jewish culture than I had been been exposed to in my life–so my learning curve was larger on that front than some others.

On the other hand, my previous experience from being on this land before–as well as having more experience with Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims in my previous travels, was very helpful for me.

Together we made a great team of Pilgrims, learning together, both from each other, as well as from our hosts, speakers and those we "happened upon" in our day to day activities!

Nancy leads with a smile!

Darla is listening intently.

Yael rolls up her sleeves for action!

 Our leader, Yael, was an official Israeli Tour Guide who had lived here for many years, but now resides in the states.

Susanne and Susan are sharing stories.

She was ably assisted by Susanne, who lives in Israel with her Israeli husband and young son, after their meeting and marriage in Germany where she grew up as a Christian.

The Background for this Blog.

In the Sacred Heart of the Old City, are found the Western Wall for the Jews and The Dome of the Rock for Muslims.

Greetings!      Salaam!       Shalom!        Peace!

As a little girl, in my 2nd grade Weekly Reader, I learned that there was a new country in the world called Israel, and that it was going to have it's capitol in the Holy City of Jerusalem, that I had seen pictures of in my Bible in Sunday School. But Jerusalem was not only going to be the capitol for the people of Israel, but it would be an International City of Peace, which would welcome all people equally, no matter what their race, religion, nationality, caste or creed. I thought it was such a wonderful idea to have a place like that in the world and I vowed that someday I would "go up to Jerusalem" as Jesus had done so many years ago, and celebrate this wondrous place.

An Ancient Map of the Old City.

By the time I was in 4th grade, I had decided to either become an Egyptologist or a Middle Eastern Scholar, but it wasn't until the summer after my Freshman year in college that I actually took my first airplane trip, which bumped me across the Alps in a thunderstorm and put me down first in Egypt and later in what was then "Trans-Jordan," with its Western border running through the Old City of Jerusalem. I was elated to finally get to the Holy City and walk on streets where Jesus walked. In those days, the Old City of Jerusalem actually looked a lot like the pictures in my Bible, with domes and flat roofs on homes and churches!

However, I was sadly shocked to discover that my vision of Jerusalem as a city for all, somehow had not proven to be what was going on there. I met hundreds of children who lived in squalor in the refugee camps who came running ran to us shouting "Kennedy, Kennedy"–for this was the summer after our beloved US President had been shot, and the people of the Middle East were in deep shock and grief at his loss, since many believed that he would help to change the world (including their situation) for the better. I was dismayed to see how they lived and wondered at the causes and if there was a solution for their plight. But as a young Mid-Western farm girl, never having known either a Jew nor an Arab nor a Muslim, I didn't exactly feel qualified to offer any suggestions. So I just felt sad, and vowed I would return one day to see if I could help find a solution.

The Separation Wall keeps people from meeting one another.

Finally, in the winter of 2003-2004, I returned with 100 other women from around the world on a Women's International Human Rights March, where we assumed that women meeting women, might be helpful. It was a terrible time, with the hopes for the "Oslo Accords Peace Process" in shambles, the 2nd Intifada wending down, and the "Separation Wall" going up across endless miles to keep the people who called themselves "Palestinians" and the people who were then in control of the land, called the Jewish "People of Israel" from having any access to one another. Emotions were running high and many people on both sides had been killed. 

That City of Peace that I had imagined, seemed very far away, indeed.

The homemade meals are delicious!

In the fall of 2011, I had the opportunity to return, once again–this time in training as a Western Tour Guide for a new international initiative called "Abraham's Path" which hoped to create a walking path along the approximate route that Abraham/Ibrahim as the Father of the three monotheistic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) had brought his people out of the "fertile crescent" into the land now called Israel and the West Bank or the Palestinian Territories. On that trek, we walked in Jordan and through the hills and valleys of the West Bank to Jerusalem, with visits to Bethlehem and ended in Hebron (where Abraham and his family members are buried). On this journey, we generally stayed in family homes or monasteries along the way, getting to know the daily lives and stories of the people who so generously hosted us.