I LOVE ISRAEL
I LOVE ISRAEL
BELOVED ISRAEL
Erica Zeman
From the 28th October-3rd November of this year, I joined CFI (Christian Friends of Israel) group visiting Israel.
I am Erika Zeman, who just recently was informed that my father was Jewish. So, my motivation to come to Israel was in the 4th gear.
Our tour guide was Mrs. Ganit Peleg, an experienced, patient and very knowledgeable lady, who directed us with compassion, discretion and firm safety instructions. Under her guidance, I never felt afraid. Her assistants Jacob and Kate added supportively with their understanding of biblical history.
The truth is, that the moment I stepped out of the airplane, Israel made me feel welcome, at home and comfortable.
It is too elaborate to document every moment of this journey in this article, so I will only focus on knowledge, sceneries and people, which impressed me the most.
During our bus ride on Highway 6, Ganit pointed out that although we could not see Afula at the other side of the Green Line at night, we were just passing one of the oldest towns of Israel, starting from a Canaanite settlement of the BCE period, continuing as a Samaritan Village to an Arab town and from 1925 onwards declared as a 98.9% Jewish City. The fact that the Crusaders of the Middle Ages built fortresses along the West Coast and also in Afula, was rather amusing as the Arab population was not known for seafaring skills.
Nazareth
The village in which Yeshua lived and worked as a carpenter, is now a thriving Arab city with a population of about 78-80,000 people.
The nights full of stars, Which I actually could see, and the misty mornings moving the mountains even to a greater distance, was very calming. The hotel lavished on us a buffet of salads, diary products, eggs, and a diversity of bread rolls. The display was magnificent and offered with warmth and gratitude towards us for being present in the land after two years of near absence of tourists.
On our journey through the Lower Galil, Ganit briefly described the beauty of Migdal’s mosaic tiles found in a synagogue there in the town we would visit later. Seeing the landscape of this area was a feast for the eyes. The sun is brighter in Israel invigorating life. It’s warm glow in the dry and clear air, plus the sprouting foliage along the roadside, mingled with pink coloured flora, oozes out an atmosphere of beauty and wholesomeness.
Arriving at the lake Kinneret, we enjoyed ourselves with singing and dancing on a boat, which took us nearly to the Lake’s centre.
The stillness of the glistening water around us spread out like a welcoming canape of belonging and reassurance.
The Yigal Allon Centre
In the beautiful located Kibbutz Ginosar, close to the Lake, the Centre spoke of the man himself in it’s modest appearance. I imagined him as a sturdy, close to the heartbeat of the Yishuv man, who eagerly participated seeing Israel unfolding into a Sovereign State. He left on me the impression that no small things went unnoticed. As a farmer, a general, a politician and archaeologist,
he recognised the potential to growth and maturity in our people’s ability to nourish the Land with vision and purpose.
Migdal
At last, we arrived at the town, which I wanted to see since a long time. Seated North of Israel, in 5km distance from Tiberias, I again was captivated at the serenity of the landscape, hushed with tender quietness, and the wind coming from Mount Arbel cooling us.
Ganit directed us through the ruins of the ancient fishing town, which was in fact a fish factory. She pointed out the surfaces and the basins being used to wash and salt the fish. The Lake’s water was channelled to these basins, where as the three deep excavated mikvah baths, obtained the spring waters from the ground.
The MIgdal hotel is extremely beautiful designed with it’s elegantly outlined high structure and it’s centred gardens. Below the Church of ‘Duc in Altum’, meaning ‘Go out into the deep’, a request of Yeshua to his disciples to cast the net, against all logic, in the morning. We were guided into the Chapel of Encounter. Here , the painting of the Chilean artist Daniel Cariola was displayed. He describes the woman with her twelve years suffering from a blood issue, and approaching Rabbi Yeshua determinately, yet in full awareness that she is socially and by the laws of purity an intruding outsider. A magnanimous painting!
At the Arch of Tabgha
Haifa
The following day we drove to Haifa’s oldest University, the Technion established in 1912, with remarkable reputation in it’s strive for excellence of research in various scientific fields.
Being introduced there as a group, the student’s presentation of Technion’s history and accomplishments echoed three characteristics in me; Determination, Dedication and Devotion resulting in four Nobel Prize winning professors.
My attention was drawn to the Cardiologist Research Department, where Professor Shulamit Levenberg and Professor Ruby Shalom- Feuerstein made their career in the multiplication of Stem cells and Tissue engineering.
Atlit
This detainee camp, a place of affliction as its name describes, housed hundreds of deeply afflicted Shoah survivors. As ‘illegal’ immigrants during the British Palestine rule of the late 1930’s to the closing date of the British Mandate in 1948. I was astounded how near the camp was to mainland Israel with only a 15 km separation. It must have been a heart rendering and very irritating experience for the people detained and waiting for entering the homeland in such a crowded and incomprehensible situation.
Yet, in spite of all these factors, so Paula our energetic guide told us, the people were full of hope and insisted that even in these circumstances their children’s education had to be taken place immediately. Simply amazing!
Akko
The Crusaders fortress being rebuilt into a prison during the Ottoman Empire was a rather strange and shuttering place to be. Here the political leaders of the Haganah, Etzel (Irgun) and Lehi’ underground movements were kept as punishment for their attempts to become independent from British rule by using various desperate militant acts. The most famous among them was the Revisionist party leader Ze’ev Jabotinski (1880-1940) who, who for three(1936-1939) years persuaded the Jewish Communities in East Europe to make Aliyah to Eretz Israel before the Disaster struck.
Ganit shifted our attention to the Etzel Revolt and explaining the disturbing event. A prison wall break attempted by Etzel members in order to free their comrades ended in chaos and the hanging of four Etzel members. Two of the six condemned members chose not to die under British hands, but embracing each other they prayed while waiting for the granite between them to explode.
Leaving Akko we met Shadi Khalloul the Head of the Aramaic Association of Israel. As leader of his community, the oldest Christian Kehilah, he stood confidently and broad shouldered in front of us. It was thrilling seeing such a happy man expressing wittingly and with shrewdness his care and concern for his people and the people of Israel. As a man well respected by the Israeli Government, he was delighted to convey to us that after centuries of persecutions and years of uncertainties his community was at last fully legally recognised as being part of The Land.
Sde Eliyahu Kibbutz
Our visit to this religious kibbutz in the Upper Galil was an inspiration. The kibbutz’ story started in 1939 as German Jewish men built their first small house in the bare environment. Soon they were joined by Italian members. Sarah, our Kibbutz guide grinned as she described the cultural encounters between the German rigidity and the Italian more leisurely inclined community life perception. According to her account it took a while to evolve as harmoniously living and working together families. One major pillar of the kibbutz was the biologist Mario Levi (1924-2018) the father of Israel’s organic farming enterprise, the BIOBEE company, which submerged after many years of hard farm work and scientific research. The products of this company are now sold world-wide.
I felt very comfortable in this kibbutz as it was a very spacious well maintained place, where children could play, adults could pray and work, and guests or students had sufficient room to stay.
Jerusalem! The Mahaneh Yehudah Market unleashed an overload of voices, market calls and smells of different food supplies on me as we arrived just shortly before the start of Shabbat. Ganit urged us not to wonder off alone and to keep an eye on our watches. Squeezed into a queue, the following snack time was short and delicious while we drove to the Mount of Olives. The sight of Jerusalem from this mount looked, bathed in sunlight, compact and intriguing. Nevertheless, the history of Jerusalem’s rule for either building or repairing a house were of greater interest to me. Ganit lined them out for us as following: Sir Robert Storrs, the governor during the British Mandate in 1918, prohibited that houses used the Walls of Jerusalem as part of their home structure. He ordered that there had to be a separation and space between them. Additionally, only the Jerusalem Lime stone were allowed to be used for the building, and had to be washed so that the historic character and aesthetic beauty of the City could be preserved and to be seen. The execution of these fantastic laws had the desired effect and longevity of Jerusalem’s long distant visuality into present days. Returning to our hotel we prepared ourselves for the Shabbat blessings and meal. It was a very happy making evening and an even better experience the moment my friend Karin and I approached a French ladies group singing very lively blessings for each other. The group immediately took us in, interested from where we had arrived and took us into their circle sanctifying us with big smiles with their blessings. The walk through the Limestone build paths towards the Kotel increased my anticipation, as the night cooled down with an air of urgency to get to the place where hundreds of Israelis and international worshippers gathered whispering and singing prayers. The term ‘ WAILING WALL’ resonances derogative undertones in my ears, as I have seen exactly the opposite during the most recent two yeas of war. I could follow on the web site the unified fervent prayer of thousands of people on behalf of Israel, the detrimental hostage situation and the genuine desire for calmness and stability in and around The Land. Our time in Jerusalem centre neared the end by walking through the Hezekiah tunnels and through the newest excavations in David’s City. Researched by the late Dr.Eilat Mazar ( 1956-2021), she found a Large Stone Structure base indicating that this, most likely, had been part of King David’s palace in 10 BCE. Evidence of Dr.Mazar’s claim envisaged in front of us as a wall in width of 2 meters. The find of a bulla (or bullas) A SEAl linked this building to the books of Israel’s Judge Samuel Yad VaShem it is hard to know where to start in describing this dreadful timeline of exploding Anti-Semitism and Nazi dictatorship. Before we started to see the development of it’s history spiralling into the Shoah, Ganit’s urged us sensitivey to open our eyes in seeing the similarities of the present rising tsunami wave of hatred towards Israel and the Diaspora Jewish communities.it was my decision to focus on the Shoah survivors and their experiences more than I had done before. Previous years of studying about the Shoah connected with visits to Yad VaShem had been always been a flustering experience. I had avoided any deeper conversation with Jewish people as I myself was in turmoil oi these monstrous years in German history. Being uncertain of my own identity contributed to this hide and seek situations. This time any mental or emotional detachment was absent. I listened to various testimonies of totally shocked people describing their feelings of unspeakable pain and loneliness in their awareness that no body from the outside world cared while facing death. This broke something in me as it was and is my history and these were and are my people. We are facing now a worldwide staged hatred with the same outcry of Israel’s and the Jewish Diaspora communities’ destruction. Todah rava Yisrael hanflaa, ahaya shuv itch bakrov, ki nishamti novlat biladech .
