Today we spent our day in the Old City. We boarded the bus and drove along
the City Walls to reach our destination - The
Ancient City of David. As we drive along the Old City Walls - one
thinks - how did they lift the huge stones to build the massive walls?
Building, destruction and renovation from thousands of years ago - the time of
King David, through the time of the Romans, Ottomans - all until today. Even
now, the Municipality and other organizations are restoring the ancient wall.
JNF Canada in Toronto is undertaking a
project to restore the area around the Jaffa Gate. Not only view is amazing,
but also the people walking about - children going to school, mother's with
their children in buggies going someplace, people going to work on the new
light rail, men in black hats and coats coming and going to pray, Christian
priests and nuns in brown and black robes and habits, Arabs men and women, in
their traditional dress walking through the Damascus Gate to shop and also all
the tour buses and tourists - everywhere!
Once
inside the City of David, Neil takes us to the rooftop of one of the
buildings for a view of Jerusalem and what a view - the day is clear and you
can see forever! We are looking at the present buildings, but listening to him tell
us about the history of what we see - from the time of King David. The area of
the City of David has been an active digging site for many years - with
archeologists from all over the world discovery and rediscovery facts, uncovering
Jerusalem's ancient water channels, finding pottery, coins and jewelry - even
today this is going on.
Next, we enter the theater to view the amazing
3D movie about
the site - the 3D makes it really come alive. Then we begin our
walking tour
with our City of David guides. Instead for Former’s Guide Book, the guidebook
is the Bible!
Each step, each view has
some reference to the Bible. We walk up and down steps – view walls, rocks and
learn about Jerusalem from the First Temple Period.
Finally, we reach the bottom of the hillside
and enter the ‘dry’ water tunnel.
Truly a
worthwhile experience – how did they do this in those days?
Our bus picks us up to take us to the Zion Gate to enter the Jewish Quarter –
yes, time for lunch! Our meeting place
after lunch is area in front of the Hurva Synagogue – Neil gives us a little
history, as we will be touring the synagogue at the end of the week. We continued walking through the Jewish
Quarter, down the many steps to the Kotel, the Davidson Center and the Southern
Wall Excavations. As we get to the Women’s section of the Kotel we are told
that we can’t enter. How can that
be? A new rule? Where will the women pray? Oy, now what did they do? Finally, we find
someone who explains that they are performing construction work in the area and
they have divided the men’s section and women can pray in that area. For many of us, this is first time in the men’s
section – imagine that? We reach the
Davidson Center – very modern building built among the ancient rocks. The guide, who was terrific, takes us to a
theater where he shows the virtual model of the area during the 2nd
Temple Period. Then, Neil takes us
around the Southern Wall excavations where we can see the destruction from the
time of the Romans. Now, it is getting
cold and we are bundled up – time to return to the hotel to reflect on our
day. Ah…but we have a speaker tonight –
Barbara Goldstein from Hadassah who talks about Hadassah’s work and the new hospital
wing, and what we can do as Ambassadors when we return to the USA. That was our day!
Enjoy the pictures!
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| Canadian Group |
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| Judith, Anita, Linda and Sara |
J
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| Upstate New York Group - Cynthia, Joel and Laurie |
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| Milton, Gloria, Lorelei, Ayala, Marylynn |
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| Dick, Anita, Sue, Joan, Bernie, Sig and Diane |
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| City of David |
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| City of David - guide |
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| City of David |
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| City of David - about to descend! |
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| City of David |
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| City of David |
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| Lunch time in Jewish Queater |
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| Walking through Southern Wall area |
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| Southern Wall - ancient steps to Temple |
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| BRRR! |
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| Barbara Goldstein and Joan Hulkower |
What a last day we had! All through our trip the weather had not been the best, but our spirit never wavered - although it was 'tested’ on the last day. We began in somewhat sunny skies, but cool temperatures - even for Jerusalem. After breakfast we had a short walk to the North African Heritage Museum - a relatively new museum located off of King David Street. Our guide began our tour with a discussion about the North African Jewry their customs and traditions. There were lovely works of art, costumes, furniture, etc and we learned much about their lifestyle. We also the saw the beautiful antique Moroccan doors that Gloria Kaufman dedicated to the Musuem in memory of her wonderful husband, Arnie. 
