feldmanlarry

It is hard to imagine a more mind-blowing day than today. I became Jewish for a few minutes after leaving a “prayer” in a crack at the Western Wall then was in my first Bar Mitzvah service. I got the blessing from touching the stone where Jesus was anointed and got “protected” by a posse of 19-year old gun-toting young women. I crossed over to the Palestinian-controlled city of Bethlehem to see the spot where Jesus was born. It’s hard to keep track of everything else I did today.

I called Margaret at 5 PM after returning to my hotel to let her know that for once I did more by 10 AM (her time) than she did. Usually by 10 AM she’s run 10 miles, shoveled snow, and graded papers while all I’ve done is sleep.

President Obama was one of the millions who has left a note / prayer in the crack of the Western Wall, as maybe the most holy Jewish site. My cousin Mike suggested that I thank my ancestors for leaving the pogroms of Romania to come to Minneapolis in 1908. Here’s what I came up with along with a picture of me putting that note in the wall.

“Prayer” to my Jewish ancestors left at the Western Wall

Afterwards I was taking pictures when a Rabbi motioned repeatedly to me to come back to the men’s area of the Wall. I came down and he wanted me to join in the Bar Mitzvah that was taking place. He put a prayer shawl on me and got me to join the group of men around the Bar Mitzvah boy. We went inside to put the Torah and goblet into the cabinet (help me out Jewish friends). He almost pushed my head in to kiss the goblet, which I did. The Bar Mitzvah ended and I gave some money and congratulated the boy. This happened so fast with so little decision time for me that I didn’t think to say that as someone who has not had a Bar Mitzvah myself, I maybe shouldn’t have the right to do some of those things. That doesn’t stop the fact that this will forever be one of the most memorable experiences of my life. To follow putting a “prayer” in maybe the most sacred place in Judaism with being part of a Bar Mitzvah at the same spot did shake me up. All this followed going through the intense emotional experience of Yad Vashem (the Holocaust museum) the night before. I have never been anywhere near as close to feeling Jewish as I did at that moment. I either had to convert to Judaism or eat some pork chops with shrimp and a cheeseburger. Sorry for the sacrilege.

 

My First Bar Mitzvah as a participant

No clue what I’m supposed to do

Before having my face put right up to the urn to kiss

Western Wall from a walkway above. Men on the left, small area for the women

Before I had time to compose myself from the Western Wall, we took the 5-minute walk to the stunningly beautiful third most important spot in the Muslim religion. Then we took another 5-minute walk to the Via Dolorosa, with the 14 stages of the cross. All this in an hour. In a typical hour at home, I may read the paper and watch an instantly forgettable TV show (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

 

The Muslim Dome of the Rock just minutes from the Western Wall

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No, that’s not me holding the cross on the right

I tried to get pictures of all the stations of the cross. I have this obsession at times with completeness. If there are 14 things and I have pictures of the first and second ones, I’ll want to get every single one, even if there’s really no need to have all of them. Why not just take the ones that look especially interesting? So what if I never got #9? Now I have to come back to Israel just to get #9. #10-14 are in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, maybe the holiest location in Christianity. There are seven denominations that own parts of the church. Apparently there was nasty fighting until about 100 years ago when the British negotiated a peace treaty between the Christian groups. So just a few steps from an Armenian Chapel might be a Catholic one and so on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7th station (left), Church of the Holy Sepulchre, stations 10-14 (right)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where Jesus died (left). Where he was said to have been anointed for burial (right), said to be good luck to touch the stone. I just wish they’d allow me to wear my hat. That might keep me more healthy than touching a stone but who’s to say.

I decided I’ll stop saying things like “supposedly” or “according to legend”. Birte would occasionally say “this is not really where it happened” or “this might have happened here” or even sometimes “this really happened here”. I don’t remember which was which and I’m not sure it matters. If a religion believes something happened, they need to find a place to celebrate it. Sometimes they actually know the spot but other times they need to find a good location. I don’t think it matters that much, a location is needed to enhance the celebration and why not use a likely spot. And maybe it is the real spot.

 

Had a great chat with this Franciscan Priest from Argentina in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guess which religion the souvenir shop (left) caters to. Great mural of what this area looked like in ancient times (right). Besides me, there’s one other person that doesn’t belong. See the kid with the backpack in the bottom right?

 

We ran into these 19-year old women on vacation from their compulsory service in the Israeli army. They seemed to be having a good time hanging out carrying their weapons around. No one was going to mess with them. Amazing that they’re the same age as Keith. Hard to picture the women his age walking around Indiana, PA with guns but the point of traveling is to see something different.

 

My posse, I hope the guns don’t go off by accident

 

We ran into a bar mitzvah with people singing and dancing. Birte told me that one reason she moved to Israel was the joyfulness she feels from the celebrations and from the people themselves. They were definitely having more fun than you would think people have in religious celebrations. It makes you wonder why most religious services I’ve been to have been solemn and even drab. I suppose the argument can be made that they are dealing with serious issues.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A street Bar Mitzvah

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the Jewish site of King David’s Tomb (left) and in typical Jerusalem fashion, the location of the Last Supper is just a few steps away (right, where Birte is standing)

Next Birte brought me over the border to the Palestinian-controlled city of Bethlehem by 2 PM. She is not allowed in the Palestinian Authority areas. Bethlehem is one of several small islands that have full-blown border crossings with metal detectors and customs and immigration. She explained to me that although the way we came in seemed less stressful than the way I left later in the day, it was just as tightly controlled. Cars with Israeli license plates and those with Palestinian license places have carefully controlled access. Certain roads allow both, others just one or the other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wall separating Israel from the Palestine Authority from the Israeli side (left) and the Palestinian side (right)

Next Birte brought me over the border to the Palestinian-controlled city of Bethlehem by 2 PM. She is not allowed in the Palestinian Authority areas. Bethlehem is one of several small islands that have full-blown border crossings with metal detectors and customs and immigration. She explained to me that although the way we came in seemed less stressful than the way I left later in the day, it was just as tightly controlled. Cars with Israeli license plates and those with Palestinian license places have carefully controlled access. Certain roads allow both, others just one or the other.

My Palestinian guide was very good. He stated that Christians and Muslims lived well together in Bethlehem and that he just wished for peace. While I was taking a picture with my iPhone 4 the driver said that I could sell it for $1000-1200 in Bethlehem. Seems like it’s not available there. The guide said more than once that you do not take anything with you when you die. I never found out exactly what he meant the implications of that to be, but I liked him and that sentiment.

I did not get a good feeling from Bethlehem. The image that came to mind was that the Palestinians were like children being grounded for being bad. I sensed a claustrophobia of being locked in a land-locked island. I feel unable to judge the wrongs piled on wrongs over the centuries to assign blame. Clearly we have a failure to communicate that has gone very wrong. Maybe this is the only solution. The joy of Israel I just mentioned deserves to be protected. Whether this can be done in a better way I leave to others. On the other hand, maybe my bad feeling about Bethlehem is based more on something like indigestion or the need for a nap. Just possibly it takes more than 2 hours to get the fundamental sense of a place.

The church was another in a intense day of major religious sites. I was really glad to have been there.

The spot where Jesus was born in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Palestinian school girls (left) in the Church of the Nativity and my guide (right)

The return to Israeli controlled area was a little confusing. It was a fairly long process and a couple of times I really didn’t know where to go. I followed an exit sign, which of course was a bad idea. I had asked Birte to be able to go through the more complicated border just to experience it, and it was a worthwhile experience.

Birte went out of her way many times to show me places that she could have gotten away without going to. She is very professional in her work. I love seeing people who are not at all going through the motions but have a driving internal motivation to be the best they can be. Beyond that, she’s very proud of her nation and what it has to offer. It’s a driving force for her to make sure that I understood the amazing sights of Israel. I had heard from my US travel agent that Birte is outstanding and I wholeheartedly agree.

She took me to a site called Geshsemane, beyond what was in the itinerary because she felt I should see it. It’s supposedly the campground area where Jesus was found by the Romans with the aid of Judas. These olive trees are possibly from Jesus’ time. I listened to some beautiful music as part of a mass in the church there. Once again, an amazing place on an amazing day.

2000 year old Olive Trees at Geshemene where Jesus was betrayed (left), the Church of Geshemane during a service (right)

For dinner, I decided to go to the hotel bar, which served dairy-only kosher food. The main restaurant served non-dairy kosher food. I brought my laptop to keep me from being bored but I started talking to the people at the bar next to me. After a while, I decided to play a game to see if I could talk to every single person who came to the bar. In about one hour, I met the following.

• A Pastor and his wife from Charlottesville, VA who were here to plan out a future trip for his congregation. I ended up running in to them many other times the next day in Masada and back at the hotel for breakfast, riding the elevator, etc.
• A guy from Norway with a group from his country with a Swedish guide since there were no Norwegian guides
• A couple from the Basque country in Spain
• A Hassidic Jew who just came in a reached behind the bar to get what he wanted
• A German tour group
• My favorite was the bartender who was an young Arab guy from the Old City of Jerusalem. Very interesting guy and very polished in his work

Off to a late sleep after an intense day!

 

My personal guide for the next several days, Birte, met me at the hotel and we drove off in the comfort of a Hyundai mini-van. Today we were off to Caesarea and Acre then she was to leave me off at my hotel in Tiberius on the Sea of Galilee. She had a case of bottled water for me and the travel would be tailored to what I wanted to spend more or less time with. I feel like we hit it off well from the very start. I tried to share as much as possible about where I was coming from and we were able to quickly break the ice. Her most important question was about my religious interests since most of the clients focus on either the Christian or the Jewish sites. I explained my mixed Christian and Jewish background with equal disbelief in both, along with strong interest in history and in current cultural trends. I agreed with her that history in Israel in particular is extremely closely linked with religion. I do want to see the religious sites.

Our first stop was at Caesarea that was built by Harrod the Great, who died in 4 BCE. I like how they use “Before the Common Era” (BCE) instead of “Before Christ”, along with “Common Era” (CE) instead of AD. She spoke of what a genius Harrod was and how much he contributed to the architecture of the region and much more. His three sons divided up his area after his death, including the Herrod Antipas involved in the crucifixion of Jesus. Caesarea was a very impressive archaeological site and was the capital of the Roman province. The theater was spectacular. I had never understood the difference between a theater and an amphitheater. Apparently, an amphitheater was designed for battles with animals and had a sunken stage so that the animals couldn’t attack the spectators. The area in the front of a Greek theater was designed for the singers who told the story that was being acted out. These singers were called (what else) the chorus. In the Roman theater that area is called the orchestra for the musicians.

So, if I’m a size 13, this foot is a size???

 

Finally, someone with less hair (and less brains), than me

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The theater at Caesarea

Harrod built a harbor that withstood everything except earthquakes and of course, had a massive palace built for his family. The ruins are impressive. In what she warned me will be crucial dates for much of the sites in Israel, Caesarea was impacted by the Muslim invasions of 636 and the Crusades from 1099 to 1280.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then were off to Acre or Acco with a stop to overlook Haifa, the third largest city after Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and the Bahai Gardens. The Bahai have a fascinating concept that all the major religions just added new prophets to the same god. So Moses, Jesus, Mohamed, and Buddha are basically working for the same guy. Of course they add their own prophet to the mix. Seems like not such a bad idea that all the religions are talking about the same thing, each with their own twist. Of course, I have issues with some of their beliefs too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bahai Gardens in Haifa

One of my favorite places in Acre was the prison that Paul Newman escaped from in the movie Exodus. One of the many great true stories Birta told me was of when the British decided to hang a Jewish freedom fighter and the resistance captured two British officers in retaliation. They told the British to spare the lives of their people and just give them life imprisonment. When the British hanged the Jewish fighters, they did indeed retaliate by hanging the British officers. That ended the death penalty for Jewish freedom fighters.

Paul Newman’s prison from Exodus

Acre is dominated by the 12^th century Crusader castle. The architecture is a mix of Gothic and Arab styles with their own twist added on. Twenty-first century people sometimes believe that our technology and ability to create is superior to all that came before. So much of what I saw in Acre and in Caesarea and I’m sure in what is to come in the next few days puts me in awe of the ancients. The fact that we could not create today what they created many centuries ago and that they did not have electricity or motorized vehicles should destroy the myth of our superiority over the ancients. I especially enjoyed the Templar’s Tunnel, even though it got a little claustrophobic when I had to bend way over at times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Templar’s Tunnel at Acre Castle

I’m going to try every day to have a freshly squeezed pomegranate juice, maybe mixed with orange juice. Massive Pomegranates.

I wish I remember which comedian did the Marriage Makes You Stupid routine. Things that you used to be able to do before you were married become lost arts, since you rely on your spouse to do it. I used to be able to wash my clothes and pack myself. While travelling, I can’t imagine now trying to go to a coin laundry. I’m relying on the expensive hotel cleaning service or as it turned out my guide has a service I can go to in Jerusalem that will be much cheaper. (Margaret – please don’t read the next part, of course, I know you will) My bag was well packed before leaving under close supervision by Margaret. Now that I’ve been gone a week and a half, it’s in shambles. I haven’t even really looked at what’s in there. I just grab stuff and throw things back in when it’s time to pack up. Unfortunately, I now need to actually figure out what’s left to wear and what needs to be put in for cleaning. The one day I did send items for cleaning in Cyprus, after I had everything ready I realized I hadn’t left me any pants. Fortunately for the hotel staff I pulled some pants out of the dirty clothes before going down to the lobby.

Now that I think about it, this is how I dealt with packing and cleaning in the past. Maybe it’s not marriage that made me stupid, I did that on my own.

 

 

I finally got my iPhone 4 back. The power switch now works, a little differently from before, but it works. I went for a long walk after picking it up and the poor thing was in sad shape. I forgot Baby Bear’s clothes (the case) and it was malnourished (it ran out of charge). When I got back to the hotel, it got fully refreshed. Unfortunately, there is an element of truth to me jokingly describing the machine as a pet.

I wonder if when I get home I’ll start walking more. It’s so healthy and feels good but my excuse to Mickey and Orly was that it’s not part of our culture to walk places when we have a car. It’s a poor excuse but unfortunately, I’ll probably use it.

I got to a very old area called Neve Zedek (Neve means oasis), with narrow streets. I had an ice cream from a place that had many more toppings than any place I’ve ever seen before. I couldn’t get all the toppings in one picture. There were only two people ahead of me in line but it took a long time for them to choose from all these options. I was feeling a little annoyed by how long it took them but after I got mine I realized that I had taken just as long.

Too many choices for ice cream toppings

Go ahead and solve this puzzle. Children in Israel can do it, why can’t you?

 

I then had a beautiful walk along the Mediterranean to Jaffa.

 

The tower of St. Peter’s Church in Jaffe in the back

 

Sunday services at St. Peter’s

 

If you have some friends who you have not been in contact with for many years, I strongly urge you to contact them. Look them up in Facebook, Google them, ask others if they know where they are, do what it takes. In the past few years, my high school gang has set it up so that we have been meeting every year at a city where someone lives. We started in our home town of Ithaca, NY, then to New Orleans, then to San Francisco, and this year we’ll be in Washington, DC. Maybe some day we’ll go to the amazing Indiana, PA. I’ll be seeing an old roommate at a train stop in Winnipeg, I spent several days in Montreal getting caught up with several college friends, and I’ve been contacting others from Facebook that I hadn’t heard from in years.

 

Seeing Mickey after over 30 years was a real treat. He was and is a good friend. Besides just the good times we had these few days, I got to relive a little a very important time of my life. It was a little scary but wonderful to figure out what that time meant.

 

As I was walking around the back streets of Jaffe, I realized I was around competing soccer fans for a big match that night. Ironically, this was Super Bowl night in the US.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Food and drink from my last night with Mickey and Orly

 

A big decision I had to make was whether to go to an American bar near the US Embassy to watch the Super Bowl or just go to sleep. The bar had a bombing in 2003 that killed 3 but that didn’t bother me in 2011. The game started about 1:30 AM and would end probably around 5 AM. I was meeting my guide who was going to take me through Israel at 8:30 AM. No question what I would have done in the 1970’s and a little question of what I would do in 2011. I made the right decision. I woke briefly from at around 6 AM and checked Baby Bear for the New York Times alert. Of course, there was the sad news that my team had lost.

This morning I was suffering from no Baby Bear and hung out on the rooftop patio at the hotel writing a blog. I prefer writing using the computer science algorithm of “first in, first out” meaning that I would not skip any days. Unfortunately, I have postponed writing about the last day in Cyprus so that I can keep up with the Israel trip. I’m two days behind on that now too.

Here are a couple of what I found unusual trivial items from the Melody Hotel. Apparently, it used to be the Canadian embassy until they decided to move to a larger and more secure place. Mickey jokingly (I hope) asked if I found any spy devices in the room.

The toilet flush handle in many places is this half circle cut into two unequal parts. It took me a little while to find it at first.

I don’t think this shower is typical. It consisted of a vertical strip of water at the top and 4 lower sprays. It took some getting used to.

I’ve promised myself to try salad for breakfast. Mike from the humus place feels that it’s unnatural to eat a salad for breakfast. I like to try almost any food but some sensibility I have makes me rebel against salad for breakfast. My Israeli guide and Mickey think it’s a great idea. They also had hard boiled eggs, cereal, and many types of breads.

My hotel was just a 3 minute walk to the Mediterranean. Since it was Saturday, Israelis were treating it as a Sunday in the US. Lots of people walking around with kids, just taking in the shops and the breeze. As always, I had to touch the water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Site of an almost 3 millenium old fort along the beach in Tel Aviv

Finally figured out who was supposed to clean back in our apartment in Montreal in 1971

We had a deli sandwich and when Mickey mentioned that we would be comparing it to the famous “smoked meat” sandwich from Montreal, the owner jumped at the chance to get more details from us. Unfortunately neither he nor I are experts in the finer points of deli meat but that is something I miss from Montreal. The sandwich and the “smoked hamburger” were delicious though. I like this picture with Mickey and Orly.

After the walk and a nap, Mickey and I got together for a beer. I had a breakfast item for dinner (just to spite the salad for breakfast), which was two poached eggs floating in a sea of pasta then baked. Sounds disgusting but it was good. Add some Palestinian beer and I was happy.

Mickey and I talked about the old days in the late 1960’s and the early 1970’s. We both made choices that were very destructive and could have lead to permanent damage. We felt as though the world was in such profound chaos that there would never be a stable functioning society again. I wouldn’t have believed back then that in 2011, I would have a very good steady job, an outstanding steady relationship with a wife, a great son, and so on. I started making good choices in 1977 when I decided to get into teaching math. I think a lot of people don’t have it figured out until their late 20’s like me. Many figure it out after high school and others are still working on it in their 60’s.

 

Mickey found this picture of me from the McGill student newspaper. I’m the guy with the beard and darkish glasses second from the left just above the white fold line.

I’m actually writing this in the airport lounge in Cyprus just before leaving for Tel Aviv. I thought it would be fun to give my impressions of Israel before actually getting there and then looking back at what I wrote after I leave. Mary Beth has told me repeatedly that no one in Israel will believe that I’m not Jewish when in Israel. I certainly have the name and the nose but most likely beyond that too. My father gave up the religion a few years after his bar mitzvah. He stayed involved for a few years because he told me it was a good place to meet girls. My mother’s mother was a Protestant of various kinds and my mother’s father would sit in the car and wait for her to get out of church. They had two weddings, one in a Rabbi’s study that my mother’s parents never knew about and one Unitarian that my father’s parents never knew about. They became nominally Unitarian but I refused to go when I was six years old. I felt that if Santa Claus didn’t exist, neither did any of the other stuff or maybe it was that I just didn’t want to get up for a boring church session.

My parents became Humanists and I grew up non-religious but feeling a definite connection to my Jewish half roots. I love the passion for learning and the outspokenness, the love of the arts and politics and so on. These are shared by many, if not all other groups but there is something unique about the Jewish culture that I can’t figure out. So I’m actually quite baffled by what Israelis will be like. Will they be like some of the brash New York City people I’ve known in college? Will they be like the Hassidic Jews that were my neighbors in Montreal? Will they be like my college roommate, one of my favorite people, who I’ll be seeing in a few hours? Now I’m disappoionted. I was hoping that I would have some real guesses but I don’t. I’m excited to be going there.

I’m picking this up after a couple of days now in Israel, sitting in my hotel rooftop overlooking the Mediterranean. Since what I wrote above, I feel like I have some beginning insights into who I am (at least into one of the halves of who I am). I’ll describe more about my Tel Aviv “10K” in Part 2 but while my college roommate Mickey and his wife Orly and I were walking through a crowded market, we ran into their friend Mike. Mike left Los Angeles to live in Tel Aviv  and has a very strong feeling of anti-semitism in the US. When I told him about my background, he asked me to describe anti-semitic incidents I had experienced. Surprisingly to him, I couldn’t think of any. All I could come up with is that many people don’t understand the concept that I’m not of 100% Jewish ancestry even after I explain it well. Maybe I have experienced anti-semitism but if people criticized something I said I assumed it was because I probably said something stupid or they just didn’t understand.

Mike’s Jewishness is not at all based on the religion. He claims to be totally non-religious but his Jewish  identity is very strong. I need to get back to him because he explained what Jewishness was to him in incomplete terms. He described the feeling of not fitting in in the US, of people not respecting him for who he was, of a world that disliked him without knowing him. Israel represents a haven for him.

The feeling of alienation from society is something I’ve felt all my life. I went to Kindergarten in Sri Lanka (off India) and dropped out of 3 schools because I couldn’t fit in. I went to a working class public school in Ithaca and was the only child of university parents. I was with a group of friends in high school that were toatlly alienated from the high school world of proms, football games, and school clubs. For the first half of ninth grade I was the only European in a school in Ghana (West Africa).  At McGill University, I was a foriegn student. I worked in a factory with all French-speaking workers. In Buffalo, I was the Canadian who worked in a can factory. In Indiana, PA, I feel at home but it’s not the place I’m really from. Perhaps my 1/2 Jewishness is part of this alienation, like Mike experinced.

What I got from Mike was part of the story. It’s the history of alienation from society that has always been part of the Jewish tradition. What I didn’t get from Mike in the few minutes we talked while eating the best humus I’ve ever had, was what it is to be Jewish besides the religion and the alienation. Maybe I’ll get this sometime in the next week or so in Israel or maybe someone reading this can help.

Mickey picked me up at my hotel at 10 AM for what turned out to be an amazing walking tour of Tel Aviv. He and his wife walk or bike much more than they use their car. This was a Friday, which means it’s equivalent to our Saturday. Just like our Saturday, Friday is a day that most people have off but the stores are very busy. Saturday in Israel is like our Sunday and most stores are closed and is the least busy day of the week. Sunday in Israel is like our Monday, the first day of the work week. So the song in Israel should be “Thank God it’s Thursday” since Thursday is the last work day. Somehow TGIT doesn’t have the same ring to it as TGIF.

We walked along a busy shopping street on our way to the open air markets but had  to make a very sad stop first. One of my “3 bears” was sick. Papa Bear, my Mac Book Air is my workhorse (is it a horse or a bear?). Mama Bear is my iPad, good for reading while lying in bed checking emails, reading a book, or playing a game. Baby Bear is my iPhone 4 that is also my security blanket. It’s either in my pocket, right next to my bedside while sleeping, or no more than a couple of feet away when showering. I reach for it constantly for just about everything and it keeps me grounded. By the way, the gender of the Bears is not relevant, just the size. Baby Bear’s power switch had become defective. I could just barely (sorry) turn it off and it was even harder to get it back on. Fortunately, there was an authorized Apple dealer nearby. They could fix it for 300 Shekels or about $80. I reluctantly gave my farewells to it. They said it was possible but unlikely to be ready that afternoon. They were closed on Saturday and should have it on Sunday.

All that afternoon, I was reaching for Baby Bear to take pictures. Here is just some of what I saw.

A packed market with open stalls selling fruits, fish, nuts, junk toys, spices, etc., including by far the largest carrots I’ve ever seen

A young long-haired Jewish “guru” occasionally letting out words of wisdom with about 20-30 people crowded around.

Bearded Jews coming up to people asking them to put bands around their arms as part of a Jewsih ritual. Mickey asked one of them if he thought I was Jewish. The response was “of course”

Hebrew was everywhere of course, but English was almost everywhere. Also, Arabic was on the road signs and you could see a lot of Russian. All in all it was an assault on the senses. It’s exactly what I love the most about travelling. I love the “museum of the streets” even more than the museums in the buildings. We basically walked from one end of the heart of Tel Aviv and then back to see if Baby Bear had been healed. Unfortunately, he would be away  from where he belongs until Sunday.

We met up with Mickey’s wife Orly as she was getting out of her half day teaching art to first graders. She teaches at one of the most interesting schools I’ve ever heard about. It’s called the Democratic School and is part of an international movement (see http://adhd.htmlplanet.com/democraticschools.htm). Stuidents get to choose what to study and how they want to work. Teachers are given a great deal of freedom and much less emphasis is placed on grades and testing. There are two schools affilaited with this movement in my hometown of Ithaca, NY, two in Pennsylvania and many in Israel. It sounds like a wonderful place to work and a school that must be heaven for students whose personality fits (which probably fits many children).

I told her about the two main trends in education in math in the US. There’s the stimulus-response behaviorist advocates who start with children being a blank slate that needs to be filled with the correct way of thinking about the clearly defined thousands of small bits of information. On the opposite end, there’s the constructivists who believe that children come with experiences and needs that are unique. Each person needs to work within social settings to explore and discover concepts with strong adult assistance. She responded that that conflict is indeed the same in Israel. The conflict is everywhere and in every subject, not just math.

The Democratic Schools obviously advocate in a strong way the second, constructivist approach. The US testing movement that currently dominates is a movement towards the behaviorists and at least partially away from the constructivist approaches in the math standards of 1989 and 2000. However, it is still possible to keep a solid constructivist approach within the shell we have in the US.

Mickey estimated we walked about 10 kilometers. I had a needed nap back at the hotel and woke up groggy to go to Mickey’s house for dinner. His mother is in a stage of memory loss and has a full-time woman from the Philippines who takes care of her at his mother’s house. This is an excellent arrangement, you can feel how much she cares and is effective with her.

Mickey and Orly had two of their three children home and they were very impressive people. They have a 24-year old son in a 12-year program to become a pilot. Their daughter is 22 and studying bio-medical engineering. I would study bio-medical engineering just for the name but needless to say it sounds like incredibly hard work. I didn’t get to meet their 18-year old. Mickey cooked a great meal, soup, several vegetables cooked just right and chicken. I don’t remember him cooking like that when we shared an apartment in 1972 in Montreal.

I was sad to be leaving Cyprus but excited about the next phase of the trip to Israel. Anytime you move from one phase of your life to another there are always those two high stress feelings, leaving the familiar part behind and also meeting the unknown. Fortunately, I was to have a transition day of seeing a fairly long list of sights in Cyprus over 8 hours on the way to the airport. A straight drive to the airport is just 45 minutes. Irini found a taxi driver, Stegos, to take me for 120 Euros or about $160. When he left me off, his meter showed about 180 Euros so it was a good deal. I also gave him 65 Cypriot Pounds, which were obsolete and could only be cashed at the National Bank in Nicosia. Mary Beth had given them to me to give away if I couldn’t cash them. They are worth over $120 if they can be cashed. He was going to try and if not, he was going to keep them as souvenirs.

Stegos was an interesting guy, divorced twice, once to a Romanian bride who I think was arranged for him to go to Romania and get. His explanation of his blended family got too confusing to me to fully get straight. He spoke decent English that he learned from being a taxi driver, not from his 8^th grade education. He and I became friends that day and I’ll miss him.

The first place we went to was called Amathounta, an archaeological site going back to the 11^th century BCE. I’m starting to worry about my encounter with Aphrodite a couple of days ago. She had a lot to do with this site. As it says in the second column of the picture on the left, Aphrodite punished women who denied her divinity by forcing them into prostitution and changing them into stone figures (seems like stone figures would not be very effective prostitutes for most customers). She also turned men into furious bulls who sacrificed strangers at the city. My message to her if she can hear me is “Please forgive me, Aphrodite!” If she can’t hear me, never mind.

We then went to a Neolithic archaeological site from 7000-5500 BCE called Tenta. At first I thought the name came from the tent-like structure designed to protect it (built in 1995) but that’s just a dumb thought on my part, sorry for sharing it with you. I wonder what people 9000 years from now will be saying about us.

We then went to two villages way up in the mountains called Pano Lefkara (high Lefkara) and Kato Lefkara (low) to a shop where they sold lace and silver jewelry. They told me that every woman loves jewelry and lace. Margaret – in spite of the fact that I’ve never seen you wear jewelry or express any need for lace, as a woman you must obey. I had a nice talk with the grandmother at the shop who lived in Queens in NYC for 30 years. The people did not give me a hard sell and it was fun to see this part of the island.

I could keep track of how long each stop was by how many cigarettes Stegos smoked. As soon as we got out of the car, the cigarette ritual began. He told me how many hours he worked a week, I don’t remember now, but I wonder how many of those hours went to the tobacco industry. He was very careful not to smoke near the car though and “let he who is without sin cast the first stone” or whatever the quote is.

Next was the capital city of Nicosia, which they advertise as the only divided capital city in the world. We checked out a couple of museums – the national archaeological museum and a Cypriot historical museum called “Pili Amochostou”. We also went to the museum for the founder of the nation, Archbishop Macharios. After Stegos finished a cigarette at each place he joined me since he had never been in these places himself. Next was a great view of the area from the top floor of an office building but I was itching to get to the Turkish side.

Apparently, only in the past few years has the border between the independent Greek-speaking country of Cyprus and the Turkish area of Cyprus been opened for easy travel. Stegos was able to enter with just his ID card and they gave me a quick visa on a separate sheet of paper. This was a particular thrill for me, it seemed like one of the more obscure places in Europe. We walked around through the Turkish shops and saw the Selimiye mosque. I bought some pistachio halvah from Turkey, which is the most famous halvah (not that most people know what halvah is). I used to get halvah in Montreal and it’s great stuff. I planned to bring it home and share it with people but I’m eating some right now as I write this in Israel. Sorry.

We then went to Larnaka, which is the third biggest city and saw another mosque and were too late to get into the supposedly beautiful Lazarus Monastery. Stegos and I had a farewell coffee in the square facing the Monastery then he drove me to the airport around 8 PM. I was sad once again to be leaving Cyprus. It’s a wonderful place to live or visit.

With my business class ticket, I was able to wait in a very nice upscale lounge. While standing in line for the flight, I casually mentioned something to the woman behind me about waiting and she gave me an unforgettable story. She was an Israeli who went to Cairo for a teachers’ conference. The uprising started as soon as she got there and they were stuck in the hotel, at one point while potential looters were yelling outside. The hotel staff protected the hotel with knives and anything they could find. Finally, a bus took them to the airport where she stood in line from 8:30 AM to 6:30. The airplane had extra small seats and didn’t take off for 2 hours. I felt like a real idiot mentioning waiting in line a few minutes. Please remind me never to complain about anything ever again.

I’m wondering about doing this blog. There’s always a tension between living life and talking about life. Does spending time writing about what you’ve done keep you from actually living and doing new things? I remember being in the St. Lawrence River north of Quebec City watching whales. Video cameras had just gotten affordable so I spent the whole time pointing my camera at the river waiting for a whale to appear. I have a long boring video with a few amazing shots of whales that I’ll never edit or watch. I didn’t really enjoy the moment of being with those whales as much as I could have. Right now I’m in my hotel in Tel Aviv before my friend picks me up so I could be spending my time half sleeping. Put it that way this sounds like a good option. Hopefully, the blog will be read by others or at least by me.

The children in the school are great. They greet me in the halls with “Good Morning, Mr. Larry”. All the teachers and the Headmaster are “Mr.” or “Miss” then their first name. One class is called 5S, since the first name of the teacher is Soulla and the other is 5L for the first name Litsa.

Their homework is filled with wonderful drawings of configurations of seating arrangements with different numbers of tables (area) and numbers of people (perimeter). They had a harder time with the concepts of “I notice that …” and “I wonder if …” Looking back, I should have worked harder on those concepts in the class before assigning it. I didn’t know what to do with my final question that I had printed out to give, possibly as homework on the last day. The students back home definitely showed major advances but only a handful really got it. This is not surprising since the question is a variation of a question given to US and Chinese teachers by the great Liping Ma in her comparative study of teacher knowledge of the content needed to teach conceptually (Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics). So the question was never designed for kids.

After about 50 of my 80 minutes I realized that they were ready for the question if I could have a good full class discussion first. Several students were able to give a correct formulation in the discussion – that if the perimeter increases, the area will only sometimes increase also. We’ll see when I get back and look at the papers. I doubt I’ll look at them while travelling.

I stopped on the way back to the hotel at a little hole in the wall that had a line of people getting take out (“take away” in British English). There was a long row of foods to choose from but the space to walk through and see them was about ½ the size of one person (at least 1 person my size). I remembered Moussaka from the days I lived in a Greek area of Montreal. I couldn’t remember whether it was something I liked or especially disliked but I ordered it just because I remembered liking the name and couldn’t see anything. I’ll quote from Wikipedia. Reading it now, I’m not at all tempted by it but it was excellent. I don’t care for eggplant (aubergine) much but somehow this mix really works.

“It has three layers: a bottom layer of sautéed aubergine slices; a middle layer of cooked ground lamb cooked with onion, garlic, chopped tomatoes, herbs, and spices (cinammon, allspice and black pepper); and a top layer of bechamel sauce or egg custard. The composed dish is baked until the top layer is browned. Moussaka is usually served lukewarm.”

At 9 PM, Irini and Yiorgio picked me up to have another Meze with Nick (the Headmaster). This time, it was a fish one. Technically, it was not a Meze, since Nick picked out the fish rather than having it picked by the house. Here’s just one of the many platters of fish and amazing accompaniments. I realized what a novice fish eater I am. Someday, I’ll spend a summer under the guidance of Yiorgio, whose family were fishers, to learn how to do it right.

Speaking of Yiorgio, he is one amazing guy. He took way beyond the maximum credits allowed at IUP and graduated with a 4.0 in music ed and in record time. He’s an accomplished jazz musician, teaches full time at a school, then teaches part time at another school, besides being a great father. He loves the life he has with Irini, the kids, the beach, the foods, and the world.

Speaking of Irini, she’s one amazing woman. She excelled in our Master’s in Elementary and Middle School Mathematics Education. She’s a very popular math teacher at a secondary school, but is certified in elementary and loves that group. She’s one of the most creative people I know and I’m very indebted to her for arranging this visit to the schools. She also has that infectious positive attitude about life.

The two of them rave about Indiana, PA. I need to video them talking about it so next time I get down on Indiana I can refresh myself. They loved the four seasons, the ambiance of the town, the ease of getting around, and the university. Yiorgio’s experience with the Music Department was inspirational to me. He had gone to the famous Berklee College of Music in Boston and was very disappointed in the poor quality of teaching and the uncaring faculty. He got just the opposite at IUP. His advisor and mentor, Dr. Keith Young not only was an insightful teacher but was an ideal advisor. He fought for Yiorgio to be able to get through quickly and looked out for him in many ways. Yiorgio also raved about Jack Stamp and Dan Perlongo as not just amazing musicians and educators but caring people. He had no bad words for anyone in the department, he had excellent classes.

I’m sad to leave Nick, Yiorgio, Irini, the school, the students, the teachers, and Cyprus. Tomorrow I go on a tour of the island but I probably will not be back to see the people for a while. They have been ideal hosts. They made it hard for me to pay for anything and went beyond what was expected, like loaning me clothes. I’d love to have Nick be the President of IUP, Irini in the IUP Math Dept., and Yiorgio in the IUP Music Dept.

I walked to the school, which felt good. It only took 10 minutes and it was in the 60’s and sunny. I keep forgetting how little sun we have in western Pennsylvania. The students did very well with my lesson on the second day. They are very excited to do this kind of hands-on creative work. I had about an hour between my two 80-minute sessions and I was surprised that the two teachers said they were planning to go down the street to get coffee. I jumped at the chance to join them since it’s hard to be able to talk to teachers away from their students. They stopped by the office to let them know where they would be.

I really liked the fact that they were allowed to leave the school during their prep periods. This is not the case in schools I’ve seen in the US. I asked the Headmaster later about it and his philosophy is to let the teachers teach and stay away from nuisance regulations. He spends money on the school, such as Promethean Smart Boards but doesn’t force them to teach according to the orthodoxy of the day. The students and the teachers seem to me to be very happy and learning well. The two recess slots a day, along with playtime before school seems to help too. Perhaps it’s just this school (The Grammar School), which is private and has an excellent Headmaster and not all Cyprus schools, I have no way of knowing.

One educational model I believe we should be looking at more is Finland. Their students consistently finish almost at the very top in international exams. They pay teachers very well and teaching is a highly respected profession. Teachers are given a high degree of autonomy and helper teachers are in their classes. Their school year is short and their emphasis is on “relaxed schools, free from political prescriptions.” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8601207.stm

The Headmaster, Nick invited me for coffee at around 4. I typically don’t like to have coffee after noon or so, since it keeps me up but I jumped at the chance to hang out with him. He is the third one in his family to graduate from New York University. He went on to get an M. Ed. at Long Island University, then came back to run this school, along with his brother who is the Headmaster of the secondary school. They inherited the school from their family and have really made it flourish.

I suggested we have a beer instead, which changed the focus of the encounter. We went to a sports bar that had a lot of Russians in it. Apparently Cyprus has very low taxes so it’s a haven for companies around the world. There is a strong Russian influence and they’re known for having money to throw around. I tried not to look at Russian signs here since I took 5 years of Russian and the Greek and Russian alphabets are similar but different. For example the letter “H” in Russian is the “n” sound, while in Greek it’s “e”. But the symbol for Pi is pronounced “p” in both languages. I found it better not to think of the Russian.

After a couple of beers, he invited me to the Syrian Friendship Club to have another meze. Irini and Yiorgio, if you’re reading this please skip the next sentence (I know you won’t skip it). I actually liked it a little better than the Cypriot meze. It’s the difference between a 10 and a 10+ out of 10 though. I got Nick to point out each of the dishes on my iPhone video. The restaurant was filled with hookah smokers and we were the only non-smokers there, which didn’t bother me for some reason.

I’m trying to figure out how to use video in this blog. WordPress wants $60 per year. The $60 is sort of OK but the “per year” part is unacceptable. I’d like to be able to look at this 20 years from now and there are better ways to spend $1200. I tried to use Microsoft’s sharepoint or sky drive but it rotated the video 90 degrees and has a limit of 50 MB for files, which is about 1 minute. The obvious choice seems to be youtube, which is compatible with iOS and everything else. I’ll get that going one of these days. Anyone have any suggestions?

After getting back to the hotel from the school, I definitely needed a nap. I seem to be totally confused by the time change or maybe by just getting up before noon or maybe both. I had another thought about time change before I tell you about my attempt to meet Aphrodite. When I go to Korea, there will be a 13 hour time change. When I’m home, if I tried to get used to getting up at 5 PM (just a few hours off from my usual time), that would be 6 AM the next day. So, without making any adjustments I could get up at 6 AM in Korea. Maybe I would have lost one full day.

Irini and Yiorgos picked me up to go to see the “Petra tou romiou” considered the birth place of Aphrodite near Paphos. Here’s the Wikipedia entry.

“‘Foam-arisen’ Aphrodite was born of the sea foam near Paphos, Cyprus after Cronus severed Uranus’ genitals and threw them behind him into the sea, while the Erinyes emerged from the drops of blood. Hesiod’s Theogony described that the genitals “were carried over the sea a long time, and white foam arose from the immortal flesh; with it a girl grew” to become Aphrodite. Aphrodite floated in on a scallop shell. When she arose, she was hailed as “Cyprian,” and is referred to as such often, especially in the poetic works of Sappho. This myth of a fully mature Venus (the Roman name for Aphrodite), Venus Anadyomene^[23] (“Venus Rising From the Sea”) was one of the iconic representations of Aphrodite, made famous in a much-admired painting by Apelles, now lost, but described in the Natural History of Pliny the Elder.”

We arrived there at twilight and climbed down a path to the sea. Yiorgos remembered my fascination with touching bodies of water so we got right to the water. When a wave came, I ended up falling and getting “up and personal” with the Mediterranean. I think subconsciously I was seeking Aphrodite, trying to find her at the place where she was born. Surprisingly, I didn’t find her but I did bring back some souvenirs of caked on mud and stone on my shoes.

The view of the stone was slightly eerie but the pictures I took were eerier (great word). I really enjoyed seeing this.

They then took me for some cyprus fast food take out to eat at their home — souvlakia, shieftalia, and gyro, which was excellent. I told them I’d be up for eating anything except squid, octopus, and anything from a US chain.