November 5, 2013
I thought we were going to Tsfat on Tuesday, but that’s
Wednesday. Hard to keep this itinerary straight.
Rather, we went to the town of Beit She’an – site of almost
6000 years of history. Only the “downtown” area of the ancient city has been
excavated and/or reconstructed. Some of the best items were:
The Cardo:
The bathouse:
And, of course, the toilet:
We learned all about the differences between a hippodrome (an elliptical enclosed course for horse or chariot racing), an amphitheater/stadium (a circular enclosed venue for gladiator games), and a theater (a D-shaped structure with a stage for plays). Bet She'an had a theater:
It was lunch time after Beit She’an; we went to a shopping
center with assorted food choices. Though security is more relaxed than the
last time I was in Israel, it’s still
there – you are required to pop open your trunk for inspection on your
way into the parking lot. After we finished our food, we wandered around the
shopping center – Andy was sort of looking for a pair of shorts, since it was
rather hot out and he hadn’t brought a pair. But the style in Israel is
different than the U.S. – the pair he found just didn’t look right.
Back on the bus for a relatively short drive to the Golani
Brigade memorial. As serious as the subject is (the Golani Brigade are an elite
corps in the Israeli army and
responsible for taking and holding the Golan Heights during many of Israel’s
wars, as well as other critical battles), the memorial was out of date and seemed amateurish – as in, the displays
were not built by professional artists.
The best part of the memorial is the library, where a binder
is created for every fallen soldier: information supplied by his family is
carefully catalogued in the binder, so that a full accounting of his life is
available and he doesn’t become just a number. Very moving.
The day began to drag as we made our way to Tiberias. I was
very much looking forward to Tiberias, because I knew that it was at one time
the center of Jewish learning. But we stopped at a building called the “Dona
Gracia Hotel”, which had a museum on the first two floors dedicated to the hotel's namesake.
Who is Dona Gracia, you might ask? Excellent question.
Apparently she was a woman in the early 16th century who accumulated
wealth and status from her husband, both of whom were forced to convert to
Catholicism in Portugal, though they continued to practice Judiasm in secret.
Long story short, she managed to finagle control over Tiberias in Israel and
proceeded to build up the area in the first recorded attempt at Zionism –
creating a homeland for the Jews. Not particularly successful, as no Jews would
move there in her life time.
All of this information was presented by Judi, our tour
guide at the Dona Gracia. Her English was choppy, but she was charming and did
her best. Unfortunately, she didn’t start her tale with, “I will tell you the
story of Dona Gracia, whose goal was to restart a Jewish presence in the Holy
Land and especially Tiberias.” No, no, she started with Dona Gracia’s life, her
marriage, her child, her moving from city to city. And then backtracking to an
earlier part of the story. And not always providing details that would have
made the whole thing clearer. And using words that didn't make sense, which had us playing the game: "What is Judi talking about?" Following the story was a huge challenge, and the
novelty of guessing her train of thought and providing her with the appropriate English words wore off quickly.
Being late in the afternoon didn’t help.
After she got through about 90% of Dona Gracia’s story (and
we still didn’t know what Dona Gracia had to do with Tiberias), we went up to
the second floor to look at display cases with dioramas of Dona Gracia’s life.
Whereupon Judi started the story: All. Over. Again.
And the anticlimactic ending: Dona Gracia died in Italy at
age 52 without ever setting foot in Palestine or Tiberias.
So why is there a hotel and museum named for her?
By the
time Judi got to that part of the story, I had long since stopped paying
attention, so unfortunately I have no idea.
Even more disappointing – that was all we were scheduled to
do in Tiberias. All the interesting Jewish history in Tiberias, and that was
it. Very frustrating.
Onwards to the hotel for the evening at the Kibbutz Nof
Ginosar, right on Lake Kinneret. Most
kibbutzim have a “thing” that they do: manufacture shoes, grow crops, etc. But
this kibbutz’s “thing” is tourism – the fact that it is located right on the
lake. Very interesting crowd at dinner – there seemed to be a huge contingent
from Nigeria, and an evangelical group from some Scandinavian country. For the
first time since coming to Israel, we felt like we were in the minority again.
On our way to the kibbutz, our tour guide Raffi said that
there was a possibility that he might not be with us first thing in the
morning like he usually is. He lives not far from Tiberias, so instead of
staying at the kibbutz, he was going home for the night and transportation in
the morning might not be easy. But it would be ok, because the (non-English
speaking) bus driver would still pick us up at the hotel on time and take us to some meeting point.
This triggered a long group conversation. The person in
our group who had worked very hard for over a year to put this trip together felt as if he was being put on the spot to fill in for Raffi for this and
other things that he felt he shouldn’t have to. So it was decided to contact the tour company with the intention of making sure our tour guide was with us at 8:00 a.m. the next day as originally scheduled.
Was Raffi there the next morning at breakfast?
Oh that’s tomorrow. Stay tuned.
And tomorrow really is Tsfat.
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