Christmas in Jerusalem

Pretty much since I arrived in Israel (if not before), I had people back home saying how amazing it would be to be in Israel for Christmas. The thing that everyone seems to have forgotten is the fact that Israel is Jewish - they don't care about Christmas! The only reason I had Christmas Day off was because it fell on Shabbat; otherwise, I would have been in class. And I admit, I let the lack of festivities get to me a bit. I was bummed to be halfway around the world at Christmastime, bummed that the IDF interfered with our Bethlehem plans, bummed in general.

But, I must also admit, I was pleasantly surprised with how things turned out.

Christmas Eve day, I met with Ayana, my language buddy (a program Hebrew U offers to help international students learn and practice Hebrew). Ayana is a really sweet girl, who not only helps me with my Hebrew but also has been showing me around Jerusalem. And she got all excited this week when I spoke several sentences in Hebrew, all correctly! (Sadly, it is a surprise and reason for celebration - not only did I get the grammar correct, but also the pronunciation!) Anyways, she was supposed to show me around one of the oldest neighborhoods, but I asked if we could visit the Christian Quarter of the Old City because I had heard there were Christmas decorations there. Either I was misinformed or they were all hiding, because we didn't find any! But it was still fun to wander around and talk in Hebrew.

Christmas morning, there was worship at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in the Old City. I spent last Saturday with a group of people from the congregation (including the

pastor and his wife), and they had invited me to worship. My roommate Annie asked to come with me, which was really nice. She wanted to share Christmas with me, since I celebrated Chanakuh with her all eight nights. It was a lovely worship service, not very large, with all the good Christmas hymns. And the sermon just happened to be well-suited to Annie, as it included reference to Rabbi Hillel and the story of a picture (right) sketched on Christmas Eve during the battle of Stalingrad by Kurt Reuber, a German Lutheran fighting for the Nazis. What makes the drawing so special is that he drew Mary and baby Jesus with Eastern features - as the pastor said, "he saw the face of God in the face of the enemy." It does make one think - during these times of restlessness and uncertainty, do we see the face of God in the face of the enemy? Both the Israeli and the Palestinian - the Jew, the Christian, and the Muslim - contain the image of God. We all share the Hebrew Scriptures, we all read Genesis 1 - "And God created humanity in God's image, in the image of God, God created humanity, male and female, God created them" (v. 27). I think it becomes a little harder to view the enemy as an enemy when we remember that person was also created by God, in the image of God.

After worship, we still had some time before the Christmas brunch back at the pastor's house, so Annie and I decided to wander around the Old City, which led to us getting rather lost in the Old City. After awhile, I got a little overwhelmed and panicky, but luckily Annie kept her cool and eventually we not only found a gate, but the gate we actually wanted. I had gotten to the point that I told Annie I didn't care which gate we found, I just wanted out of the Old City! From there, we caught the bus to the LWF compound, where the pastor lives, even though we were a little early. (Not only did I want out of the Old City, I also wanted to get far away from it!) The brunch was lovely and the food delicious. It was a gorgeous day - clear blue skies, in the 60s - so we ate outside on the pavilion, overlooking Jerusalem and the Old City. The view was too beautiful for words. We ended up staying longer than I had anticipated (in part because some people had problems getting there, thanks once again to the Bethlehem checkpoint), but it was such a lovely time. I think Annie and I were the first to leave, too. But as I told Fred and Gloria, some of us had homework to do - and class today!

I spent a nice portion of my afternoon and evening talking to my parents (and later, my brother) on the web cam. And my mom bribed the dog with treats so I could see him too. In between I did homework, or at least pretended to!

All in all, it was a nice Christmas. Obviously I would have preferred to have spent the day with my family, but it was a great alternative. Earlier in the week, I had talked with some Jewish classmates about Christmas, and one of them remarked, "I love being in Israel for Christmas" because Christmas is a non-event here. In America, the Christmas season starts the day after Thanksgiving (if not before!) and it is everywhere, in your face, all the time. Jews (and others who don't celebrate Christmas) cannot escape it, whereas Chanakuh is at best an afterthought. (Chanakuh is admittedly a minor holiday in the Jewish year, but none of the Jewish holidays receive any real public attention or appreciation.) So, in a sense, being a Christian in Jerusalem is a bit like being a Jew in America. The conversation definitely made me think. I am often aware of my minority status here (although I can "pass" for a Jew, until someone asks my name - somehow "Christina" just doesn't sound Jewish!), and Christmas has been no exception. But like my experience with the Bethlehem checkpoint last weekend, I look at this as an opportunity to get a glimpse - however small - of what others experience all the time.