Despite feeling more dead than alive most of the week, I actually did a lot more than I normally do. Tuesday was Annie's birthday, so Kristin and I (and Kristin's friend Meg who is visiting) had a mini-surprise party for her. She had class until 8pm, so we couldn't go out, but we made chocolate-covered strawberries and spent some quality time together. We celebrated more officially on Thursday, when we (the four of us plus Jon) had dinner at Focaccia Bar, which is one of our favs. We had a grand ol' time, although I did have to duck out after a couple of hours because I was having major side effect issues and needed fresh air.
Today I went on a day trip with some of the other grad students to the north, to Akko, Kibbutz Yagur and Daliat el-Carmel. It was a lovely day and so nice to get away from campus and from Jerusalem. At Akko, we saw remains from the old city, from the Crusader and Ottoman periods, along with the British prison where members of the Jewish resistance organizations (Haganah, Irgun and Lehi) were imprisoned. We bought lunch in the Arab market and walked to the Mediterranean via the Templar Tunnels. Akko has an interesting history because in its 4000 years of existence, it has always had a 'mixed' occupancy - even in the glory days of David and Solomon, Akko was never fully defeated by Israel. Apparently Napoleon was also defeated at Akko in 1799, and according to our tour guide, his visit is what sparked modern interest in Israel. (I am sure he contributed to Western interest in the land, but it seemed to be a rather slanted view of history. The tour guide said there was nothing in Israel for all those centuries - which, of course, isn't true - and, of course, it wasn't Israel, it was Palestine. But that's just me.)
Anyways, after Akko, we visited Kibbutz Yagur, which is the kibbutz on which our grad student assistant Maya grew up. It is one of the original kibbutzim and played an important role in the foundation of the State of Israel, with several of the Haganah missions being launched from there. It was very interesting to see the kibbutz and to hear how it operates. It is still very much communal, more so than many of the other ones in Israel. Everyone must give all their money to the kibbutz, and each month each family is given an allowance according to the number of people. It is not very much money - not enough to save anything - but their housing, healthcare, schools, etc. are all covered. They also don't own their own cars - the kibbutz owns 100 or so cars and apparently there is some system in place that allows the members to use them. And they have cows! They weren't guernseys, but they still made me :)
Our last stop today was Daliat el-Carmel, a Druze village. Being Druze, from my understanding, is sort of like being Jewish - it is both an ethnicity, in that you are born a Druze, and a religion. However, there is no becoming Druze. The religion originated in the 11th c. as an offshoot of Islam and there was a very short period of time that people were allowed to join. They are an esoteric monotheistic religion whose primary or supreme prophet is Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses. They also believe in reincarnation. Other than that, though, there is not much to tell because only the religious Druze are allowed to read their holy books. There are roughly 1 million Druze in the world, about 100,000 or so in Israel. Something interesting about the Druze is that they do not want their own country. They believe in being good citizens of the country in which they live. Which means the Druze here in Israel identify as Israelis (not Arabs or Palestinians), and they serve in the IDF with the Israeli Jews. Apparently it is not uncommon for Druze to stay in the IDF and rise in the ranks, and many Druze could be considered Zionists.
Okay, that is enough of a history lesson for today. There was more that I was going to write about, but it is late and I am exhausted. Pictures from today will hopefully be posted on facebook tomorrow.
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