Today was our first official ZOOM meeting, On Monday March 30, 12 of us did a practice run. Today there were 21 of us on line with some more on the phone. During the start-up John Scott showed us a photo of son, Whitman. DG Herb Klotz explained what the ZOOM buttons would do.
After 15+ minutes of talking amongst ourselves with our Greeter being President Amir Famili, he opened the meeting at 7:45 A.M.
Rev. Jeffrey Kistler gave a very nice invocation.
Secretary John Scott began the meeting by having the members recite The Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. Flag. Then he led us in reciting the Four Way Test.
P-E Ralph Witcher noted two early April birthdays. Ralph sang a sterling rendition of Happy Birthday to Gil Keller.
Pres. Amir thanks all “first responders” for what they do and asks all to pray for them.
HIGHWAY CLEANUP:
Project Chair, Gail Micca announced that this is cancelled. Penn DOT needs to release the hold. See separate article about the new Highway AWRC Sign.
AWRC SOUND SYSTEM:
Jean Masiko thanked us all for the use of our sound system at her drive-in Church services. See separate article.
Amir mentioned “Family Promise” as a new group that may need our help.
ONTELAUNEE PARK WORK:
Dennis Houser said that the upcoming work is still on and there are 4 of them signed up, which is enough.
HELP FOR SMALL BUSINESSES:
Laurie Grube and her Bank are available to help small businesses work through the new government support options.
SNACK PACKING:
Nancy Handwerk says that they still are doing snack packing at Northwest Lehigh
The Lowhill Food Pantry still are giving food packs to drive-up clients.
Thanks go to Gail Micca and Lori Peters for preparing the latest batch of snacks for the children in need.
Parkland C.A.R.E.S. WITH Kariba Sundstrom are distributing food in Kernsville.
Jean Masiko reports that Kingdom Life Food Pantry served 1000 clients last week. Thanks go to Rick Bloom who helped a lot. AW Rotarians will not stock shelves on Friday.
TELL AMIR WHO MIGHT NEED HELP:
Pres. Amir asks us to indemnify people in our community that may need help getting food, medicine, etc.
MORNING MEETINGS;
President Amir Famili has suspended all AWRC face-to-face meetings until further notice. ZOOM meetings are now scheduled for each Wednesday at 7:30 A.M.
SPEECH CONTEST:
The Regionals and Final competitions have been cancelled.
RLI MEETING CANCELLED:
The Rotary Leadership Institute (RLI) March 28 session was cancelled. They will resume in the Fall.
THURSDAY EVENING SCHEDULE:
No meetings for Thursday evening are scheduled yet.
NEXT MORNING MEETING:
Starting at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday April 8th we will use ZOOM to meet together with appropriate distancing. Our program will be Eileen Grodziak discussing Rotary and Toastmasters International.
HAPPY DOLLARS and MEMBER NEWS:
Pres. Amir conducted this part and kept score on who owes how much money.
Dennis Houser did not get to Florida to see Bob Gordon, but got to Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Bill Palmer whose new webcam had not yet been installed, is happy to report that he must be very old, since so many Rotarians have made contact offering to help. Thanks, Guys.
Herb Klotz told us a new RI Disaster Grant for districts to apply for in the next two weeks. The application will be by the whole district and we need your ideas of where we can help.
Herb also announced that Jeff Cadorette, our Zone 24 & 32 Director will be on a ZOOM call next week, Details will follow.
PROGRAM:
Marne and Gary heller presented a great slide show all about their 2020 trip to Israel. This was Gary’s first time there and he took over 1200 pictures.
Marlene told the story and here is the text:
Gary and I joined a tour with my sister’s synagogue in Massachusetts. Keshet Tours creates custom educational tours, and our tour guide, Kayla, worked with the rabbi, Dan Lieben, to
design a custom tour that took us from
Haifa in the north to the Negev in the south, with stops in between. As you can see, all of Israel fits inside the state of New Jersey.
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We landed in Tel Aviv and traveled to Haifa by train. Because we did not travel with the rest of the group from Boston, we had to catch up with them, but we enjoyed the train ride while they were stuck in traffic on the bus. This was on Wednesday, our first day. It was raining and we arrived in time for dinner, scrapping the original first day plans, which we made up for later in the week.
Our first stop on Thursday was the Ba H’ai Garden, in Haifa. Really just a photo op, I personally enjoyed it because I had been there 2001, when the gardens first opened.
We next visited a mosque of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. This is a Muslim community whose teachings are from the Holy Quran and the practices of the prophet Muhammed. We went into the Mosque and then into an adjacent building where we learned more about this community that has undertaken the translation of the Quran into more than 75 languages. They have a website: loveforallhatredfornone.org, with information about their movement to teach people about what they refer to as true Islam.
Next on our very busy first day, we went to the Yemen Orde Youth Village. Located on 77 acres atop Mt. Carmel, Yemin Orde is home to 439 children ages 14-18, primarily from Ethiopia, the FSU, France and Brazil. Some are orphans, some have families back home, but came to Israel alone, and others are from single-parent or dysfunctional families in Israel. All are defined by social services as “at-risk.” Students and graduates can access the village 365 days a year; the village stays connected to graduates for life. At the village they receive psychological counseling and therapeutic care, art, music and sports programs. There is a nature center, a blacksmith shop, a learning center, and a computer center. Students receive emotional support and needs-based scholarships. Graduates of Yemin Orde, which was founded in 1953, have gone on to be leaders in Israel’s government, educational system, healthcare, and more.
Rafelli, who you see here on the right, is a typical example of a student here. At the age of six, her family decided they needed to leave Ethiopia for the sake of their children. They walked from Ethiopia to Israel, with Rafelli on her father’s back, into Israel, where they knew they could be Jewish and free. She was a student at Yemin Orde; now she is part of the faculty.
We had a relaxing moment to sip wines grown on Kibbutz Hanaton. What made these wines different than most others in Israel is that they are not from vines started by Baron Rothschild in Europe, but they are strictly Israeli grapes. Israel started slow to gain acceptance in the world of wine making, but now produces medal winners in every category.
Kibbutz Hanaton, where the vines are grown, is a new style of kibbutz. It was founded in 1983 as a Masorti or Conservative, Kibbutz, and was on the verge of dissolution until a core group of families from diverse backgrounds came together in 2008 to foster its renewal and reinvigoration. It now thrives, with families of all ages and backgrounds and a plan that calls for the absorption of an additional 30 families the next few years. The kibbutz has recently become a “kibbutz mit’hadesh” or revitalized kibbutz, in which it will maintain some of the cooperative elements of the original kibbutz system while implementing a a fundamental change with a differential salary system and home ownership. Members are free to worship as they wish and there are synagogue-centered communal activities.
We ended our very long first full day in the Druze village of Usafiyya for dinner made by Druze residents. I can only tell you that the food was exceptionally delicious and diverse. We did not take photos because we were unaware of their customs regarding photography.
Friday morning we ate, as usual, a magnificent Israeli breakfast. The breakfasts are incredible; they are gigantic buffets of salads, fishes, breads, fruits, vegetables, yogurts, cheeses, hot dishes, cold dishes and halvah and Turkish delight for dessert.
After breakfast we checked out and boarded the bus for our journey to Jerusalem. It’s about a 2-hour ride.
We stopped at the Mechana Yehudah, a popular market place. Because it was Friday, and almost noon, most of Jerusalem was there with us. In Israel, the work week ends at noon on Friday and resumes on Sunday. Everyone was out shopping for their Shabbat dinner. Shabbat means Sabbath. So flowers and breads and spices and everything that looks and smells wonderful is available here.
There are also restaurants here where people stop for lunch before finishing their shopping and hurrying home before Shabbat begins. Once sundown comes, it is as though the sidewalks have been rolled up. People go to services and then share Shabbat dinners; and they are mostly in for the rest of the night.
After the market, we made our way to the Haas Promenade. Normally, we would have done this on our first day. This is a traditional stop for all tourist groups, because as you can see, it gives you a magnificent overview of Jerusalem. You can see the Old City Of Jerusalem, the City Of David, and the Mount of Olives, where the most well-known names of Jewish history have been buried. All of Jerusalem is in front of you, from ancient times to the present. You can see the barrier wall to the Gaza Strip in the distance on the right and the Western Wall on the left.
Jewish tourists, and especially first-time visitors, are brought here right after the airport to recite the shechechiyanu, a prayer in gratitude for having reached this day. There were plenty of tour busses there the day we were there, as it was the first sunny day all week!
The next day being Shabbat, we were on our own. Gary and I went into the Arab quarter of the old city and did some shopping. Here you see some of the streets in the shuk, also pronounced suk. It was raining again, pretty heavily, but there were plenty of people out here. It is a confusing rabbit warren of cobblestoned streets, but after lunch, I wanted Gary to see two specific places while we were on our own, so we continued. Luckily I didn’t get us lost.
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First we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It was, as usual, jammed with tourists. We fought our way through them, and Gary took many photos of the beautiful artworks inside the church. This is obviously a must-see for non-Jewish tour groups, so it is the one place guaranteed to be crowded on a Saturday.
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There are several floors with many rooms on each, but we stayed pretty close to the main area, as the stones were slippery from the rain, and we had already done quite a lot of walking.
And then we headed back outside and wended our way around to the Western Wall. You can see the Temple Mount, also called the Dome of the Rock, behind it, and see how close to each other they are.
In this photo, we are a little farther back so you can see more of the wall. If you look in the corner, there is an opening right there that was opened about 20 years ago, the last time I was in Israel, and we were able to go in and tour underneath the wall and into the rooms that are now back in use. Truly amazing! Gary did get some photos in there later in the week.
We grabbed a cab and headed to the Israel museum, where Gary could not resist this marvelous juxtaposition … student tourists on the right (because in Israel, everything is right to left) and a sculpture from the museum on the left.
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The museum had an exhibit of modern art as well, and here I am, with my stuffed nose (I had a cold all week), caught up in a hands-on section of the museum. The art was projected onto the walls and I just stepped into the exhibit. As you can see by my coat, it was still quite chilly.
On Sunday we met with several interesting people. Anat Hoffman, shown here, is the Executive Director of IRAC, the Israel Religious Action Center. IRAC is the public and legal advice arm of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism. Its mission is to advance religious freedom and pluralism, tolerance, social justice and civil liberties in Israel, based on the belief that these values are intrinsic to, and stem from, a liberal understanding of Judaism. Anat was also a founding member of Women of the Wall, a group that advocates for freedom of religion and women’s rights.
We had lunch at a private home in the City of David. The City of David is the birthplace of the city of Jerusalem, the place where King David established his kingdom, and where the history of the people of Israel was written. Getting there was one of the major thrills of the trip… we had to walk, on cobblestone streets that were long and practically vertical. In most areas there were railings to hold on to, but not everywhere. Our bus would not have been able to navigate the road, and it was tricky for some of us, but we made it! The view and the food were worth it! Our hostess, who you see here, made all the food herself. While we were there she received word that her daughter, who like all Israeli children of that age, was in the military, had been working the border patrol, and identified a terrorist trying to enter Israel with deadly intent. She identified and eliminated the terrorist. The next day, in retaliation for that one terrorist, Hamas, began three days of bombing into southern Israel. We only knew about it because our bus driver and tour guide told us about it from what they heard on the radio; we heard nothing ourselves, and never felt unsafe.
The Cardo and the Jewish Quarter are where we ended the day, with some shopping and appreciation of some beautiful architecture and artwork. I think by this time we were all exhausted and ready for the comfort of our hotel rooms.
The Supreme Court was our first stop on Monday. We met with retired Justice Yitzhak Englard. Israeli justices have a mandatory retirement age of 70. He discussed philosophy with us, on the subject of Religion and State. We attempted to sit in on a court case but they were all either full or closed to the public. In the US, the Supreme Court will hear 100-150 cases a year. In Israel, the Supreme Court will hear 10,000.
Benno Elkan, an English sculptor created the Knesset menorah, which you see here. Knesset is the name of Israel’s parliament, and menorah is the name of the candelabra, which first came to use in the days following the Maccabees, or the beginning of Chanukah. The designs on each section of the menorah depict events that have happened to the Jewish people throughout history.
In the photo on the left, of course, you see our whole tour group, starting to shed our winter coats at last. On the right, and in the next slide
You see Israeli soldiers studying the menorah and taking notes on what they are learning. Almost everywhere we went, there were young soldiers. In many cases, the soldiers are coming into the army not knowing very much about the history of the country or even the religion. They may be coming, in fact, from another country. And so, before they set about defending their country, it is important that they learn why. They have to learn about the Shoah, the Hebrew word for the Holocaust, and about the times the Jews have been kicked out of other countries and why it is so important that we have a homeland. They have to understand why it is so important that we hold on to this tiny, hot, unwelcoming, sandy piece of land in a bad neighborhood before they lay their lives on the line to defend it. And so every place we went, they were there, learning just as we were.
Yad Vashem. The memorial to the Holocaust. It’s hard to describe what this museum is like, or the effect it has on people. There are many parts to it. Here, you see the young soldiers gathering quietly after going through the exhibits, on the left. On the right is a chapel for those who wish to say kaddish, the prayer for the dead. Around the room are remainders of synagogues that have been saved and collected from Romanian communities that were demolished.
The children’s memorial is the part I remember the most. You see me here, walking into it. In front of me is the face of a child, Uri is his name. You have to go in single file, and hold onto a railing. There is no light inside. As you enter you start to hear the names… the name of each child, where they were from, and their age when they were murdered in the camps. As you walk pinpoints of light, like stars in the sky, appear. There seems to be millions of them. And that’s all you see, as you continue through, listening to the names, looking at the stars, until you reach the exit.
We were among the first to exit. Gary turned around, as is his habit, to catch photos of people exiting. But when he checked the first photo and saw the tears rolling down the faces, he put his camera down.
We continued on into the Negev, the desert, heading towards Sea Level. It was not a day for floating in the Dead Sea; only about 68 degrees, so we stopped for some photos with Shushi the camel and a group shot at Sea Level and continued. Due to the heavy rains, our planned trip to Masada had to be cancelled, as the roads were washed out. But, never one to be without a Plan B, Kayla, our tour guide, headed us toward the Jordan River.
And here we are, on the Israeli side of the Jordan River, at the place where Jesus was baptized. We are looking at the Jordan side; as you can see it is very close. Unfortunately, in this area, the Jordan is a victim of climate change, and has actually dried up. The Israelis have pumped water into it and keep it artificially flowing so that, as you can see, Christians on the Jordan side of the river can still be baptized there. We saw many baptisms happening that day. They didn’t even stop when thunder and lightning, very unusual in that area, began, followed by a short period of rain.
I’m sure you’ve all heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls. In these photos we are looking at archeological findings in the area where the majority of the Scrolls were found. The photo on the left is of a mikvah, or ritual bath the Assynes used. On the left, you see a cave in the distance. That is the actual cave where the shepherd found the scrolls. This area is covered with many such caves.
Wednesday we headed, early in the morning, to the Western Wall for a prayer service to start off the beginning of the Jewish month of Adar. As you can see in the left picture, there is a clearly marked men’s entrance and women’s entrance. In the photos on the right, the top photo is the men’s side, since Gary was not allowed on the women’s side. The photo on the bottom is by Wikipedia; just a more all over photo to give you a feel of the whole setting.
There is more to the story of that day, but we’ll save that for another time.
Here are some closeups from the men’s side. The photo on the right is where people have stuffed prayers in a crack in the wall. This is a popular tradition. Every week, they get vacuumed out, and then buried in a cemetery. It is forbidden to destroy anything that has the name of God written on it, so burying it is the only option. People visiting from around the world often bring prayers from other people as special requests of God. Because this is considered a holy site, it is often thought that these prayers are more likely to get answered.
Some last photos at the Wall. On the left you have a man wearing phylacteries, or tefillin, and reading from the Torah. In the center you see a lot of people holding up cell phones because of what is happening on the women’s side, where they are also reading from a Torah, and on the right is where Gary was able to go into the tunnel under the wall and get in a couple of photos.
After the service we went into a Bedouin Camp to meet an unusual woman, a Bedouin woman who set up and is running her own business. She produces and sells essential oils and supports herself with a growing business. She is now also selling a few products for other women as well. She had us try some of her products and several women bought a few items from her before we left.
We are now well into the Negev. The heat is on, the coats are staying in the bus, and we are at the home of David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister and defense minister. It was Ben Gurion’s dream to “make the desert bloom.” While we were there, the desert WAS blooming, because there had been so much rain, and so there were flowers growing where normally it was just sand. But this was unusual. However, the desert has been a source of knowledge and technology for the Israelis, and he was not wrong to want to bring people to settle in what was then a barren wasteland. Now, there are new communities being built, new luxury hotels, and a new generation of Israelis purposely making their way there to live. So the desert IS blooming; not with vegetation, but with communities and thriving farms.
David Ben Gurion specified in his will that his homes were to stay exactly as they were on the day he died. So when you visit his two homes, you will see how modestly he lived; everything has been preserved, from the bed he slept in to the toothbrush he used to the 10,000 books in his collection.
He loved this view, and he is buried here, beside his wife Paula, on Kibbutz Sdeh Boker.
Makhtesh Ramon is the largest of the thee Negev Makhteshs. It contains geological formations unparalleled elsewhere in the world. Together with the magnificent panorama, it presents a fascinating story of geomorphologic evolution. The Ramon Nature Reserve encompassing the Makhtesh and the Negev mountains surrounding it is the largest nature reserve in Israel.
The Ramon Makhtesh is 25 miles long and up to 6.25 miles wide, or shaped like an elongated heart. It began hundreds of millions of years ago and through erosion and evolution, lower and more ancient rock strata are exposed. At the bottom of Ramon Makhtesh, some rocks are as old as 200 million years.
Tel Aviv was the last stop on our journey. We spent part of Friday before Shabbat at another street fair, and did some walking along the beautiful boardwalk. Tel Aviv is a very cosmopolitan city. There are a lot of hotels all along the beach. We stayed in one of the most beautiful, the Carlton, and it was right here on the marina.
After services on Friday night, with everything shut down and no one going anywhere, Gary grabbed his camera and went out to get some night shots. These two shots of the marina are my personal favorites.
On Shabbat, our last full day in Israel, Gary and I walked with my sister and brother-in-law to Old Jaffa. We walked about three miles along the beach It was such a beautiful day and we wanted to get the most out of it. There were plenty of other people doing the same thing; not in the water, because the weather wasn’t quite that warm yet, but out walking and enjoying the sunlight.
As you can see, Jaffe is made up of stone streets and buildings. Behind these doors are craftsmen; I have, in the past, purchased some of my favorite jewelry in Jaffa.
One thing you see a lot of in Israel is ferrel cats roaming the streets. Someone left food for these five. Cats are everywhere and they are not pets, which is a foreign concept to most of us!
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We don’t have a photo of one visit we had early in our trip that really made an impression on all of us. Photographs were not permitted, and you will understand why.
Issam Sa’ad is the director of the Palestine Dialogue Center. For over 20 years, he has been coordinating and directing coexistence initiatives and peace dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis in the Middle East. He had to sneak into Jerusalem to tell us his story.
Issam grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Although he was taught, to hate Jews and all Israelis, when he was 18, he got a job in Israel. One customer in particular, a Jewish woman named Sarah, took an interest in him. Eventually they developed a mother/son relationship. He looked around with new eyes and started to come to new conclusions on his own.
And then, there was a terror attack on Jerusalem. Issam was at home when he heard about it. He was worried about his friend Sarah. But that meant going into Israel after curfew to find a phone; this was before cell phones. And, sure enough, after he made his call, a couple of Israeli soldiers picked him up and arrested him. He was treated roughly and imprisoned. Two days later, an officer came to interrogate him but, upon hearing his story, and checking it out, he ended up apologizing to Issam. He sat down next to him and cleaned his wounds, brought him food, and, to Issam’s astonishment, even drove him home. He had to ask himself new questions about the lessons he had been taught… who are the real Israelis? The cruel people in his textbooks, or the humane people he has met at work and now at war? And that’s why he started the organization that brings Palestinian and Jewish teens together, to meet each other at summer camp and learn that each is also a human being. For his trouble, Hamas put a price on his head; they killed his partner and shot off his brother’s legs. Issam had to leave Gaza and move to Ramallah, and continue his work there. His camps are still successful, 20 years later.
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And so we came to the end of our trip! It was very sad to leave. We still keep in touch via WhatsApp with our friends from Australia, Switzerland, Boston, and our tour guide, who right now is in Florida with her parents, as tours are shut down for the duration of the virus outbreak. Thank you for coming along as we revisited Eretz Yisroel. Now we’d be glad to answer any questions.
CLOSING:
Pres. Amir led us in the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
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