Newsletter #11 - Late December 1999

Happy New Year to Y'all!

For Christmas, Kevin and I brought a turkey for a potluck dinner at the African church we sometimes attend. We Americans sang a Christmas carol for them, and an African man sang one of their traditional numbers for us. Then we cut loose with some loud native African-style praise music, including drums and dancing, and really rocked the neighborhood! Definitely a Christmas to remember.

Kevin and I continued sightseeing with a visit to Tel Eireni, which used to be the city of Gath, Goliath the Philistine's home town. All that's left now is a big hill with a flat top, called a "tel." In the ancient days, cities were built near strategic locations such a water source, or on a trade route or by a mountain pass. As years passed, earthquakes and wars levelled the cities. Because of the importance of "location, location, location," people built new cities on top of the ruins of the old ones, and usually retained the name of the city. Today's archeologists can dig down and find the oldest civilizations at the bottom. Anyway, from the top of Tel Gat, to the east you see the foothills, or Sephalah, where the Israelites fought the Philistines. The Judean Mountains can be seen in the distance. To the west you can see the coastal plain (the Plain of Sharon), and further, the Mediterranean Sea.

At the Messianic Jewish church we sometimes attend, a guest speaker from Israel's Baptist Village shared about his ministry to convert Moslems to Christianity. Smoking is a big problem within the Arab community, so the ministers are handing out religious tracts saying that becoming a Christian will help you stop smoking! They also inform potential converts that leaving the Muslim faith may result in bodily injury, job or property loss, divorce, or even death. The religious Muslims persecute people in their communities who become Christians by burning their fields and livestock, and offer them money to change back again. One convert was injured when he was deliberately hit by a car. It is interesting to note that the purpose of the original Islamic Jihad was to convert "pagans," not Christians or Jews, who were considered "people of the book." The Koran states that all the prophets of Judaism and Christianity (including Jesus) are also recognized as prophets of Islam. It is thought by some historians that over the course of history, some generations of people living in Israel switched back and forth several times between Islam and Judaism. There are two Arab towns that refused to fight the Jews during the 1948 War of Independence. One of them is Abu Ghosh, which is on the main road to Jerusalem. As a result, its buildings and homes were spared by the Jews, and it looks older than most other Arab villages. However, it is looked down on by other Israeli Arab communities.

Last month I went to a Government-sponsored class in Wiesbaden, Germany with several Israeli and American co-workers. We arrived late at night into the huge Frankfurt Airport. Driving to our hotel, my British assistant kept exclaiming "Eisfahrt!" and "Einfahrt!" I wondered why he was making rude comments, until he pointed out that there were road signs all over the place with those words - guess they mean "entrance" or "exit" or something. Our hotel was built 250 years ago as part of the Bieberich Castle, the huge orange castle right next door. The castle is now used for Government offices, although one of my German co-workers thinks a few people live in one corner of it. The hotel was on the Rhein River and was sort of like a bed and breakfast, with ten rooms, no elevators, and hardly anyone who spoke English. Fortunately, my assistant speaks excellent German (as well as English and Hebrew). My room had a big wooden beam across the top and down the sides. Our group ate breakfast downstairs by a big window where we watched the sun coming up on the river, and the long barges moving slowly back and forth. There were still lots of leaves on the trees, and the grass was still green. Several mornings we could see a thin layer of snow on the green fields. Once there was enough snow for my assistant to make a couple of snowballs! We enjoyed the German food, and seeing the big, tall, ornate houses and a very old cathedral. I stayed chilly most of the time we were there! One of my Israeli co-workers was a little leery about going to Germany, because of the Holocaust. She said that during her previous visits, Airport Customs and Security gave her a very hard time, asking lots of questions and pawing through all her belongings, which she thought might be because of her Israeli passport. However on this trip, she and I processed through together, and the airport personnel were very helpful and friendly. No hassle at all.

We went to Germany for a week-long course on demilitarizing Government property. "Demil" means that when Defense Dept. property, such as hazardous materials, weapons systems or their components, become excess to the needs of DoD, it must be rendered harmless so that there will be no chance of an accident. Also, we don't want even old weapons or technology falling into the hands of terrorists or unfriendly nations. There used to be a big push to sell as much excess military equipment as possible, to make money for the US Government. This attitude kind of backfired because we gave away a lot of our technology to the wrong people at a very low price. In class we watched a video showing how one American civilian was able to reconstruct several military helicopters by purchasing parts and putting them together. He uses them for civilian purposes, but what would happen if they fell into the wrong hands? Technical classes like this can be a little hard on our foreign service nationals because of the language barrier. So, the English-speakers tried to help out when the problems contained words like "mortar" and "gyroscope."

Our German neighbors surprised us with Christmas gifts of German beer and candy. They left the stuff anonymously at our door in a clear plastic grocery bag (non-transparent containers get blown up by the bomb squad here in Israel), with a note attached. At first we thought it read "Where are the boobs?" Once Kevin figured out who left the package, he learned that the note actually said "Where are the BOOTS?" In Germany, the custom is for children to leave their shoes outside the door for "Santa Claus" to fill with goodies. So, they leave the biggest shoes possible - their boots!

Kevin went on a pork-buying binge at the Embassy food co-op. He bought 20-lb. package of bacon, plus a 3-foot-long sausage! Once in a while he gets someone to record a football game, and he enjoys watching it on the TV at work with our Commander, a fellow Floridian. Along with eating the appropriate snacks, of course!

We celebrated Chanukkah at work as well as at the Jewish-Christian church we sometimes attend. This involves eating donuts (or anything fried in oil), lighting the special nine-candle Chanukka menorah (the regular lampstand has only 7) for an hour each day, saying certain prayers, singing traditional Chanukkah songs, and hearing the story of Chanukkah. This holiday is described in the Bible as the "Festival of Lights" and may have been the occasion of Jesus proclaiming Himself as the "light of the world." (In Christianity, the "servant candle" used to light the other 8 candles represents Jesus.) Over 100 years before Jesus' birth, Palestine was controlled by pagan Greeks. The Greeks worshipped pigs (an unclean animal to Jews) and even brought them into the Jewish Holy Temple in Jerusalem. The Greeks tried to force the Jews to give up their religious holidays, and to worship pigs. The Jews, led by the Maccabe family, got fed up with this, revolted and kicked the Greeks out of Palestine. The Jews then cleansed the Holy Temple of contamination, but they didn't have enough pure olive oil to resume full Temple services. God performed a miracle in multiplying the one day's oil for several days, so there was enough to last until new oil could be produced. Besides eating, another custom is the children's dreidle top. It has four sides with Jewish characters meaning, "A Miracle Happened Here." You spin the top and see which letter is showing when it stops spinning. According to the book I saw, this non-religious custom originated from an old German gambling game, and is one of the few exceptions to gambling allowed by the rabbis. This is confusing, since my boss (an Orthodox Jew who follows all the rules) said he likes to gamble at Reno. There must be a loophole somewhere. Once I told him I was confused about the different kinds of Jews (Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, etc.) and what they believe. He said "join the club."

Kevin and I visited Masada, a three-tiered palace built into a high hill by Herod the Great near the Dead Sea as a fortress in case he had to flee from Cleopatra or the Jews (Herod was only half-Jewish). We drove through the wilderness up through the area of old Sodom (where Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt), past a huge processing plant that harvests minerals from the Dead Sea. The Dead or Salt Sea is a peculiar light blue-green color and it is devoid of animal and plant life. It becomes brighter and more vivid as the water continues south. There are spas for people to wallow in the mud, which is very good for all kinds of skin diseases. We took a tram to the top of Masada. After Herod's death, the Jews revolted against their Roman rulers. The revolt was gradually crushed by the Romans. Masada was the last stronghold of the Jewish zealots and their families. After holding out against huge Roman forces for some time, the Romans finally built a ramp and were about to break through the wall. Rather than be captured by the Romans, the men killed their wives and children. Then, the men cast lots to select those who would kill the rest. The last person, of course, had to kill himself. So, when the Romans did break in, everyone was dead except for a couple of girls who hid themselves and reported what had happened. The events are recorded in "The Jewish Wars" by the Jewish historian Josephus, who started out fighting the Romans but turned traitor when captured. His writings sound very interesting - we will have to read them when we have time! We stayed up on top of the mountain for so long that we were the last ones there, and they almost shut the park gates on us. We had to walk all the way down, a quarter-mile descent, since the trams stopped running. It was so windy and dusty that I could hardly see to climb down the steep steps. We saw some fairly tame ibexes (sheep-like things) grazing along the base of the mountain.

It was very romantic driving home along the Dead Sea, listening to our Jewish-style music as the sun set to the left behind the steep hills. The water on our right got darker and darker, as did the Mountains of Moab in Jordan, on the other side of the Sea. We could see the lights in Jordan turning on at the foot of the mountains, until finally it was pitch black, and time to turn toward home. As we headed west, we could see the horizon lit up by the lights of Jerusalem.

Best wishes to all, and a Bug-Free Millenium!

Kevin & Elizabeth ("Elisheva" in Hebrew)