Beit Guvrin

An enormous archaeological site with ruins from the 3rd century BCE, the Byzantines, the Greeks,
the Persians, the Jews,
the Sidonians (form Sidon
in Lebanon), the Romans, the Arabs,
the Crusaders...
The Arabs are the ones who dug the magnificent bell caves between the 7th and 10th centuries, which despite their beauty, fantastic lighting, and amazing acoustics, had the purely practical purpose to quarry stones. There are something like 800 in the area, but just a few in Beit Guvrin. Today the caves can be rented out for parties, concerts, etc.

Anni & Andrea

We're still here...

It's been a busy couple of weeks...but here's a short update of what we've been up to:

1. Our dear friend Marla Gamaron was in town and we were enjoying getting to spend time with her. Stephanie and Marla had an especially nice day together at the amazing archaeological site at Beit Guvrin, stopping at a 'Spice Farm' on the way.
2. Our sister/sister-in-law/aunt Andrea and niece/cousin Anni Zuckert visited and we enjoyed getting to spend time with them.
3. Stephanie took an intensive one-on-one 2-week ulpan (Hebrew language class).
   
4. Zach spent a shabbat in Beit Shemesh with a new found Scrabble friend (a 50+ yr. old patent attorney who is one of the top two players at the Jslm Scrabble Club) and his family (wife and four kids aged 9-14), which included the chance to play 5 games.

More to come, including pictures, soon.

Sun, Sea, Salt... and Scrabble!

Last week Zach played in a 3-day national Scrabble (played in English) tournament at the Dead Sea. The drive from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea hotel where it was being held is about 1.5 hours, but the difference in climate and landscape is dramatic. Jerusalem is up high in the Judean Hills and the weather here has been cool and rainy this time of year. The drive takes us through the Judean Desert, snaking down biblical looking landscapes, dotted with Bedouin tents and their sheep, goats, camels. Once down from the hills, the red rock cliffs and caves are stunning. This is the area where the Dead Sea scrolls were found, where the remains of the Roman fortress Masada stands. Down at the Dead Sea, the lowest point on the surface of the earth, the temperatures are predictably at least 10 degrees warmer than in Jerusalem. We had absolutely perfect weather: warm enough to go into the sea, swim, and lie out in the sun reading, not too hot, light breeze... of course, it was a bit lost on those of us in the hotel conference room the whole time with our Scrabble boards...

On to the Scrabble scene: There were some 48 players, the average age of which was 70 yrs. old. Four divisions of play, in descending order of skill: champion, challenge, competitive, and casual. Zach, by far the youngest, was placed in the challenge division. They played 12 games over the 3 days, often lingering afterwards to deconstruct the games, and re-think strategies, end-games, and verify the legality of words played. Sara Schacter, the oldest player at 94 yrs. old, slipped and fell the first evening, breaking a rib or two and getting a black eye. Having only had a chance to play 3 games, however, she was having none of this going to the hospital stuff. "What? So they can tell me I have a few broken ribs and do nothing about it?" She apparently had some kind of pain medication with her, so she remained at the hotel and played the rest of the tournament. Sara received a special lifetime Scrabble achievement award from the Israeli Scrabble organization. Also at the tournament was a spark plug of a woman in her 80s, named Roz. She is not only a mean Scrabble player (she plays in the top division), she is a total hoot to be around. She makes up songs (and sings them) and poems (one of her odes to Scrabble is included in Stefan Fatsis's book on Scrabble, Wordfreak.), and is an endless fount of off-color jokes. In sum, Zach had a fantastic time. He took 4 out of his first 6 games, won some more (I'm not exactly sure how it went), putting himself in first place heading into the last 2 games. If he won the first, he'd have been in good position to easily win all the marbles. But he wasn't going to take the easy way; he lost that game forcing him to win the last one, which he did (but not by much...). He received a lovely 1st place trophy souvenir to bring back to the States. Our dear friend Ricky Aron, who introduced Zach to the Jerusalem Scrabble club 4 years ago, and who was also playing in the challenge division, and whom Zach beat on the way to his victory, gave him his award. Awards were also given for best word, highest scoring word, lowest scoring win, best phony word played (and not challenged off), and service to Scrabble (fewest wins).

In season

We are loving partaking of the local seasonal foods. Some of our favorites include the persimmons (orange tomato-like looking fruits that taste like nothing else we know), passion fruits (hard dark purple/
green shells that one cuts (saws) open and spoons out the delicious small amount of tomato-like-consistency innards: orange flesh w/small greenish seeds), and pomelos (look like huge misshapen grapefruits, but have their very own not too juicy and yummy citrus flavor). Pomegranate season has past and shesek (loquats) season is not yet here. Among those fruits and vegetables you know that are especially delicious and extremely inexpensive here: the tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado, fennel, peppers, eggplants, artichokes, oranges, lemons. A friend here was curious to hear that they are now growing acorn squash here and we will soon be able to get them in the stores. She had no idea what it was. The hard squashes and cold weather crops we enjoy in Wisconsin are not so available here: no big Idaho bakers, winter squash, the celery and broccoli are not so great, and all the varieties of greens (chard, spinach, kale, and the like) we love are only meagerly represented. Also the milk and dairy products are excellent, so we are not missing Wisconsin in that way...

Say hi to your cousin Max

Zach's cousin Max, who is in Israel on a Young Judea year course, moved to Jerusalem March 1st for the last months of his program. He stopped by to say hi and check out our place.

In the neighborhood

Across the street

Obamamania

Hizkiahu Hamelekh

Katamon

We are settled into our apartment here, which is small but very comfortable. We decided not to get a car (gas here is 6 shekels/ liter, which comes out to about $6/galllon...), so we are learning our bus routes and are enjoying finding our way walking through Jerusalem's curvelinear streets and footpaths. The neighborhood, Katamon, is great and we are having a lot of fun exploring our new environs. 'Katamon' is a distortion of the Greek words kata-monis, meaning "near the monastery," which refers to the San Simon monastery just up the block from our apt. The lands of this neighborhood were bought by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in the late nineteenth century and the Greek Consulate stands today around the corner from us. Best find so far: Shosh cafe 3 blocks from our house–open early, open late, breakfast all day/night, great fresh food, great coffee, tantalizing sweets, lovely young owner Nir, outlets for Daniel's laptop.

Arrived.

Daniel arrived February 1st and is now full into his routines and work. He is enjoying the work, the walk to and from, and is already a well known regular at a coffee shop (called "coffee shop") in between. Zach and I arrived February 11th: election day here. A huge mess, as near as I can tell. Most of the folks we've been talking to–from the right to the left–are depressed about it all; thoroughly uninspired and unexcited by any of the major candidates. Many voted for one of the (numerous–some 3o-odd) smaller parties. The cab driver who drove Zach and me from the airport said it didn't matter who was PM–Bibi or Tzipi–Obama is what matters. I don't think many Israelis would agree with him...