Families Dispersed: Blum, Levin, Shalit

My Dad arrived last week, right after Purim. But the mother didn't arrive till this past Thursday. Within an hour of her arrival in Jerusalem, she was on the Temple Mount, reliving the Holy City Tour I went on. I pulled up all the pictures of the post it notes I wrote, and loaded them back on my camera. The problem was that I was denied entrance to the Temple Mount because I brought my laptop along for class. So while my parents shot photos, I got lost in the Muslim Quarter, one of my new hobbies. I found a new extension of the Shuk, and at the end of the indoor strip was surprised to get stopped by a soldier, that is, until I looked up and saw the golden Dome. I asked him for directions to the Kotel Katan, and after another few minutes of dark alleys, I found the site I was in search of. I called my parents and gave them a virtual tour of the Mount, and then they returned the favor and filmed a special message I prepared for the Muhlenberg Hillel Elections:



It took two takes, because in the first one these two Arab boys passed by shouting at each other. Then I directed my parents to the Via Delarosa and the Church of the Holy Redeemer, the one with the hundreds of steps to the top of a wonderful tower where they could see the entire city.

Friday, I met my parents at Mount Herzl Museum and Cemetery, where a new exhibit and video presentation narrated the influential life of the German diplomat responsible for assembling the World Zionist Congress and the idea of a Jewish State in Israel. Although he never saw his dream come true, he was re-interred in Jerusalem after the establishment of Israel, and is regarded as a visionary and hero.



Also on this mountain are the resting spots of national leaders, such as Prime Ministers, and soldiers. My parents and I made a few phone calls and found the location of Michael Levin, who is well known in America and Israel for serving in the Army and lost his life in the War with Hizbollah in the summer of 2006. Michael's path never crossed with mine, but on many occasions it could have. We come from the same area, both of us went on the same program in Israel during high school, just a few years apart. We also attended the same summer camp, and he had in fact visited right before leaving America for the last time. His grave was covered with possessions of value, such as amulets, Phillies memorabilia (he was a baseball fan) and stones. It was very powerful to see how alive his final resting place was.

Saturday, I led my mother on a walk around the Old City. This really meant that we got lost finding places, such as the room where some Christians say the Last Supper took place, the Dormition Abbey, the grave of Oskar Schindler, and the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Getting lost meant that we found ourselves in abandoned forests, rooftops, and narrow but lengthy stretches of the Arab Market. It was a long walk, let's leave it at that.

Then came Saturday Night. One of the more pressing issues facing the Israeli government and community at this time is the fate of a young soldier captured in 2006, named Gilad Shalit. Projects demanding his return have been widespread throughout the country. The most interesting idea I've found is a in a story written by Gilad in 5th grade. His parents took the story, and Israeli artists iluustrated it with paintings and other works. It was then published. You can see by my pictures though that this weekend marked an unfortunate milestone, the 1000th day of captivity for this soldier, who is about my age. The walls are filled with signs, the TV and radio with ads, and the papers with letters by his parents, directed at the government, demanding his return.



The Prime Minister, who only has two weeks left in office, has been blamed for the failure of his return, and negotiations have been continuing with the recognized terrorist organization in possession of the soldier, Hamas. Hamas demands a large number of prisoners released by Israel, all in return for Gilad. So recently, his parents took up residence in a tent outside of the Prime Minister's residence, in the center of Jerusalem, one block away from my parents' rented apartment. Saturday night there was a special ceremony where an author spoke, Gilad's father spoke, and a country voiced its support for family, by protesting with the words "רוצים אותו בבית, רוצים אותו עכשיו" meaning "we want him home, we want him now." (The third video begins in the middle of Gilad's father's address.)