5 Hidden Gems to Visit in Israel
Check out the previous installments in Kathy Shaidle’s Israel Travel Series:
- 5 Places to Visit in Israel (Once It’s Safe To Go Back): Part One
- 5 Places to Visit in Israel (When It’s Safe to Go Back): Part Two
5. Caliber 3
Since 2000, Caliber 3 has trained laymen and professionals (including the IDF) in security and counterterrorism techniques.
This Gush Etzion range is one of the few places in Israel where tourists are permitted to fire guns. That makes its 2-hour courses for tourists incredibly popular, even though they aren’t exactly a walk at the beach:
At our program we combine together the values of Zionism with the excitement and enjoyment of shooting which makes the activity more meaningful. The contact with real soldiers who have experienced anti terrorism fighting means that everything shown and taught is authentic.
Don’t worry: you aren’t expected to run an obstacle course, but there is some running back and forth, yelling, and briskly paced team competition with lots of surprises.
Stick it out and you’ll be rewarded with the chance to fire a Ruger (too heavy!) and an M16.
They’ll even serve you lunch. (This is Israel; food is VERY important.)
Definitely one of the highlights of my trip.
(P.S.: Remember to wear long pants, and leave the flip flops at home. Ask permission about whom and what you can film and photograph.)
Our trainer was Steve Gar (below), an impressive guy originally from South Africa. Besides being a weapons expert, he is studying to be a rabbi and he works with special needs youth (one of whom served as Steve’s range assistant). Sorry, ladies — Gar’s married (to a Toronto girl!).
4. St. George’s Cathedral Pilgrim Guesthouse
We stumbled on this literal “hidden gem” on our way to Damascus Gate from our hotel in Jerusalem.
The doors to the courtyard were open, so we strolled through and discovered an exquisite oasis.
This was St. George’s Cathedral, which also runs a pilgrim guesthouse.
The Cathedral was established in 1899, and is Anglican, so everything about it reflects its British heritage, like this Kiplingesque plaque:
The needlepoint kneelers (seen here) are donated from Anglican parishes around the world. In turn, visitors often return to their home countries and start up similar projects for their parish church.
Also, since it’s Church of England, the diocese itself is kind of… liberal.
(For instance, one report says convicted spy Mordechai Vanunu has been staying there since his release from prison.)
So I’m not sure I could cope with that, even in exchange for the chance to stay at such a quaint, peaceful (if spartan) spot that is still close to the heart of Jerusalem.
Something to think about for next time…
P.S.: Not being C. of E., I can’t speak for the Sunday services either way, but one of Ship of Fools’ infamous “Mystery Worshipers” took notes.
3. Palmach Museum
This museum in Tel Aviv honors those who fought for Israel’s independence in its earliest days:
The Palmach was the elite striking force of the “Hagana” – the underground military organization of the Jewish community, its national institutions and the Zionist Movement prior to the establishment of the State of Israel.
The Palmach was founded in May 1941 to help the British defend the country (then Palestine) against the approaching German armies. In the fall of 1942, as the threat of invasion receded, the British authorities ordered the dismantling of the Palmach, which caused it to go underground.
It became a fully mobilized voluntary force consisting of young men and women (…) [who] were stationed in Kibbutzim, where they underwent military training but also worked on the farms for 14 days a month in order to support themselves.
Note that the Palmach symbol, above, shows two sheaves of wheat and a sword, symbolizing this balance between working the land and fighting for its survival.
Along with engaging in guerrilla warfare against the British (and later, the Arabs), the Palmach brought Holocaust survivors to Israel in boats like the famous “Exodus.”
Following the U.N. decision of November 29, 1947 to partition Palestine, Arab armed gangs blocked the roads and besieged Jewish towns, including Jerusalem. At the time 2,200 Palmach fighters were the only force ready to engage in battle, though they were poorly armed. As the War of Independence unfolded, they operated all over the country, liberating Jerusalem and other besieged towns, conquering territories, opening roads and, with the newly organized “Hagana” troops, defeated the invading armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. They fought valiantly but suffered many casualties – over 1,168 dead and hundreds wounded.
Most of the Palmach’s notable attributes and warfare ethics were incorporated into the IDF, such as, a pioneering spirit, a tradition of volunteering and complete obedience to the Jewish legitimate authorities, (…) moral warfare codes, commando tactics, leadership in battle (the famous battle-cry of field commanders “Follow me”). For many consecutive years, most of the high-ranking commanders of the IDF, including 6 Chiefs of Staff and 40 generals, came from the ranks of the Palmach.
Our guide Ellie at the Palmach Museum, Tel Aviv
Because tours are guided, they must be booked ahead of time.
The 90 minute tour tells the story of the Palmach through a semi-fictional Band of Brothers-style movie, which plays out as you walk through exhibits that recreate Palmach camps and battlegrounds.
A fellow who took the tour with us, while not one of our party, was an elderly man with his much younger care-giver. The old guy sang Palmach songs and had lots to add about the exhibits. Unfortunately, I don’t speak Hebrew so I missed getting a history lesson first hand.
Overall: Very inspirational and moving.
2. The Mysterious Room of Adina Plastelina
Adina Plastelina’s jewelry workshop and boutique is one of many ensconced in Old Jaffa’s catacomb of antique shops and artists’ galleries.
However, only her’s has a “mysterious room”:
In the year 2006, we were performing extensive renovation work in the gallery. At that time, the ruins of an ancient limestone structure was revealed at the sand mound level. During a complex engineering effort, headed by Mr.Hassan El-Obidi, a round hollow with 280 cm. in diameter was uncovered.
What was this building used for? Was it for religious or cultish use? Was it part of someone’s home or used for water storage? Who built it and during what period? Were they the ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians, Romans or Crusaders?
The Mysterious Room is an archeological site and private museum that showcases the assortment of artifacts we have found there, including seventeen coins from the Roman and Byzantine periods, arrowheads, a signed amphora handle from the Hellenistic period, a ballista ball, a Maltese cross, a collection of animal teeth, twenty Ottoman smoking pipes, and more.
Admission is free, but be warned: it’s easy to fall in love with Adina’s intricately crafted and seductively presented millaflori jewellry.
I walked out with an early Christmas present. (Thanks, Arnie!)
1. David Ben-Gurion’s House
One of my husband’s blog readers suggested we visit the home of Israel’s first prime minister in Tel Aviv.
We went inside the unprepossessing house on our last day in the city, having walked right past it a number of times.
Since we all had a few hours to kill before our flight back to Canada, afterwards we advised the rest of our group take a look, since the house (on Ben-Gurion’s namesake street) was so close to our hotel.
Everyone came away impressed by the contrast between Ben-Gurion’s modest home and the residences of so many heads of state today — especially those who, like Ben-Gurion, align themselves with “the people.”
No one could accuse Ben-Gurion of hypocrisy in that respect, after touring his spartan house. (After retirement, Ben-Gurion moved to a kibbutz — an even less glamorous residence.)
Displays include the many gifts Ben-Gurion received after he became leader of the brand new state, his library of tens of thousands of books on every topic, plus photos and correspondence, including Einstein’s gracious letter declining the offer to become Israel’s second president after the first’s sudden death.
I was pretty impressed by this gift from soldiers at the front — a menorah fashioned from bullets:
The Ben-Gurion House also proved to be a great place to meet interesting people. We ran into another Canadian (an evangelical Christian Zionist with some… odd notions about the Catholic Church) and an American woman depressed about Obama’s re-election, accompanied by a local man who’d never been to the museum before.
All in all, a low-key, contemplative, humbling experience.
(Next week: My tips on “Money, Food and Unrequited Love.”)
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More from Kathy Shaidle at PJ Lifestyle:
I’m up for the Caliber 3 training!
What? Only 2 hours? Are there longer courses available?
Who’s with me?
But note Israel is not “shall issue”; you need to show a need to have a weapon (outside of training). However, this works because there are many soldiers on leave holding the weapons they have been nade responsible for. I am 100% against the women’s draft, but I still find it cute when I get on the bus and see some exhausted 18-year-old girl sleeping on a nearby seat holding on to her military weapon. (Yes, it’s just cute, no macho culture here, and I’m sure the clip is out.)
Would I be a fool to go visit Israel? Who should I ask about this? I’m thinking Michael Totten, but is there anyone else?
Heather – No, you would not be a fool if you go and visit. As a matter of fact, you would be a fool if you didn’t. You don’t have to ask anyone. Just go.
Israel is beautiful. And to those who think of Israel only as what they see in the Western mass media, Israel may be astonishing.
Israel is a liberal democratic free open — beautiful modern, and ancient — country — the (continuously intendedly genocidally besieged, universally libeled) very small sole nation of the Jewish people. But Israel is just a normal country just like other countries. And it’s been under intendedly genocidal siege since even before it’s official refounding in 1948. So it, like all other countries, it has it’s flaws (for example: I think it rains very little, if at all, in Israel, and I think that maybe public cleanup is not the highest priority of the government in Israel, so expect the results of that; and don’t expect the politeness of angelic beings from the members of a traumatized besieged war-hardened, yet deeply empathetic and kind, small-numbered people) so don’t expect a fantasy land. But don’t expect what is portrayed in the Western media. If you go to Israel you will see that Israel is beautiful and amazing. Israel is a wonderful country. And, from what I’ve experienced, Israel is quite safe. I visited Israel last year. I stayed in Haifa. Haifa is beautiful. Haifa is gorgeous.
Google Image look up: Haifa university
And Google Image look up: Haifa Israel
TEL AVIV , ISRAEL – 2010 WALKING TOUR – 1080P HD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4XkrUaMlwU
The colors of Jerusalem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0DwOEVlHdg
Israel
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE440A6985B51B0DF
Israel is to what Israel is portrayed as being as Jewish people are to what Jewish people were portrayed as being by the Medieval European Christian Catholic Church and by the German Nazis.
Correction (clarification):
Israel is to what Israel is portrayed as being by the Western mass media as Jewish people are to what Jewish people were portrayed as being by the Medieval European Christian Catholic Church and by the German Nazis.
“and don’t expect the politeness of angelic beings from the members of a traumatized besieged war-hardened, yet deeply empathetic and kind, small-numbered people”
Although, I think that, in general, Israeli Jewish people are quite polite — particularly considering what they are going through and what they have gone through.
(BTW: What other people would provide, among other such things, the electricity and water to the governing organizations of a group of people whose governing organizations are committed to committing genocide against they who are providing them with, among other such things, their electricity and water? And what other people would provide top medical treatment to the members of the people and governing organizations of those people whose governing organizations are committed to committing genocide against they who are providing that medical treatment? etc. Furthermore, what other people would consider giving the militarily existentially strategically crucial heartland of their very small ancestral homeland to an organization (Fatah-PLO) who sole official goal and founding purpose is to annihilate them? No other people would do so. Only the Jewish people in Israel have done so.)
…Although the leaders’ of the government of Israel supporting of Fatah-PLO and supporting of, to a lesser extent, Hamas, and the leaders’ of the government of Israel offering to give the strategically existentially crucial heartland of the very small homeland of the Jewish people to a racist ideologically genocidal anti-Jewish organization[1] originated by a co-architect of the Nazi ‘Final Solution’[2] is a result of Stockholm syndrome experienced by leaders of the government of Israel, and as result of, as part of that, the lack of mindfulness of leaders of the government of Israel, and, as part of that, cowardice had by leaders of the government of Israel (toward the Western (American (State Department, CIA, U.S. government executive administrations, etc.) and European) anti-Jewish “powers that be”).
Notes:
1. Fatah-PLO
2. Haj Amin al-Husseini
I wouldn’t ask dear Michael Totten for any travel advise.
GO ….you will not regret it. I would even go as far as to say it is safer then a vacation to the USA and way safer the Washington DC. check out the link below.
http://thedaleygator.wordpress.com/2012/12/13/black-mobs-take-over-washington-metro/
Although I would not go wandering around a foreign country without speaking to a local first, Israel is in general a very safe place, with low crime. Neither I nor my wife worry about going out an night at any hour, almost anywhere (there are some exceptions, of course), and I do not go crazy if I lost sight of a little kid for a few seconds, as I would in the U.S.
Much safer than the US. The people may not be mannerly in US terms (NY on steroids), but they are more likely to actually HELP you. If you are on the bus, ask if someone knows English. Most likely, someone will and try to help you.
Come!
“The people may not be mannerly in US terms (NY on steroids), but they are more likely to actually HELP you. If you are on the bus, ask if someone knows English. Most likely, someone will and try to help you.”
Exactly! Maybe gruff sometimes in some cases. But, in general, very warm-hearted and eager to please and eager to help. Not “mannerly”. But kind. Guileless. Guileless and kind.
“Come!”
Yes!
I exaggerated, and, I think, fabricated (in my own mind, and as what I expressed), what I referred to as “gruffness” and lack of politeness, of Jewish people in Israel. I think that the reason that I did that is because I’m stressed about the situation that Israel is in, and because I identify with the Jewish people in Israel, and because I was stressed when I wrote my comments, and because I was thinking of how people think of Israelis, and because I, when I was writing my comment, conflated, in my mind, certain few instances of certain few encounters with certain few individuals with generalizations that I’ve heard about Israelis and that I have in my mind, and because (because I identify with the Jewish people in Israel) I wanted to “confess” (overly “confess”). Although I have mainly freed myself from the Stockholm syndrome that I have experienced in being Jewish, I still struggle with it.
Israeli Jewish people are just people. And, in general, as a people, they are very good. And they’re in a difficult situation. But they are exuberant and friendly. And they’re depressed and somber. And they’re happy and playful. And they’re impolite and impatient. And they’re kind and generous and helpful. They’re just normal good people…in a difficult situation.
And the Israeli Jewish people that I know are very warm and kind. (They’re the opposite of gruff. They’re soft-spoken and kind and gentle.)
If you want to go to Israel, just go. It’s a wonderful place.
I apologize for exaggerating what I referred to as, and for, I think, fabricating what I expressed as (which I fabricated in my own mind) what I referred to as, “gruffness” and lack of politeness, of Jewish people in Israel.
And, to clarify:
In my previous comment, I wrote:
“I exaggerated, and, I think, fabricated (in my own mind, and as what I expressed), what I referred to as “gruffness” and lack of politeness, of Jewish people in Israel.”
In that which I wrote in my previous comment, what I was referring to as my having exaggerated is what I had previously, in my previous comments, referred to as “gruffness” and lack of politeness, of Jewish people in Israel.
And, to let people know:
I suffer from severe OCD, which makes it painful and difficult for me to communicate in writing; and which makes it difficult for me to communicate in writing what I want to communicate.
I apologize for writing so many comments. I just wanted to make clear what I meant and make accurate what I wrote.
Gush Eztion is an interesting place, with a lot of Americans. It is important to note that it is a “West Bank settlement” that was there BEFORE the State of Israel. The religious kibbutz that gives its name was invaded by Arabs; it is not clear what happened, but the version I was taught was that they surrendered, and then the men were lined up against the wall and shot.
For this reson, it was one of the first place3s that was given permission to be settled after 1967, and why I was mad as hell when the worthless “freeze” instigated by Obama caused people planning to build to have their money frozen, having already invested in the property.
Ben Gurion may or may not have believed in God, but he certainly believed in the Bible.
It’s not about “belief in God”. It’s not about “belief in the Bible”.
It’s about standing up for the human rights of the Jewish people.
http://danielbielak.blogspot.com/2012/12/its-about-standing-up-for-human-rights.html