Israel day 9 - Tiberius, Haifa & Tel Aviv

Israel day 9
July 6, 2007 – Tiberius, Haifa & Tel Aviv

We had our last BIG breakfast at Hagoshrim and visited a cemetery that was on the kibbutz. One of the gravesites had two benches around it, a mailbox, and an old video camera set on a tripod with the legs in cement. Ron told us this person’s hobby was photography.

We asked why rocks were placed on the graves. Although some had flowers, that was not a Jewish custom. Rocks are a part of nature, and the body is being returned to nature. Rocks are the acknowledgement of the visit and they are the natural things to bring to the grave.

We drove though Tiberius, named after one of the Roman Emperors, which is on the western side of the Sea of Galilee. While there were sites to see, the city looked like a typical resort town full of tourists and shopping. One third of Israel’s water comes from the Sea of Galilee and 2/3 is pumped from the ground. We just drove through and headed to our next stop, Haifa.

Haifa is a new city, starting about 150 years ago, and the center of the Baha’i religion. The Baha’i Temple and grounds is an amazing site rising from the based of a hill in Haifa and going all the way up to the top with immaculately maintained grounds. The grass is beautiful; the flowers were in bloom; the trees were all trimmed; there were 2” red rocks separating gardens and grass.

From what I understand, when Muhammad founded the Islam religion he said he was the last prophet to announce the coming of the Messiah, and that anyone else who said they were a messenger was a liar and should die. The Baha’i faith grew out of an announcement by Bab (Siyyid Ali-Muhammad, 1819-1850) that he was sent by God to announce that a bigger messenger than himself would be coming. Well, according to Muhammad this was a bad idea and Bab was publicly martyred in 1850. Then came Mirza Husayn-Ali the founder of the Baha’i faith. He was a Persian nobleman and took the title “The Glory of God.” Again, bad idea. The story goes that Mirza was hanged, and the rope broke. This was a sign that he should not be killed, so they imprisoned him in Acre, across the bay from Haifa, until he died 24 years later.

Next on the route to Tel Aviv was Caesarea. If you don’t know for whom this city was named, you need to read more than my blog. This was a port city where the harbor was built from scratch by King Herod and served ships that traveled the Mediterranean Sea. This was a city built to serve the travelers and grew into a major stop with a 4000 seat theatre; an ancient Jewish quarter; an amphitheatre for horse races; luxurious bathhouses; a 30,000 seat hippodrome for chariot races; an aqueduct and temples.

Unfortunately, the city was built above a fault line that runs along the shore and either an earthquake or a gradual shift in the earth’s plates destroyed the harbor around 100 A.D. Over the next 2000 years it was rebuilt and destroyed by various groups like Pagans, Samaritans and Arabs to Jews and Christians. During the Byzantine period, around 500 A.D., the city covered more than 400 acres and was the largest fortified city in the country.

Our next stop was near Latana to visit friends of Dianne’s uncle Walter. Friedlander went to elementary school in Germany just prior to the breakout of WWII. Both Walter and Peter where a part of the Kinder Transport that saved Jewish children and got them out of Germany. Peter went with his parents in 1939 to England and got visas to go to Israel and went to Haifa. Peter still has the certificate from his arrival in 1940 that shows he is a Palestinian. Near Latana he set up a farm. Peter’s father made clothing for children in Breslau, Germany from 1918 to 1937 until the Jews were persecuted and fled to England.

We arrived in Tel Aviv about 4:30.