Tag Archives: Jerusalem

Sep 9 2010

The Hurva Synagogue

Last week I was in the old city and I went past the famous Hurva Synagogue.

This building was rebuilt and finished in March 2010.   I wanted to go inside, but its only open to the public in the mornings with a groups with a guide.

Following the destruction of this building in the 1948, initial plans for this current synagogue were drawn up in 2000 but the building was not finished until this year in March, about the same week I arrived to do my second season of volunteer work here.   Looking at pictures of the previous synagogue (its been destroyed and rebuilt quite a few times now)  it looks a pretty close copy of the original.

There was a lot worry from possible attacks from Arabs thinking that this a starting point towards building the third temple.   Frequent amounts of history revisionism tries to hide a lot of what has been in this country from the past.  You can click on this photo of a plaque to see this closer.   I think this is a nice icon of the determination of the Jewish people to protect their capital.

Sep 2 2010

In Sepia: Holyland pictures collection part 2

Part 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7

more pictures as promised…

These are a little smaller as done with my old camera and some contain multiple shots stitched together.

These houses seen from the walls of the old city with mauve colours and curved walls show you can mix and match different styles, ie: the familiar white stones used on all Jerusalem buildings and a bit of art deco. 🙂

Cafe in Hillel Street, with Italian museum overlooking.

Mosque in old city only a few metres away from the dome of the rock entrance.

Apartments and mosaic on wall.

Part 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7

Sep 1 2010

IT work in Jerusalem in August

This week work has been busy.

Fans.  Cooling fans in PCs in hot countries wear out a lot.  I changed one on my manager’s PC, the blades simply get stuck and won’t turn.  It seems the oil in the motor bearings gets gunged up and simply won’t turn any more.   I must of changed 15+ fans on PCs in the last year, on the CPU, power supply, chassis, video cards and one laptop as well.  Most of the time this is a off the shelf part and cheap and easy to replace bit.  In one case a fan on a motherboard chipset was a weird one and the only place I could get one (£7) was off ebay.  Well it seemed a shame to throw away an otherwise working motherboard, this fan came all the way from China and took 2 weeks to get here.  I swapped over the user with another PC straight away, so when this part arrived the PC was sitting on a bench to be fixed and then could be put back into a service for a new member of staff a month later.   Now the fan on my own office PC has packed in, so I will need to get another.  Normally they start making grinding noises, but this one has just stopped altogether.

I am making plans to virtualise a server used for our finance applications, as it seems quite awkward to manage it, and I have a feeling one of the hard disks in the RAID array is failing, so this will be done as an out of hours job, hopefully if everything goes to plan I only need 30 minutes in the office, the rest I can do by remote software from a coffee shop with laptop and wireless, the real pain with this kind of upgrade is waiting,  a trial run of this type of upgrade took 6 hours to copy files using Norton Ghost from the server to an extra hard disk.   Strip out all the hanging around and the job shouldn’t take more than one hour.

I got to go out and hand over one of the older computers I wrote on not long ago to a local family just a mile or so from our headquarters.

The girls seem to be pleased with their new acquisition.  After this, I got to spend the rest of the afternoon helping our Korean colleague Jey with his deliveries to the poor from the food bank.   Driving to various apartments of needy families with food was interesting as this took us over the north part of Jerusalem through a nice forest and places I have not seen before. Jey walks quite fast between the van and the apartments as he has to do a lot of drops and time is quite tight.

At least 3 of the people we visited were elderly holocaust survivors, a few having some full time carers staying with them who usually of Thai or Filipino origin who I see quite a lot in caring and nursing roles here.   One of the older gents who was 82 and originally from Poland invited us in and offered orange juice and cake and told us jokes and told us stories about he used to sing in his synagogue when he was younger.  This was a nice afternoon out of the office.

Aug 31 2010

Visit to Ammunition Hill Museum

Went with a bunch of people to Ammunition Hill museum as it was my birthday yesterday .

This museum is here to show the Six day War the was fought in 1967 against Jordan, Syria and Egypt which resulted in Israel getting back control of Jerusalem.  This site gives a good outline www.sixdaywar.co.uk

War trenches

Aug 20 2010

Jerusalem Beer festival

Wasn’t planning to go to this initially, but saw it on my way home from church worship event on thursday night, so I thought why not. 🙂

I was going to go to the beer event last year but after queueing for an hour, the gates were locked and they wouldn’t let us in.   Something to do with a legal issue about serving alcohol which the government people were discussing with the event organisers.   We ended going a usual local instead.

This time the event was in the old Jerusalem railway station, behind the Lab bar.

Not a bad event, but I didn’t get to see any live bands as I was there about 10.30pm and I guess they had stopped playing.   There were very long waits at the bars, and even waiting at the largest one for 10 minutes, I almost got bored of waiting.  Something to do with lack of normal queueing, instead requires a bit of assertiveness and force to get the barman’s attention.

All the beers offered and promoted at this event were all European brands.   Its a shame there wasn’t Goldstar or Macabee there but I guess this was an event for local Israelis rather foreigners who wanted to try something else other than the familiar Israeli beer.  There were quite a few tshirt shops and craft stands.

Good to see none of this ‘my <low_volume_ale_with_daft_name> is better than your <mass_produced_beer_with_big_marketing_campaign>’ snobbery nonsense, there was all kinds of booze offered including some special Israeli vodka I had not seen before.

This maybe down to some good security and police outside, but compared to how an event like this would probably turn out in the UK, I think I only spotted one person you can say had ‘over done it’  a little.

I like the fact that Israelis are neither prude not excessive, and this was a good party event I think, that shows the fun side of this place and the outgoing nature of most Israelis.

Aug 18 2010

Kidnapped Gilad Shalit – 4 years on

Last Sunday I had a relaxing morning, went out to the old city, I wanted to visit the recently built big synagogue built on the site of a famous one destroyed in wars from long ago, but it was shut so this is for another day.  King of Kings Church was really good, great teaching as usual from Wayne Hilsden and some great worship music too.

After church, I went with my Arab believer friend as he said there was some special event happening at the Gilad Shalit tent.   There is a tent usually manned by two people with various pictures and news stories about the young soldier currently being held captive somewhere in the Gaza strip.   These days this street corner has got bigger as news last year confirmed that Gilad is still alive, verified by a videotape of him with a recent newspaper last year.

This sunday evening was extra special, there was a TV interview being held with Gilad’s parents and brother and a famous basketball player (I didn’t get his name) who came to show his support.   The tent is positioned close to some government buildings.

Anyway I am not sure exactly what is said as there was no English posters or spoken announcements.  But it is quite sobering to see something to see events shown on worldwide television and being actually there.

There are several very very long posters signed in a mixture of Hebrew and English there.

There were people opposed to event.  I am not sure what was said but someone stopped outside in a small Hyundai hatchback and yelled something probably abusive.   Across the road was another protest which someone told me was to stop the government making a deal to let out I think something like 1,000 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for this one solider.

Its crazy the rest of the world doesn’t have the courage to speak out why there is something seriously wrong with why one soldier should be a traded for a couple of hundred known terrorists responsible for the deaths of Israeli civilians in past tragedies

In the past, criminals have been traded for the bodies of dead Israelis who fell in foreign ground.   This is not a new thing, when you consider when King Saul, Jonathan and his two brothers Ishvi and Malki-Shua (funny these names aren’t as popular as Jonathan today 🙂 ) were killed by the Philistines, and much later their remains were found and brought home, check out 2 Samuel 21

If you are reading this, doesn’t matter if you are Jewish, Christian or whatever, please consider praying that this young soldier gets released without any negotiations to release terrorists. By not negotiating with these kind of deals this halts the incentive for future possible kidnappings.

In the past some people like Terry Waite, a British Christian author and humanitarian was free after over four years in jail in Lebanon, and a similar thing also happened John Macarthy so I think there is hope.

Aug 17 2010

Christians praying for Arabs during Ramadan

This week its Ramadan, an important fast for Moslems.   Looking out of my kitchen window I see across our big Arab neighbourhood, and there are animated Christmas style flashing lights in the distance, the house nearest to me has a bright blue star and crescent.

My friend Aaron sent me this, so I thought it deserves a mention in the blogosphere.

Greetings!

As most of you know, the Moslem feast of Ramadan began last night. During this month long festival, according to Wikipedia;

“Moslems refrain from eating, drinking and sexual activities from dawn until sunset. Fasting is intended to teach Moslems about patience, humility, and spirituality. It is a time for Moslems to fast for the sake of Allah and to offer more prayer than usual.

During Ramadan, Moslems ask forgiveness for past sins, pray for guidance and help in refraining from everyday evils, and try to purify themselves through self-restraint and good deeds.

Moslems believe Ramadan to be the month in which the first verses of the Qur’an were revealed to the Islamic Prophet Muhammad.”

All well and good.

What this wikipedia article does not talk about and what I wouldn’t expect it to talk about is that this month is widely loathed by Moslems who see it as a tremendous hassle.

The rate of car accidents, work accidents, and other problems related to people fainting or having trouble staying awake skyrockets in the Moslem world during this month, especially in places where there is great heat, as there is this summer.

Ramadan is also a traditional time when terrorist activity against Israel, the US and other “infidel” countries increases, because traditionally it was a time when Moslems felt they would have great strength to attack their enemies and/or the enemies of Allah.

So we need to be praying for two things.

One, we need to be praying for the Moslems themselves, for their physical safety and well being during this time when they are observing a religious festival most of them don’t know the source of, and that God, who loves them and sent His Son to die for them, will have mercy on them and grace for their physical health and safety.

Two, we need to be praying that God will protect all us “infidels” from the terrorist intentions of those Moslems who take it upon themselves to show their devotion to Allah by attempting to slaughter Allah’s enemies (which is, by the Qu’ran’s own definition, anyone who is not a Moslem.)

But there is a third thing we should also be praying for, and that is this.

A little known fact about Ramadan is that during this time of fasting and (in many cases sincerely) seeking God, many Moslems come to faith in Jesus Christ. It happens every year, and it is a fast growing phenomenon. Often times it happens through them having a spontaneous vision of Jesus, or even in a dream.

So that’s something to be praying for as well, especially if you have Moslem neighbors, friends, co-workers, etc.

Below is a link to a very interesting editorial in today’s Toronto Sun newspaper. It is written by a Moslem about the Palestinian Moslems, and is a very educational couple of pages. I encourage you all to read it and pass this link on to your friends.

http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/salim_mansur/2010/08/06/14944096.html

God Bless you all.

Aug 16 2010

Widow’s mite coins for sale

This shop sells coins based in Luke 21:2-4 about the story of the Widow’s copper coins she gave to the temple treasury.

I was on the way to church coming back from the Kotel, so I didn’t get to properly see this shop, but I imagine these coins offered could be genuine as there is an abundance of history under the ground that has been discovered all over Israel.

These sorts of antiquities stores are pretty unusual as they sell jewelery made from pieces of Roman glass found in archelogical sites.  Some of these stores actually fashion pieces of glass that are cut and filed to shape and set in broaches, necklaces etc.

Aug 16 2010

Jerusalem UN Headquaters yard

I went walking today around my neighbourhood, across from my street is the Peace Forest or Promenade, that looks over Jerusalem.  Its one of several hills in different directions that look over the city.

From the path behind the building has some nice places for walks.

The building used to be the government offices for the British Mandate of Palestine (what Israel was known as before 1948)

There is  a road upto the security gate which cars have to weave around the blue barrels filled with concrete to stop possible terrorist attacks.

Here are some odd looking metal sheds that look like mini aircraft hangers.

Out the back gets more interesting, seems the UN run their own car scrapyard.   There are about 20-30 abandoned cars here that look like they are not running.   Mostly Toyota 4x4s, that have been crashed, rolled or have bits missing.   Reminds me when I got a bus through part of Los Angeles, I spotted the back of police station full of crashed standard US police model Ford Crown Victorias.  There are also a few recent Volvos and a BMW 7 series which are not damaged but have no licence plates and look very dusty as if they have not been used in months.  There are trucks with low open backs, I guess some of this stuff is mothballed for when there is a war or serious security issue.

On the side road, there is this monument called the ‘Tolerance monument’ and contains writing in English, Hebrew and Arabic encouraging reconciliation and understanding.   I think these monuments are a nice gesture, but peace will only be fulfilled by the return of the Messiah, Jesus one day.

This is a nice place to go walking around.  The UN’s compound is covered in barbed wires but you can easily see the back from a path outside.  Interesting fact.  I was talking to a chap who works there, who tells me its the cheapest place in Israel to buy Coca Cola (60c) although the prices for the canteen are in US dollars.

Also along the view outside, are these outdoor canopies that gives a bit of nice shade for when you want to take time to admire the view, especially this time of year when the extreme heat can be seriously overwhelming.

Aug 13 2010

Preparing an old PC to go to local family

In between looking after systems at work and sometimes staff’s personal computers when I have a quiet day, in my workshop this week is an old Pentium 3 computer that is about 8/9 years old.   It came from our Japanese office (don’t ask how it got here)  and had Japanese Windows XP for our staff from Japan that volunteer here.   These days its never used as we have one computer for volunteers to upload their pictures, go on Facebook and do any personal web browsing and email, we have people from dozens of different countries and they all speak English, including recent Japanese volunteers.   Obviously its not really practical to maintain it, as I don’t speak Japanese, as all the text appears in Kanji text.

This computer only has 1Ghz processor, its old and redundant.   One of my colleagues who deals with food delivery to needy families asked if we had an old computer no longer needed..

When I sometimes have a quiet day, I often fix other volunteer’s personal laptops, and also have fixed a PC that belonged to a local Arab family.

So grabbing it from a dusty corner, I put it on my work bench and tested it out.  Looking through my boxes of spare bits, I now have 1Gb of memory and replaced the CD drive with a dodgy eject mechanism with a LG CD writer.  It doesn’t do DVDs, but another driver could be bought quite cheaply and easily fitted.

I put on a normal installation of English Windows XP Home edition.  There is no Windows licence sticker on it, and I have a spare licence code from another HP PC that had a bad motherboard, as the stickers are not easily removable, I hacksawed a square out of the case with the sticker, and put the rest of it in the bin.  I have saved licence codes from other computers in case someone wants to escape from the ghastly horrors of Windows Vista, I keep a library of CDs of all different versions of Windows XP, and despite XP’s 9 years on the market its easy to customise it to how you want and extra aesthetic features and functionality of Vista and 7 can be copied to some degree.

After setting up both English and Hebrew keyboard support and set all the region and language options to Hebrew and Israel.   I downloaded the Hebrew versions of Firefox and Open Office.  You can find all language versions of Firefox here.

Note, as Hebrew is a right to left language, icons and menus follow the same way.  Interestingly enough Open Office shows these little dots you put under Hebrew symbols, not so much done with modern Hebrew but often used on religious books.   Open Office is a good free alternative to Microsoft Office, as I don’t have a legal free licence I can give away.   For almost all regular writing and spreadsheet requirements this does a perfect job and costs nothing.   You can download it here. Versions for non-English users are here.   The Hebrew version is on a totally separate page here. There are versions for Mac and Linux computers as well.

Here in Israel I like the fact that more things get repaired here, ie: TVs, jewellery, shoes, etc, often this is not always the case of too much hassle to repair something, its a case that there isn’t enough skilled people to do it.   Jewish people seem to always have a knack for repairing and working with small precision objects such as jewellery, watches and such.  Skills that are passed down in generations I guess.

I think its daft in how people call this “recycling” of PCs.   Recycling is normally breaking something down to its component value for parts of for scrap materials.  If I buy a car that 8 years old, its not a recycled car, it just past through several owners, seeing as not everyone can buy goods for the original asking price and have to make do with something older at a fraction of the value.

Also this month I have virtualised an important system, for regulat non-IT folks this just means one computer pretends to be two or more computers having multiple versions of Windows simultaneously.   If the physical hardware breaks, a single file that contains the extra invisible PC can be quickly copied onto a another physical box, meaning less than hour of down time.  This saves our organisation in less hardware needed (One PC freed up for a spare unit for next member of staff)  and also electricity usage.

I replaced missing screws gave the case a clean too.  I have a spare 17″ CRT monitor and keyboard with English, Hebrew and Russian characters and a decent mouse too.  Some more parts scrounged from some cupboards means I have another similar spec system to put together when I have a quiet day some point soon.  Plus I have cleared the workshop of old parts.  Looking forward to going out and handing this over to a family this week as their first ever computer…. 🙂