Sunday.  Always feels like Monday because we have church on Saturday.  All the students left last Sunday for their week in Turkey.  We stayed at the Center to hold down the fort, do the tours, host the concerts, etc.  But we had another wonderful set of adventures while they were gone.  We went to the YMCA to meet our friend Rabbi Matt Berkowitz and several of his students who are studying to be full-time Jewish cantors. Jim gave them the tour of the carillon, and, being music students, they were very curious about the carillon and had good questions.  Jim played a Channukah tune for them, and they sang along.  Rabbi Matt left us with a beautiful blessing from the Torah.  He is so thoughtful and kind. We joined them for lunch--pizza (really good pizza) at a nearby restaurant. Then we walked to the shuk (the famous open-air market in West Jerusalem) and took in the sights and smells of the place.  On our walk we saw several other bits of “only in Jerusalem” local color.

Rabbi Matt Berkowitz (far left) and his cantorial students

The Shuk

We took advantage of blue skies on Monday and spent the day Caesarea on the coast.  We took our time wandering through the ancient Roman homes, temples, vaulted storage areas, the hippodrome, and the magnificent theater.  We also sat on the beach that was coated with interesting seashells.  Had lunch at Aresto, a nice restaurant inside the park.  Hot rosemary focaccia bread right out of their pizza oven, fish and chips for Deanne, and an Asian noodle stir fry for Jim.  The latter was good, but they don’t get the seasonings quite right here. We saw the Crusader moated fortress and ended the day at the famous aqueduct.  Such an engineering marvel that they could build an aqueduct about 8 miles long and slope it so meticulously that the water would arrive at Caesarea.

Caesarea National Park

So many shells!

Aresto Restaurant

Aqueduct

In solidarity with the students who are off in Turkey (Istanbul and Troy), we visited the Islamic Art Museum in Jerusalem.  They have a fine collection of artifacts from all over Islamic areas of the Middle East.  But the most famous part of this museum is the collection of priceless timepieces, many from the 18^th and 19^th centuries, including an elaborate watch made for Marie Antoinette.  Unfortunately the watch wasn’t completed until about 30 years after her execution.  The museum also has a display of paisley fabrics. Who knew that that design had its roots in Islamic lands?

Watch made for Marie Antoinette, but she never got it!

Quiet days around the Center with all the students and faculty gone.  However, we were happy to host several visitors from all over. Germany, Austria, Utah, Israel, California, Russia. So many lovely and interesting people! It really is one of the best and most fulfilling parts of the service here. 

4 friendly ladies from Tel Aviv and Netanya

Guests from Germany and Austria

Russians now living in Beer Sheva. Her 65th birthday.

Amir Brener (second from right) was the lighting designer for the new construction 

in the library and Upper Auditorium.

There was a Branch potluck in the Oasis after Sabbath which was fun. It's a little easier to manage with only 30 people! 

Jim, Naira Manougian, Yolaunda Keith, Jill Judd

Sagit Zilberman, Melissa Dodd, Jill Judd, Yolaunda Keith, 

and Heather Farrell

Branch members Judith, Steve, Jonathan, and Daniel Rona

And, yes, Jim is missing the best ski season in years in Utah! (He's trying to be brave!) Pictures of our neighborhood are lovely and white, but we aren't missing the cold and shoveling.

While the students were on a field trip, we and the Barkers enjoyed a buffet lunch at Notre Dame of Jerusalem hotel. Our Valentine’s lunch,  It’s a nice place. 💞 The food is average, but there’s plenty of it!  

We walked through the Old City, introduced Barkers to artist Udi Merioz, then went to the Armenian Cathedral of St. James.  Armenia was the first nation to adopt Christianity as its state religion (in 301 AD). This church, dating from 420 AD, is dedicated to two martyred saints of that name, St. James the Great, one of Jesus’s apostles, and St. James the Less, believed to be a close relative of Jesus.  St. James the apostle was beheaded by Herod Agrippa, and this church is the traditional site of the beheading.  (His head is supposed to be here, and the rest of his body is supposed to be at the pilgrimage shrine at the Church of Santiago de Compostela in Spain.) Most of the current church dates from the 12^th century AD.  We were able to witness a service in progress, with chanting and processing by the Armenian priests.

Patty Barker

We went with the Rosens to visit the Ratisbonne Monastery in West Jerusalem.  It was started by a Frenchman who came to Palestine in 1855 as a missionary. He built a beautiful church and vocational school in 1874 on a hill that was then wilderness but is now in the heart of busy West Jerusalem.  The organ there is an exact twin of the organ at Notre Dame of Sion (a sister institution of Ratisbonne) on the Via Dolorosa, both built by the same French organ company in Marseille in 1893.  This organ is still in its original state and is in surprisingly good shape for its age and lack of anyone in this part of the world to maintain it properly.  Ratisbonne is now a Catholic seminary, with 31 students from around the world studying to be priests. Classes are in English, and they say 31 different dialects of English are spoken there.  Fr. Phat, a very kind priest from Vietnam, gave us an excellent tour.  We also met the rector, Fr. Stanislaus, who is from India.  We invited him and all of their brotherhood to come to the BYU Center for a tour—none of them has been here yet. 

With Mary Ellen and Mark Rosen

A young couple from Hong Kong came on a tour of the Center: Scot Mo and his wife Ling.  They’re originally from Mainland China, grew up Buddhist, studied in the UK (where they never encountered the Church); moved to Hong Kong where they met up with some missionaries, and he and his wife were baptized.  He is now a venture capitalist in Hong Kong and Elders Quorum Pres in his Mandarin Branch there.  Jim ended up taking them on a big walking tour (5 miles) of the Mt. of Olives, including Orson Hyde, Garden of Gethsemane, Kidron Valley, 7 Arches, plus dinner at Ascension Café.  

Scot and Ling Mo

Jim met Scot and Ling Mo at Jaffa Gate the next day and toured them all over—Jewish Quarter, Muslim Quarter, Garden Tomb, Christian Quarter, for 3 hours.  Had a good time. 

The students and most of the faculty are off to Turkiye for the week. We will be the only people here with the exception of Jill Judd and the four young Properzi children. It will be way too quiet! If only the cafeteria stayed open, it would be a real vacation :)

More evidence of spring every day! So many lupin and cyclamen here in the gardens and more to come!

The students went on a field trip (a very windy and cold day), but we went on our own excursion to two national parks.  First was the Stalactite Cave Nature Reserve, which is between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.  It has more interesting formations than you'll find in many other caves.  Not a huge place, but very impressive. 

Then to En Hemed (known in Latin as Aqua Bella, beautiful water), a peaceful park with springs, a stream, and a Crusader fortress from the year 1140.  History at every turn here!

 

Jim had a most interesting trip to Haifa.  Yuval Rabin, a prominent organist in Israel and an observant Jew, drove him to Haifa for his solo concert at the Hecht Auditorium of the university there, where he is in charge of the monthly organ concerts.  Yuval is from Haiva, but lived in Switzerland where he met his now-wife.  She converted to Judaism there, and they have four kids, ages 15 to 9.  They worked in Basel and moved to Jerusalem a couple of years ago.  Very interesting guy, and they had a great time talking as they drove the two hours to Haifa.  They stopped in Caesarea on the way north, because he had missed a couple of things last time, including the Crusader buildings and fortifications.  

Then on to Mt. Carmel (the scene of Elijah’s confrontation with the false prophets of Baal) and the remnants of an ancient quarry.  

Haifa is a beautiful city!  One of the most beautiful settings in Israel, with mountains rising up high from the bay and harbor.  Akko is just across the bay.  Driving around this city is reminiscent of driving in San Francisco, with winding streets and spectacular views.  They had lunch at the food court at the university (there are two distinct kosher areas, meat and dairy). 

Jim rehearsed for his concert on the pipe organ built by Gideon Shamir about 30 years ago. Shamir made it out of leftover parts from organs in Jerusalem (St. George’s Anglican, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and some other Italian organ).  It’s a bit of a rattle-trap hodge-podge, mostly tracker but also has some pneumatic keys. But such is the life of concert organists—they play whatever is given to them and make the best of it. 

Yuval also took Jim to see the Stella Maris Monastery, which is built over a cave said to be the cave of Elijah.  They also saw the grounds of the Baha'i temple which is quite spectacular. Jim stayed at the Beth Shalom Hotel, a very nice boutique hotel only a few steps from one of the best panoramas over the Haifa Bay. 

The program was “music of the wild west,” all music by composers in the Western US and Mexico.  They had a great audience of about 225, Israelis and a lot of Russians.  They probably had never heard anything but serious old European music. They went into their rhythmic unison applause at the ending, so they got an encore!

The students put on their festive Arab Culture night again. The evening started with one of the most acclaimed sheiks in Israel who taught us all about the "call to prayer" which we hear five times a day on the loudspeakers not far from the Center. He makes the call two times each day from Al-Aqsa mosque in the Old City, which is a very big deal! Most of the students donned Arab attire and our chef and staff made a fantastic multi-course dinner for us. After dinner, the traditional drum and bagpipe band filled the Oasis and halls with music and dance. Never a dull moment!

James Wallis

David and Jo Ann Seely and Mary Ellen and Mark Rosen

We are happy that this semester's choir is up and running. We have about 60 students preparing to sing for the first-ever Easter devotional (on Holy Saturday evening). Christmas music is great and often fun, but Easter music is powerful.