Class Outing to Jaffa

Last Thursday my Arabic Immersion classmates and I boarded a bus bright and early and headed toward the beautiful coastal town of Jaffa. There we spent the day exploring around and experiencing all the culture the city had to offer us.

The Jaffa-Tel Aviv coast.

My Arabic class wandering around outside St. Peter's Church.

St. Peter's Church is the supposed location of where Jesus' disciple Peter raised Tabitha from the dead (Acts 9:36-42). Jaffa holds significant for a variety of very interesting theological stories. The port of Jaffa recieved the building materials of Solomon's temple as well as the Second Temple in Jerusalem. The city is mentioned a total of 4 times in the Hebrew Bible. Additionally the port of Jaffa is where Jonah departed from before being swallowed by a whale.

A picture of the front of the church (borrowed from Wikipedia).

Inside St. Peter's.

The view of the Mediterranean from a window inside the church.

Another interesting religious tie to Jaffa exists in Greek mythology. Andromeda was a daughter of a king in the Jaffa area who bragged she was more beautiful than Poseidon's sea nymphs and Poseidon sent a sea monster to destroy her fathers land in response. Apparently the only option to appease the monster was to strip Andromeda and chain her naked to a rock in the sea. The rock she was supposedly tied to is the rock in the above picture with a white flag on it. 

A run down soap factory we walked past from the Ottoman period.

If you look closer at the above photo you'll realize what just looks like shadowing in the arch is actually hundreds of bats just hanging out.

My class failing to pose for a picture inside one of the mosques in Jaffa. I'm the one in the head scarf looking away from the camera.

We also got the chance to meet up with an interfaith organization in Jaffa working to uplift women in the Jaffa community through a variety of different initiatives. The woman who spoke to us had incredible stories of struggles some of the local women go through and it was exciting to see what sort of grass root opportunities are rising up to help combat them.

My classmates and I at the organization in Jaffa.

Afterword we got a little free time to enjoy the coast and everything else Jaffa had to offer before ending our not-so-little field trip and heading back to Jerusalem.

Up close and personal with the Mediterranean sea.

Old City, New News

Last night there was an assassination attempt on a rabbi here in Jerusalem. The rabbi was apparently a pretty well known and outspoken right-winged spokesperson who advocated for the Temple Mount being taken from Muslim occupation. As if tension hadn't been high enough in Jerusalem before this occurred, Israel responded by shutting down Al-Aqsa mosque (the mosque in the Dome of the Rock complex) for the first time since 1967.

All of this just so happened to occur on the night before and day of my class field trip... to the Old City. My Arabic teacher brought our class down to the Old City and gave us a tour in Arabic. There's always plenty to see in the city, but today had even more going on than usual.

Our view from a roof nearby the Dome of the Rock. 

Since we couldn't get near Al-Aqsa / the Dome of the Rock our teacher took us up onto a roof nearby the complex. From this eye level view of the bright golden dome she gave us the history of the city below our feet. However, just because we were enjoying ourselves above the crowds didn't mean everything was quite as peaceful below. In the middle of our professor's lecture the familiar sound of gunpowder started occurring around us. Students started muttering back and forth to each other. "Gun fire?" "Fireworks?" "It's definitely something being fired." "Fireworks." "Doesn't mean they're not pointed at somebody though." The teacher seemed to pause. However, we were in Jerusalem. It really isn't anything we haven't heard during classes already. Our safety seemingly secure for now she continued on lecturing.

The next ominous occurrence was once we had returned back to ground level. We headed to the Jewish quarter, but had to walk through the Muslim quarter to get there. Usually the Muslim quarter is bustling with activity. Crowds of people perusing bright cloths and trinkets. Today, the Muslim inhabitants were protesting. All of the market shops were locked shut. A lively market sat empty and harsh. Metal doors and padlocks replaced the usual presence of merchandise and tourists along the narrow streets.

A rare view of an empty market street. It was ominously spooky in real life.

Regardless of the day's conditions, it was still a really cool tour. I finally got a grasp of the Christian and Jewish quarters and even got an inside tour of the Armenian monastery. Amongst all the tension normal life was still going on as usual giving us even more to see and experience than usual.

A bar mitzvah passing us in the Jewish quarter.

The wailing wall with the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa in the background.

To the right of the wailing wall. Right wing Jews were protesting below the viewpoint of this photo.

Outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.