As part of my free day today, we started off by cleaning up the Orson Hyde Park on the Mount of Olives for a service project and then a group of us headed out to West Jerusalem to visit the Israeli Parliament or Knesset. The Knesset is a cool place, protected by a solid wall of bullet proof glass and a complex security check at the entrance. We were required to bring our passports and weren't allowed to take anything inside with us, even cameras! It was cool to enter the Chamber of the Knesset and see that place where so much history has taken place. Most memorable was the visit by Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, in 1977 that ushered in the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty. After a tour of the building, we took a taxi to another part of Jerusalem called Mea Shaarim. It is one of the biggest Ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods. When you enter the neighborhood, you aren't allowed to take pictures, walk together with girls, or enter if you are immodest in appearance. It was cool to just walk through and see how the people live. They are such interesting people, always seeming to be in a rush to get somewhere.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Knesset
As part of my free day today, we started off by cleaning up the Orson Hyde Park on the Mount of Olives for a service project and then a group of us headed out to West Jerusalem to visit the Israeli Parliament or Knesset. The Knesset is a cool place, protected by a solid wall of bullet proof glass and a complex security check at the entrance. We were required to bring our passports and weren't allowed to take anything inside with us, even cameras! It was cool to enter the Chamber of the Knesset and see that place where so much history has taken place. Most memorable was the visit by Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, in 1977 that ushered in the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty. After a tour of the building, we took a taxi to another part of Jerusalem called Mea Shaarim. It is one of the biggest Ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods. When you enter the neighborhood, you aren't allowed to take pictures, walk together with girls, or enter if you are immodest in appearance. It was cool to just walk through and see how the people live. They are such interesting people, always seeming to be in a rush to get somewhere.
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It's cool that you get to mix the ancient with the recent history during your travels over there, Jones. Do the others in your group dig the more recent Arab/Israeli history as much as you do? As a follow-up question to that, are you still sporting those sweet handlebars? Tom Selleck would be proud...
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