Rachel's Tomb

  Rachel was a woman from the Bible who is very important. The story goes like this: Jacob wanted to marry a girl named Rachel, but her father said he could not marry her unless he worked for him for 7 years. So he did, but at the wedding the father substituted Leah, her older sister! Jacob had to work another 7 years to marry Rachel also (men married more than one woman back then). Leah had many children, but Rachel was barren, so she gave her maidservant to Jacob to have a child. Later she had two boys. All in all Jacob had 12 boys with his two wives and two of their maidservants. They became the 12 tribes of Israel.  "In Jeremiah 31:15, the prophet speaks of 'Rachel weeping for her children' (KJV). This is interpreted in Judaism as Rachel crying for an end to her descendants' sufferings and exiles following the destruction by the Babylonians of the First Temple in ancient Jerusalem." from Wikipedia. There is a lot more to this story in the Bible-Genesis 29.

"For Jews, Rachel's Tomb is the third holiest site after the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. It has become an important place of Jewish pilgrimage, especially Jewish women unable to give birth." (from http://www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/bethlehem-rachels-tomb.htm) The picture above shows what it used to look like. The picture above is actually a small model in a park in Israel. Because the tomb was in Bethlehem, which is part of the West Bank the wall has been built around the tomb. Here is the link to the site by the Committee for Rachel's Tomb-http://www.rachelstomb.org/recenthistory.html. It explains that this site was extremely important to the Jews. The pictures on the other side are what it looks like now. It has been cut off from Bethlehem by the wall which now surrounds the West Bank area.

Here is a page that tells what happened to many of the Palestinians who lived and worked in Bethlehem. http://www.poica.org/editor/case_studies/view.php?recordID=896. They were not terrorists who did things to hurt Jews who visited, but their land and homes were confiscated.

I was surprised when walking around this area that the tomb has been totally cut off from the graveyard that it was in before. These pictures show the graveyard and the wall that blocks Rachel's Tomb. This is such a sad thing for both Jews and all of the people in Bethlehem. Neither of them have easy access anymore to the tomb. This happened because there is a lot of fear and mistrust between people. The Jewish people wanted to be able to visit an important holy site, but were afraid of the Arabs who wanted to protect the land that they considered to be their own. All of the problems like this are so complicated and based on a long history. It is not easy to figure out the best way for people to live together here.

We also visited the Aida Refugee Camp where many people live who were displaced from their homes. It is run by the United Nations. They provide schools, food and funding for people to live. The entry to the camp has a huge key and keyhole which represents the fact that many people left their homes with only their keys assuming that they would be able to come back sometime. Now they only have their keys. Their homes and their land has been taken. 

One more video!

Rachel's Tomb

  Rachel was a woman from the Bible who is very important. The story goes like this: Jacob wanted to marry a girl named Rachel, but her father said he could not marry her unless he worked for him for 7 years. So he did, but at the wedding the father substituted Leah, her older sister! Jacob had to work another 7 years to marry Rachel also (men married more than one woman back then). Leah had many children, but Rachel was barren, so she gave her maidservant to Jacob to have a child. Later she had two boys. All in all Jacob had 12 boys with his two wives and two of their maidservants. They became the 12 tribes of Israel.  "In Jeremiah 31:15, the prophet speaks of 'Rachel weeping for her children' (KJV). This is interpreted in Judaism as Rachel crying for an end to her descendants' sufferings and exiles following the destruction by the Babylonians of the First Temple in ancient Jerusalem." from Wikipedia. There is a lot more to this story in the Bible-Genesis 29.

"For Jews, Rachel's Tomb is the third holiest site after the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. It has become an important place of Jewish pilgrimage, especially Jewish women unable to give birth." (from http://www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/bethlehem-rachels-tomb.htm) The picture above shows what it used to look like. The picture above is actually a small model in a park in Israel. Because the tomb was in Bethlehem, which is part of the West Bank the wall has been built around the tomb. Here is the link to the site by the Committee for Rachel's Tomb-http://www.rachelstomb.org/recenthistory.html. It explains that this site was extremely important to the Jews. The pictures on the other side are what it looks like now. It has been cut off from Bethlehem by the wall which now surrounds the West Bank area.

Here is a page that tells what happened to many of the Palestinians who lived and worked in Bethlehem. http://www.poica.org/editor/case_studies/view.php?recordID=896. They were not terrorists who did things to hurt Jews who visited, but their land and homes were confiscated.

I was surprised when walking around this area that the tomb has been totally cut off from the graveyard that it was in before. These pictures show the graveyard and the wall that blocks Rachel's Tomb. This is such a sad thing for both Jews and all of the people in Bethlehem. Neither of them have easy access anymore to the tomb. This happened because there is a lot of fear and mistrust between people. The Jewish people wanted to be able to visit an important holy site, but were afraid of the Arabs who wanted to protect the land that they considered to be their own. All of the problems like this are so complicated and based on a long history. It is not easy to figure out the best way for people to live together here.

We also visited the Aida Refugee Camp where many people live who were displaced from their homes. It is run by the United Nations. They provide schools, food and funding for people to live. The entry to the camp has a huge key and keyhole which represents the fact that many people left their homes with only their keys assuming that they would be able to come back sometime. Now they only have their keys. Their homes and their land has been taken. 

One more video!

More Answers to our Questions

From Wisconsin:  Here are our answers to your questions - we enjoyed thinking and talking about them. :-) We watched the bread baking video this morning and started to answer the questions below. We talked about how the bread looked like giant bagels (is it challah bread?) and the oven was similar to the pizza ovens in restaurants here.


Khader wants to know:


Do you have soccer class at the school? 

No we do not have a soccer class, but we learn to play during physical education class. Many girls and boys like to play soccer for fun at recess. Many students also play on soccer teams after school and on weekends.

Sometimes the boys at our school fight. (The boys who fight get in trouble) Is that the same at your school? 

Yes, students who fight also get into trouble at our schools. They might have to talk to the principal or the counselor, have a time-out, get a write-up which your parents see, or another consequence that the teacher or principal feels will help the student do better.

When school is closed during the summer can you still go to use the playground or is it locked? 

We can go to most playgrounds in our town.

If someone is hurt at school do you have a school hospital? 

No, we have a school clinic with a nurse who helps us when we get hurt or get sick or need to take medicine.

George wants to know:
What do you do in the summertime? 

We are all giving our ideas: go swimming, go to the park, go to day camps, go to parties, go on family trips, play baseball, stay up late, watch movies, play football, go to Water Parks, riding bikes, play with friends, travel, go to the Milwaukee Zoo, sleep late, read, play outside later, play tennis, and go to festivals and fairs.

What are your favorite sports? 

Football, tennis, fishing, baseball, soccer, golf, basketball, swimming, kid-sized motorcycles. 

We are all watching the world cup, are you? 

Some of us are watching the World Cup and some of us are not. Those watching would like Brazil or Spain or Germany to win.

Do you take your food to school with you or not? 

Yes, we do because only middle school and high school have lunch made at school.

Do the people there know about us? 

Yes somewhat because of what we read in the news and see on television.

Danny wants to know:
Do you have scouts or camping? 

Yes, people can join Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts if they like. Some people go to day camps, some go to overnight camps, and others go camping with their families.

Do you watch NBA? 

Some of us watch the NBA games. The team in our city is called the Milwaukee Bucks. A few students like them but most like the Lakers or Celtics instead.

Henriette wants to know:


At school we have sports competitions and field days where we play sports. Do you have field days? 

Fourth and fifth graders can choose to join a field day one afternoon in May after school. They do running races, relays, hurdles, and long jump.

How many minutes do you have for each class? We have 45 minutes here. Do you have the same? 

Classes are different times – they may be anything from 25 minutes to 60 minutes, depending on the subject.

How many children are in each class? 

There are usually about 20-23 students in each class.

4th of July Celebrations: This is a big deal here in Milwaukee and Whitefish Bay! There are fireworks, Summerfest, lots of eating, parades, games, getting ready for guests, and many people have a day off of work or school. Here is a web site with news about the celebration here in Whitefish Bay!

http://www.wfbcivicfoundation.org/ 

Thanks for reminding me of the Fourth of July. It just does not seem like it is coming up. I think tomorrow a friend of mine and I are going to try to do something "American" together. I am not sure what that will be! 

More Answers to our Questions

From Wisconsin:  Here are our answers to your questions - we enjoyed thinking and talking about them. :-) We watched the bread baking video this morning and started to answer the questions below. We talked about how the bread looked like giant bagels (is it challah bread?) and the oven was similar to the pizza ovens in restaurants here.


Khader wants to know:


Do you have soccer class at the school? 

No we do not have a soccer class, but we learn to play during physical education class. Many girls and boys like to play soccer for fun at recess. Many students also play on soccer teams after school and on weekends.

Sometimes the boys at our school fight. (The boys who fight get in trouble) Is that the same at your school? 

Yes, students who fight also get into trouble at our schools. They might have to talk to the principal or the counselor, have a time-out, get a write-up which your parents see, or another consequence that the teacher or principal feels will help the student do better.

When school is closed during the summer can you still go to use the playground or is it locked? 

We can go to most playgrounds in our town.

If someone is hurt at school do you have a school hospital? 

No, we have a school clinic with a nurse who helps us when we get hurt or get sick or need to take medicine.

George wants to know:
What do you do in the summertime? 

We are all giving our ideas: go swimming, go to the park, go to day camps, go to parties, go on family trips, play baseball, stay up late, watch movies, play football, go to Water Parks, riding bikes, play with friends, travel, go to the Milwaukee Zoo, sleep late, read, play outside later, play tennis, and go to festivals and fairs.

What are your favorite sports? 

Football, tennis, fishing, baseball, soccer, golf, basketball, swimming, kid-sized motorcycles. 

We are all watching the world cup, are you? 

Some of us are watching the World Cup and some of us are not. Those watching would like Brazil or Spain or Germany to win.

Do you take your food to school with you or not? 

Yes, we do because only middle school and high school have lunch made at school.

Do the people there know about us? 

Yes somewhat because of what we read in the news and see on television.

Danny wants to know:
Do you have scouts or camping? 

Yes, people can join Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts if they like. Some people go to day camps, some go to overnight camps, and others go camping with their families.

Do you watch NBA? 

Some of us watch the NBA games. The team in our city is called the Milwaukee Bucks. A few students like them but most like the Lakers or Celtics instead.

Henriette wants to know:


At school we have sports competitions and field days where we play sports. Do you have field days? 

Fourth and fifth graders can choose to join a field day one afternoon in May after school. They do running races, relays, hurdles, and long jump.

How many minutes do you have for each class? We have 45 minutes here. Do you have the same? 

Classes are different times – they may be anything from 25 minutes to 60 minutes, depending on the subject.

How many children are in each class? 

There are usually about 20-23 students in each class.

4th of July Celebrations: This is a big deal here in Milwaukee and Whitefish Bay! There are fireworks, Summerfest, lots of eating, parades, games, getting ready for guests, and many people have a day off of work or school. Here is a web site with news about the celebration here in Whitefish Bay!

http://www.wfbcivicfoundation.org/ 

Thanks for reminding me of the Fourth of July. It just does not seem like it is coming up. I think tomorrow a friend of mine and I are going to try to do something "American" together. I am not sure what that will be! 

Water Shortage

It has been very hot here and so there are a lot of problems with water. Some people have not had water for several days. The way water works here in Bethlehem is that the water comes through pipes in the ground like we have at home, but it does not come every day, so people have tanks on their roofs to collect the water when it is running. In cool weather it works well, but when it is hot there is not enough water. I think that it evaporates and maybe people need more water. This is a picture of some tanks on the top of the house.

This afternoon I saw a bunch of kids getting water in bottles and bring them back to their house. 

Below is another video that the kids made!

Water Shortage

It has been very hot here and so there are a lot of problems with water. Some people have not had water for several days. The way water works here in Bethlehem is that the water comes through pipes in the ground like we have at home, but it does not come every day, so people have tanks on their roofs to collect the water when it is running. In cool weather it works well, but when it is hot there is not enough water. I think that it evaporates and maybe people need more water. This is a picture of some tanks on the top of the house.

This afternoon I saw a bunch of kids getting water in bottles and bring them back to their house. 

Below is another video that the kids made!

More Food-Yum Yum

We finished our first videos today and put them on YouTube!  I am embedding one here. 
I will try to embed one each day!



I thought you might like to know what I have been eating for lunch. Most days I work with children and women in the morning and then at lunch there is someone here who collects our money and brings back some food for us all. 

Yesterday we had Shwarma. This is sort of a sandwich wrap with either chicken or lamb meat, vegetables and some sauce. The meat is cooked in a very interesting way. It is all put on a long pole that turns around and around and cooks. It is so hard to explain that I took a picture of it. The meat is sliced off and put into the wrap. It is pretty yummy. When we have Shwarma there are usually a few side dishes. One of them is pink cauliflower. It is pickled. They also have pickles, hot peppers and french fries. 

 Every day several times a day someone offers me coffee or tea. When we have coffee it comes in these small glasses. It is water boiled with really finely ground coffee. The coffee is pretty strong. It seems like people here do not drink it with lots of sugar.

On the way home yesterday I took some pictures of things that I saw along the way that I thought were interesting.  One of them shows the store that you would go to in order to get spices. 

More Food-Yum Yum

We finished our first videos today and put them on YouTube!  I am embedding one here. 
I will try to embed one each day!



I thought you might like to know what I have been eating for lunch. Most days I work with children and women in the morning and then at lunch there is someone here who collects our money and brings back some food for us all. 

Yesterday we had Shwarma. This is sort of a sandwich wrap with either chicken or lamb meat, vegetables and some sauce. The meat is cooked in a very interesting way. It is all put on a long pole that turns around and around and cooks. It is so hard to explain that I took a picture of it. The meat is sliced off and put into the wrap. It is pretty yummy. When we have Shwarma there are usually a few side dishes. One of them is pink cauliflower. It is pickled. They also have pickles, hot peppers and french fries. 

 Every day several times a day someone offers me coffee or tea. When we have coffee it comes in these small glasses. It is water boiled with really finely ground coffee. The coffee is pretty strong. It seems like people here do not drink it with lots of sugar.

On the way home yesterday I took some pictures of things that I saw along the way that I thought were interesting.  One of them shows the store that you would go to in order to get spices. 

More Questions from Bethlehem

We have a few more questions for our friends in Bethlehem. I hope that when they answer they also tell us a little bit about themselves and also send us a picture. You can email a picture to janicef@jfriesen.net and I will put it up on the blog.

More Questions

Khader wants to know:

• Do you have soccer class at the school?
• Sometimes the boys at our school fight. (The boys who fight get in trouble) Is that the same at your school?
• When school is closed during the summer can you still go to use the playground or is it locked?
• If someone is hurt at school do you have a school hospital?

George wants to know:

• What do you do in the summertime?
• What are your favorite sports? We are all watching the world cup, are you?
• Do you take your food to school with you or not?
• Do the people there know about us?

Danny wants to know:

• Do you have scouts or camping?
• Do you watch NBA?

Henriette wants to know:

• At school we have sports competitions and field days where we play sports. Do you have field days?
• How many minutes do you have for each class? We have 45 minutes here. Do you have the same?
• How many children are in each class?

Michelin did not have any more questions. I am wondering which teams you are hoping will win the World Cup if you are following it.

Thanks for answering our questions!

More Questions from Bethlehem

We have a few more questions for our friends in Bethlehem. I hope that when they answer they also tell us a little bit about themselves and also send us a picture. You can email a picture to janicef@jfriesen.net and I will put it up on the blog.

More Questions

Khader wants to know:

• Do you have soccer class at the school?
• Sometimes the boys at our school fight. (The boys who fight get in trouble) Is that the same at your school?
• When school is closed during the summer can you still go to use the playground or is it locked?
• If someone is hurt at school do you have a school hospital?

George wants to know:

• What do you do in the summertime?
• What are your favorite sports? We are all watching the world cup, are you?
• Do you take your food to school with you or not?
• Do the people there know about us?

Danny wants to know:

• Do you have scouts or camping?
• Do you watch NBA?

Henriette wants to know:

• At school we have sports competitions and field days where we play sports. Do you have field days?
• How many minutes do you have for each class? We have 45 minutes here. Do you have the same?
• How many children are in each class?

Michelin did not have any more questions. I am wondering which teams you are hoping will win the World Cup if you are following it.

Thanks for answering our questions!