A Walk to the Old City

Because the students are on a field trip today, we didn't need to play the Carillon. It gave us a chance to take a walk from the Jerusalem Center to the Old City. Chris and Dave Heiner were our guides and I was surprised it is only about a 20 minute walk. We walked down to the 1st level and there are steps leading to a street nearby.

The Orson Hyde Park is located also on the Mount of Olives and on our way to the Old City. However, the Orson Hyde memorial plaque had been removed. After several attempts to replace it and vandals continued to destroy it, it was decided to the leave the area alone.

The gardeners for lower part of the property for the Jerusalem Center were cooking breakfast. We looked into the little structure where they have their meals.

This is an interesting country and you will see the influence of many cultures. The Russian Orthodox Church of St. Mary Magdalene could be seen on our way to the Old City.

At the base of the Mount of Olives we saw the grave yard for the Muslims.

Right near the street were some Arab women taking a selfie so I grabbed my camera.

According to Jewish tradition, the Messiah will descend to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives and enter the city through the "Gates of Mercy" or the "Golden Gates." Since He will pass through the cemetery, located so close to the Temple Mount, those buried on the Mount of Olives will be the first to be resurrected.

At the right side of the photo, notice the beautiful hill of green and I was reminded of the song, "There is a Green Hill Far Away. . ." What a thrill to be in this wonderful city and to experience so many new places and people each and every day.

Our first stop was at the Garden of Gethsemane.

This was one place that stood out in my mind from our trip to Jerusalem in 1971. A lot has changed since then and now the garden is enclosed with a fence around it but the very old olive trees still in place. We spent one evening in the Garden with a Catholic priest who related the story of the of the Last Supper and events leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus.

Right near the Garden of Gethsemane is the Church of the 7 Nations. Seven denominations went together and built this church to cover the rock where Jesus atoned. Mass was being held in the church and people went up and kissed the stone.

After the Last Supper, Jesus went to the Garden to pray. This is supposedly the stone where he atoned for our sins.

We went down to a grotto which is where Jesus met with His disciples and also where Judas betrayed Him.

We visited many other places in the Old City but my camera ran out of battery so I had to say to myself, "Another time . . . we've got 17 more months!" We left through Damascus gate and bought some strawberries, dried figs and dates, almonds and cashews. Now it is time to prepare for the concert tonight in the auditorium.

Elias Feinzilberg, Halocaust Survivor

Look at this photo taken in 1934 of the Feinzilbergs, just 6 years before the Nazis arrived in Lodz. Elias had five sisters and one younger brother. Lodz, located in central Poland, held one of the largest Jewish communities in Europe, second only to Warsaw. When the Nazis attacked, Poles and Jews worked frantically to dig ditches to defend their city. Only seven days after the attack on Poland began, Lodz was occupied. Within days of Lodz's occupation, the Jews of the city became targets for beatings, robberies, and seizure of property. The Feinzilberg family and 204,000 Jews from various countries were first sent to Lodz Ghetto.

The Holocaust refers to the systematic murder of more than six million Jews orchestrated by Adolph Hitler and the National Socialist (Nazi) Party in Europe during World War II. Eliaz Feinzilberg, now age 98, came to the Jerusalem Center to share his experiences with the students.

A few days after the Nazis arrived in Lodz, his family was forced to leave their home. His mother, sisters, and younger brother were deported to the death camp of Chelmno and his father was one of 43,500 who died of starvation. Elias spent a few months living in horrible conditions. Lack of food and daily essentials were a way of life and thousands died of disease and starvation.

For the next 5 years Elias escaped death when he volunteered for slave labor in Auschwitz, it's sub-camps, and various other concentration camps throughout Germany. He said, "Later on, after the SS took my shoes and left me barefoot, a group of us were sent to another concentration camp, Dachau, in Germany. I saw a mountain of dead people and I took the shoes from a dead person.

About 10 days later, 5,000 of us were placed in closed train wagons with about 50 people inside each wagon. The Soviet soldiers gave each person a large sack, the purpose of the sack we learned later, was for the person to climb into for the Soviet Soldier to seal and then throw into the river where we would drown. When the Americans had liberated Dachau May 1, 1945, Americans came in with tanks and liberated us." (He amazingly escaped and was one of 10,000 out of 204,000 who survived.) He said that later American soldiers in army trucks took him to Feldafing, an American displaced persons camp. In Feldafing, he worked in the kitchen serving food and that is where he met his wife, which he married in the camp on July 3, 1946. They traveled to Guatemala and for the next 22 years raised a family of 2 boys and 1 girl. In 1969, he and his wife moved to Jerusalem where he currently presides. He said, "I've been blessed with 7 grandchildren and 16 great grandchildren." Photo of Elias today. He is the cutest little man and came to a concert at the JC Sunday night.