On this mid-March ESRA hike we traveled to the Jordan Valley, close to the country of Jordan. The Jordan Valley is one of a series of valleys making up part of the vast Syrian-African Rift Valley, the gigantic crack in the earth's surface which starts in northern Syria and extends to Mozambique. More than 120 million years old, its most dramatic period of formation was probably in man's prehistoric past, within the last 100 thousand years. The Rift Valley has abundant underground springs (fresh water, salt water, sulfur and hot springs), bizarre land and rock formations, and many earthquakes.

The Jordan Valley is relatively remote for most hikers; it was my first experience of hiking there. A beautiful, fertile (even if very hot) farming area for Israelis and Palestinians, the Jordan Valley has great religious and political significance for Israel. Joshua 3/17: “And the priests that bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, while all Israel passed over on dry ground, until all the nation were passed clean over the Jordan.” The Jordan Valley stretches from Lake Kinneret to the Dead Sea and many consider it indispensable for Israel’s defense, essential to ensure security and a necessity in any peace deal.

We started our hike at Ma'aleh haNaarim, at about 700 feet below sea level. Our destination was the Horn of Sartaba, or A

ISRAEL MUSEUM RENEWED by Steve Kramer

We recently had the pleasure of meeting the very engaging director of Jerusalem’s Israel Museum. Making time in his busy schedule for Michal and me, James Snyder gave us a comprehensive survey of the nearly complete “redressing” of the museum campus. He also related how he became part of one of the leading encyclopedic museums of the world, whose nearly 500,000 objects of fine art, archaeology, Judaica and Jewish ethnography represent the history of world culture from nearly one million years ago to the present day. 

Israel’s national museum was founded in 1965 by Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek to be a vital symbol of the new nation. A “modernist temple to culture,” the museum is located near the Knesset, the Supreme Court and the National Library. The museum was designed by Alfred Mansfeld and Dora Gad in the late 1950s to resemble a low-slung, hilltop Arab village, with a commanding view of the city. While undoubtedly beautiful, the museum entrance was uninspiring, there was an overlong, uncovered walkway to the main building, and the museum was disorganized. On the plus side, the site is magnificent and the footprint of the original design had room for added exhibition space. Two bonuses are the magnificent wing containing the Dead Sea Scrolls - the Shrine of the Book - perhaps the museum’s most famous feature (architects: Bartos, Kie

We recently joined tour guide Pamela Levene to visit Ramla, the mixed Jewish-Arab city in the center of Israel. While many people mistakenly think that Jerusalem was once the Muslim capital of Palestine, they are mistaken. Ramla is the only Arab city in the Land of Israel that was once a capital.

Ramla was founded at the beginning of the 8th century by Caliph Suleiman ibn Abd el-Malik, the second son of Abd el-Malik, the Muslim caliph from the Umayyad dynasty who built the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. The Umayyads originated in the area of Mecca. From 661-750 CE, they ruled the Islamic Caliphate, the world’s largest empire at that time. By the end of Ummayad rule, one-third of the world’s population lived under the Ummayad Caliphate, making it one of the largest empires in history. Suleiman located the new city of Ramla, named after the sand dunes on which the town was built, near the devastated city of Lydda (Lod), which had an abundant water supply.

Ramla is located on the route of the ancient Via Maris (Way of the Sea), which connected Egypt with Damascus. It is also the intersection of roads connecting the port of Jaffa with Jerusalem. “Ramla served as the Umayyad and Abbasid capital of the Province of Palestine and the seat of Arab governors of the province in the 8th and 9th centuries. In the 14th century, Ramla regained importance for a short time as the provincial capital of the Mamluks.” (www.

HEBRON, THE FIRST JEWISH CITY by Steve Kramer For many people, Jews included, the name Hebron sticks in their throats. They question accusingly, “Why are Jews living in an Arab city, where there are 163,000 Arabs and only 800 Jews?” David Wilder, a prominent spokesperson for Hebron, explains: “Hebron is the first Jewish city in the land of Israel, home of our patriarchs and matriarchs - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Sarah, Rebecca and Leah. King David ruled from Hebron for more than seven years before moving the capital to Jerusalem.

Jews have lived in Hebron almost continuously for thousands of years.

At Tel Hebron, commonly known as "Tel Rumeida," artifacts were discovered dating to the era of the Patriarch Abraham. "L'Melech" (King) seals, 2,700 years old, inscribed with the word "Hevron" in ancient Hebrew, were uncovered there by archeologists. Our community offices are in a neighborhood founded in 1540 by Jews exiled from Spain in 1492. Jewish presence in Hebron came to an abrupt end only in August 1929, when Arab riots led to the murder of 67 Jews and the wounding of 70. All survivors were exiled from the city by the ruling British.

Following the riots, massacre and exile in 1929, a small group of Jews returned to Hebron in 1931. About thirty families lived in the city until just after Passover, 1936, when they were expelled by the British. Following the 1967 Six-Day War, Jews again had access to the fir