girltheology

I arrived in Israel on January 8, 2008. I'm staying at Allenby 2 - Flax B&B in the Romema district of Jerusalem. The owner, Danny Flax, is a very congenial host, and enthusiastic about making sure his guests have a good experience of Israel.

Other guests here come from all walks of life - am joined by a Christian Zionist, Orthodox Jews, two young Swiss men - one a Persian Jew the other his friend, a PhD candidate from Heidelberg who is half Persian half German - she studies Jewish art, and two Americans on a 15 day whirlwind tour of the middle east - 5 days in Egypt, 5 days in Jordan, 5 days in Israel. Also - yesterday President George Bush arrived in Israel, apparently to try and promote peace talks between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority. There were protests in Gaza, and several mortars launched into Israel from northern Gaza. I've been following the news on the International Herald Tribune's webpage. So far everything's seemed peaceful in Jerusalem, with the exception of helicopters.

Today I'm hoping, if it stops raining, to go to the Museum on the Seam. It was suggested that I go to the Rockefeller Museum, but I find I'm not actually all that interested in the archeology - and while I really appreciated my friend Sophie's tour of the Ecole Biblique, I think that my archeology needs will be more than adequately accounted for by visits to such places as the Garden Tomb and the Old City of Jerusalem.

"The Museum on the Seam is a unique museum in Israel, displaying contemporary art that deals with different aspects of the socio-political reality.

Through the works of artists from Israel and abroad, who respond to the stress and tension between and within groups, the museum invites the visitors to examine the degree of influence of the social environment on the individual and vice versa.

Between the local and the universal, between pluralism and extreme ideologies, the message of The Museum calls for listening and discussion, for accepting the other and those different from us and respect for our fellow man and his liberty."

Click HERE for more information.