Dispatch from Jerusalem

OPEN House OPENS Hearts

By Rev. Cheryl Hauer,  BFP International Development Director

{image_1}There is a saying about Jerusalem, that even though it is a city of over 700,000 people, it is really just a very large small town. Bridges for Peace’s recent participation in the community open house event, called “Houses from Within,” made that seem even truer than ever. For the second year in a row, Bridges for Peace had the privilege of opening its doors to Israelis from all over the Land as they visited historic Jerusalem buildings on walking tours. Last year, we were excited that we had 300 visitors during the two-day event. This year, we welcomed 820 people through our gates, not only to see our building, but to learn about the work we are doing to build bridges of friendship between Jews and Christians.

Plums & Dates – Good For You

{image_1}ISRAELI RESEARCH is not just about new inventions or medicines; it is also interested in prevention and ways to promote good health. For instance, ISRAEL21c reported on new research from Israel's Volcani Institute, revealing that eating one fresh red plum with your meal counters the oxidizing agents in a seven-ounce portion of red meat. Antioxidant levels in plums are three times as high as those in pomegranates and five times higher than those in red wine, apples, and bananas.

Massive Passageway Revealed

{image_1} WHAT APPEARS TO BE a fortified passageway at least 3,700 years old, leading to ancient Jerusalem’s water supply, has been uncovered in the City of David site outside Dung Gate of Jerusalem’s Old City. According to Dr. Ronny Reich, professor of archaeology at the University of Haifa and one of the leaders of the excavation, “This is the first time that such massive construction that predates the Herodian period has been discovered in Jerusalem.” The find puts ancient Jerusalem “more or less” on par as a city-state with other ancient sites, such as Shechem and Hebron.

Susita

{image_1} AS BFP VOLUNTEERS IN ISRAEL, my friend Teri and I love to discover new places that are off the beaten tourist path. We’ve scrambled down narrow openings to hidden caves, hiked to a Crusader castle covered by overgrown brush, and participated in a dig at Dor, a little-known ancient seacoast town. This summer was no different. While driving along the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, Teri took a turn off the road up a 3.5 kilometer (2 mile), narrow, pitted road that zig-zagged up a foothill of the Golan Plateau, 350 meters (1,150 feet) above the lake. I was surprised to see a national park sign in the small parking lot and wondered why I’d never heard of it before. The sign at the main road said Susita, but it wasn’t marked there as a place of interest.

Ancient Footprints Under Mosaic

{image_1} IN A UNIQUE FIND in the plaster beneath a 1,700-year-old mosaic, Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) conservators discovered the imprint of several feet and sandals. According to a press release from the IAA, Jacques Neguer, head of the IAA Art Conservation Branch, said, “The excitement here was great. It is fascinating to discover a 1,700-year-old personal mark of people who are actually like us, who worked right here on the same mosaic. We feel the continuity of generations here.”

Bar-Kochba Coins Found in Cave

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A COLLECTION OF 120 coins was unearthed in a cave in the Judean Hills not far from ancient Betar, where Jewish Bar-Kochba rebels took their last stand against the Romans in 135 AD. It is the largest cache of Bar-Kochba-era coins found in one location.

2nd-Temple Stepped Street Uncovered

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THE SOUTHERNMOST tip of Second Temple period-Jerusalem’s central thoroughfare was uncovered, revealing that era’s style of alternating wide and narrow steps.

Nasrallah: Israel is Cancerous, Illegal

{image_1}Hizbullah Chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah criticized moderate Arab nations which support normalization with Israel, saying that Israel was “a cancer…a metastasis which must be eradicated.”

Magnificent Mikveh Exposed

{image_1} A LARGE AND IMPRESSIVE MIKVEH (ritual bath) from the end of the Second Temple period was uncovered in an Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) excavation within the Western Wall tunnels. The mikveh is part of one of the most magnificent structures from the Second Temple period ever to be uncovered. From an architectural and artistic standpoint, there are similarities between this structure and the three magnificent compounds that King Herod built on the Temple Mount.

Roman Mansion Rewrites History

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This fourth-century, two-storey Roman mansion—covering c. 1,000 square meters (10,763 square feet) and first thought to be from the Second-Temple period—is rewriting history. “Up until now, archaeologists believed that the city’s Roman ruins extended only to the edge of the Old City walls constructed by the Ottomans.