Yizkor (Memorial) Room in Kiryat Malachi, 2008

A special new room has been created in the library building of Kiryat Malachi, a very moving “Yizkor Room. It is dedicated to the memoryt of Israelis from the town who have died before their time, mostly during military service or during a terrorist attack. (For those of you who know the town, it is in the area that formerly was an exercise club. The club has been moved elsewhere.)

Varda, the head of the library, took me on a tour, a few days after we arrived.




After entering on the right one sees awards given to soldiers from town.



The floor has a beautiful map of Israel under glass. The beauty is not diminished even though the map marks where military and terrorist attacks have taken place during the existence of the State of Israel. Unfortunately, I was not able to take a picture of it.

The rest of the walls, have two-deep photos of the local citizens who have died, from right to left in chronological order. You can also see flags of Israel and the military.
As you can see, the lighting is subdued.


The first two men fell during the War of Independence, before Kiryat Malachi (first as Castina) came into existence.
Itamar, above, died in 1948, and Yehezkiel fell in 1950.


1967 awakened me to Israel, so I've included pictures of those who fell in the 6-day war.



I was a member of a kibbutz on the Golan Heights in 1973. Along with the other women and children, my 4-month-old daughter Timna and I were evacuated under fire after dark the first day of the Yom Kippur War, so that war had a huge significance in my life. Here are photos of men who fell in that war from Kiryat Malachi.

Armon S. and Yehezkiel Nissim


Ofir M. and David A. both fell in 2001. Ofir died in a terrorist attack (a pigua). He had graduated from AMIT high school in Kiryat Malachi. His English vocabulary level was so great that his teacher said that he was like an English dictionary. In his memory, donations from the Seattle and Portland Federations 3 years ago helped purchase special, expensive English dictionaries for top students taking the 5 - point English Bagrut exam. (More dictionaries are now needed, BTW.)




Gad Rachamim feel in 2002. He was the brother of Nir Rachamim, the former president of the Kiryat Malachi Youth Council, and a counselor to Palm Springs and Seattle the summer of 2007.

I found the room quite moving. If you get to Kiryat Malachi, this room is a "must" to visit.

Visit to Acco and Haifa, 2008

Akko is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, dating back to the time of the Pharaoh Thutmose III (1504-1450 BCE ). (It is mentioned once in the Bible.) Currently, over 46,000 people live in the city, with a mix of Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Bahais. It was once a major port but now is mainly home to small fishing boats.
We saw the fishermen repairing their nets toward the end of the day.

harbor

After stopping in Zichron, we all drove to Acco. Unfortunately, the two cars did not follow each other, so we spent an hour, wandering around the walls of the old city of Acco until we finally met up with Ira and his passengers! It was Friday afternoon, already a bit late, so we didn't see much except for parts of the old city and a lot of the walls. The walls were built in the mid-18th century and then fortified by the Turks later.
Entrance to old city from southern parking lot

Map of Old Acco
Howard and Beth climbing to top of ramparts

Cannon on ramparts (earth-filled wall)

Dried moat around wall

When Napoleon tried to go north (after coming up the coast from Egypt after the British had destroyed his fleet in the battle of the Nile), he was stopped at Acco.

Park built in memory of the defeat of Napoleon


Old and new

We passed a spice store where I bought several types of zatar.

We eventually caught up with the rest, walked along the northern wall,

And Beth and Chelsey had their picture taken by the stone whale sculpture

We went through the Shuk as it was closing,

chicken necks, etc. in garbage from restaurant in market waiting to be picked up

Hookas Hooka in use

and spent ten shekels each ($3) to go out in a covered motorboat to see Acco from the Sea.

Howard, Beth & Ira in boat Boat "driver", Hila and Ariel

Edge of old pier in bay Acco beach from water
Boys jumping into bay

Walls viewed from water

As we walked back to our cars, we passed the entrance to the biggest prison that the British had. Unfortunately, it was already closed for the day. We also passed the entrance to the El Jazzar Mosque. The others waited while Howard and I paid a few shekels and went to the mosque's courtyard.

Courtyard

Mosque

We did not go inside because people were praying

After leaving Acco, we traveled to Haifa where we wound around the curvy streets on one of the high hills there until we found our hotel, the Dan Gardens, which is about a quarter of a mile down the road from the top of the Bahai Temple Gardens. The night view was amazing.

And the next morning we were treated to a stunning view of Haifa bay and the Bahai Temple and Gardens.

We walked up to the Carmel shopping center to see it in daylight before heading down to the National Maritime Museum, near the southern end of Haifa, close to the Mediterranean. We found the museum fascinating, depicting maritime history from 4000 years ago to the present in the regon. It was started in the mid-1950s from the private collection of the first director, Aryeh Ben-Eli. The following are a few pictures that show a smattering of what we saw.

Entrance to Maritime Museum

model of papyrus boat AnchorsDrawing of early wooden anchor


King Sahure ancient Egyptian ship held together

by rope

drawing on tomb wall of how Sahure's ship worked

Clay pot recovered from sunken ship


Map of ancient Israel

Fish show seas ships traveled in

Ancient helmet

Tin from sunken ships



Metal ram on front of Greek "battle" ship



Zim Lines passenger ship

See http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/438445/the_national_maritime_museum_in_haifa.html?cat=8 for more details on the museum.

From the museum, we drove south, passing high tech offices such as Microsoft and Google. We decided to drive close to the water, and eventually got off the main road, looking for a less foreign touristy restaurant near the beach. We went through some smaller communities, driving in and out of townlets. We were finally reached a dead-end and had to turn around. But I quickly turned my dismay into excitement. We had ended up at Hadassah-Neurim, a boarding school for troubled Israeli teens, the same place that Nadav had volunteered for 6 weeks in 1998 as part of his Young Judaea Year Course. So I jumped out of the car, took the picture, and later sent it to my son!

We ended up eating on the beach at Acco, sitting outside and watching the beach and the people walking by.

We had some rather unusual appetizers, including fresh almonds. What we normally know as the outside shell had not hardened yet, so we were able to eat it. After the long drive, Howard really enjoyed his beer.

The meal was delicious...the day and the two-day trip ended on a lovely note.