INTENSIVE ARABIC SEMESTER OUT & ABOUT STUDY TOUR: Blast from the past: Bridges, bunkers and peace 05/10/2012
Photos & text: Lydia Aisenberg 
Intensive Arabic Semester students, sitting in what was previously the dining-room of Old Gesher, watch an audio-visual presentation on the battle fought there in 1948
 At the end of April – on not the friendliest of days with regard the weather - students participating in the fifth semester of the MASA-Givat Haviva Intensive Arabic Semester nevertheless managed to pack another interesting experience under their IAS travel and study belts with a tour of the Jordan Valley and Golan Heights. Accompanied by staff members Lydia Aisenberg and Uri Barel, the first port of call was the Old Gesher site located on the banks of the River Jordan, the Gilead and Golan Mountain ranges looming high on the other side of the river wending its way through the valley.  For the first part of the morning neither mountain ranges visible through the dust-laden atmosphere but clearing up somewhat during the course of the day. At Gesher, following an audio-visual presentation shown on the walls of what had been the dining-room of pre-1948 Kibbutz Gesher prior to evacuation and resettlement on higher-ground a short distance away, kibbutz born and bred guide Nirit Bagron, whose grandparents were founder members of the kibbutz, accompanied the students to the bunker that had become not only a place of defense during the Iraqi Army attacks of the 1940s but also the command center where Morse code messages sent out as well as being the treatment center for the wounded defenders of Gesher. Nurit pointed out a rather tattered and stained book where the names of the patients and the treatment they received all recorded in clear handwriting by nurse Leah Kremer, a founder member of the kibbutz who died a year ago at the age of 93. 
Nurit Bagron explains about some of the people registered in the 1948 nurse’s log kept by Leah Kramer
A model of Leah Kramer attending a wounded defender in the underground bunker and right: the courtyard and dining-room
 Opening up the gate in the security fence – having coordinated the visit with the security forces in the area – Nirit led the students and staff down to the banks of the Jordan River where the remains of 3 bridges over the river – built by the Romans, Turks and British and blown up by Israeli forces in 1948 to hamper the advances of the Iraqi army – straddle the narrow river. The old khan and customs house have been restored and on the banks of the river by the Roman era bridge is a wooden platform amongst the riverside reeds. Here the group sits and takes in the surrounding beauty, birds twittering in the background and the slap-slap sounds of the water gently connecting with the river bank whilst listening to the story of Israeli heroine Esther Arditti Bornstein in whose memory the “Bridges Viewpoint” was built. 
 Born in Bulgaria, Esther Arditti Bornstein and family fled to Italy in the Second World War. Aged 16 she and her brother arrived in Israel and despite being so young, joined the Israel Defense Forces, completed a medic’s course and was known to see serving the country as an honor and not a duty. In 1954 - during her watch – a Mosquito plane was hit by lightening and crash landed nearby. Esther ran toward the burning plane – loaded with ammunition – and pulled the pilot from the wreckage before the craft blew up. In the recorded story of Esther Arditti Bornstein the pilot, Yaakov Shalmon tells the story of how she saved his life for which she was awarded a medal.  Upon completion of her army service Esther continued working as a nurse and was the first female ambulance driver in the State of Israel. She also became a tour guide and during the war of 1967 joined the paratroopers, tended the wounded and became known as the “Angel of the Paratroopers.” She also volunteered for the Yom Kippur War six years later. 
Students read about the Israeli schoolgirls at the ‘Hill of the Flowers’ Ashdot Yaacov
 Continuing on from Gesher to Kibbutz Ashdot Yaacov ISA students visited the memorial flower garden to 7 Israeli schoolgirls killed in 1997 by a deranged Jordanian soldier whilst visiting the ‘Peace Island’ nearby. With local guide Rachel – a tour of the area known as the ‘Peace Island’ under the jurisdiction of the Jordanians since the peace treaty and visits to the remains of the Naharayim hydroelectric power station and old railway station undertaken and also the opportunity to chat with Jordanian soldiers manning the archway – adorned with large posters of the late King Hussein and his son and present king, Abdullah – and opportunity to practice some Arabic was much appreciated by both the students and the soldiers!  The soldier explained that he was from Amman, stayed at this post for 10 days and then had 5 days home leave. He had no relatives among the Arab population of Israel he said and also told everybody that he had signed along the dotted line to serve in the army for twenty years! 
 From the Jordan Valley the IAS students travelled on to the Golan Heights. Travelling deep into the valley between the Gilead and Golan Mountain ranges, the River Yarmuk wending its way deep down below the narrow, twisting, turning road - even on a muggy day, great views over the pass, river and El-Hamma (Hammat Gader) mineral springs and ancient Roman baths as well as in present times, crocodile farm! From there only up – up, up and way to the top of the Golan Heights the road getting steeper by the meter and dangerous bends tackled. From an old bunker on the top, the opportunity to look back down from a great height over the area as well as take in the Kinneret and kibbutzim of the Jordan Valley. 
Intensive Arabic Semester students Ellen Tveteraas from Norway and Tamila Feldman from Russia take in the view from the Golan Heights down to El-Hamma.
 At the base of the Ben-Tal mountains overlooking the headquarters of the United Nations on the Golan Heights; the old Syrian town of Kunetra and the Valley of the Tears, a spontaneous meeting and chat with a local Druze fruit and honey seller proved to be one of the highlights of the day. A retired maths teacher who spoke excellent Hebrew as well as English, Ahmad Farhat considers himself Syrian although he holds an Israel identity card. The extremely friendly and jovial Druze, dressed in traditional clothing, explained about the old town of Kunetra and of the new one built in the near distance behind it. “Before the 1967 war, there were 25,000 Syrians living in Kunetra and now in the new Kunetra there are over 100,000. I have family there and visit them from time to time – it isn’t such a problem to be able to pass through to the other side,” he said. These days the old town of Kunetra lies in ruins, a ghost town. Ahmad was selling locally grown olives, apples, honey from his family beehives and an assortment of different jams at his roadside stall. He liberally handed out pieces of thin Druze bread for the students to dip in the honey pot.  Atop the Ben Tal Mountain and extensive bunker complex, Intensive Arabic Semester logistics and finance director Uri Barel shared with the students his experiences of the 1973 Yom Kippur War when he was 12 months in to serving his 3-year national service in the army. Having prepared maps to show the students Uri walked and talked the students through a very difficult time for the nowadays 60 plus-year-old kibbutznik who was born and lived all his life at Kibbutz Barkai where the MASA-Givat Haviva Intensive Arabic Semester students reside. A great deal achieved in one day with plenty more left to see for the next time. 
Add Comment 
Take your seats – MASA‐Givat Haviva Intensive Arabic Semester students enjoying an open air classroom with historical props all around during a visit to Caesarea
 Photos & text: Lydia Aisenberg The ancient port city of Caesarea recently became an open air classroom for the MASA‐Givat Haviva Intensive Arabic Semester students almost four months into the five month program – the fifth group to participate in the innovative and successful project that can these days literally be awarded hard earned high‐fives! Just a 20 minute drive from the Givat Haviva campus, Caesarea is one of the most popular sites to be visited by both tourists from abroad and Israelis. Not surprising when on offer is an enormous open to the skies wondrous site that as one enters the impressive high‐ceilinged arched gateway, legends instantly come back to life with visual evidence of human creative greatness – and the opposite ‐ as well as the awesome strength of the wrath of Mother Nature when unleashing earthquakes powerful enough to upend massive marble pillars weighing a few tons apiece and toss them one on top of the other along the seashore.  In some places the impression is of a giant’s successful strike at the local bowling alley – the pins knocked down to lay at different angles until of course picked up and reset for the next attempt. Here the massive pins‐ofthe‐ past pillars of the ruins of the city built by Herod the Great to serve as his main commercial center, are never likely to be moved from their resting places either embedded in the rocks or at the bottom of the Mediterranean sea together with a large portion of the destroyed Herodian and Roman harbor.  One of the greatest cities of the ancient world, as huge as the Caesarea site available to the general public is today, it is known to be only a portion of what lays on the floor of the Mediterranean in the area as well as beneath the sandy dunes of the region awaiting excavation. On a breathtaking blast to the past, the Intensive Arabic Semester students wandered through painstakingly evacuated layers of rich history contained in the remains of the city walls, ramparts, ancient roads, massive hewn slabs of stone from long destroyed buildings and strolled around the old port area. One's imagination – helped along on the day by the most professionally graphic descriptions given by educator and Semester academic director Dr. David Mendelsohn – worked overtime taking in the glorious and gory past of Caesarea. The sound of horses hoof’s pounding the paved road, chariot wheels screeching to a halt and the hum and drum noises emanating from a busy port seem to penetrate the tranquility of Caesarea in present times.  “I can almost hear the fishermen discussing their catch or instructions being yelled to port workers,” said Mendelsohn, whose comment enhanced by the joyous cry from a nearby fisherman reeling in his rod and finding a fish that couldn’t resist the bait thrashing about on the end of the line. The building of and destruction by the wrath of both man and nature, from the Phoenicians to the Crusaders and every people and their leaders who came, conquered and were conquered in between, makes Caesarea such a fascinating site, legends simply coming back to life and enhanced by the glorious azure Mediterranean waters and sandy beach. Talented stone masons and artisans have left their mark for eternity, the detail on a sarcophagus or base of marble pillars and slabs crafted to decorate doorways, ceilings and inner walls, leaving present day visitors standing in awe of their work.  Apart from the Intensive Arabic Semester students visiting Caesarea that day there were hundreds of other visitors from a number of different countries, yet hardly heard as the effect of the sheer beauty of the site drives one to silence – andvworking overtime with the camera. At 11.00 p.m. the silence was shattered by a siren. It was Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel.vSirens sounded throughout the country. The IAS students and staff stood still – as did other people at Caesarea and throughout the land as the ear‐splitting sirens blasted full pitch. In Caesarea an eeriness prevailed standing at such a time in a place where so much had been fought for and been destroyed in the long gone past especially as peace is yet to prevail in modern times in the same region. Following the visit to Caesarea’s old port, the students and staff continued on to the Roman aqueduct a short distance away. Having prepared a presentation on the history of Syria, student Dan Price could not have asked for more attractive and meaningful surroundings to deliver his excellently prepared presentation than standing under the aqueduct archways, surrounded by sand and sea, seagulls and strong scent of history in the air. 
Friends, Romans and Intensive Arabic Semester students … lend me your ears!
Dan Price giving forth with his presentation on Syria under the Roman arches of the Caesarea aqueduct
David Mendelsohn explaining who, when and why
Patrick examines the marble
Bridges and Bunkers 04/20/2011
 Text and Photos by Lydia Aisenberg Traveling through the northern portion of the Jordan Valley (Syrian-African Rift) and visiting the heights of the Golan mountain range in springtime is a pretty awesome experience as the fourth group undertaking the 5-month duration MASA-Givat Haviva Intensive Arabic Semester recently discovered. On a particularly hot spring day preceded by a few days of rain, the undulating hills on the Israeli side of River Jordan wending its way through the valley are nowadays covered in green undergrowth, carpets of colorful flowers and orchards of purple blossomed nectarine fruit orchards. On the other side of the River Jordan and valley floor, the Gilead mountain range equally as green and peppered with Jordan villages large and small the success of their agricultural efforts as evident as those of the Israeli farmers on the east bank of the river.  Old Gesher was the first port of call for the day. The site of the original Kibbutz Gesher, the first settlement to withstand an attack by the Arab Legion in April, 1948 is an important geopolitical and historical site attracting thousands of Israelis and overseas visitors annually. The new Kibbutz Gesher stands a short distance away on a hilltop overlooking the original settlement, the River Jordan and the remains of three bridges, Roman, Turkish and British built, straddling the waters. Kibbutz born Nirit Bagron, whose grandparents Ruth and Ayli Kapp were founder members of Gesher (bridge in Hebrew) welcomed the students to the place her grandparents built, defended and eventually abandoned in order to rebuild at a nearby location easier to defend. Nirit explains that when the Arab army attacked the 120 member kibbutz in 1948, the communities 50 children were kept in an underground bunker but later smuggled in the middle of the night to the neighboring kibbutz of Ashdod Yaacov and from there to an abandoned monastery in Haifa – nowadays renovated and to be found in the courtyard of the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.  Following a 15-minute audio-visual film (screened in the reconstructed dining hall) describing the founding of Old Gesher, the fighting in the 1948 War of Independence and background of the historical three bridges and railway line that crossed the River Jordan and continued on to Damascus in pre-1948 days, Nirit accompanied the students to the underground bunker where the children had been sheltering and that also served as a center to treat the wounded and safe place for the radio operator to transmit from.  In the section of the bunker – only in recent years rediscovered under mounds of earth and renovated – used to treat the wounded, Nirit shows where kibbutz member and then nurse Leah Kremer (nowadays 92 years of age) worked under the most difficult of circumstances. Standing next to a plaster model of Leah Kremer at work, Nirit shows the actual book that Nurse Leah recorded the dates, names, injuries and treatment given in her portion of the bunker, shared with the communications officer, the original radio equipment sitting on a table opposite the treatment bed.  Back above ground and a short walk to the present day security fence and on a hilltop a short distance away, over the river and the three bridges, a Jordanian Army sentry box. A one-hundred year old engine which was rescued from the demilitarized zone has been restored and stands by the fence under the old dining hall. Nirit unlocks the gate in the fence after checking with the Jordanian soldiers it is okay to enter the demilitarized zone - adhering to the agreement brokered with regard the site. Right: a basalt built khan in a photo as it was many decades ago and prior to recent renovation in the zone.  Once permission was given for the Israelis to work uncovering remains in the area over the fence but hugging the east bank of the River Jordan, many artifacts of various periods of rule, whether the Roman or Ottoman Empires or the British Mandate. The Roman bridge became to be called the “Bridge of the Meeting Place” due to the convergence of the rivers Jordan and Yarmuk a short distance upstream.  The 1904 Turkish bridge was built as part of the famous Hedjaz Railway Valley Line from Haifa to Damascus and the British constructed the third bridge in 1925.  All three bridges were blown up by members of the Hagana during the 1948 Independence War in order to put pay to the invasion plans of the Arab armies at that time.  Students Geoff Nixon (USA) and Karim Al Habash (Germany) gaze up at the Jordanian sentries gazing down  Nirit Bagron pointing out to Martina Paletova (Czech Republic)  NAHARAYIM – The ISLAND of PEACE – The PICKED FLOWERS HILL A unique agreement was reached with the Emir Abdullah of Transjordan in 1927. That agreement enabled engineer Pinchas Rutenberg, founder of the Palestine Electric Company, to build the company’s main power station at nearby Naharayim, Hebrew play on words meaning where two rivers meet – the Jordan and the Yarmuk. Later to become the Israel Electric Corporation, the Emir agreed to give the rights to use 6,000 dunams of land that at the time was under the control of Transjordan and the building of 3 dams got under way in the early 1930s. The Naharayim plant began to supply electricity to communities both sides of the border until it was blown up by the Arab Legion during the War of Independence. The story of Naharayim and the opening of the ‘Peace Island’ following a peace accord with the Jordanians in 1994 and the founding of the ‘Picked Flowers Hill’ in memory of seven Israeli high school girls murdered by a Jordanian soldier visiting the ‘Peace Island’ were dealt with by local guide and member of Kibbutz Ashdot Yaacov, Ran Amitai. Passing through the security fence to the Peace Island, stopping at the point where the Jordan and Yarmuk rivers join and for papers to be inspected by Jordanian soldiers stationed in a sentry box in the form of a large arch with portraits of the late King Hussein and his son, the present day king Abdullah, the IAS students arrive at the Peace Island where another large portrait of King Abdullah graces an observation platform.  THE KING AND I – Fourth Intensive Arabic Semester students and Logistics Program Director Uri Barel take a break on Peace Island in the Jordan Valley under an image of King Abdullah of Jordan and Jordanian Army sentry box  After a detailed description of the terrain and background to agreements made between Israel and Jordan, Ran accompanies the group deeper along the banks of the Jordan to the remains of the main portion of the Naharayim Power Station and an old Hedjaz Railway Station, the latter covered in fascinating graffiti from the 1930s to later periods. A number of signatures were from Jewish workers employed by Rutenberg and also one left by a British serviceman in 1943.  Turkish railway station in the Jordan Valley  Martina and Rachel Goldberg before crossing back through the Jordanian army border post of Naharayim  Next port of call: THE GAVRIEL SHEROVER CENTER at TZEMACH on the shores of Lake Kinneret A visit to Beit Gavriel on the shores of the Kinneret en route to the Golan Heights was a welcome break and opportunity to not only admire the innovative architecture and Jerusalem stone used to construct the cultural center in memory of Gavriel Sherover but accommodating staff agreed to open up the ‘Peace Room’ incorporated in the design of the center by Gavriel’s mother, Gita Sherover.  It was in this room that King Hussein and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and entourages met after the Peace Accords were agreed upon in order to sign more papers, in the main dealing with water issues.  The Peace Room at Beit Gavriel  The Peace Room at Beit Gavriel  Spring time in the Golan  The ascent from Hammat Gader(El Hamma), River Yarmuk and crocodile farm  Intensive Arabic Semester Director of Logistics, Uri Barel on Har Ben-Tal looking across the Valley of Tears toward Damascus, tells of his Yom Kippur War experiences (with student Edo Konrad professionally handling translating Uri’s Hebrew to English for the benefit of his fellow students) Photos and Text by Lydia Aisenberg  Students from the United States, Canada and Germany began the third term of the 5-month MASA Givat Haviva Intensive Arabic Semester this week. The students, pictured left meeting with Givat Haviva teaching and administrative staff in the madaffi (guest room) of the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace & International Department, are settling in at their new home away from home - the neighboring kibbutz of Barkai - and eager to start their studies.  The International Department staff is equally eager to once again pick up the gauntlet of challenge laid down by enthusiastic university graduates with insatiable appetites to learn Arabic, Hebrew, Middle East studies with so many varying topics, to participate in special study tours, engage in community work in neighboring Kfar Kara – and oh so much more. Following the informal gathering of students and staff, the Arts Center and exhibition halls of Hashomer Hatzair were visited and after lunch, the first introduction to the region surrounding their community of residence, Barkai – a kibbutz founded in the late 1940s by North American members of the Hashomer Hatzair movement and Holocaust survivors from Eastern Europe.  The first port of call for the newcomers was the village of Umm al-Kutuf nestling on 2 hilltops just down the road from Barkai. A village of some 1,000 residence, Umm al-Kutuf commands an impressive view over the Dotan Valley, Harish, Mitzpe Ilan, Barta’a and deep in to the West Bank. A quick visit to Harish and on to a vantage point where more of the West Bank and view of the course of the security fence in the area; then on to the Barta’a-Reichan checkpoint passing by a group of Palestinians from Yabed creating charcoal in the Dotan Valley. The opportunity arises to speak with a number of Palestinians either on their way home from a days work somewhere on the Israeli side of the fence, and in the opposite direction folks from East Barta’a returning from a visit to Jenin and Salem – the latter in order to renew a magnetic security card about to run out. Continuing on to the Shaked settlement bloc, driving by the Reichan forest of natural oak trees, passing through the two hilltops on top of the Amir Mt. range that make up the community of Katzir – and then down the mountain for a refreshing drink and some tasty falafel in Barta’a village – to be visited again in the near future in order to engage in conversation with local residents and learn more of the daily realities of living in a divided village. A rather long, hot but very successful day, and we promise there will be many more over the coming months. Promise! | Latest NewsThe Intensive Arabic Semester is constantly on the move. Check out our latest news here! ArchivesMay 2012 CategoriesAll |
RSS Feed