I’m now convinced (seven weeks into the trip) that Israel, this tiny thunderbolt shaped country located where Africa and Asia meet, has a strange magnetic quality. People you have just met will introduce you to someone else you need to meet, which results in an energetic alliance of people you are meant to meet, or things you are meant to do or see. I guess this is an example of the positive flow of energy. It’s not surprising that here, in the middle of the map of planet earth, the concept of western religion was born, and that those religions all want a piece of this place. And the negatve flow may be the competition between these religions and regions for their voices to be heard and their plight to be recognized. It is, as they say in hebrew, a balagan - a mess.

Some friends of ours from California happened to be visiting Israel to do research for a large scale exhibition that will be touring the globe in a few years. We were only able to overlap on the evening before they were leaving. That night also happened to be the night I was hosting a birthday party for A, with 30 of our closest Israeli friends many of whom we had recently met. T+H joined the party and ended up meeting our “family” in Tel Aviv - the B family. The matriarch of the family was born in Israel and raised in a very prominent family. She knows the complete history of Israel, as well as everyone who is anyone. After a brief conversation with T+H she told him that he was a descendant of one of the original families of Tel Aviv. She also said they could find his great grandfathers name on the Founders Monument on Rothschild Boulevard. Unbeknownst to us, T+H had decided earlier that day to spend two more nights in Tel Aviv instead of returning to Paris as planned, which meant they would actually be able to go visit the monument the next day. The next morning, The B family called to tell us that they found out his great grandparents were buried in the Trumpeldor cemetary in Tel Aviv, and offered to take them there to find the grave. She also had the address of their family home, and other genealogical facts that solved more than a few of his family mysteries.

Our first party in Tel Aviv - 30 people RSVP'd...

Founders square monument with T+H's grandfather somewhere on the far left....

The following day the B family took them to the cemetery where weathered stone tombs and marble engraved Headstones are jumbled together in endless rows. Because of their connections, the B family was able to get one of the Commissioners of Ancestors on the phone as they went grave by grave attempting to locate his great grandparents. After one and a half hours of deciphering headstones and moving one grave forward or one grave to the right, T+H now have a photograph of T by his great grandmother and grandfathers grave. This would have been impossible for T+H to do without the B family’s help because there is no directory, and everything is in written hebrew. How any of this could happen within two days of their arrival in Tel Aviv is truly amazing, or maybe just an example of Israel’s magnetic quality in action?

Trumpledor cemetery, or, another example of a balagan!

While they were all at the cemetery, A and I were driving up the coast to Akko to one of the oldest port cities Israel. We stopped for lunch at a little cafe in Haifa, having zero expectations of a culinary experience due to our friend from the Negev’s Arnauds proclamation that “my wife is the best Chef in all of Haifa!” After a mediocre middle eastern lunch we walked to see the Bahai gardens, a series of terraced manicured gardens that cascade down the Carmel mountain and overlook the largest port in Israel. The Baha’i is a modern religion, founded by an Iranian, that forbids violence and war and encourages equality, science and education. How refreshing! Of course the prophet was called a heretic by the clergy in 1850 and had to be executed by a squad of 250 soldiers - twice - the first time, after the shooting stopped he was gone. They found him back in his cell, they brought him out to face the firing squad again and the second time he was killed. The gardens are a monument to him.

The Bahai gardens overlooking Haifa Port — The Bahai gardens overlooking Haifa Port

After viewing the gardens we walked back to our car. As we crossed the street someone shouted A’s name. Let me remind you that we are in a place neither of us had ever been before, stopped by a man (Ala), a Palestinian whom A had met by chance in London through a mutual friend. Ala is the Co-Executive Director of a a non-profit called Meet that is using technology and education to empower Israeli and Palestinian high school students by encouraging them to work together and form trusting friendships and partnerships. Last June, A learned that Ala was based in Jerusalem where he would be within a weeks time. So they met. Now, 7 months later, Ala, who lives in Jerusalem, was visiting his parents in Haifa and had stopped to get cash at an ATM at the exact moment we were crossing the street. We made plans to see him when we go to Jerusalem. To think of all of the random decisions to land us on that corner at that moment…the timing is mind-boggling and yet so precise.

We continued north and checked into The Efendi hotel in Akko. Its a recently restored 12 room boutique hotel tucked inside the old city wall built by the Ottomans. They joined two houses that had been occupied for hundreds of years to form the hotel. The common spaces are an eclectic mix of modern and vintage seating and original domed ceilings with modern fixtures. The tiled balconies are massive, shaded with decorative arches and furnished with low pillows and arabic tables with views onto the Mediterranean and green domed mosques. The ceiling frescoes throughout the building were restored using artisans from Italy.

We took a walk along the promenade that runs along the cliffs and fortress walls overlooking the sea to the lighthouse. We got lost in what looks like a small jewish/arab village, but is actually a deceptively large maze of markets, a fortress, a gorgeous mosque and several crusader-era monuments. Around sunset the alleyways become deserted except for the sound of hurried footsteps and the call to prayer - a chant broadcast in haunting arabic summoning them to the mosque.

After a dinner at the famed Uri Buri fish restaurant (my lack of food photos there leads me to believe it was uninspiring?) we headed back to the hotel wine cave for a nightcap. We shared vodka shots and hung out with the sommelier, Eleanor. We talked Israeli wines, restaurants and I happened to mention the story of T+H and that they were spending their last night in Tel Aviv, at a restaurant in Jaffa called Kalamata. Eleanor said she loved Kalamata and to text them right now to tell Rona to take good care of them. Rona happens to be Eleanor’s sister. Can you imagine? The connectivity here is faster than the broadband!

Wine Cave at The Efendi -borrowed from the internet.

The next morning we had breakfast at the communal table under a crusader cross engraved into the stone wall of the dining room around 1150. We then drove north to Rosh Ha’Nikra to see the grottos near the northern border of Israel and Lebanon. There used to be railway tunnel linking Israel to Lebanon for use of armies and traders coming from Egypt. It was destroyed during the 1948 war and sealed up. Now they use the space as a theatre to show a short film about the history of the tunnel, and the story of the caves, niches sitting on top of the tracks. The underground caves used to only be accessible by sea and very experienced divers. Now there is a steep cable car that lowers you down to the series of inter-connected tunnels below. It was a very stormy day and the usually clear blue green water was overtaken by frothy white-capped waves smashing into the caves, soaking us in the process. The waves were violent and loud, echoing through the passageways that connect the grottos. Legend has it that a young bride who, on her way to marry a wealthy man in Lebanon whom she did not love, instead chose to jump from her horse into the mediterranean. Supposedly to this day you can hear her moans in the cave. I find it ironic that they depict this story in the 5 minute intro film, and then offer the space for weddings and other celebrations. It is truly a gorgeous location, but to celebrate your marriage in a place where a woman jumped to her death?

Border Patrol, or, so close and yet so far......made me want to go to Beirut!

That night we took a taxi to the house of Arnaud, the owner of Chez Eugene that we met in the Negev. He actually followed up and invited us to dinner at his house, a chic apartment in the Carmel Mountains above Haifa. The living area had beautiful mid-century modern furniture with a backdrop of a giant bookcase filled with art, design and travel books. The books were accented with collected artifacts, including a stack of costo-sized cans of Italian Tuna and jumbo -sized cans of Italian plum tomatoes which added a perfect pop-art touch. We dined with a friend of theirs and Arnauds son who is studying at the high tech school in hopes of becoming a film director. The meal was exquisite as promised, a beautiful salad, stuffed eggplant and a Tunisian chicken tagine. Laure certainly lived up to her title as the “best chef in all of Haifa.”

Thinking back on the magic of this past week: reconnecting T+ H to his historical relatives, bumping into Ala on a random street who A was hoping to meet with while we are here, naming a random restaurant in Tel Aviv to a sommelier we’ve just met, who’s sister happens to work there, asking for a restaurant recommendation in Haifa to someone who you don’t know lives there and getting invited to his house for dinner? It seems like before you voice a thought or desire you are already on your way to connect with whatever that thought may be. It’s like psychic fasttrak.

Out of curiosity, I googled ‘earth energy,’ curious if there was anything about this location that could explain this phenomenon we keep experiencing. I found an article correlating the Chakra (energy centers in the body) to energy centers on the earth. It turns out that the 5th Chakra (Throat/Communication/Creativity) is located here, between Great Pyramid of Giza, Mt.Sinai in Egypt, and the Mt. of Olives in Jerusalem. The website says the earth is speaking, wanting to unite all humans and cultures, and nobody in the middle east is listening. 

I think I am listening, or, at least I am noticing!

Earth Chakras...borrowed from the internet

Further reading on this can be found here, if you're into this sort of thing!

http://themindunleashed.org/2013/07/earth-chakras-and-vortices-earth-energy.html