Hanukkah - Honoring Our Heritage

As Hanukkah nears, Hasmoean-era site in central Israel should be upgraded

by Howie Mischel

Hanukkah is upon us. Throughout the Land of Israel preparations for this most beautiful and universally loved holiday is underway. When you open a newspaper this week you will see announcements for dozens of parties, plays, concerts and other activities celebrating the festival of freedom.

In our schools and yeshivot children will be taught about the history of the Hasmoneans and the Maccabees, about the victory of the few over the many, of the triumph of light over darkness. And this is as it should be. We have much to be thankful for and to celebrate in our land as we find inspiration in what occurred here more than 2,000 years ago.

There’s only one thing that’s wrong with this picture. In the City of Modi’in, just 17 miles from Jerusalem, where Matityahu and his five sons began the rebellion that helped preserve the Jewish future, there is an archaeological site. It is a hillside at the edge of the Buchman neighborhood and beneath it is an ancient Hasmonean period village that many believe to be the site of ancient Modi’in.

In 2001, excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority uncovered one of the oldest synagogues ever found in Israel. The site has been prominently positioned on Prime Minister Netanyahu’s list of heritage sites in Eretz Yisrael. Yet there is not a plaque, a road sign, a light or any form of marker to signal to citizens or visitors from around the world that this important ancient site has been discovered in the virtual center of our country.

Despite this sad situation, not everyone has missed the cue with regard to this site. A project to properly preserve the site and develop it into an archaeological park and educational visitor center was initiated by former deputy mayor Alex Weinreb. The proposed plan was developed with the input of numerous consulting experts and a team from the Israel Government Tourist Office.

Stand where Judah Maccabee once stood
But today, years later, and under a new municipal administration this site lies abandoned. The proposed project is unfunded. The excavated synagogue is now covered with thick brush and is surrounded by a security fence to prevent further theft of precious stones from the site. Not a shekel has been spent to help improve the site or allow it to be marked and opened for even low level use by our citizens.

The current city administration purports to have a concept for creating some sort of development fund in order to raise dollars to finance a variety of projects around Modi’in. Reportedly, it would be fashioned after Mayor Teddy Kollek’s Jerusalem Foundation which did so much for that city’s preservation and development. But Modi’in is not Jerusalem and its current mayor is missing an important point.

While he may have grandiose plans for funding dozens of projects around this beautiful and rapidly developing new city, there really is only one reason why a visitor to Israel would pull off Highway 1 on a drive from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. That reason would be to come to the Eretz HaMaccabim Visitor Center so they could stand where Judah Maccabee once stood and learn something about our struggle for freedom and the fight against oppression and assimilation in those times.

That site should be the first and primary focus of the city’s efforts but that would presume appreciation and understanding of our history and who we are. Growing numbers of residents in our neighborhood have come to understand the significance of what we have here and also realize that a key future economic driver for the city could lie beneath that hillside.

One of the most memorable moments of my Aliyah last year was to join about 150 men and women from our neighborhood at a Kabbalat Shabbat service at the ancient synagogue on the first night of Hanukkah. I plan to be there again this coming Shabbat to pray, to celebrate, to remember and to give thanks. And to hope that somehow something can be done to correct this situation and ensure that this important historical site will be properly remembered and ultimately preserved for our future generations.





Ynet News

Forget Turkey: Israelis Discover Greece

Israelis shun Turkey, tens of thousands head to Greece for holiday season, with Rhodes, Crete and Kos most popular islands.

by Danny Sadeh

Turkey – out, Greece – in. Unofficial data collected by travel agents shows that the Greek islands were a big hit for Israelis during the holidays, replacing Turkey as the most popular tourist destination.

An estimated 300,000 Israelis who have traveled abroad for the holiday season, and some 50,000 of them made Greece and Cyprus their destination of choice. The most popular destinations were Rhodes and Crete, which saw a 60% increase in the number of Israeli visits during the month of September.

"After years of being considered too expensive compared to Turkey's club-hotels, Rhodes and Crete have become extremely sought after," a travel agent told Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. "The Greeks, on their part, are trying to be accommodating by cutting prices and giving the Israelis what they want more than anything: All-inclusive packages."

Travel agents noted there has been virtually a 500% rise in Israeli bookings to the Island of Kos and a 250% increase in trips to Thessaloniki during the holiday period.

Yossi Petal, director of the Israeli Travel Association, said, "People have quickly gotten over the Turkey problem and found many alternatives. Israelis have spread out across many destinations, but without a doubt the biggest winners have been Greece and Cyprus."

Other destinations that have cashed in on the Turkey boycott during the holiday season were the city of Burgas in Bulgaria, Barcelona, Italy and the United States, particularly New York.

As for Turkey, August saw a 90% drop in Israeli trips to the country compared to August 2009.





ynet News

For the First Time the Main Road of Jerusalem, from 1,500 Years Ago, is Exposed

An IAA Archaeological Excavation in the Heart of the Old City Confirms a Description on an Ancient Map: For the First Time the Main Road of Jerusalem, from 1,500 Years Ago, is Exposed

The excavations are being carried out at the initiation of the Jerusalem Development Authority, prior to rehabilitating the infrastructure

Madaba Map – an ancient mosaic map in a church in Jordan from the sixth-seventh century CE, which depicted the Land of Israel in the Byzantine period, explicitly showed: the entrance to Jerusalem from the west was via a very large gate that led to a single, central thoroughfare on that side of the city.

Various evidence of the important buildings in Jerusalem that appear on the map has been uncovered over the years or has survived to this day – for example the Church of the Holy Sepulcher – but the large bustling street from the period when Jerusalem became a Christian city has not been discovered until now. The reason for this is that no archaeological excavations took place in the region due to the inconvenience it would cause in stopping traffic in such a busy central location.

Now, because of the need for a thorough treatment of the infrastructure in the region, the Jerusalem Development Authority has initiated rehabilitation work and is renewing the infrastructure in this area in general, and next to the entrance to David Street (known to tourists as the stepped-street with the shops) in particular. Thus it is possible for both archaeologists and the public to catch a rare glimpse of what is going on beneath the flagstone pavement that is so familiar to us all.

From his knowledge of the Madaba Map, Dr. Ofer Sion, excavation director on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, surmised that the place where the infrastructure will be replaced is where a main road passes that is known from the map. “And indeed, after removing a number of archaeological strata, at a depth of c. 4.5 m below today’s street level, much to our excitement we discovered the large flagstones that paved the street”. The flagstones, more than a meter long, were found cracked from the burden of centuries. A foundation built of stone was unearthed alongside the street on which a sidewalk and a row of columns, which have not yet been revealed, were founded. According to Dr. Sion, “It is wonderful to see that David Street, which is teeming with so much life today, actually preserved the route of the noisy street from 1,500 years ago”.

During the Middle Ages a very large building that faced the street was constructed on the stone foundation of the Byzantine period. In a later phase, during the Mamluk period (thirteenth-fourteenth centuries CE) elongated rooms were built inside this structure, some of which are vaulted; these were apparently used as shops and storerooms. It turns out that beneath this building – right below the street that runs between David’s Citadel and David Street and leads to the Armenian Quarter – is an enormous cistern, 8 x 12 meters and 5 meters deep, which supplied water to its occupants.

The Madaba Map is an 8 x 16 meter mosaic map that was built in a church in Madaba, Jordan and described the Land of Israel through the intimate knowledge the mosaic’s builder had of the country. The map depicts schematically all of the Land of Israel, with an emphasis on the Christian sites in it. Among other things that appear on the map are many of the churches they began to erect at this time when the city underwent a religious change from paganism to Christianity. The churches can be identified by the red roofs that are portrayed on the map.

The artifacts that were discovered in the excavations include an abundance of pottery vessels and coins and five small square bronze weights that the shopkeepers used for weighing precious metals.

Israel Antiquities Authority





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