Hope vs. Optimism - 9/12/17

Hi everybody! It’s Anna, and this is our fourth day in Jerusalem! We hit the road pretty early to get to Hebron, where we visited the Cave of the Patriarchs. This site has a Jewish side and a Muslim side- our Palestinian tour guide, Sa’id, was not allowed to enter the Jewish part, which was an aspect of the day that discouraged and frustrated many of us. 

 The Jewish community of Hebron


Later, we traveled to meet with Lutheran pastor Mitri Raheb at the Diyar arts conservatory in Bethlehem. He gave us some background on Christianity’s history in this area, as well as information on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He expanded on his theory of "hope vs. optimism," and maintains hope for the Palestinian community, as he focuses on building bridges and restoring faith in culture through education. We asked lots of questions about the conflict, and I think most of us feel like we could spend way longer here in order to take in all the nuances and challenges of the situation. 

 Matching is pretty impressive when we only have a few outfits each...


The last stop of the day was the Church of the Nativity, where we saw the birth place of Jesus and noted once again that the church had been divided into different areas for different religions. We headed back to the hotel for dinner, class, and to get excited about seeing Temple of the Mount and our FREE DAY TOMORROW!

 Catholic Church of the Nativity


See you later with more updates!


Anna

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