Jerusalem of Above and Jerusalem of Below

No matter how holy a city, commercialism
rules.

After already having fulfilled the standard verse of "next year in Jerusalem", I took it one step further last Thursday night. I went along to the opening ceremony of the Maccabiah - the World Maccabi Sports games, an International competition where around 7,000 Jews from around 70 countries compete against each other. It is a kind of mini-Olympics, where past and future Olympians compete along-side amateurs. I last attended this ceremony 20 years ago, as a teenager. But I digress, the special part was the opening ceremony itself, which more or less started with the singing of Hatikva, the Israeli National Anthem. Singing this for probably the first time as an adult, in a crowd of 35,000 people, in the capital of the Jewish people (as the prime-minister told us on the night - Israel is not a country belonging to the Israelis, it belongs to all Jews).

A Divided City No Longer

Pariser Platz - named so many years ago to piss off the French

I have always been amazed by the concept of war, especially, past wars. Mostly, because they don't make sense, but also because countries tend to behave in such ways which make even less sense. Even equating countries with toddlers doesn't quite explain things. The results of WWII are evident throughout Germany,  and although Berlin nowadays acts like one city, it is quite clear from how it looks that there are two sides to the coin.

A Wandering Jew in Berlin

Walking along the East Side Gallery - a remaining part of the Wall

With tens of thousands of Jews living in Berlin now, I wonder to myself a little bit, "why?". While I wonder that, I think others may wonder why Jews even want to visit the city. However, Berlin is, on the surface at least, an extremely multicultural city now with people of all different sorts of colours and backgrounds roaming around. On the one hand, it's hard to imagine the horrors of 20th century, but on the other hand, walking through Berlin, it's hard to forget them too.

Viva la Revolucion

Traditional dress

Koprivshtitsa a beautiful historic town in Central Bulgaria and was the scene for our second day trip. As there was also going to be a kind of folk festival happening in town, we thought it would be a good time to visit. Although the town was in fact rather beautiful and a fascinating place from an historical perspective, the performances at the festival left a little to be desired. Unfortunately, the singing, which was very poorly amplified by the loudspeakers was pretty ear piercing. The dancing though, at least was something a bit different and got my attention for a few minutes!

More Killing Fields

It seems as though Rokiskis (probably like Lithuania as a whole) prefers to forget about its Jewish heritage, and I do wonder whether it is due to a sense of guilt. There is very little commemoration of the Jewish population which was decimated. And I mean that there is nothing around, neither in their memory, nor to commemorate their contributions. When it does come to the massacre sites outside of town, without external help, the lack of signage means it would be practically impossible to locate them.

The Bajorai site from the mosquito infested parking spot.

Paneriai

One of the very few signs leading visitors to the memorial site.

On my way from Vilnius to the northern town of Rokiskis, I took a small detour to the site of the Paneriai massacres. Paneriai can be classified as a suburb of Vilnius - right on the outskirts. In my drive to the site I passed multiple signs telling me I was leaving and then re-entering the city. During pre-Nazi Soviet times, large oil storage facilities were under construction, but the Nazi invasion put a halt to this. When the Germans saw the site, with a bunch of 'pits' already dug out ready for storage tanks, they decided it already fulfilled the criteria of a mass grave. Additionally, there is a railway station right on site, and the whole area was forested in 1940 (and much of it still is today), making a perfect sight and sound barrier from the outside world where executions could take place.

Proud to be Jewish

My brief glimpse of the Jerusalem of Lithuania has made me feel ever so proud to be a Jew, yet ever so ashamed to be a member of the human race. Learning about the Holocaust and WWII is nothing new to me, nor is being in the locations where atrocities took place. But something about my short time in Vilnius has had as much an effect on me as visiting Aushwitz & Birkenau. Maybe it is because I am older and wiser this time around, or maybe because it feels that much closer to home. But why proud to be Jewish? I'm proud to be a part of such a resilient people, and despite the fact that I can't claim any credit for it, part of a people which contributes positively to this world (despite what at times, the world does to it) in unbelievable disproportionate amounts - and it's not just the ~20% of Nobel prize winners who are Jewish, but in the every day things that are done to make this world a tolerable place to live.

No need to read the detail - the overview is clear enough!

Despite various forms of persecution, Jews lived and flourished in Lithuania since the 14th century like in no other European country. The persecution they faced here over the years was probably not nearly as bad as in some of the other European countries, but it seems like for the most part, they were not treated the same as other citizens. Thankfully though, there were times, in the more recent history prior to the Wars, where the Jews were allowed to live fairly independently. This, perhaps, was a priveledge they would have never experienced anywhere else. They were a significant part of the population in nearly every single town throughout the country, and in many, formed the majority of people. An important part of Jewish culture developed here, and now, there remains not but a shadow of what once existed.

The Spanish Revolution

My first real taste of Spain was all I had hoped it would be. I think I got a bit of a whiff of the culture during my travels in South America, and getting to know some Spaniards quite well during my time in Copenhagen imparted nothing but positive impressions, so I was eager to visit. Well, I most certainly was not disappointed. My good friend Carlos invited me and his house-mate Nico, to join him on a trip to his home town, Madrid. We had 4 full days there and did not waste a moment...
Within a couple of hours of arriving in town we were off to the city centre to watch a flamenco show and eat our first of many tapas meals. Amazing! The music and dancing was fantastic, and although put on for the tourists, I can't complain because it was a great introduction to the dancing and the music - definitely lively, definitely entertaining, and put together with quality food and beer, the night was perfect.

Too Political For This Blog?

I was sitting in Bangkok airport waiting for my flight to Dusseldorf when news came through that Osama Bin Laden has been killed. Within moments of the first rumours coming through on BBC, there were signs of cheering outside the White House, congratulations all around, and of course the self-congratulatory message from Obama followed soon after. The scenes from outside the White House looked as though a massive crowd of people had all together won a major lottery. Quite amazing I thought. But in all this, I had two thoughts: