Reading Response Chapters 8 - 10

In Armstrong's 8th chapter "Aelia Capitolina" she discussed the Roman destruction and takeover of Jerusalem. I find it virtually impossible to imagine that at one point, Jerusalem was littered with Roman statues, baths, and temples dedicated to gods and goddesses. The idea that the Temple must be destroyed and a new building would be placed in its stead shows a lack of cultural sensitivity. This seemed a bit odd to me because the Romans and Jews seemed to be in good communication with one another and lived rather peacefully until early Christendom evolved into something that had elements of its predecessor, Judaism, but was not an obvious offshoot or descendent. For example, according to Armstrong "Luke's favorite name for Christianity was 'the Way': the followers of Jesus are continual travelers, with no abiding city in this world." This idea reminds us of the Jews as wanderers, constantly in search of a homeland. It forced me to ask the question: Have Christians searched for a homeland in the past, and if so where? From my limited knowledge of the New Testament, the search for a homeland does not seem to be a major focus. This changes into Chapter 10, after Christ's tomb is discovered, but  It seems to be one major deviation from the Judaism, where they are constantly looking towards Jerusalem to have a religious base. Also, the dispersion and modern prevalence of Christians around the world may have impacted the way priests thought and continue to think about one central location.

Continuing into Chapters 9 and 10, Christianity religion seems to be based upon the Gospel or the actual words themselves, physical location or site. When Christ's tomb was found at Mount Golgotha, it
proposed just the opposite. The idea that people described Christ's tomb is a fascinating one and all the myths and legends surrounding its origin are fascinating. It is a shame that people did not document what the stone looked like before it was incorporated into the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. I think Armstrong is correct when she describes the Christian reaction to Christ's tomb because may be looking for that religious experience, but to have a tangible object or site furthers that experience. Armstrong also continues to put herself in the shoes of the people she writes about. I do believe that she tries extremely hard to be unbiased in accounts but she lists "facts" about Christ's life or what the apostles thought without footnotes or any other indication of her sources. It would be nice to know if these thoughts were taken from the Bible, works by modern day Biblical scholars, or other types of extrabiblical writings. Also, I wish there were more written accounts or reactions the findings at Christ's tomb. Eusebius' account is valuable but it has already been established that he was a skeptic and he may have been overwhelmed by the things he saw or experienced at the time. It is still a valuable resource, but I had trouble when Armstrong used his perspective in order to bolster her arguments.

One thing that particularly resonated with from Chapter 9 to Chapter 10 was the idea that Christians viewed the Jewish expulsion and their ultimate takeover of the city as a necessity for the betterment of their religion. Dissension of any kind would have provided challenges for Christianity in its early stages and into its early development. I think it is interesting that during the time period and today many groups think it is necessary to destroy or remove their competition by brute force or any means necessary in order to better their cause. Eventually the Jews were invited back to Jerusalem, but only after the Christians had a strong hold over the area. It was interesting that Armstrong used Egeria's perspective regarding her experiences in Jerusalem while on her pilgrimage. It is interesting that women's opinions regarding religious experiences were valued during that time period. The female voice in Judaism was stifled and few writings are valued or discussed. This source may be one that Armstrong personally values more so than other scholars may value it, but I appreciate it regardless of the motivation. The notion of sacred geography makes another important appearance in this chapter as physical locations and objects come to the forefront of Christian practices. The medieval map in full color is wonderful because it allowed me to understand the way in which Christians viewed other places in the world, and how little they mattered to them.

The exile out of Jerusalem forced Jews to band together and to become more dependent upon the liturgy and adaptations of modern practices such as the alter and allowing certain traditions to occur in the home or in a smaller group of people as opposed to the temple. I found it fascinating to personally trace the origins of some of the practices such as a minyan and why Torah must be studied in a larger group. I think it would fascinating to look at the implications of this exile on religious practices in modern day Jewry. Maybe a possible paper topic for me? We shall see...

Weblog Assignment 2: Struggling for Answers

Throughout Living Jerusalem thus far we have had to read articles from a variety of perspectives. These diverse perspectives allows us to understand the components of Jerusalem that are important to Palestinians and Israelis, not just Jerusalem as a whole. These components differ from person to person, just as Jerusalem's history varies from scholar to scholar and is highly disputed. These biases and strong opinions make it impossible to look at Jerusalem in a holistic way, especially in regards to peace talks or treaties, but as part of this assignment I will attempt to the do the impossible: discuss a possible peace treaty or solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict.

I was really moved by the attempts to bring Jerusalem to the National Mall for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. It seemed like a great starting point for peace talks, even though the intent was to represent Jerusalem in the divided state is it now. This sounds awkward, but would there be a way to bring Jerusalem to Jerusalem in the same way they attempted to bring it the US? Using the ethnographic research like that of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival allowed researchers to come to a larger consensus about the things that are the most bothersome or important to people in regards to identity, culture, religion, etc. I'm not looking for a watered-down image of Jerusalem in the least, but an image that reflects the type of ethnographic research that is valued in order to get a sense of city, country, or continent. One possible start would be to bring cartographers together to discuss possible maps for Jerusalem as whole. These maps would obviously vary and opinions would clash, but creating one map or multiple maps that indicate changes in borders/boundaries overtime would at least put the Arabs and Israelis onto the same project. Then Arab and Israeli leaders would come and discuss with the cartographers the hard boundaries which they believe could not be changed (the answer would probably be all of them, but for this project please bear with me). This would create an honest list of the boundaries that cannot be physically moved and would overlap or impede on what each side would believe to be their space. Unless each side would be willing to compromise, than this idea is extremely idealistic (which it is) and virtually useless. It may actually make people more angry, but I won't discuss that because it will tear down my whole argument and that's clearly not the point.... 

For starters, I googled maps of Jerusalem. This may seem like a basic thing to do but it seems like  decent place to start. Interestingly, almost the first full page of listings are for maps of the old city. 

Google Jerusalem Maps

I feel like the other parts of the city are even more important than the Old City, because realistically most people do not live there. The emphasis needs to be placed upon the living places and less about the religious sites. Asking people to ignore their religious backgrounds and religious centers is cruel and  a bit strange when discussing Jerusalem but it would give a different perspective on peace talks. 

This a crazy lofty goal, I'm aware, but I guess this would be a good starting point? Using various timelines such as ones featured in Karen Armstrong's book and Mick Dumper's article would be valuable. They provide insights and thoughts that people are reading and using in order to understand the conflict and the borders and would be great starting points. This map idea would force researchers to at least compile the information and have it side by side. It would be miles and miles long, and would take years but there isn't a quick fix. I certainly don't have any of the answers and this may be an idea that has been thought of, tabled, and rejected.

In a way I tried to channel Karen Armstrong, where provides numerous maps that have changed over a period of years and presents them all. Conclusion: Facts are subjective

Reading Response: Chapter's 5-7 in Jerusalem

Armstrong gives a comprehensive history of Jerusalem, while adding comments about her personal experiences with religion. For example, in her first chapter "Zion" she says, "In fact, the goal of the religious quest has always been an experience, not a message. We want to feel truly alive and to fulfill the potential of our humanity, living in such a way that we are in tune with the deeper currents of existence" (Armstrong 8). In this statement, Armstrong assumes the a great about people's beliefs. She assumes that each person is looking for an encounter, which elevates them or connects them to their religion, which may be true for some people but not all. The idea that believers strive to connect to a higher power or are open to experiences with a higher power are presumptuous. This may be true for some practitioners but this seems like a difficult concept to apply to all practitioners. I find it interesting that Armstrong's views on Christianity are paired with elements of Israel's history in order to bolster her views, when they seem to detract from her specific arguments as they come across as more general. This constantly takes the reader from a single issue, such as the layout of Jerusalem at certain point, as Armstrong eloquently places maps throughout the chapters, to these larger sweeping statements about religion. 

In Armstrong's Jerusalem, she puts herself in the shoes of each group of people she discusses, such as Jews in the Babylonian exile, making the history more personal for the reader. This sets her representation of Jerusalem's history apart from most other histories. This is helpful because it allows her once again include her personal opinions about religion as a whole. It is a dense book and provides a nice breather or momentary pause until the reader is thrown into ancient Jerusalem at breakneck speed. In comparison to other histories we have read, Armstrong is more upfront about her agenda. She claims that she wants to remain unbiased, but this is almost impossible. She provides a lot of information and invests herself in each of her claims. For example, she discusses the brutality of the Babylonian exile for the average Jew and their struggles to retain their personal beliefs and practices, and in the Hellenistic period. The book is balanced because she does her best to fully describe each event in the simplest terms necessary, while still creating elegant sentences. Jerusalem's early history is tumultuous with rulers and conquerers destroying and building constantly and she expresses each moment in history with the same care. When she puts herself in the time she is writing about it allows her to express each transformation as they would have seen it.

When I continued to read Karen Armstrong's book after taking a brief break in between chapters, I was bothered by her lack of sourcing throughout the book. I have no doubt that she uses legitimate and reputable sources, but the fact that she did not include more footnotes or references fails to back up her claims. Her information is a combination of multiple sources, as a scholarly work should , but it is hard to trace her thought process when we do not know where the information came from. I believe the book is balance and does a good job of expressing many sides of Jerusalem's history as it is a highly debated topic. Armstrong ends the introduction with a strong disclaimer that she is not trying to predict Jerusalem's future. Her agenda is different than most because she is not trying to change the future by her representation of the past. I have read about Jerusalem's early history in Jewish Studies classes here at IU and through my early Hebrew school education. These accounts seem to gloss over many issues such as polytheism in the first temple and the number of people that veered away from Jewish traditions in favor of Hellenistic ones. 

Reading Response 2: Chapter's 1-4 of Jerusalem by Karen Armstrong

Karen Armstrong's book attempts to give an unbiased opinion of Jerusalem by approaching its history from the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim perspectives. She chooses to focus on the events related to the physical space that Jerusalem now occupies and the concept of Jerusalem throughout its creation. Many authors and historians of Jerusalem choose to trace the Christian, Muslim, or Jewish influence on Jerusalem and trace its influence or mark they have left on modern day Jerusalem.

Armstrong's historical account of Jerusalem shines when she discusses the concept of "sacred geography." This is an crucial idea about Jerusalem because many people that are apathetic to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will not understand why people have fought for thousands of years over an arid, inhospitable piece of land. Jerusalem is has become much more than the physical space or holy sites related to Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. The idea of Jerusalem and the idealistic qualities that accompany the "city of peace" stand even though Jerusalem faces many problems modern cities face such as overcrowding, economic struggles, and cultural differences.

Armstrong gives insight into the beginnings of the Israelite people and where the group might have come from. They may have been a small group of Hittites, a Semitic people living near Canaan. After closer examination it seems that the Israelites absorbed many of their religious practices and gods and says that the Israelites may have been a group of Hittites that broke away from the larger group. In the time of King David, Jerusalem became a Jewish center because of signs give to court prophets, but also because it was a good political strategy in terms of location. It was also beneficial because David wanted his reputation attached to the permanent home of the Ark of the Covenant. David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem and people believed that it came to be there because God allowed it, only at David's hand.

Armstrong does a good job of presenting Jerusalem's history in terms of the city itself and the physical space, as opposed to a religious point of view. Any historical account of Jerusalem will be biased in someone's point of view, but I believe that by representing Christianity, Judaism, and Islam's perception of their "sacred geography".

Webjournal Journal Assignment 1

Going into Living Jerusalem, I had no idea of what to expect. Reading the syllabus and hearing from Dr. Horowitz about the blog format of the class was daunting and intimidating. Blogging is something entirely foreign to me and the thought of multiple people reading what I write and how I feel about a controversial issue makes me cringe, but I know that I will be better for confronting this fear of mine. The class will hopefully make all me and the students in the class more sensitive to opposing viewpoints. It should hopefully teach us how to respond to articles and other blogposts online, which is becoming a very popular format for scholarly articles and other journals and are taken seriously within academic communities. As I have a lot of schooling ahead of me, I will attempt to use my blog and the comments I post in order to add alternative viewpoints and disagree if I feel it is necessary. 

The first readings about bringing Jerusalem to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival surprised me because when I first heard the idea about representing Jerusalem in a realistic and unbiased manner I immediately shut it down. Jerusalem is a complex city with subcultures that overlap and diverge in nearly every way in order to make Jerusalem. After reading the articles and the passion each researcher had about the subject, I wanted the project to work even though I had been warned about the outcome. Lack of funding seemed like a poor excuse for canceling the project and slightly unrealistic, but a donor might have backed out due to personal biases and opinions. The festival was to occur at a precarious time for peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, but realistically they could blame the cancellation of such a project attempted today on the same situation. There is never a perfect time to talk about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and it may have been easier for the United States to avoid the issue all together, but why start the project at all? I was frustrated to say the least because the project sounded like an idealistic one, but I was interested to see and hear about the specifics about what people think defines Jerusalemite culture. 

Project Idea: Religious Dress and Fashion in Jerusalem

My idea for the large project at the end of the semester involves fashion and religious dress in Jerusalem. Dress in Jerusalem speaks volumes about a person's religious beliefs (or lack there of), what community they are part of, various holidays and festivals, gender, levels of observance, and status within the community. As part of the project I would like to look at religious texts regarding fashion and compare them to modern interpretations of them as seen in Jerusalem. I am very interested in the Palestinian dress within Western Jerusalem as I have personally witnessed many different types of dress while in Jerusalem, other parts of Israel, and in various areas of the world.

I am drawn to this topic because of two experiences I have had, one in Israel and one in New York. I'll save my experience about religious dress in Jerusalem for a later post, because I think it deserves a full post of its, as I have a lot to say about the matter. My NY story:
Growing up in New Jersey I spent a lot of time in New York, one the world's fashion capitals. One of my favorite parts of New York City is the Diamond District because of the various types of religious dress one would see when walking through that area and of course, all the shiny things in the windows. I was intrigued by the men in long black coats and fur hats speaking in Yiddish to their friends and in English to a customer all in the same breath. I'll never forget the angry stares I received as I passed glatt kosher restaurants on Broadway in my strapless summer dress. After that experience I wanted to fully understand the laws of dress and the way they function within modern society, especially because Tel Aviv is another fashion capital.

My other interest is religious music and how it is preserved or altered in order to create or keep it sacred. For example, in Jerusalem the call to prayer is blasted from top of the minaret is a recorded track. Does the call to prayer lack authenticity? How has modern technology and music collaboration on the internet changed the music that has come out of Jerusalem?  Just some thoughts about this one...

Reading Response 2

The articles for this week's readings were packed full of history.The timelines were dizzying at best and are disputed according to different scholars even within the Palestinian or Israeli opinions. In Mick Dumper's article he calls the conflict the "Arab-Israeli conflict". Is there a difference between use of the word Arab or Palestinian in context? The two have different Wikipedia pages (not necessarily a good indicator). Are the two entirely different issues that I am ignorant to?

Mick Dumper delves into Jerusalem's history at remarkable speed. The articles we read for week one seemed to ignore the political involvements within Jerusalem's history. Dumper claims that the Palestinians and Israelis do not have relationships with one another within Jerusalem. He believes that Jerusalem is an Israeli city with some Palestinians mixed into the area. I do not think he specified East Jerusalem or West Jerusalem, which would have been an important distinction to make. I did not realize that Muslims originally faced Jerusalem when praying until Muhammad changed it to Mecca. This is just one example of the deeply rooted history Christians, Muslims, and Jews have to Jerusalem. It is this religious connection and the religious history that often overshadows the historical evidence. Each side naturally has biases but they seem to overwhelm these interpretations of history. As the Palestinians and Israelis are divided it makes sense that their knowledge or information about a certain topic, especially their origins, would differ. In Rashid Khalidi's article he mentions that some Palestinians believe they are descendants of the Amorites, Canaanites, Jebusites, and Philistines. In the Hebrew Bible, these peoples were sworn enemies of the Jewish people. The issue suddenly switches from a political one to a religious one.

The Israeli perspective on Jerusalem's history is just as tangled and tumultuous as the Palestinian perspective about Jerusalem's history. There was also a surprising amount of overlap between the two, but as these are scholarly articles I would expect these articles would have an agenda, but would have to have the fact to back up such claims. Reba Rubin captures the sentiment that Jerusalem is a holy city to Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike. There are countless rebellions and power shifted hands numerous times, but the religious sentiments have remained the same throughout time. Political and religious beliefs have become intertwined, making it impossible to separate the two at times. The claim to land on both sides makes it a heated issue and turns discussions into arguments. This relates to the issues surrounding the Smithsonian Folklife festival. For people with different interpretations of a city's history it seems improbable that the two could share the same space. I realize the intention of the festival was to focus on the everyday occurrences but these issues lie at the heart of the matter and should have been addressed in some way. 

Reading Response #1

The articles we were asked to read for this week discussed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and the desire to bring a piece of Jerusalem, both the Palestinian and Israeli side, to the National Mall. This sounds like an incredible idea and something that I would have liked to attend . I began to wonder how would researchers work together on a project when Palestinians and Israelis have very different ideas about what defines Jerusalem and what should be represented on either side. Just some thoughts to kick-start the readings....

  

Suad Amiry discussed many of these same issues I was thinking about. It is interesting to hear her perspective as a Muslim woman and her image of Jerusalem. When visiting Israel, tour guides refused to allow my group and me to enter the Muslim quarter and hearing her describe wonderful sights and sounds that one might find in East Jerusalem made me feel like I have missed out a major sector of Jerusalem's culture. Suad Amiry recognizes the division that exists between Palestinians and Israelis, but I think it was naive of researchers to think they could accurately represent both sides under the same  umbrella event. The researchers seemed to be overcome by their desire to express a city that they love so much. It seemed that this passion drove the project forward, even though there were undeniable issues that were ultimately impossible to overcome. The conflict is so overwhelming and historically rooted that it would have been almost impossible to accurately represent what lies at the heart of Jerusalem. It would be difficult to accurately represent any city or country to a group of people even with ethnographic research and personal experiences incorporated.

Dr. Horowitz's article explained the issues of trying to represent Jerusalem in the physical space of the National Mall, while keeping the festival authentic. The idea of bringing in musicians, weavers, and other forms of authentic craftsmanship sound wonderful at first. As this idea plays out it begins to evoke images of "It's A Small World"(cue music) at Disney, which was clearly not the ethnographers intentions. Throughout the discussions, all political involvements seemed to occur below the surface and out of the larger dialogues with governmental officials and political leaders of all types, even though they played a major role in the festival. Dr. Horowitz also raises a good point about cultural history overshadowing the archaeological or documented history of Jerusalem. It is difficult to represent a living thing to a group of people without creating a strange copy of it, similar to a likeness in a portrait. Someone will always think that the image of that person is just a little off based on an experience they have had with them directly, stories about them, other photographs, etc.  I was bothered by the idea that the holy sites in Jerusalem would have been represented by cardboard cutouts at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Witnessing them firsthand whether you are deeply religious or secular is awe-inspiring.

In Galit Hasan-Rokem's article she discussed the traditional Jewish sukkah, which was an excellent point of reference for me. It is a concept that I am very familiar with, (or so I thought) but I had no idea the extent to which different fabrics had deep connotations. It just goes to show how one tradition, which has such clear-cut meanings and rules associated with it can be interpreted entirely different by another person or group of people. I agree with Hasan-Rokem's belief that the project was based on unrealistic ideas about a joint vision or project about Jerusalem. The use of audio recordings and photographs would have been helpful for people to gain knowledge about Jerusalem, but it creates a disconnect between the culture and the person viewing it. No matter what the researchers could have done a person could be positioned near Jerusalemite culture instead of fully immersed in it.

The fact that researchers would have had six months to express thousands of years of history onto a strip of land thousands of miles away seems impossible and this, unfortunately, proved to be true. The ethnographers are not the ones to blame as they were short on funding...sketchy. The attempt stemmed from a passion about Jerusalem on both sides, but it proved to be too controversial and heated that the project failed under the guise of funds. 

About Me

I'm Rachel Sherman and I'm a sophomore at Indiana University in Bloomington, but I'm originally from Basking Ridge, New Jersey. I'm majoring in Jewish Studies and Folklore with (hopefully) a minor in Hebrew. I've have visited Jerusalem on two separate occasions and consider my visits to be life-altering.  Being in Jerusalem forced me to think about the controversies surrounding Jerusalem politically, religiously, and socially. These questions have remained with me since my first visit in July 2009. I plan to attend rabbinical school after I complete my undergraduate degree in hopes of teaching Jewish Studies and related fields.

When choosing a name for my blog, I researched quotes about Jerusalem. The following quotes stood out to me:

1). " Of the 10 measures of beauty that God hath bestowed upon the world, nine of these fall to the lot of Jerusalem - The Talmud." 

2). " No people blessed as thine, no city like Jerusalem - Christian Hymn."

Lastly, the quote from which I named my blog.

3) "One prayer in Jerusalem is worth 40,000 elsewhere - Islamic Saying."

These quotes demonstrate the importance of Jerusalem to Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike. Through this blog, I hope to express my personal opinions and notions about Jerusalem, one of the most controversial cities in the world.

<http://www.bible-history.com/jesus/jesusuntitled00000389.htm>