Happy 63rd Birthday, Israel!

This week, Israel celebrated its 63rd Independence Day. The day immediately prior to Independence Day was Memorial Day, which falls 6 days after Holocaust Memorial Day (I like how compact the national holidays are, compared to the US, where Memorial Day is devoid of all meaning!). In celebration of the many holidays, I had yet more time off--a 5 day weekend! Though I spent most of my time writing papers, I made a few fun excursions.

Over the weekend, Dana, Shiri, and I completed the Ramparts Walk--a long, staircase-ridden hike from the Jaffa Gate to the Lion's Gate on top of the Old City walls. The views were spectacular. Below, I've posted my five favorite shots. (Note: the fourth picture is of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem!)

After the Ramparts Walk, I visited Solomon's Quarries (also called Zedekiah's Cave), a huge cave carved out of the bedrock beneath the Muslim Quarter. Scholars have suggested that from this cave, Solomon's builders mined the stones used to construct the First Temple (alternatively, Herod may have used these stone quarries for the construction of the Second Temple); the cave is also believed to be the path by which King Zedekiah escaped from Jerusalem shortly before the city fell to the Babylonians (see Jeremiah 52:7-8). Nowadays, the cave is the location of the meetings of Jerusalem's Freemasons, who believe themselves to be successors of King Solomon. Several pictures of the cave are below. I attempted to photograph myself in the third picture, but my shadow is blocking the water which is dripping from the rock behind me. The spring is called the "Tears of Jerusalem."

For Memorial Day, I went on a field trip to various war memorials near Jerusalem. We caught a memorial ceremony at a Kibbutz in the Judean Hills. Below, I've posted a short video of the three ceremonial gunshots fired by IDF soldiers at the conclusion of the ceremony. The remaining pictures are from Mt. Herzl, Israel's version of Arlington National Cemetery. The last picture is of the grave of Yitzhak Rabin, the famous Prime Minister of Israel and Nobel laureate, who was assassinated in 1995.