VIEWPOINTS
Saturday, December 17, 2016
East Oregonian
Page 5A
A hallelujah visit to the Holy Land
I
n Jerusalem that first morning,
we gazed upon a beautiful
sunrise highlighting the walled
Old City from our King David
Hotel rooms. It was a perfect
introduction to the Holy Land.
Cradle of Faith Tour:
Pendletonians Joe and Susan
DeMarsh and I joined this
November tour organized by
Dick Ranian Travel Advisors in Portland,
Oregon. Dick and his niece Ani were
especially suited for organizing this tour to
Israel because they are Armenian Christians
who grew up in Jerusalem;
and they still have family,
whom we met, who
live in the Old City. The
Ranians arranged for a
very experienced and
knowledgeable Israeli
guide, who had emigrated
to Israel from Holland in
Harriet
1980. And in Bethlehem
Isom
in the Palestinian West
Comment
Bank, a Palestinian guide
surprised us with his good
briefings on Christian history and theology.
It is impossible to cover everything we saw
of this spectacular, complicated, beautiful,
spiritual, overwhelming country. Below are
selected sites and commentary.
Arrival: The first impression arriving
in Israel is its impressive infrastructure. It
begins with the 45-minute drive, following
the historic Jaffa Road, from the very
modern Tel Aviv airport up to the hills of
Jerusalem on a curving superhighway lighted
all the way. The impression augments as one
tours Israel’s bustling cities. Of Israeli city
reputations, Tel Aviv is considered the play
city; Jerusalem, the religious city; and Haifa,
the work city.
Jerusalem: The city that blankets the
hills exudes a soft, almost golden touch from
the beige quarry stone of its buildings. This
3,000-year-old international city has been
invaded and rebuilt continuously through
the centuries, and you leave it with better
realization of how much it is revered and
claimed by Christians, Jews and Muslims.
The magnificent view westward from the top
of Mt. Olive, where we jostled with busloads
of pilgrims and tourists for a good picture,
is a primer in just how many historic and
religious sites there are to visit. You need a
map! We spent wonderful hours exploring
with our guide the meandering alleys,
bazaars and key sights of the walled Old
City where the Jewish, Muslim, Christian
and Armenian quarters reflect the differing
cultures. Israel is not a melting pot. There are
virtually no marriages between them. The
cultures and religions remain distinct.
Christians: In 1910, Christians were 8
percent of the area’s population but they
number only 2 percent or about 160,000,
in Israel today. Most are Arab Israelis who
live in the north. They belong to the Greek
Catholic (Melkite) Church (60 percent) or to
the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem.
There are smatterings of Latin Catholics,
Coptic, Armenians, Assyrians and more
recent Christian immigrants from Lebanon
and Russia. Interestingly, Christian Arabs
are seeking deeper integration into Israel,
including permission to join the military.
They excel academically and are prospering
in business, science and white collar
professions. Relatively safe in general from
harassment, they do encounter defacement
of Christian monuments from both radical
Muslims and ultra-Orthodox Jews.
Christian Images: In the Holy Land, be
prepared for mostly the Christian trappings
of Eastern and Greek Orthodox churches
— and for sectarian rivalries. Christendom’s
most important church, the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City, has
shared ownership among Greek Orthodox,
Catholics, Armenians, Orthodox Syrians,
Copts and Ethiopians. Since the different
sects could never agree on who should have
the keys of the church, the keys have been
Quick takes
Photo by Susan DeMarsh
A view of the Old City of Jerusalem and Temple Mount.
Photo by Susan DeMarsh
Olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Photo by Susan DeMarsh
Katherine Brizendine
Two Mormon missionaries are out shov-
eling snow here in Hermiston. Dressed in
their Sunday best! They were kind enough
to shovel in front of our mailboxes so I
rewarded them with two containers of my
homemade peanut clusters.
Kellye Connell Finch
I have seen a few occasions when people
on the freeway between Pendleton and
Hermiston had a hard time seeing in the snow
and someone with 4wd would get in front of
them to guide the way ... There are so many
examples I have seen of people helping others
in this beautiful white mess we have going.
Jennifer Bush
Got stuck last night and Umatilla police
officer Darren stopped offer to help me out
or give me a ride to my house ... and in the
morning another Umatilla officer helped me
get it out.
Oscar Fuentes
One of the great lessons of the Twitter age is
that much can be summed up in just a few words.
Here are some of this week’s takes. Tweet yours
@Tim_Trainor or email editor@eastoregonian.
com, and keep them to 140 characters.
Photo by Susan DeMarsh
Immovable ladder.
The Sea of Galilee.
kept by a local Muslim family since the days
of Saladin; and its members to this very day
still unlock the church doors each morning.
City’s Crown Jewel: On the Temple
Mount, the shining gold-plated Dome of the
Rock is to be admired from vantages all over
the city. However, we skipped the hours it
takes to enter the Temple Mount plaza itself.
The Dome is not open to the general public,
Bethlehem: Shepherd’s Field on the
outskirts is the place where the Angel
Gabriel is said to have informed the
shepherds of Jesus’ birth. As we entered the
Chapel of Angels (1953), it resounded with
the singing of familiar hymns by visiting
American pilgrims. And there we learned
the difference between caves and grottos.
Whereas caves are manmade, grottos are
natural rock caves common in the area;
shepherds lived in grottos in the winter with
their best sheep and lambs. A grotto was
thus the most likely place where Jesus was
born, with the charming image of the lambs
helping to keep him warm in the manger.
In Bethlehem, we found the Church of the
Nativity, the oldest continuously operating
church since 326 CE, at the top of its steepest
hill; but it was in disruptive renovation. Once
inside the church with its low entrance door
to encourage humility, you find the stairs
down to the small Grotto of the Nativity, the
traditional site of Jesus’ manger, marked by a
14-point silver star.
Galilee: The Galilee (as Israelis refer
to it) was the area where Jesus lived and
preached. Traveling along the west side of
the Sea of Galilee, we were amazed to find
public beaches, camping grounds, hiking and
cycling trails. Indeed modern Caperneum is
a highly popular Israeli resort town. Further
north, high up on a hill beside the lake, we
found Christian history at The Mount of
In Bethlehem we found
the Church of the Nativity,
the oldest continuously
operating church since
326 CE, at the top of its
steepest hill.
and its administration (Muslim) and security
(Israel) is an extremely touchy subject
between the two sides.
Our Favorite Place: Particularly beautiful
and spiritual for Christians in Jerusalem is the
Garden of Gethsemane, with its ancient olive
trees, one or two calculated to be 2,000 years
old, and its colorful flowering bougainvillea,
as well as the adjacent Franciscan Church of
All Nations (1924).
How to keep independent bookstores alive
Snowstorm response
Two kids around the North Hill were
going door to door and asking people if
they could shovel their drive and walk
ways. They wouldn’t accept any form of
payment, but were happy to receive some
cups of hot cocoa. They were really sweet
and happy to help.
Photo by Susan DeMarsh
King David’s Tomb marker.
Beatitudes with its Franciscan octagonal
church (1937) and beautiful gardens
featuring signs of each of the beatitudes.
Across the lake are the Golan Heights; and
with Damascus only some 60 miles on the
other side, the Golan Heights, our guide
emphasized, are absolutely key to Israel’s
security.
Archeology: So many interesting
findings are coming from archaeological
digs. In Jerusalem, at the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre, a 12th century building sitting
on fourth century remains, archaeologists
have removed marble cladding to reveal
a limestone shelf or burial bed that was
originally hewn from the wall of a cave.
It is believed to be the chamber housing
the cave where Jesus is said to have been
entombed and resurrected. The slab has been
covered with marble since at least 1555 to
prevent pilgrims from breaking off pieces
as relics. At Magdala on the Sea of Galilee,
the remains of a synagogue where Jesus is
said to have preached are being unearthed.
And at the very attractive port of Caesarea,
south of Haifa, recent excavations have
uncovered Roman town remains, including
a chariot racing hippodrome, plus Crusader
fortifications built after Crusaders were
ejected from Jerusalem. The dock where
St. Paul left for Rome as a prisoner is being
restored.
Israel’s Economy: Today’s 3 percent
growth rate is spurred primarily by the high
tech and research sector, producing products
much in demand in the world. Many of
us older tourists had a mental image of
Israel with its kibbutzs that pioneered drip
irrigation in agriculture. That drip irrigation
is still everywhere, including city street
plantings, but kibbutzs aren’t as numerous
as before. What we saw instead as we
traveled up the Jordan Valley and south of
Haifa were huge Israeli farms of hothouse
crops, particularly date and banana trees.
Reportedly, the masses of white plastic used
for greenhouse cover are, however, produced
at a kibbutz.
Politics: The English language Jerusalem
Post and Hareetz provided good reading
during our visit. Articles indicated that
Prime Minister Netanyahu was riding high
in political, economic and foreign relations.
He is soon to travel abroad to visit Australia,
Singapore and the two countries where Israel
purchases most of its oil, Kazakhstan and
Azerbaijan (and undoubtedly the U.S. after
the presidential inauguration!).
U.S. Election: We were there before the
U.S. election results, and Prime Minister
Netanyahu was quoted as saying correctly
that no matter who ended up winning, he
would be a welcome guest at the White
House. Since then, Israel’s right wing parties
have loudly cheered Donald Trump’s win
because they believe he will abandon a
two-state solution to the conflict with the
Palestinians, not oppose Israeli settlement
construction in contested land and will
move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to
Israel’s self-declared capital of Jerusalem.
(All embassies are currently in Tel Aviv
because, in international terms, who
controls Jerusalem is still a contentious
issue to be negotiated). U.S. presidents
have traditionally sought to bring the two
sides to an overall settlement, but so far
unsuccessfully. President-elect Trump is
already quoted as saying he believes he
could bring peace to the region as “the
ultimate deal.”
Recommended reading/watching: To
better understand Jerusalem’s incredible
history, read Karen Armstrong’s “History
of Jerusalem” and Adina Hoffman’s
“Till We Have Built Jerusalem.” For the
contemporary tourist scene, watch Rick
Steves’ just released TV program on the
Holy Land.
■
Ambassador Harriet Isom grew up in
Pendleton and has retired to the family ranch.
She was a career diplomat serving in Asia
and Africa from 1961 to 1996.
By CARRIE LA SEUR
Writers on the Range
I
t’s early October, and I’m at
the High Plains Book Festival
at the art museum in Billings,
Montana, selling books as fast
as I can handle the slippery
credit-card reader. My own
books are on the table with those
of other regional authors and
friends. Stacks of books pass to
people I’ve known for years.
Everyone involved is smiling,
giddy to see books selling
like — well, like books — in
downtown Billings. In the last six
months, several hundred locals
and more distant friends have
bought $100 shares, or made
larger investments, to become
co-owners of This House of
Books, our new indie bookstore.
Author-owners include Craig
Johnson of Longmire fame,
and Jamie Ford, author of the
bestseller “The Hotel on the
Corner of Bitter and Sweet.”
Back in 2011 and 2012,
Billings lost its Borders, and
then, more painfully, Thomas
Books, the locally owned
downtown bookstore we’d loved
for 20 years. Many of us felt
as if we’d somehow failed our
bookstores, but both stores were
profitable. What killed them was
the corporate bookselling model,
which demands ever-higher
profits, and the exhausting
burden of running a sole-
proprietor shop.
There are still a few niche
and used bookstores in town
that serve their purposes
wonderfully. We have Barnes &
Noble and Costco and Target,
but to anyone who values a
bookstore as an expression of
a town’s soul — full of books
chosen by a bookseller we know
— they are no substitute.
Writers and readers got
together and moped into our
beer about this sad development.
We felt like a house without a
cat or dog; how could we claim
title to being the lively literary
community we knew we were?
And yet there were encouraging
signs: Around this time, voters
approved funding for a new
downtown library, the book
festival began taking off, and
suddenly, we had enough local
authors for a good-sized party.
All we needed was a bookstore.
If you’ve never experienced
the way a great bookstore can
accelerate time, so that two
hours have passed and you’re
sitting on the floor with books
in your lap wondering what
happened, you might find it hard
to understand how we felt. But a
lot of us need to get lost in rows
of new books. We need to hear
authors read and speak, and we
love to talk about ideas.
For a year or so, all we did
was mutter and complain. No
one was eager to throw down
a life’s savings and give up all
semblance of a normal life to
start a bookstore. In some places,
this might have been the end of
it, but you have to remember
where we live. Billings made
national headlines in the 1990s
for its vigorous pushback
against hate groups and white
supremacists. This is not a
community that walks away
from existential challenges — the
“Not In Our Town” movement
started here.
At some point, former
Billings Mayor Chuck Tooley,
of the Not In Our Town era,
wondered aloud if a cooperative
would work. Someone Googled
it. Co-ops are special beasts.
There are cooperatives for
farmers selling grain and
co-ops that sell electricity to
rural residents. There are also
retail varieties, such as food
co-ops. Montana has a robust
cooperative movement with staff
to support new co-ops, so we
kept researching.
So why can’t bookstores be
co-ops? Actually they already
exist, with the Harvard Co-op
Bookstore being one of the best
known. The key is common
ownership. When we made
a decision to form what we
called the Billings Bookstore
Cooperative, we gambled that
Billings would be willing to
spend money, not just on books,
but on owning a little piece of
a bookstore, in exchange for
discounts and dividends.
Oh, the magic of being
right, as townspeople stepped
up. So began the slow-motion
movement that led to This House
of Books opening its doors in
October 2016. Volunteers wrote
a business plan, formed the
cooperative, began selling shares
and hired a general manager.
We had good advice
from booksellers around
Montana, and member-owners
volunteered hundreds of hours
building out the 3,000-square-
foot space. In a critical step
toward sustainability, staffers are
now paid for their work.
This is a happy story, not just
for Billings, but also for brick-
and-mortar bookstores in general.
In the wake of the Amazon and
e-book revolutions, people have
begun seeking a more personal
experience, a trend that is
reshaping the marketplace. The
secret sauce is a bookstore that
answers only to its community.
It refreshes the human spirit in a
fundamental way. This House of
Books is that kind of gift, from
the people to the people.